https://www.propublica.org/article/bloodstain-pattern-analysis-jury-wrongful-conviction-acquitted-exonerated
by Pamela Colloff Dec. 20, 2018
•••••
Prosecutors used a forensic discipline called bloodstain-pattern analysis to argue that an intruder never entered her home on the night of the crime and that Rea was, in fact, her son’s killer. She was convicted of first-degree murder in 2002 largely on the strength of the testimony of two bloodstain-pattern analysts.
Four years later, Rea was acquitted at a retrial, after a legal team assembled by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in Chicago mounted a vigorous defense that challenged the state’s forensic testimony. They also presented new evidence that a serial killer of children — a lifelong drifter who was on Texas death row for a nearly identical crime — had confessed to killing Joel. Rea was formally exonerated in 2010.
Today, she belongs to a growing community of victims: Americans who were wrongly convicted with the help of forensic disciplines allowed into courtrooms despite little to no proof of their reliability. Of the 362 people who have been exonerated based on DNA tests in the United States, faulty forensics contributed to almost half of the underlying convictions.
Like Rea, these exonerees have had years of their lives stolen, and many have struggled to find their place in the world after surviving the crucible of incarceration.
•••••
The report criticized a wide range of forensic disciplines, including the analysis of hairs, fibers, bite marks and shoe and tire impressions. Its authors found that many of these disciplines were not grounded in hard data and extensive, peer-reviewed research, but instead relied on practitioners’ personal interpretations. “The law’s greatest dilemma in its heavy reliance on forensic evidence,” it stated, “concerns the question of whether — and to what extent — there is science in any given forensic science discipline.”
The report called for sweeping reform. Yet nearly a decade later, little has changed. In the field of bloodstain-pattern analysis, rigorous research that might determine the accuracy of analysts’ findings is scant. Bite-mark analysis — which, in 2016, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology declared had no scientific validity — is still admitted in criminal prosecutions. So, too, is microscopic hair comparison, an outmoded and dangerously flawed technique that has, to date, led to the convictions of 75 people who were later exonerated by DNA testing.
“Forensic science should be treated like any other consumer product,” said M. Chris Fabricant, director of strategic litigation at the Innocence Project in New York City. “Before it’s allowed to be used on human beings, it should be scientifically tested and clinically demonstrated to be reliable, just like toothpaste.”
•••••
Last year, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions dashed hopes for reform when he disbanded the National Commission on Forensic Science, an Obama-era advisory panel that sought the input of research scientists in improving the standards and soundness of forensic analysis and testimony.
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Investigators had little to go on, having failed to do basic police work that might have pinpointed the identity of an intruder. They never dusted Joel’s bedroom, or the butcher block that the knife was pulled from, for fingerprints and did not preserve critical trace evidence on Joel’s bedspread.
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From Oregon to Texas, from North Carolina to New York, convictions that hinged on the testimony of a bloodstain-pattern analyst have been overturned and the defendants acquitted, or the charges dropped. As recently as this February, a judge vacated the conviction of a Missouri man named Brad Jennings for the 2006 murder of his wife, Lisa, after evidence emerged that supported his claim that his wife committed suicide. Jennings was released from prison after eight years behind bars.
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Saturday, December 22, 2018
A new theory for why Republicans and Democrats see the world differently
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/18/18139556/republicans-democrats-partisanship-ideology-philosophy-psychology-marc-hetherington
My experience is that liberals can be fooled by misinformation, but when they are given correct information, they are much more likely than conservatives to accept the correct information.
By Ezra Klein Dec 18, 2018, 8:50am EST
“Of the many factors that make up your worldview, one is more fundamental than any other in determining which side of the divide you gravitate toward: your perception of how dangerous the world is. Fear is perhaps our most primal instinct, after all, so it’s only logical that people’s level of fearfulness informs their outlook on life.”
That’s political scientists Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler, writing in their book Prius or Pickup, which marshals a massive trove of survey data and experimental evidence to argue that the roots of our political divides run so deep that they make us almost incomprehensible to one another. Our political divisions, they say, aren’t about policy disagreements, or even demographics. They’re about something more ancient in how we view the world.
•••••
There’s a paragraph in your book I’ve been thinking about since I read it. You write, “America has had [political parties] basically forever and the country hasn’t always been polarized. For political parties to be polarizing, people need to feel that particular identity intensely.”
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Importantly, most Americans didn’t have intense commitments on this question. In addition, party elites could compromise across it. Hence, the political conflict spawned by it wasn’t rancorous most of the time.
That changed in the late 20th century, accelerating into the present day. The dividing line between the parties was no longer a philosophy about governing (a political ideology — more or less government). It evolved into differences in philosophy about life (a worldview — is the world a basically safe place to explore, or is it a dangerous snake pit to hunker down against).
If you think the world is dangerous, safety is always the No. 1 concern. When it comes to physical safety, letting your guard down against adversaries could be disastrous. If you think the world is safe, however, discriminating against groups that have generally been down the racial, gender, or sexual orientation hierarchy is the real sin.
•••••
Today’s political acrimony results from Americans’ worldviews becoming married to their partisanship. Because people’s worldviews organize their whole life — not just the political part of it — a party identity defined by them produces intense conflict. Opposing worldviews have always existed in America (and probably since humans have been around). What is new is that they are now mapped neatly onto Americans’ party identities.
Evidence is everywhere. The clear theme of the 2016 GOP convention was that life in 21st-century American is perilous. “American carnage” was central to Trump’s inaugural. His recent statement on standing with Saudi Arabia literally began with, “The world is a very dangerous place!”
When Democrats see, hear, and read these things, they just don’t get it. Although they see danger, it is in the form of Republicans who perceive people who look or sound different as threats to national security. Modern-day Democrats see old traditions that discriminate against minorities, women, and LGBT people as the real threats to American life.
The reality that the world is actually safer hardly matters. What matters to today’s politics is that the bases of the two parties see it much differently.
•••••
You argue that there’s an asymmetry in truth-seeking between the two sides — that “misperceptions about climate change, crime rates, and the side effects of vaccinations all find their staunchest defenders on the political right, rather than the left.” You go on to say that “evidence is piling up that those on the political right seem to have a stronger tendency to take steps to buttress their worldview than those on the political left.”
•••••
You express a concern about being seen as “insulting and biased” to conservatives, a concern we share. But it seems an asymmetric one. When did you last observe conservatives worrying that about exaggerating liberal pathologies? Regardless, we don’t argue there is some “problem” with conservative Americans. The problem starts with conservative leaders.
•••••
For things to change, something must supplant these primal worldviews as the dividing line between the parties. That impetus must come from the top. Leaders set the grounds of debate. Ordinary people follow their lead. Democrats, for their part, seem to be trying. In focusing on health care and wages in 2018, they are making the dividing line about the size of government. It is a winning strategy.
I worry, though, that politics divided by worldview may be the natural state of things. We just didn’t realize that because we grew up in an anomalous time when the divide was about the size of government. Looking back over centuries, politics has almost always been fought between forces who favor the traditional and those who favor modernity. Governments didn’t have the resources to do much, so it couldn’t be the central source of division. We’ve gone back to the future.
As chapter seven of our book shows, the same process is playing out in Europe. Bolsonaro’s victory in Brazil suggests the same thing there. It is not a happy story.
Noise pollution damages physical and psychological health
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2015/11/city-noise-mental-health-traffic-study/417276/
Linda Poon
Nov 25, 2015
Increasingly, health researchers are realizing that noise pollution is more than just a nuisance. A 2012 study found that exposure to the sounds of car traffic can raise the risk of heart attack in people over 50. A more recent study reported that it increases the risk of obesity. Still other work has linked city noise to impaired sleep.
But while these and other studies identify the effects of traffic noise on our bodies, few have looked at how it impacts our minds. New research, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, does just that—providing strong evidence that noise pollution is indeed a mental health problem. The study found that people living in areas with high traffic noise were 25 percent more likely than those in quieter neighborhoods to have symptoms of depression, even when adjusting for socioeconomic factors.
•••••
Orban adds that the link between noise and depression remains strong even after controlling for income and occupational status, which suggests the effect of noise on depression may be independent of monetary factors.
The researchers also saw a stronger correlation with depressive symptoms among those who reported sleep disruptions like insomnia in the first survey, suggesting that impaired sleep is a possible gateway to depression.
•••••
Researchers have evidence that noise leads to anxiety, and that it causes the release of the stress hormone cortisol
•••••
Linda Poon
Nov 25, 2015
Increasingly, health researchers are realizing that noise pollution is more than just a nuisance. A 2012 study found that exposure to the sounds of car traffic can raise the risk of heart attack in people over 50. A more recent study reported that it increases the risk of obesity. Still other work has linked city noise to impaired sleep.
But while these and other studies identify the effects of traffic noise on our bodies, few have looked at how it impacts our minds. New research, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, does just that—providing strong evidence that noise pollution is indeed a mental health problem. The study found that people living in areas with high traffic noise were 25 percent more likely than those in quieter neighborhoods to have symptoms of depression, even when adjusting for socioeconomic factors.
•••••
Orban adds that the link between noise and depression remains strong even after controlling for income and occupational status, which suggests the effect of noise on depression may be independent of monetary factors.
The researchers also saw a stronger correlation with depressive symptoms among those who reported sleep disruptions like insomnia in the first survey, suggesting that impaired sleep is a possible gateway to depression.
•••••
Researchers have evidence that noise leads to anxiety, and that it causes the release of the stress hormone cortisol
•••••
Friday, December 21, 2018
The Shrinking Middle Class: The Current State of Affairs
http://fortune.com/longform/shrinking-middle-class-state/
Dec. 20, 2018
Most Americans consider themselves part of the “middle class,” but no one can agree on what term that means. The problem? If sizing up the middle class is difficult enough, it’s even harder to say that circumstances within this group have changed. But they certainly have. As you’ll discover in this Fortune special report, life has gotten more difficult for the millions of people within the middle class. We dispatched more than 50 people to discover why the American dream has been fading for far too many.
In this section, we examine the current state of affairs by speaking with the people affected most by it. What we learned: Chasing the American dream was once exhilarating; now it’s exhausting.
•••••
Walter Ware works his route in Alpharetta, Ga., one of the wealthiest towns in the state.
•••••
Dec. 20, 2018
Most Americans consider themselves part of the “middle class,” but no one can agree on what term that means. The problem? If sizing up the middle class is difficult enough, it’s even harder to say that circumstances within this group have changed. But they certainly have. As you’ll discover in this Fortune special report, life has gotten more difficult for the millions of people within the middle class. We dispatched more than 50 people to discover why the American dream has been fading for far too many.
In this section, we examine the current state of affairs by speaking with the people affected most by it. What we learned: Chasing the American dream was once exhilarating; now it’s exhausting.
•••••
Walter Ware works his route in Alpharetta, Ga., one of the wealthiest towns in the state.
I started in Residential Trash in 1998, riding on the back of garbage trucks in eastern Michigan when I was 22. Eventually, I went to get my commercial certification and started driving. Last fall I moved with my girlfriend to Georgia. With five kids in the house, we thought our money would go further. I transferred to a driver position serving affluent communities like Alpharetta. But the pay was less than two-thirds what I had been making. I bring home $188 a day. We’re struggling. It takes three of my checks for us to meet the rent. This was like setting me back 20 years.
•••••
For Emmanuel Macron, How Did Things Get So Bad, So Fast?
The fault lies with both the French president himself and the political and cultural elite that formed him.
By David A. Bell
December 13, 2018
•••••
In the end, the tragic fault lies both with Macron himself and with a political and cultural elite of which he is, in many ways, the pure product. To be sure, the protests did arise in large part in response to economic precariousness and pain. For French people who live outside of major cities, dependent on their cars and surviving on low incomes (average gross household income is about $30,000 per year), an increased tax on gasoline that already costs more than twice what it does in the United States is no small matter. But what clearly counted just as heavily for the Yellow Vests was the contempt they perceived as coming from Macron and his government. The president who imposed the new tax in the name of combating climate change was the same one who last year abolished the “solidarity tax” on the wealthy. It was the same one who overhauled the French labor code, making it easier for employers to fire workers. And it was the same one who summoned the two chambers of parliament to hear him speak in the splendor of the royal palace of Versailles.
It was, in short, a president who not only seemed systematically to be taking from the poor to give to the rich, but to be doing so in an intolerably disdainful manner. And Macron’s initial silence in response to the protesters did nothing to disabuse them of this perception, leading both their numbers and their demands to increase sharply.
•••••
The protesters’ perceptions are not entirely correct. Emmanuel Macron is not a contemptuous plutocrat. He is rather something that France’s elite educational and political systems specialize in producing: a person with very little life experience beyond elite institutions, who has a largely intellectualized approach to government. He is a smart man, with some genuine insights into the history of his country and the role of the presidency. But he has little sense of how to accomplish the long, hard slog of governing, or of what to do when people resist falling in line with his elegant theories. He has an abstract compassion for the poor and working classes but little real sense of their lives, and seems puzzled by their anger. His speech on Monday marked the first time in his presidency when he spoke with any real empathy about the plight of the poor and working class.
•••••
Thursday, December 20, 2018
hy cleaning the air is like taking milk out of tea
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/20/pollutionwatch-why-cleaning-the-air-is-like-taking-milk-out-of-tea
Gary Fuller
Thu 20 Dec 2018 16.30 EST
•••••
Ally Lewis, professor of atmospheric chemistry at York University, likened filtering outdoor air to “trying to air-condition a room with the roof off”. The volumes that we would need to filter are vast. For example, if you drive a typical diesel car made between 2010 and 2015 for a distance of 8km (about 5 miles), it will emit around 9g of nitrogen oxides. To remove this pollution from the atmosphere in central London you would have to scrub around 150,000 cubic metres of air – approximately the volume of St Paul’s Cathedral. It is much easier to stop the air being polluted in the first place.
• With thanks to Anna Font, King’s College London for checking the volume calculation.
Gary Fuller
Thu 20 Dec 2018 16.30 EST
•••••
Ally Lewis, professor of atmospheric chemistry at York University, likened filtering outdoor air to “trying to air-condition a room with the roof off”. The volumes that we would need to filter are vast. For example, if you drive a typical diesel car made between 2010 and 2015 for a distance of 8km (about 5 miles), it will emit around 9g of nitrogen oxides. To remove this pollution from the atmosphere in central London you would have to scrub around 150,000 cubic metres of air – approximately the volume of St Paul’s Cathedral. It is much easier to stop the air being polluted in the first place.
• With thanks to Anna Font, King’s College London for checking the volume calculation.
2 More Kansas Republicans Just Left Their Party To Become Democrats
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kansas-lawmakers-republican-democrats_us_5c1a9503e4b01059bfc6713d?fbclid=IwAR2LJ9MpwVFlPSbBoL5l4SkKq03kkGJUNUrhzq3WpgfeWAC-w2v9q-EWgcU
By Nick Visser
Dec. 19, 2018
Two Kansas Republican lawmakers said Wednesday they would leave their party and join the Democratic minority because the GOP is no longer serving in the best interests of their state.
Kansas state Sen. Dinah Sykes and state Rep. Stephanie Clayton, who had identified as moderate Republicans in the past, announced their decisions ahead of the upcoming legislative session, which begins next month. The lawmakers said they were disappointed in Republican leaders who focused on “issues and approaches that divide our country,” as Sykes put it, rather than their constituents’ needs.
•••••
Four Kansas Republican lawmakers have switched to the Democratic party this month. Along with Sykes and Clayton, state Sen. Barbara Bollier and outgoing state Rep. Joy Koesten announced they are leaving the GOP.
Bollier said last week that despite her 43-year history as a registered Republican, she had developed “frustrations that have been ongoing” to the point of swapping affiliations. She also cited President Donald Trump as a leading influence in her decision.
“I cannot be complicit in supporting” the president, Bollier told the Kansas City Star. “I can’t call it leadership. I don’t even know what to call him. He is our president, but he is not representing my value system remotely.”
By Nick Visser
Dec. 19, 2018
Two Kansas Republican lawmakers said Wednesday they would leave their party and join the Democratic minority because the GOP is no longer serving in the best interests of their state.
Kansas state Sen. Dinah Sykes and state Rep. Stephanie Clayton, who had identified as moderate Republicans in the past, announced their decisions ahead of the upcoming legislative session, which begins next month. The lawmakers said they were disappointed in Republican leaders who focused on “issues and approaches that divide our country,” as Sykes put it, rather than their constituents’ needs.
•••••
Four Kansas Republican lawmakers have switched to the Democratic party this month. Along with Sykes and Clayton, state Sen. Barbara Bollier and outgoing state Rep. Joy Koesten announced they are leaving the GOP.
Bollier said last week that despite her 43-year history as a registered Republican, she had developed “frustrations that have been ongoing” to the point of swapping affiliations. She also cited President Donald Trump as a leading influence in her decision.
“I cannot be complicit in supporting” the president, Bollier told the Kansas City Star. “I can’t call it leadership. I don’t even know what to call him. He is our president, but he is not representing my value system remotely.”
Certain antibiotics may cause aortic aneurysm, FDA warns
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/health/antibiotics-aortic-aneurysm-cipro-levaquin-bn/index.html
By Jen Christensen, CNN
Updated 9:47 PM ET, Thu December 20, 2018
he US Food and Drug Administration warned on Thursday that the benefits of fluoroquinolone antibiotics do not outweigh the risks -- which include aortic aneurysm -- for certain patients, according to the latest research. The research is based on reports of patient problems and on studies published between 2015 and 2018.
Fluoroquinolone antibiotics are often used to treat serious respiratory infections, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and even plague and exposure to anthrax. They include drugs sold under the names ciprofloxacin (Cipro), gemifloxacin (Factive), levofloxacin (Levaquin), moxifloxacin (Avelox), norfloxacin (Noroxin) and ofloxacin (Floxin).
•••••
The drugs may cause aortic aneurysm, a bulge in an artery that can grow and burst, causing dangerous or fatal bleeding.
Patients most at risk for an aortic aneurysm after taking these antibiotics are the elderly, those with high blood pressure, people who have a history of blockages of the aorta or other blood vessels, and those who have genetic conditions like Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
"Although the risk of aortic aneurysm or dissection is low, we've observed that patients are twice as likely to experience an aortic aneurysm or dissection when prescribed a fluoroquinolone drug," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. "For patients who have an aortic aneurysm or are known to be at risk of an aortic aneurysm, we do not believe the benefits outweigh this risk, and alternative treatment should be considered."
•••••
By Jen Christensen, CNN
Updated 9:47 PM ET, Thu December 20, 2018
he US Food and Drug Administration warned on Thursday that the benefits of fluoroquinolone antibiotics do not outweigh the risks -- which include aortic aneurysm -- for certain patients, according to the latest research. The research is based on reports of patient problems and on studies published between 2015 and 2018.
Fluoroquinolone antibiotics are often used to treat serious respiratory infections, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and even plague and exposure to anthrax. They include drugs sold under the names ciprofloxacin (Cipro), gemifloxacin (Factive), levofloxacin (Levaquin), moxifloxacin (Avelox), norfloxacin (Noroxin) and ofloxacin (Floxin).
•••••
The drugs may cause aortic aneurysm, a bulge in an artery that can grow and burst, causing dangerous or fatal bleeding.
Patients most at risk for an aortic aneurysm after taking these antibiotics are the elderly, those with high blood pressure, people who have a history of blockages of the aorta or other blood vessels, and those who have genetic conditions like Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
"Although the risk of aortic aneurysm or dissection is low, we've observed that patients are twice as likely to experience an aortic aneurysm or dissection when prescribed a fluoroquinolone drug," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. "For patients who have an aortic aneurysm or are known to be at risk of an aortic aneurysm, we do not believe the benefits outweigh this risk, and alternative treatment should be considered."
•••••
12 People Hospitalized With Infections From Stem Cell Shots
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/health/stem-cell-shots-bacteria-fda.html
By Denise Grady
Dec. 20, 2018
Twelve patients became seriously ill after receiving injections that supposedly contained stem cells from umbilical cord blood, according to the Food and Drug Administration, which issued a warning to the California company, Genetech, that made the blood product they were given.
(The company has no connection with Genentech, the biotechnology corporation.)
The F.D.A. said on Thursday that it had also written to 20 clinics that offer unapproved stem cell treatments, warning them that such products are generally regulated by the agency and encouraging the clinics to contact federal regulators before November 2020, when enforcement will tighten. The names of the clinics have not been released.
•••••
Hundreds of clinics have sprung up around the country, offering treatments supposedly containing stem cells, to treat a wide variety of ailments, including arthritis, eye disorders, Parkinson’s disease and lung problems. The treatments are marketed as having curative or healing properties, but there is no proof that they work or are safe.
•••••
In May, the F.D.A. sought permanent injunctions against two stem cell clinics. One, U.S. Stem Cell Clinic L.L.C. of Sunrise, Fla. had treated three patients who lost their sight after stem cells were injected into their eyes.
•••••
The people who became ill after receiving the Genetech products had been given injections into their knees, shoulders or spines to treat painful conditions like arthritis or injuries. They contracted infections in their bloodstreams or joints, and all were hospitalized.
One patient spent 58 days in the hospital with a bloodstream infection, a spinal abscess and other spinal problems. Another, with an infected knee, was hospitalized for 30 days. The shortest stay was four days; others lasted 12, 15 or 35 days.
Tests of unopened vials of the cord-blood products taken from clinics giving the shots found the same types of microbes that had infected the patients, which included E. coli and other fecal bacteria.
•••••
By Denise Grady
Dec. 20, 2018
Twelve patients became seriously ill after receiving injections that supposedly contained stem cells from umbilical cord blood, according to the Food and Drug Administration, which issued a warning to the California company, Genetech, that made the blood product they were given.
(The company has no connection with Genentech, the biotechnology corporation.)
The F.D.A. said on Thursday that it had also written to 20 clinics that offer unapproved stem cell treatments, warning them that such products are generally regulated by the agency and encouraging the clinics to contact federal regulators before November 2020, when enforcement will tighten. The names of the clinics have not been released.
•••••
Hundreds of clinics have sprung up around the country, offering treatments supposedly containing stem cells, to treat a wide variety of ailments, including arthritis, eye disorders, Parkinson’s disease and lung problems. The treatments are marketed as having curative or healing properties, but there is no proof that they work or are safe.
•••••
In May, the F.D.A. sought permanent injunctions against two stem cell clinics. One, U.S. Stem Cell Clinic L.L.C. of Sunrise, Fla. had treated three patients who lost their sight after stem cells were injected into their eyes.
•••••
The people who became ill after receiving the Genetech products had been given injections into their knees, shoulders or spines to treat painful conditions like arthritis or injuries. They contracted infections in their bloodstreams or joints, and all were hospitalized.
One patient spent 58 days in the hospital with a bloodstream infection, a spinal abscess and other spinal problems. Another, with an infected knee, was hospitalized for 30 days. The shortest stay was four days; others lasted 12, 15 or 35 days.
Tests of unopened vials of the cord-blood products taken from clinics giving the shots found the same types of microbes that had infected the patients, which included E. coli and other fecal bacteria.
•••••
CBD and hemp are now legal in the U.S.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cbd-and-hemp-are-now-legal-in-the-us-so-what-does-that-mean-for-pot-companies-2018-12-20
Dec. 20, 2018
Industrial hemp is now legal in the U.S., which could loosen laws around the popular marijuana extract CBD.
President Donald Trump signed the 2018 farm bill on Thursday afternoon, which legalized hemp — a variety of cannabis that does not produce the psychoactive component of marijuana — paving the way to legitimacy for an agricultural sector that has been operating on the fringe of the law.
•••••
The farm bill is a sprawling piece of legislation that sets U.S. government agricultural and food policy for the country and is renewed roughly every five years. This version of the bill places industrial hemp — which is defined as a cannabis plant with under 0.3% of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC — under the supervision of the Agriculture Department and removes CBD from the purview of the Controlled Substances Act, which covers marijuana. The law also “explicitly” preserved the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to regulate products containing cannabis, or cannabis-derived compounds.
The overall effect is not assured because, like cannabis — which is illegal under U.S. federal law although some states have allowed medical or recreational use — states will continue to be able to enact laws related to CBD and industrial hemp, allowing for a potential patchwork of legislation across the country. Other questions remain in terms of how exactly the Agriculture Department will regulate the plant.
•••••
Dec. 20, 2018
Industrial hemp is now legal in the U.S., which could loosen laws around the popular marijuana extract CBD.
President Donald Trump signed the 2018 farm bill on Thursday afternoon, which legalized hemp — a variety of cannabis that does not produce the psychoactive component of marijuana — paving the way to legitimacy for an agricultural sector that has been operating on the fringe of the law.
•••••
The farm bill is a sprawling piece of legislation that sets U.S. government agricultural and food policy for the country and is renewed roughly every five years. This version of the bill places industrial hemp — which is defined as a cannabis plant with under 0.3% of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC — under the supervision of the Agriculture Department and removes CBD from the purview of the Controlled Substances Act, which covers marijuana. The law also “explicitly” preserved the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to regulate products containing cannabis, or cannabis-derived compounds.
The overall effect is not assured because, like cannabis — which is illegal under U.S. federal law although some states have allowed medical or recreational use — states will continue to be able to enact laws related to CBD and industrial hemp, allowing for a potential patchwork of legislation across the country. Other questions remain in terms of how exactly the Agriculture Department will regulate the plant.
•••••
Police warn of 'sophisticated' way criminals are using to get your personal info
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dekalb-county/police-warn-of-sophisticated-way-criminals-are-using-to-get-your-personal-info/891814089
By: Mike Petchenik
Updated: Dec 20, 2018 - 6:49 AM
A man is accused of stealing a family's mail by placing a hold on it – and it was a postal worker who helped lead police to solving the crime.
Dunwoody police said in this case, a mailman delivered them the suspect after noticing a suspicious "hold mail" request from the victim.
Officer Anwar Sillah said the post office conducted a sting holding back some junk mail. And a few days later, they said Samuel Oyinola showed up to collect.
He's now facing several charges, including ID theft.
"Whenever you've gone a few days and notice there's no mail in your mailbox, after a certain amount of days that should raise a red flag and you might want to check with your postal carrier and make sure there's not a mail hold being placed on your mail,” Sillah said.
By: Mike Petchenik
Updated: Dec 20, 2018 - 6:49 AM
A man is accused of stealing a family's mail by placing a hold on it – and it was a postal worker who helped lead police to solving the crime.
Dunwoody police said in this case, a mailman delivered them the suspect after noticing a suspicious "hold mail" request from the victim.
Officer Anwar Sillah said the post office conducted a sting holding back some junk mail. And a few days later, they said Samuel Oyinola showed up to collect.
He's now facing several charges, including ID theft.
"Whenever you've gone a few days and notice there's no mail in your mailbox, after a certain amount of days that should raise a red flag and you might want to check with your postal carrier and make sure there's not a mail hold being placed on your mail,” Sillah said.
How YouTube Built a Radicalization Machine for the Far-Right
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-youtube-pulled-these-men-down-a-vortex-of-far-right-hate
Kelly Weill
12.17.18
•••••
YouTube has become a quiet powerhouse of political radicalization in recent years, powered by an algorithm that a former employee says suggests increasingly fringe content. And far-right YouTubers have learned to exploit that algorithm and land their videos high in the recommendations on less extreme videos. The Daily Beast spoke to three men whose YouTube habits pushed them down a far-right path and who have since logged out of hate.
•••••
Launched in 2005, YouTube was quickly acquired by Google. The tech giant set about trying to maximize profits by keeping users watching videos. The company hired engineers to craft an algorithm that would recommend new videos before a user had finished watching their current video.
Former YouTube engineer Guillaume Chaslot was hired to a team that designed the algorithm in 2010.
“People think it’s suggesting the most relevant, this thing that’s very specialized for you. That’s not the case,” Chaslot told The Daily Beast, adding that the algorithm “optimizes for watch-time,” not for relevance.
“The goal of the algorithm is really to keep you in line the longest,” he said.
•••••
“I realized really fast that YouTube’s recommendation was putting people into filter bubbles,” Chaslot said. “There was no way out. If a person was into Flat Earth conspiracies, it was bad for watch-time to recommend anti-Flat Earth videos, so it won’t even recommend them.”
Lewis and other researchers have noted that recommended videos often tend toward the fringes. Writing for The New York Times, sociologist Zeynep Tufekci observed that videos of Donald Trump recommended videos “that featured white supremacist rants, Holocaust denials and other disturbing content.”
•••••
Chaslot, the former YouTube engineer, said he suggested the company let users opt out of the recommendation algorithm, but claims Google was not interested.
Google’s chief executive officer, Sundar Pichai, paid lip service to the problem during a congressional hearing last week. When questioned about a particularly noxious conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton that appears high in searches for unrelated videos, the CEO made no promise to act.
•••••
Other YouTube-fed conspiracy theories have similarly resulted in threats of gun violence.
•••••
Some fringe users try to proliferate their views by making them appear in the search results for less-extreme videos.
•••••
Young people, particularly those without fully formed political beliefs, can be easily influenced by extreme videos that appear in their recommendations. “YouTube appeals to such a young demographic,” Lewis said. “Young people are more susceptible to having their political ideals shaped. That’s the time in your life when you’re figuring out who you are and what your politics are.”
•••••
In some cases, YouTube videos can supplant a person’s previous information sources. Conspiracy YouTubers often discourage viewers from watching or reading other news sources, Chaslot has previously noted. The trend is good for conspiracy theorists and YouTube’s bottom line; viewers become more convinced of conspiracy theories and consume more advertisements on YouTube.
The problem extends to young YouTube viewers, who might follow their favorite channel religiously, but not read more conventional news outlets.
“It’s where people are getting their information about the world and about politics,” Lewis said. “Sometimes instead of going to traditional news sources, people are just watching the content of an influencer they like, who happens to have certain political opinions. Kids may be getting a very different experience from YouTube than their parents expect, whether it’s extremist or not. I think YouTube has the power to shape people’s ideologies more than people give it credit for.”
•••••
Kelly Weill
12.17.18
•••••
YouTube has become a quiet powerhouse of political radicalization in recent years, powered by an algorithm that a former employee says suggests increasingly fringe content. And far-right YouTubers have learned to exploit that algorithm and land their videos high in the recommendations on less extreme videos. The Daily Beast spoke to three men whose YouTube habits pushed them down a far-right path and who have since logged out of hate.
•••••
Launched in 2005, YouTube was quickly acquired by Google. The tech giant set about trying to maximize profits by keeping users watching videos. The company hired engineers to craft an algorithm that would recommend new videos before a user had finished watching their current video.
Former YouTube engineer Guillaume Chaslot was hired to a team that designed the algorithm in 2010.
“People think it’s suggesting the most relevant, this thing that’s very specialized for you. That’s not the case,” Chaslot told The Daily Beast, adding that the algorithm “optimizes for watch-time,” not for relevance.
“The goal of the algorithm is really to keep you in line the longest,” he said.
•••••
“I realized really fast that YouTube’s recommendation was putting people into filter bubbles,” Chaslot said. “There was no way out. If a person was into Flat Earth conspiracies, it was bad for watch-time to recommend anti-Flat Earth videos, so it won’t even recommend them.”
Lewis and other researchers have noted that recommended videos often tend toward the fringes. Writing for The New York Times, sociologist Zeynep Tufekci observed that videos of Donald Trump recommended videos “that featured white supremacist rants, Holocaust denials and other disturbing content.”
•••••
Chaslot, the former YouTube engineer, said he suggested the company let users opt out of the recommendation algorithm, but claims Google was not interested.
Google’s chief executive officer, Sundar Pichai, paid lip service to the problem during a congressional hearing last week. When questioned about a particularly noxious conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton that appears high in searches for unrelated videos, the CEO made no promise to act.
•••••
Other YouTube-fed conspiracy theories have similarly resulted in threats of gun violence.
•••••
Some fringe users try to proliferate their views by making them appear in the search results for less-extreme videos.
•••••
Young people, particularly those without fully formed political beliefs, can be easily influenced by extreme videos that appear in their recommendations. “YouTube appeals to such a young demographic,” Lewis said. “Young people are more susceptible to having their political ideals shaped. That’s the time in your life when you’re figuring out who you are and what your politics are.”
•••••
In some cases, YouTube videos can supplant a person’s previous information sources. Conspiracy YouTubers often discourage viewers from watching or reading other news sources, Chaslot has previously noted. The trend is good for conspiracy theorists and YouTube’s bottom line; viewers become more convinced of conspiracy theories and consume more advertisements on YouTube.
The problem extends to young YouTube viewers, who might follow their favorite channel religiously, but not read more conventional news outlets.
“It’s where people are getting their information about the world and about politics,” Lewis said. “Sometimes instead of going to traditional news sources, people are just watching the content of an influencer they like, who happens to have certain political opinions. Kids may be getting a very different experience from YouTube than their parents expect, whether it’s extremist or not. I think YouTube has the power to shape people’s ideologies more than people give it credit for.”
•••••
James Mattis’s Letter of Resignation
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/read-text-james-mattiss-resignation-letter/578773/
Dec. 20, 2018
On Thursday, December 20, Secretary of Defense James Mattis submitted a letter of resignation to President Donald Trump. “Because you have the right to a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects,” he wrote, “I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.” The full text of the letter is reproduced below.
•••••
One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world. Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our alliances. NATO’s 29 democracies demonstrated that strength in their commitment to fighting alongside us following the 9-11 attack on America. The Defeat-ISIS coalition of 74 nations is further proof.
Similarly, I believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours. It is clear that China and Russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model—gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions—to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies. That is why we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense.
My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.
Because you have the right to a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.
•••••
Dec. 20, 2018
On Thursday, December 20, Secretary of Defense James Mattis submitted a letter of resignation to President Donald Trump. “Because you have the right to a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects,” he wrote, “I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.” The full text of the letter is reproduced below.
See the link above for the full text.
•••••
One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world. Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our alliances. NATO’s 29 democracies demonstrated that strength in their commitment to fighting alongside us following the 9-11 attack on America. The Defeat-ISIS coalition of 74 nations is further proof.
Similarly, I believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours. It is clear that China and Russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model—gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions—to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies. That is why we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense.
My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.
Because you have the right to a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.
•••••
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Just 6 months of walking may reverse cognitive decline, study says
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/health/reverse-cognitive-aging-exercise-diet-study/index.html
By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
Updated 6:32 PM ET, Wed December 19, 2018
Worried about your aging brain? Getting your heart pumping with something as simple as walking or cycling just three times a week seems to improve thinking skills, new research says. Add a heart-healthy diet, and you maximize the benefits, possibly shaving years off your brain's functional age, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.
•••••
it was the group who combined exercise and the DASH diet who saw the greatest benefit. This group averaged nearly 47 points on the overall tests of executive thinking skills, compared with 42 points for those who only exercised and about 38 points for those who were told not to change their diet and exercise habits.
In fact, the group that both dieted and exercised reversed their brain's aging by nine years.
•••••
By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
Updated 6:32 PM ET, Wed December 19, 2018
Worried about your aging brain? Getting your heart pumping with something as simple as walking or cycling just three times a week seems to improve thinking skills, new research says. Add a heart-healthy diet, and you maximize the benefits, possibly shaving years off your brain's functional age, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.
•••••
it was the group who combined exercise and the DASH diet who saw the greatest benefit. This group averaged nearly 47 points on the overall tests of executive thinking skills, compared with 42 points for those who only exercised and about 38 points for those who were told not to change their diet and exercise habits.
In fact, the group that both dieted and exercised reversed their brain's aging by nine years.
•••••
Blind, burrowing amphibian named after Donald Trump
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/world/burrowing-amphibian-trump-scli-intl/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_content=2018-12-19T13%3A20%3A07&utm_source=twCNN&utm_term=image
By Jack Guy, CNN
Updated 7:44 AM ET, Wed December 19, 2018
After winning an auction to name a newly discovered blind amphibian, a British company chose Donald Trump as the creature's namesake, likening its behavior to the US President's stance on climate change.
Dermophis donaldtrumpi was discovered in Panama and has a propensity for burrowing its head in the ground, said Aidan Bell, co-founder of sustainable building materials company EnviroBuild.
"Realizing the similarities between the amazing but previously unknown creature and the leader of the free world we couldn't resist buying the rights," Bell told CNN via email.
The animal is a caecilian -- a limbless, burrowing amphibian -- that spends most of its time underground, according to a statement from EnviroBuild. It lost its limbs around 60 million years ago but does have tentacles that it uses to find prey.
"As demorphis donaldtrumpi is an amphibian, it is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake's climate policies," said Bell in a statement.
•••••
Bell told CNN that his company had grown frustrated by the lack of progress at the COP24 climate talks in Katowice, Poland at the beginning of December.
"We're not a political company, but climate change shouldn't be political either," he said.
•••••
By Jack Guy, CNN
Updated 7:44 AM ET, Wed December 19, 2018
After winning an auction to name a newly discovered blind amphibian, a British company chose Donald Trump as the creature's namesake, likening its behavior to the US President's stance on climate change.
Dermophis donaldtrumpi was discovered in Panama and has a propensity for burrowing its head in the ground, said Aidan Bell, co-founder of sustainable building materials company EnviroBuild.
"Realizing the similarities between the amazing but previously unknown creature and the leader of the free world we couldn't resist buying the rights," Bell told CNN via email.
The animal is a caecilian -- a limbless, burrowing amphibian -- that spends most of its time underground, according to a statement from EnviroBuild. It lost its limbs around 60 million years ago but does have tentacles that it uses to find prey.
"As demorphis donaldtrumpi is an amphibian, it is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake's climate policies," said Bell in a statement.
•••••
Bell told CNN that his company had grown frustrated by the lack of progress at the COP24 climate talks in Katowice, Poland at the beginning of December.
"We're not a political company, but climate change shouldn't be political either," he said.
•••••
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Chaos on French highways as 'yellow vests' torch toll booths
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-protests-roads/chaos-on-french-highways-as-yellow-vests-torch-toll-booths-idUSKBN1OH1LW
Toll roads are immoral. They are regressive, taking a larger proportion of lower income people's income. And toll lanes allow people who can afford them to have faster travel times than those who can't. This is the reason they are so popular with conservatives.
December 18, 2018
French “yellow vest” protesters occupied highway toll booths, setting a number on fire and causing transport chaos in parts of the country just days before the Christmas holidays getaway.
•••••
I don't agree with the yellow vests on everything. We need speed limits that keep traffic at a safe speed. And high speeds cause more pollution that damages our health, and contribute more to global warming.
Protesters angry about high fuel costs and new speed limits have also damaged or torched hundreds of traffic radars.
Radars-auto.com estimated that by the middle of last week some 1,600 - about half of all French traffic radars - had been damaged. More than 250 have been entirely destroyed, it said.
•••••
Trump Foundation agrees to dissolve under court supervision
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/trump-foundation-dissolve/index.html
By Erica Orden, CNN
Updated 12:00 PM ET, Tue December 18, 2018
The Donald J. Trump Foundation has agreed to dissolve under judicial supervision amid an ongoing lawsuit concerning its finances, according to a document filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court by the New York state Attorney General's office.
•••••
"Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation -- including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more. This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump's business and political interests," Underwood said in a statement Tuesday.
•••••
By Erica Orden, CNN
Updated 12:00 PM ET, Tue December 18, 2018
The Donald J. Trump Foundation has agreed to dissolve under judicial supervision amid an ongoing lawsuit concerning its finances, according to a document filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court by the New York state Attorney General's office.
•••••
"Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation -- including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more. This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump's business and political interests," Underwood said in a statement Tuesday.
•••••
Monday, December 17, 2018
Black lung disease is still killing miners. The coal industry doesn't want to hear it
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/13/dr-dust-the-man-who-discovered-a-hidden-black-lung-epidemic
Elyssa East
Thu 13 Dec 2018
Dr James Brandon Crum was alarmed. For months, unemployed coalminers had been coming into his clinic in Coal Run Village, Kentucky, seeking chest radiographs.
•••••
Crum started asking his patients detailed questions. There was a mystery: why was he suddenly seeing so much severe black lung – an old man’s disease – thought to be an illness of the past, appearing in younger men with significantly less time in the mines?
Between the miners visiting his clinic and the cases coming to him as a federally certified B-reader, or expert in special x-ray readings to classify dust diseases affecting the lungs, Crum was shocked. Coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, commonly known as black lung disease, an incurable but entirely preventable illness caused by inhaling coalmine dusts, was showing up in x-rays at his clinic far above rates reported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh).
Trump rolls back climate change rule that restricted new coal plants
Read more
After Congress passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act in 1969, which made the elimination of black lung a national goal, coal workers’ pneumoconiosis dropped to historically low rates by the 1990s. Progressive massive fibrosis, the severe or complicated form of the disease, fell to such scant levels it was considered rare. By 2012, though, Niosh announced that black lung was rising.
•••••
“The media here buried this thing,” says Linda Adams, 53, who recently lost a fifth family member to the disease this past July. She and others affected by black lung’s resurgence held rallies and tried to get legislators to confront the crisis as far back as 2014. “But then Brandon Crum came in here and blew the lid off of this whole thing.”
•••••
By December of that year, Niosh (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) confirmed Crum’s discovery. The number of black lung cases in Crum’s office was eight times their rates. His single clinic also charted 60 cases of complicated black lung over a 20-month period. This was far and above the 99 cases in the entire nation that Niosh had identified over a five-year period going back to 2011.
An additional study corroborated Crum’s findings: 416 cases of severe black lung had been reported in three Virginia clinics. Niosh recently declared that the US is facing an epidemic, affecting one in 10 miners nationally, and one in five – twice the national rate – in the central Appalachian states of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.
Today’s black lung rates are higher than the ones that inspired miners and physicians to push for the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 almost 50 years ago.
•••••
Earlier this year, Kentucky’s Republican-led legislature passed House Bill-2 (HB-2), which curtails worker’s compensation, including black lung benefits, to 15 years. The bill also cuts radiologists like Crum from the certification process, limiting the doctors who can approve benefits to four pulmonologists. Three of whom consult for the coal industry.
Black lung advocates see HB-2 as singling out Crum. Pikeville black lung claimant attorney Phillip Wheeler openly refers to the bill as “The Dr Brandon Crum Exclusion Bill”. The Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center staff attorney Evan Barret Smith, who edits the blog Devil in the Dust, which is devoted to the disease, says, “He saw more severe black lung coming into his office than any of the official statistics said he should be seeing. By the way, that’s the same reason that the industry people say he must be wrong.”
•••••
Unless Congress takes action in these final weeks of 2018, the federal Black Lung Disability Trust Fund will add to the current crisis on 1 January 2019 when the coal tax that pays for it reverts to 1977 levels, which will reduce its revenue by 55% in the middle of the epidemic. As the Lexington Herald Leader reports, the coal industry has poured over $7m into congressional races in the past two years. Taxpayers, rather than the coal industry, may end up footing the bill for a disease caused by industry negligence and cheating.
•••••
A bipartisan pair of local legislators are pushing back, though. In mid-November, Angie Hatton, a Democrat, and Robert Goforth, a Republican, pre-filed a bill to reverse HB-2’s restriction of B-readers to pulmonary specialists. The bill will be taken up in the 2019 general assembly starting in January.
•••••
Now that thicker seams of coal have been mined out and more rock must be cut, miners have been exposed to greater amounts of respirable crystalline silica dust, which is largely to blame for the spike in complicated black lung.
There are other causes, too: more powerful machinery, longer workdays, fewer days off for miners to rest their lungs and a culture of company fealty that stretches back to coalmining’s earliest days.
•••••
Coalmining is also rife with bent rules. Just because a federal protection is in place doesn’t mean companies and miners observe it – employees of Armstrong Coal were recently indicted in western Kentucky for conspiring to falsify dust readings.
•••••
“What we’re seeing in central Appalachia right now is the prequel to what you will see occurring in the rest of the United States coal fields, over the decades to come,” Crum says of the current crisis. He predicts that all of the other coal-producing countries – Canada, China, India, Australia and others – will see an increase in black lung disease as higher-quality seams of coal are mined out. “This is a massive problem. And it’s just gonna get worse.”
•••••
Elyssa East
Thu 13 Dec 2018
Dr James Brandon Crum was alarmed. For months, unemployed coalminers had been coming into his clinic in Coal Run Village, Kentucky, seeking chest radiographs.
•••••
Crum started asking his patients detailed questions. There was a mystery: why was he suddenly seeing so much severe black lung – an old man’s disease – thought to be an illness of the past, appearing in younger men with significantly less time in the mines?
Between the miners visiting his clinic and the cases coming to him as a federally certified B-reader, or expert in special x-ray readings to classify dust diseases affecting the lungs, Crum was shocked. Coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, commonly known as black lung disease, an incurable but entirely preventable illness caused by inhaling coalmine dusts, was showing up in x-rays at his clinic far above rates reported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh).
Trump rolls back climate change rule that restricted new coal plants
Read more
After Congress passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act in 1969, which made the elimination of black lung a national goal, coal workers’ pneumoconiosis dropped to historically low rates by the 1990s. Progressive massive fibrosis, the severe or complicated form of the disease, fell to such scant levels it was considered rare. By 2012, though, Niosh announced that black lung was rising.
•••••
“The media here buried this thing,” says Linda Adams, 53, who recently lost a fifth family member to the disease this past July. She and others affected by black lung’s resurgence held rallies and tried to get legislators to confront the crisis as far back as 2014. “But then Brandon Crum came in here and blew the lid off of this whole thing.”
•••••
By December of that year, Niosh (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) confirmed Crum’s discovery. The number of black lung cases in Crum’s office was eight times their rates. His single clinic also charted 60 cases of complicated black lung over a 20-month period. This was far and above the 99 cases in the entire nation that Niosh had identified over a five-year period going back to 2011.
An additional study corroborated Crum’s findings: 416 cases of severe black lung had been reported in three Virginia clinics. Niosh recently declared that the US is facing an epidemic, affecting one in 10 miners nationally, and one in five – twice the national rate – in the central Appalachian states of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.
Today’s black lung rates are higher than the ones that inspired miners and physicians to push for the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 almost 50 years ago.
•••••
Earlier this year, Kentucky’s Republican-led legislature passed House Bill-2 (HB-2), which curtails worker’s compensation, including black lung benefits, to 15 years. The bill also cuts radiologists like Crum from the certification process, limiting the doctors who can approve benefits to four pulmonologists. Three of whom consult for the coal industry.
Black lung advocates see HB-2 as singling out Crum. Pikeville black lung claimant attorney Phillip Wheeler openly refers to the bill as “The Dr Brandon Crum Exclusion Bill”. The Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center staff attorney Evan Barret Smith, who edits the blog Devil in the Dust, which is devoted to the disease, says, “He saw more severe black lung coming into his office than any of the official statistics said he should be seeing. By the way, that’s the same reason that the industry people say he must be wrong.”
•••••
Unless Congress takes action in these final weeks of 2018, the federal Black Lung Disability Trust Fund will add to the current crisis on 1 January 2019 when the coal tax that pays for it reverts to 1977 levels, which will reduce its revenue by 55% in the middle of the epidemic. As the Lexington Herald Leader reports, the coal industry has poured over $7m into congressional races in the past two years. Taxpayers, rather than the coal industry, may end up footing the bill for a disease caused by industry negligence and cheating.
•••••
A bipartisan pair of local legislators are pushing back, though. In mid-November, Angie Hatton, a Democrat, and Robert Goforth, a Republican, pre-filed a bill to reverse HB-2’s restriction of B-readers to pulmonary specialists. The bill will be taken up in the 2019 general assembly starting in January.
•••••
Now that thicker seams of coal have been mined out and more rock must be cut, miners have been exposed to greater amounts of respirable crystalline silica dust, which is largely to blame for the spike in complicated black lung.
There are other causes, too: more powerful machinery, longer workdays, fewer days off for miners to rest their lungs and a culture of company fealty that stretches back to coalmining’s earliest days.
•••••
Coalmining is also rife with bent rules. Just because a federal protection is in place doesn’t mean companies and miners observe it – employees of Armstrong Coal were recently indicted in western Kentucky for conspiring to falsify dust readings.
•••••
“What we’re seeing in central Appalachia right now is the prequel to what you will see occurring in the rest of the United States coal fields, over the decades to come,” Crum says of the current crisis. He predicts that all of the other coal-producing countries – Canada, China, India, Australia and others – will see an increase in black lung disease as higher-quality seams of coal are mined out. “This is a massive problem. And it’s just gonna get worse.”
•••••
Chickens freezing to death and boiled alive: failings in US slaughterhouses exposed
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/17/chickens-freezing-to-death-and-boiled-alive-failings-in-us-slaughterhouses-exposed
Andrew Wasley and Natalie Jones
Mon 17 Dec 2018
Chickens slowly freezing to death, being boiled alive, drowned or suffocating under piles of other birds are among hundreds of shocking welfare incidents recorded at US slaughterhouses, according to previously unpublished reports.
•••••
The records include hundreds of instances in which groups of chickens and turkeys were bludgeoned, suffocated, scalded, frozen or heated to death. Inspectors note repeatedly that the plants have not put in place adequate protection from the weather while the animals wait. However, they also note that after many reports the plants do carry out retraining for workers.
The violations were witnessed between 2014 and this year at some of the largest poultry processors in the country as part of the national inspection system. The records, kept by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), were originally obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute (AWI).
•••••
The Guardian spoke to a USDA inspector at a chicken plant in the southern US. Under condition of anonymity, she said she questions the efficacy of her reports.
“You have a document. That’s basically all it is,” she said. “It’s just a document stating what happened. And to me, that’s really nothing.” She also said that on several occasions she had brought welfare issues to the attention of her supervisor or plant employees but no action was taken. “They just act like sometimes they don’t care.”
•••••
The US poultry industry slaughters about nine billion birds each year, a number the Trump administration is hoping to raise. In September, the administration released a plan to allow plants to bring their processing speed up from the previous cap of 140 birds per minute to 175.
The USDA inspector who spoke to the Guardian works at a plant that is allowed to operate under that faster line speed as part of a pilot programme for the new policy. She disagreed that faster is better. “Slow the line down,” she said. “The birds are going 175 a minute. That’s a lot to try to kill in a minute.”
•••••
Andrew Wasley and Natalie Jones
Mon 17 Dec 2018
Chickens slowly freezing to death, being boiled alive, drowned or suffocating under piles of other birds are among hundreds of shocking welfare incidents recorded at US slaughterhouses, according to previously unpublished reports.
•••••
The records include hundreds of instances in which groups of chickens and turkeys were bludgeoned, suffocated, scalded, frozen or heated to death. Inspectors note repeatedly that the plants have not put in place adequate protection from the weather while the animals wait. However, they also note that after many reports the plants do carry out retraining for workers.
The violations were witnessed between 2014 and this year at some of the largest poultry processors in the country as part of the national inspection system. The records, kept by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), were originally obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute (AWI).
•••••
The Guardian spoke to a USDA inspector at a chicken plant in the southern US. Under condition of anonymity, she said she questions the efficacy of her reports.
“You have a document. That’s basically all it is,” she said. “It’s just a document stating what happened. And to me, that’s really nothing.” She also said that on several occasions she had brought welfare issues to the attention of her supervisor or plant employees but no action was taken. “They just act like sometimes they don’t care.”
•••••
The US poultry industry slaughters about nine billion birds each year, a number the Trump administration is hoping to raise. In September, the administration released a plan to allow plants to bring their processing speed up from the previous cap of 140 birds per minute to 175.
The USDA inspector who spoke to the Guardian works at a plant that is allowed to operate under that faster line speed as part of a pilot programme for the new policy. She disagreed that faster is better. “Slow the line down,” she said. “The birds are going 175 a minute. That’s a lot to try to kill in a minute.”
•••••
El Salvador court frees woman on trial after bearing rapist's baby
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/17/el-salvador-rape-victim-freed-imelda-cortez-abortion
Nina Lakhani
Mon 17 Dec 2018
A rape victim who was charged with attempted murder in El Salvador after giving birth to her abuser’s baby has been found not guilty and freed from jail.
Imelda Cortez, 20, has been in custody since April 2017 after giving birth in a latrine to a baby girl fathered by her abusive stepfather.
She was facing 20 years in prison after prosecutors argued that failing to tell anyone about the pregnancy or seek medical attention for the baby amounted to attempted murder.
The decision to prosecute Cortez, who suffered years of sexual abuse, had prompted outrage around the world.
But on Monday morning, prosecutors reduced the charge from attempted murder to abandonment – and offence which carries a 12-month jail term.
Then, in a dramatic turn of events, the court declared Cortez not guilty of any crime, and ruled she was free to go home. Cortez always maintained her innocence, and that she did not know she was pregnant.
•••••
El Salvador is one of four countries where abortion is illegal in all circumstances, even if the woman is raped, her health or life is at risk, or if the foetus is seriously deformed.
Abortion was criminalised 21 years ago, after legislators from across the political spectrum voted to strip women of their reproductive rights without any public debate or medical consultation about the consequences.
The draconian ban has led to a string of miscarriages of justice in a conservative, machista culture that enables the persecution of women.
Most cases involve poor and single women from rural areas who are convicted on tenuous evidence after having a spontaneous obstetric gynaecological complication such as a miscarriage or stillbirth.
•••••
After she was charged with attempted murder, her stepfather visited her in hospital, threatening to kill her, her siblings and her mother if she reported the abuse. Another patient overheard and told a nurse, who called the police.
At first, prosecutors accused Cortez of inventing the abuse to justify her crime, until a DNA test confirmed the baby’s paternity. Her stepfather was eventually detained, but has not been charged with any crime.
•••••
Nina Lakhani
Mon 17 Dec 2018
A rape victim who was charged with attempted murder in El Salvador after giving birth to her abuser’s baby has been found not guilty and freed from jail.
Imelda Cortez, 20, has been in custody since April 2017 after giving birth in a latrine to a baby girl fathered by her abusive stepfather.
She was facing 20 years in prison after prosecutors argued that failing to tell anyone about the pregnancy or seek medical attention for the baby amounted to attempted murder.
The decision to prosecute Cortez, who suffered years of sexual abuse, had prompted outrage around the world.
But on Monday morning, prosecutors reduced the charge from attempted murder to abandonment – and offence which carries a 12-month jail term.
Then, in a dramatic turn of events, the court declared Cortez not guilty of any crime, and ruled she was free to go home. Cortez always maintained her innocence, and that she did not know she was pregnant.
•••••
El Salvador is one of four countries where abortion is illegal in all circumstances, even if the woman is raped, her health or life is at risk, or if the foetus is seriously deformed.
Abortion was criminalised 21 years ago, after legislators from across the political spectrum voted to strip women of their reproductive rights without any public debate or medical consultation about the consequences.
The draconian ban has led to a string of miscarriages of justice in a conservative, machista culture that enables the persecution of women.
Most cases involve poor and single women from rural areas who are convicted on tenuous evidence after having a spontaneous obstetric gynaecological complication such as a miscarriage or stillbirth.
•••••
After she was charged with attempted murder, her stepfather visited her in hospital, threatening to kill her, her siblings and her mother if she reported the abuse. Another patient overheard and told a nurse, who called the police.
At first, prosecutors accused Cortez of inventing the abuse to justify her crime, until a DNA test confirmed the baby’s paternity. Her stepfather was eventually detained, but has not been charged with any crime.
•••••
Russian propagandists targeted African Americans to influence 2016 US election
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/17/russian-propagandists-targeted-african-americans-2016-election
Jon Swaine in New York
Mon 17 Dec 2018
Russian online propagandists aggressively targeted African Americans during the 2016 US election campaign to suppress votes for Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump, according to new research.
Analysts found that Russian operatives used social media to “confuse, distract, and ultimately discourage” black people and other pro-Clinton blocs from voting, using bogus claims such as Clinton receiving money from the Ku Klux Klan.
Black turnout declined in 2016 for the first presidential election in 20 years, according to the US census bureau, falling to less than 60% from a record high of 66.6% in 2012.
The new findings on the secret activities of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), known as the Russian government’s “troll factory”, were revealed on Monday in a pair of reports to the US Senate’s intelligence committee. One was led by experts from Oxford University and the other by New Knowledge, an American cybersecurity firm.
New Knowledge said Russia had waged a five-year “propaganda war” against the US public. The Oxford researchers said that while the propaganda was meant to “push and pull” Americans in different directions, “what is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican party – and specifically, Donald Trump”.
•••••
More than a dozen Russians have been criminally charged with hacking and other online activity by special counsel Robert Mueller and other US prosecutors investigating Moscow’s interference in the 2016 campaign.
The new reports said that while it was well known that Russian trolls flooded social media with rightwing pro-Trump material, their subtler efforts to drive black voters to boycott the election or vote for a third-party candidate were underappreciated.
•••••
The Oxford researchers found black Americans were also targeted with more advertisements on Facebook and Instagram than any other group. More than 1,000 different advertisements were directed at Facebook users interested in African American issues, and reached almost 16 million people.
The material was intended to inflame anger about the skewed rates of poverty, incarceration and the use of force by police among black Americans to “divert their political energy away from established political institutions”, the report said, adding that similar content was pushed by the Russians on Twitter and YouTube.
The New Knowledge researchers agreed that the “most prolific IRA efforts” on Facebook and Instagram were aimed at black Americans in what they called an “immersive influence ecosystem” connecting many different pages posting information and reinforcing one another.
In addition to the online posts telling black people their votes would not matter or urging them to vote third-party, Russian operatives tricked people with “vote by text message” scams and tweets designed to create confusion about voting rules, according to New Knowledge.
New Knowledge said the social media propaganda campaign should be seen as the third front in Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, together with the hack and theft of Democratic party emails that were passed to WikiLeaks, and the attempt to hack online voting systems across the US.
•••••
Jon Swaine in New York
Mon 17 Dec 2018
Russian online propagandists aggressively targeted African Americans during the 2016 US election campaign to suppress votes for Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump, according to new research.
Analysts found that Russian operatives used social media to “confuse, distract, and ultimately discourage” black people and other pro-Clinton blocs from voting, using bogus claims such as Clinton receiving money from the Ku Klux Klan.
Black turnout declined in 2016 for the first presidential election in 20 years, according to the US census bureau, falling to less than 60% from a record high of 66.6% in 2012.
The new findings on the secret activities of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), known as the Russian government’s “troll factory”, were revealed on Monday in a pair of reports to the US Senate’s intelligence committee. One was led by experts from Oxford University and the other by New Knowledge, an American cybersecurity firm.
New Knowledge said Russia had waged a five-year “propaganda war” against the US public. The Oxford researchers said that while the propaganda was meant to “push and pull” Americans in different directions, “what is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican party – and specifically, Donald Trump”.
•••••
More than a dozen Russians have been criminally charged with hacking and other online activity by special counsel Robert Mueller and other US prosecutors investigating Moscow’s interference in the 2016 campaign.
The new reports said that while it was well known that Russian trolls flooded social media with rightwing pro-Trump material, their subtler efforts to drive black voters to boycott the election or vote for a third-party candidate were underappreciated.
•••••
The Oxford researchers found black Americans were also targeted with more advertisements on Facebook and Instagram than any other group. More than 1,000 different advertisements were directed at Facebook users interested in African American issues, and reached almost 16 million people.
The material was intended to inflame anger about the skewed rates of poverty, incarceration and the use of force by police among black Americans to “divert their political energy away from established political institutions”, the report said, adding that similar content was pushed by the Russians on Twitter and YouTube.
The New Knowledge researchers agreed that the “most prolific IRA efforts” on Facebook and Instagram were aimed at black Americans in what they called an “immersive influence ecosystem” connecting many different pages posting information and reinforcing one another.
In addition to the online posts telling black people their votes would not matter or urging them to vote third-party, Russian operatives tricked people with “vote by text message” scams and tweets designed to create confusion about voting rules, according to New Knowledge.
New Knowledge said the social media propaganda campaign should be seen as the third front in Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, together with the hack and theft of Democratic party emails that were passed to WikiLeaks, and the attempt to hack online voting systems across the US.
•••••
Child abuse climbs after Friday report cards, study says
https://wgntv.com/2018/12/17/child-abuse-climbs-after-friday-report-cards-study-says/
Posted 1:44 PM, December 17, 2018, by Associated Press
Child abuse increases the day after school report cards are released — but only when kids get their grades on a Friday, a study in Florida suggests.
The curious finding startled researchers, who had figured abuse might go up regardless of the specific day kids got their grades.
But their study of reports to a child abuse hotline that included broken bones, burns and other confirmed abuse found otherwise. An increase only occurred on Saturdays after a report-card Friday. Though overall rates were small, there were almost four times more cases on those Saturdays than on other Saturdays. No apparent connection between report cards and abuse was found on other days of the week.
“Anecdotally, we know a lot of parents will spank their children or use corporal punishment if they’re unsatisfied with their school work,” said University of Florida psychologist Melissa Bright, the lead author.
That punishment may become abusive when kids don’t have school the next day and parents think injuries might be more likely to go unnoticed, the researchers said, noting that teachers are required to report suspected child abuse. Or, it could be that severe punishment is less likely on weekdays when parents are too busy to focus on report cards, Bright said.
•••••
Changing a report card release day may reduce some abuse, the editorial said, “but it will not solve the larger issue: It is still socially acceptable to hit a child to correct their behavior.”
Posted 1:44 PM, December 17, 2018, by Associated Press
Child abuse increases the day after school report cards are released — but only when kids get their grades on a Friday, a study in Florida suggests.
The curious finding startled researchers, who had figured abuse might go up regardless of the specific day kids got their grades.
But their study of reports to a child abuse hotline that included broken bones, burns and other confirmed abuse found otherwise. An increase only occurred on Saturdays after a report-card Friday. Though overall rates were small, there were almost four times more cases on those Saturdays than on other Saturdays. No apparent connection between report cards and abuse was found on other days of the week.
“Anecdotally, we know a lot of parents will spank their children or use corporal punishment if they’re unsatisfied with their school work,” said University of Florida psychologist Melissa Bright, the lead author.
That punishment may become abusive when kids don’t have school the next day and parents think injuries might be more likely to go unnoticed, the researchers said, noting that teachers are required to report suspected child abuse. Or, it could be that severe punishment is less likely on weekdays when parents are too busy to focus on report cards, Bright said.
•••••
Changing a report card release day may reduce some abuse, the editorial said, “but it will not solve the larger issue: It is still socially acceptable to hit a child to correct their behavior.”
Ford built a noise-canceling kennel to placate your pup
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/ford-noise-canceling-kennel-prototype/
Andrew Krok
December 17, 2018
•••••
Ford this month unveiled a special kind of kennel for sensitive dogs. The Ford Quiet Kennel prototype uses noise-canceling technology, which appears in some cars, to create a quiet haven for a dog that might be scared by loud noises like fireworks or parties. That way, the pet can still hang out around the action without actually being subject to it.
The system works like many other noise-canceling systems. External microphones pick up the sound of fireworks or other loud noises, and a speaker inside the kennel emits an opposing frequency that essentially "cancels out" the offending noise. The kennel itself is partially made of cork, further aiding sound absorption.
•••••
the kennel is a prototype
•••••
Andrew Krok
December 17, 2018
•••••
Ford this month unveiled a special kind of kennel for sensitive dogs. The Ford Quiet Kennel prototype uses noise-canceling technology, which appears in some cars, to create a quiet haven for a dog that might be scared by loud noises like fireworks or parties. That way, the pet can still hang out around the action without actually being subject to it.
The system works like many other noise-canceling systems. External microphones pick up the sound of fireworks or other loud noises, and a speaker inside the kennel emits an opposing frequency that essentially "cancels out" the offending noise. The kennel itself is partially made of cork, further aiding sound absorption.
•••••
the kennel is a prototype
•••••
Trump travel ban keeping mother from dying 2-year-old son in California, family says
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-travel-ban-keeping-yemeni-mother-from-dying-2-year-old-son-in-california-family-says/
Updated on: December 17, 2018
Abdullah Hassan, 2, has been on life support at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland for the past month. He was born with a brain condition that caused weekly seizures, according to his father Ali Hassan.
CBS San Francisco reports Hassan says his son's condition is not improving, and he just wants his wife, Shaima Swileh, to see their son one last time. But President's Trumps travel ban, which applies to travelers from mostly Muslim majority nations, is keeping her from entering the U.S.
•••••
Hassan is a U.S. citizen living in Stockton. His son was born in Yemen, but later became a U.S. citizen. Swileh, is a Yemeni national living in Egypt.
In October, Hassan brought his son from Cairo to the U.S. for medical treatment. That was the last time the toddler saw his mother.
"It's horrible right now to be honest," said Hassan. "I'm going through it and my wife is going through it. My son is in critical condition right now. He's really, really unhealthy."
Hassan says his son is not expected to live much longer.
The U.S. State Department is processing her request for a waiver to get her into the U.S., according to the family. But time is running out.
•••••
Updated on: December 17, 2018
Abdullah Hassan, 2, has been on life support at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland for the past month. He was born with a brain condition that caused weekly seizures, according to his father Ali Hassan.
CBS San Francisco reports Hassan says his son's condition is not improving, and he just wants his wife, Shaima Swileh, to see their son one last time. But President's Trumps travel ban, which applies to travelers from mostly Muslim majority nations, is keeping her from entering the U.S.
•••••
Hassan is a U.S. citizen living in Stockton. His son was born in Yemen, but later became a U.S. citizen. Swileh, is a Yemeni national living in Egypt.
In October, Hassan brought his son from Cairo to the U.S. for medical treatment. That was the last time the toddler saw his mother.
"It's horrible right now to be honest," said Hassan. "I'm going through it and my wife is going through it. My son is in critical condition right now. He's really, really unhealthy."
Hassan says his son is not expected to live much longer.
The U.S. State Department is processing her request for a waiver to get her into the U.S., according to the family. But time is running out.
•••••
Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/russian-disinformation-teams-targeted-robert-s-mueller-iii-says-report-prepared-for-senate/2018/12/17/0e0047f6-0230-11e9-8186-4ec26a485713_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8ce848c0d711
By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm and Elizabeth Dwoskin
December 17, 2018
Months after President Trump took office, Russia’s disinformation teams trained their sights on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there.
The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies.
•••••
By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm and Elizabeth Dwoskin
December 17, 2018
Months after President Trump took office, Russia’s disinformation teams trained their sights on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there.
The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies.
•••••
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Wildfires may soon be uninsurable risks for homeowners
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wildfires-may-soon-be-uninsurable-risks-for-homeowners/
By Ed Leefeldt
updated Dec 13, 2018
Homeowners in wildfire-prone areas of California and other Western states now have yet another worry: Insurers have issued an ominous warning that they could be facing a "wildfire deductible" in coming years or, even worse, the prospect of having their home insurance canceled altogether.
•••••
Are insurers' current losses from conflagrations like the Camp Fire bad enough to cause serious economic losses for insurers? No, said Amy Bach, executive director of San Francisco-based United Policyholders. Property-casualty insurers now have a huge "policyholders' surplus," the amount of money available to pay claims, of nearly $760 billion, the highest in history.
But that doesn't mean they want to lose money in the future, especially as the wildfire danger from climate change, drought and unmanaged forests increases in states like California. If the current problems continue and grow, "there will be a strain on both public and private insurance," predicted Birnbaum.
•••••
Advocates for the industry are quick to point out that this won't affect all 40 million Californians, such as those who live in urban areas. But it will cost people who live in rural or "wildlife-urban interface areas," where tree lines and brush meet development and tract homes in hilly areas. These are the very areas where many city-dwelling Californians want to escape to and live.
•••••
By Ed Leefeldt
updated Dec 13, 2018
Homeowners in wildfire-prone areas of California and other Western states now have yet another worry: Insurers have issued an ominous warning that they could be facing a "wildfire deductible" in coming years or, even worse, the prospect of having their home insurance canceled altogether.
•••••
Are insurers' current losses from conflagrations like the Camp Fire bad enough to cause serious economic losses for insurers? No, said Amy Bach, executive director of San Francisco-based United Policyholders. Property-casualty insurers now have a huge "policyholders' surplus," the amount of money available to pay claims, of nearly $760 billion, the highest in history.
But that doesn't mean they want to lose money in the future, especially as the wildfire danger from climate change, drought and unmanaged forests increases in states like California. If the current problems continue and grow, "there will be a strain on both public and private insurance," predicted Birnbaum.
•••••
Advocates for the industry are quick to point out that this won't affect all 40 million Californians, such as those who live in urban areas. But it will cost people who live in rural or "wildlife-urban interface areas," where tree lines and brush meet development and tract homes in hilly areas. These are the very areas where many city-dwelling Californians want to escape to and live.
•••••
The Single Most Important Thinking Habit Nobody Taught You
https://medium.com/swlh/the-most-important-thinking-habit-nobody-taught-you-fdcd48bfa2d9
Thomas Oppong
Dec 13, 2018
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
George Bernard Shaw said that.
And Einstein also said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
Life is neither static nor unchanging, it’s fluid.
Nothing stays the same.
Elastic thinking (experts may call it cognitive flexibility) allows us to shift gears and think about something in more than one way.
Flexible thinkers consider a range of different possible consequences of their actions rather than only considering an optimistic view or only considering a pessimistic view.
•••••
How to develop an agile mind
The good news is flexible thinking skills can be taught.
For those wishing to tap into elastic thinking, Mlodinow suggests carving out time for daydreaming, talking to people outside your social circle, absorbing great art out of your comfort zone, listening to ideas or concepts you actively disagree with before disregarding them.
Always try to look at everything from more than one angle.
Change the context or your environment and you’ll feel your mind shift.
Take a walk. Take a coffee break.
Exercise offers another great mental boost.
The more you can challenge yourself to be spontaneous and allow for some new experiences, the easier it will be to integrate flexibility into your everyday life!
Mental flexibility is aided by novelty, and that contributes to brain growth and development throughout a lifetime.
•••••
Thomas Oppong
Dec 13, 2018
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
George Bernard Shaw said that.
And Einstein also said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
Life is neither static nor unchanging, it’s fluid.
Nothing stays the same.
Elastic thinking (experts may call it cognitive flexibility) allows us to shift gears and think about something in more than one way.
Flexible thinkers consider a range of different possible consequences of their actions rather than only considering an optimistic view or only considering a pessimistic view.
•••••
How to develop an agile mind
The good news is flexible thinking skills can be taught.
For those wishing to tap into elastic thinking, Mlodinow suggests carving out time for daydreaming, talking to people outside your social circle, absorbing great art out of your comfort zone, listening to ideas or concepts you actively disagree with before disregarding them.
Always try to look at everything from more than one angle.
Change the context or your environment and you’ll feel your mind shift.
Take a walk. Take a coffee break.
Exercise offers another great mental boost.
The more you can challenge yourself to be spontaneous and allow for some new experiences, the easier it will be to integrate flexibility into your everyday life!
Mental flexibility is aided by novelty, and that contributes to brain growth and development throughout a lifetime.
•••••
Lasik complications may have prompted Detroit meteorologist to take her own life
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/nation-world/lasik-complications-may-have-prompted-detroit-meteorologist-to-take-her-own-life/507-623665852
Author: Monica Robins
Published: 3:54 PM EST December 15, 2018
Updated: 4:08 PM EST December 15, 2018
•••••
A meteorologist at the Fox station in Detroit was suffering from complications of lasik surgery, and earlier this week she took her own life.
•••••
Some believe the Lasik complications may have been a catalyst for Jessica to take her own life.
Katie Enders understands how and why it could have happened. This past August, she shared her story.
In 2006 Katie had Lasik surgery. It fixed her vision, but something went terribly wrong.
“Feeling pain right after surgery and I was told it was dry eye and it would go away on its own,” Katie said.
But the pain only intensified.
“Like knives in your eyes like 24/7,” she said.
Katie had Corneal Neuralgia, nerve damage caused by Lasik. It’s rare and most patients recover, but for some like Katie, it’s permanent.
•••••
she decided to try a pain management specialist. Dr. Salim Hayek has often implanted pain pumps into people with back pain, but never for someone with eye pain like Katie’s.
He figured out the difference is where he placed the catheter in the spine to deliver the pain medication.
“All the way up in the top most area of her spine just before we get to the brain,” Dr. Hayek said.
Currently Dr. Hayek says University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center is the only center in the world offering this treatment for nerve facial pain.
“We have gotten a lot of inquiries around the world based on publishing her case. People want to come here, but the problem is financial,” Dr. Hayek said.
At this point most insurance won’t cover the procedure, but for people with severe nerve pain in the eyes or face, there’s at least hope.
“It's been a lifesaving thing for me and I'm just really grateful that I'm finally getting my life back,” Katie said.
If you would like to make an appointment to find out more about treatment for nerve facial pain, call 1-866-UH4-CARE (1-866-844-2273).
Author: Monica Robins
Published: 3:54 PM EST December 15, 2018
Updated: 4:08 PM EST December 15, 2018
•••••
A meteorologist at the Fox station in Detroit was suffering from complications of lasik surgery, and earlier this week she took her own life.
•••••
Some believe the Lasik complications may have been a catalyst for Jessica to take her own life.
Katie Enders understands how and why it could have happened. This past August, she shared her story.
In 2006 Katie had Lasik surgery. It fixed her vision, but something went terribly wrong.
“Feeling pain right after surgery and I was told it was dry eye and it would go away on its own,” Katie said.
But the pain only intensified.
“Like knives in your eyes like 24/7,” she said.
Katie had Corneal Neuralgia, nerve damage caused by Lasik. It’s rare and most patients recover, but for some like Katie, it’s permanent.
•••••
she decided to try a pain management specialist. Dr. Salim Hayek has often implanted pain pumps into people with back pain, but never for someone with eye pain like Katie’s.
He figured out the difference is where he placed the catheter in the spine to deliver the pain medication.
“All the way up in the top most area of her spine just before we get to the brain,” Dr. Hayek said.
Currently Dr. Hayek says University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center is the only center in the world offering this treatment for nerve facial pain.
“We have gotten a lot of inquiries around the world based on publishing her case. People want to come here, but the problem is financial,” Dr. Hayek said.
At this point most insurance won’t cover the procedure, but for people with severe nerve pain in the eyes or face, there’s at least hope.
“It's been a lifesaving thing for me and I'm just really grateful that I'm finally getting my life back,” Katie said.
If you would like to make an appointment to find out more about treatment for nerve facial pain, call 1-866-UH4-CARE (1-866-844-2273).
Saturday, December 15, 2018
Legal experts rip judge’s rationale for declaring Obamacare law invalid
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/legal-experts-rip-judges-rationale-for-declaring-obamacare-law-invalid/2018/12/15/9cab3bb8-0088-11e9-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cce4ba438993
O’Connor was appointed by President George W. Bush
By Devlin Barrett
December 15 at 3:39 PM
A federal judge’s ruling declaring the entire Affordable Care Act invalid came under harsh attack Saturday from legal analysts who predicted higher courts will reject the rationale as a tortured effort to rewrite not just the law but congressional history.
The ruling in Texas came on the eve of Saturday’s deadline for Americans to sign up for coverage in the federal insurance exchange created by the ACA, more commonly called Obamacare. The judge did not issue any injunction in the case, meaning that in the short term, nothing will change in health-care services or insurance while the courts consider the issue.
The 55-page ruling late Friday from U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor found the law invalid on the basis of the political and legal history of a few key provisions. O’Connor decided that once Congress repealed the tax penalty that enforced a mandate that most Americans get health insurance, the whole law became invalid.
•••••
“It’s absolutely ludicrous to hold that we do not know whether the 2017 Congress would have wanted the rest of the ACA to exist without an enforceable mandate, because the 2017 Congress did exactly that when it zeroed out the mandate and left the rest of the ACA standing,” Gluck said. “He effectively repealed the entire Affordable Care Act when the 2017 Congress decided not to do so.”
•••••
The Justice Department, which had been defending the law in court for years, announced in June that it would no longer argue for the mandate, and, as a result, the Trump administration said, a separate requirement that insurance companies cannot reject people who have preexisting conditions was also invalid.
•••••
Ted Frank, a lawyer at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who is critical of the ACA, called the decision “embarrassingly bad” because “you’re twisting yourself into knots” to reach a particular conclusion.
Over the past two years, Frank said, he and other conservative lawyers have complained when district court judges did similar intellectual gymnastics to attack Trump administration initiatives. “It’s not appropriate in the other direction, either,” he said.
•••••
99 Good News Stories You Probably Didn’t Hear About in 2018
https://medium.com/future-crunch/99-good-news-stories-you-probably-didnt-hear-about-in-2018-cc3c65f8ebd0
Angus Hervey
Dec 12, 2018
•••••
4. Deforestation in Indonesia fell by 60%, as a result of a ban on clearing peatlands, new educational campaigns and better law enforcement. Ecowatch
5. The United Nations said that the ozone hole would be fully healed over the Arctic and the northern hemisphere by the 2030s, and in the rest of the world by 2060. Gizmodo
•••••
20. France revealed a sharp fall in daily smokers, with one million fewer lighting up in the past year, and cigarette use among Americans dropped to its lowest level since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started collecting data in 1965.
21. Rwanda became the first low income country to provide universal eye care to all of its citizens, by training 3,000 nurses in over 500 health clinics.
•••••
34. New research revealed that in the last two decades, female genital mutilation has fallen from 57.7% to 14.1% in north Africa, from 73.6% to 25.4% in west Africa, and from 71.4% to 8% in east Africa. Guardian
•••••
47. Quietly and unannounced, humanity crossed a truly amazing threshold this year. For the first time since agriculture-based civilisation began 10,000 years ago, the majority of humankind is no longer poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty. Brookings
48. A little perspective. The Economist revealed that global suicide rates have dropped by 38% since 1994, saving 4 million lives, four times the number killed in combat during the same time.
•••••
56. The share of black men in poverty in the United States fell from 41% in 1960 to 18% today, and their share in the middle class rose from 38% to 57% in the same time. CNN
57. A new report showed that democracy is more widespread than ever. Six in ten of the world’s countries are now democratic — a post war record. Pew Research
•••••
Angus Hervey
Dec 12, 2018
•••••
4. Deforestation in Indonesia fell by 60%, as a result of a ban on clearing peatlands, new educational campaigns and better law enforcement. Ecowatch
5. The United Nations said that the ozone hole would be fully healed over the Arctic and the northern hemisphere by the 2030s, and in the rest of the world by 2060. Gizmodo
•••••
20. France revealed a sharp fall in daily smokers, with one million fewer lighting up in the past year, and cigarette use among Americans dropped to its lowest level since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started collecting data in 1965.
21. Rwanda became the first low income country to provide universal eye care to all of its citizens, by training 3,000 nurses in over 500 health clinics.
•••••
34. New research revealed that in the last two decades, female genital mutilation has fallen from 57.7% to 14.1% in north Africa, from 73.6% to 25.4% in west Africa, and from 71.4% to 8% in east Africa. Guardian
•••••
47. Quietly and unannounced, humanity crossed a truly amazing threshold this year. For the first time since agriculture-based civilisation began 10,000 years ago, the majority of humankind is no longer poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty. Brookings
48. A little perspective. The Economist revealed that global suicide rates have dropped by 38% since 1994, saving 4 million lives, four times the number killed in combat during the same time.
•••••
56. The share of black men in poverty in the United States fell from 41% in 1960 to 18% today, and their share in the middle class rose from 38% to 57% in the same time. CNN
57. A new report showed that democracy is more widespread than ever. Six in ten of the world’s countries are now democratic — a post war record. Pew Research
•••••
Youngest Children In A Class Are Most Likely To Get ADHD Diagnosis
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/28/671614909/youngest-children-in-a-class-are-most-likely-to-get-adhd-diagnosis
November 28, 20185:07 PM ET
The youngest children in a school class are most likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, when in fact their comparatively fidgety behavior may be due to their relative immaturity, according to a study published online Wednesday.
Scientists from Harvard University probed the way ADHD is assessed by taking advantage of a quirk found in many U.S. school systems: There's a Sept. 1 cutoff for enrolling in kindergarten. That means children born in August get in just under the wire, while children with September birthdays have had to wait until the following school year to enroll.
•••••
November 28, 20185:07 PM ET
The youngest children in a school class are most likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, when in fact their comparatively fidgety behavior may be due to their relative immaturity, according to a study published online Wednesday.
Scientists from Harvard University probed the way ADHD is assessed by taking advantage of a quirk found in many U.S. school systems: There's a Sept. 1 cutoff for enrolling in kindergarten. That means children born in August get in just under the wire, while children with September birthdays have had to wait until the following school year to enroll.
•••••
Friday, December 14, 2018
South Korean Court Orders Mitsubishi of Japan to Pay for Forced Wartime Labor
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/world/asia/south-korea-wartime-compensation-japan.html
By Choe Sang-Hun
Nov. 29, 2018
South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan on Thursday to compensate South Koreans forced to work in its factories during World War II, the second such ruling in a month that has bedeviled relations between the two key American allies in Asia.
•••••
Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 until Japan’s 1945 surrender in World War II, and in the decades since, South Korea and Japan have been locked in highly sensitive territorial and other disputes rooted in that colonial era.
The rulings on Thursday had been expected since the Supreme Court issued a landmark verdict on Oct. 30 finding Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal guilty of exploiting forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule.
•••••
Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced to work for Japan’s war efforts in Japan, China and elsewhere, according to South Korean historians.
•••••
President Moon Jae-in of South Korea has argued that the 1965 agreement should not prevent the victims of the Japan’s colonial rule from seeking redress. This month, his government decided to shut down a Japanese-funded foundation created to help Korean women who were forced to work in brothels for Japan’s military during World War II
•••••
By Choe Sang-Hun
Nov. 29, 2018
South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan on Thursday to compensate South Koreans forced to work in its factories during World War II, the second such ruling in a month that has bedeviled relations between the two key American allies in Asia.
•••••
Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 until Japan’s 1945 surrender in World War II, and in the decades since, South Korea and Japan have been locked in highly sensitive territorial and other disputes rooted in that colonial era.
The rulings on Thursday had been expected since the Supreme Court issued a landmark verdict on Oct. 30 finding Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal guilty of exploiting forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule.
•••••
Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced to work for Japan’s war efforts in Japan, China and elsewhere, according to South Korean historians.
•••••
President Moon Jae-in of South Korea has argued that the 1965 agreement should not prevent the victims of the Japan’s colonial rule from seeking redress. This month, his government decided to shut down a Japanese-funded foundation created to help Korean women who were forced to work in brothels for Japan’s military during World War II
•••••
Bill to extend Agent Orange benefits to U.S. Navy Vietnam vets dies in U.S. Senate
https://ktvq.com/news/montana-news/2018/12/10/bill-to-extend-agent-orange-benefits-to-u-s-navy-vietnam-vets-dies-in-u-s-senate/?fbclid=IwAR2B___7Ors0cUB63eS-xlCP4WL6gwoZ-GsdoU5KDP_ZTQiyzuNObl8G_qQ
Dec. 10, 2018
A bill that would extend Agent Orange benefits to thousands of ailing U.S. Navy veterans hit a last-second snag in the U.S. Senate.
The so-called “Blue Water Navy Bill” died in the U.S. Senate when Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, objected, expressing concerns about the bill’s cost, according to Stars and Stripes.
The bill would make tens of thousands ailing veterans eligible for disability compensation and health care from the VA.
Those veterans served on ships that patrolled territorial waters off the Vietnam coast during the war and were exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides.
•••••
The Senate plans to adjourn for this session by week’s end, which means the bill is likely doomed until next year. The House has already voted unanimously for passage.
Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines vowed Monday to keep up the fight for the Blue Water Bill and plan to hold a news conference Tuesday to draw more national attention to the issue.
Tester is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
•••••
Dec. 10, 2018
A bill that would extend Agent Orange benefits to thousands of ailing U.S. Navy veterans hit a last-second snag in the U.S. Senate.
The so-called “Blue Water Navy Bill” died in the U.S. Senate when Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, objected, expressing concerns about the bill’s cost, according to Stars and Stripes.
The bill would make tens of thousands ailing veterans eligible for disability compensation and health care from the VA.
Those veterans served on ships that patrolled territorial waters off the Vietnam coast during the war and were exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides.
•••••
The Senate plans to adjourn for this session by week’s end, which means the bill is likely doomed until next year. The House has already voted unanimously for passage.
Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines vowed Monday to keep up the fight for the Blue Water Bill and plan to hold a news conference Tuesday to draw more national attention to the issue.
Tester is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
•••••
Guatemalan migrant girl, seven, dies in US border patrol custody
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/14/guatemalan-girl-aged-seven-dies-in-custody-on-us-mexican-border
Amanda Holpuch in New York
Fri 14 Dec 2018 13.57 EST
A seven-year-old girl who crossed a remote part of the US-Mexico border with her father last week died less than two days after being apprehended by the US border patrol in New Mexico, immigration officials have said.
The girl vomited and stopped breathing in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) before being transferred to a hospital, where she suffered brain swelling and cardiac arrest, according to CBP.
•••••
The girl was suffering from dehydration and shock, according to CBP records seen by the Washington Post. The agency told the Post the girl “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days”. The CBP did not confirm those details to the Guardian.
•••••
Amanda Holpuch in New York
Fri 14 Dec 2018 13.57 EST
A seven-year-old girl who crossed a remote part of the US-Mexico border with her father last week died less than two days after being apprehended by the US border patrol in New Mexico, immigration officials have said.
The girl vomited and stopped breathing in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) before being transferred to a hospital, where she suffered brain swelling and cardiac arrest, according to CBP.
•••••
The girl was suffering from dehydration and shock, according to CBP records seen by the Washington Post. The agency told the Post the girl “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days”. The CBP did not confirm those details to the Guardian.
•••••
republican Scott Walker signs bills to limit powers of incoming Wisconsin Democrats
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/14/wisconsin-scott-walker-strip-power-democrats-signs-legislation
A majority of Wisconsin voters voted for Democrats for the state legislature, but a majority of republicans were elected because of gerrymandering.
Ben Jacobs
Fri 14 Dec 2018 14.05 EST
Scott Walker, the outgoing Wisconsin governor, has signed a raft of legislation passed by the Republican state legislature that restricts the power of the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general as well as limits early voting in the state.
Courts likely to strike down Republican lame-duck power grabs, experts say
Read more
Democrats have decried the move as a brutal power grab aimed at hobbling their new administration and an undemocratic ploy that ignores the will of the state’s voters in the recent midterm elections. They have also threatened litigation.
Walker signed the bills just 24 days before he leaves office.
•••••
Walker was urged by Democrats and Republicans, including Democratic governor-elect Tony Evers and former Republican governor Scott McCallum, to reject the legislation.
•••••
Republican leaders and Walker moved forward with the proposals immediately after Evers defeated the governor as part of a Democratic sweep of statewide offices. The push is aimed at safeguarding conservative policies put in place during Walker’s eight years as governor and mirrors tactics used by Republicans in North Carolina in 2016. Republicans in Michigan are weighing similar moves.
•••••
The measures would also block Evers from withdrawing Wisconsin from a multistate lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act, one of his central campaign promises.
•••••
Johnson & Johnson shares plunge after report that says it knew about asbestos in its baby powder
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/business/johnson-and-johnson-stock-baby-powder-asbestos/index.html
By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Business
Updated 4:35 PM ET, Fri December 14, 2018
Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) stock tumbled 10% on Friday — wiping out close to $40 billion of its market value — after a Reuters report said the company knew for decades that asbestos was in its baby powder.
The company has been grappling with lawsuits alleging some of its talcum powder products caused cancer. But the Reuters report cites documents and other evidence that indicate company executives, mine managers, scientists, doctors and lawyers knew about the problem and failed to disclose it to regulators or the public.
•••••
By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Business
Updated 4:35 PM ET, Fri December 14, 2018
Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) stock tumbled 10% on Friday — wiping out close to $40 billion of its market value — after a Reuters report said the company knew for decades that asbestos was in its baby powder.
The company has been grappling with lawsuits alleging some of its talcum powder products caused cancer. But the Reuters report cites documents and other evidence that indicate company executives, mine managers, scientists, doctors and lawyers knew about the problem and failed to disclose it to regulators or the public.
•••••
Betsy DeVos cancels $150 million of student loan debt after losing court battle
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/betsy-devos-cancels-150-million-of-student-loan-debt-after-losing-court-battle
By Kaitlyn Schallhorn
Dec. 14, 2018
The Department of Education said it will cancel $150 million of student loan debt, impacting about 15,000 people whose schools closed.
The Obama-era borrower defense relief program – which essentially ground to a halt under Education Secretary Betsy Devos – provided a path for people to seek forgiveness for federal student loans if a shuttered school violated specific laws or misled students.
DeVos was highly critical of the program, reportedly calling it a “free money” giveaway, and sought to change and delay the program. However, she was sued, and a federal judge ruled in September the program needed to “go into effect.”
Those eligible for loan forgiveness must have been enrolled at the school when it closed and not enrolled at another Title-IV school within three years of the previous school’s closing, according to the Education Department.
PLUS loans – which parents took out on behalf of children – could also be eligible for discharge.
•••••
By Kaitlyn Schallhorn
Dec. 14, 2018
The Department of Education said it will cancel $150 million of student loan debt, impacting about 15,000 people whose schools closed.
The Obama-era borrower defense relief program – which essentially ground to a halt under Education Secretary Betsy Devos – provided a path for people to seek forgiveness for federal student loans if a shuttered school violated specific laws or misled students.
DeVos was highly critical of the program, reportedly calling it a “free money” giveaway, and sought to change and delay the program. However, she was sued, and a federal judge ruled in September the program needed to “go into effect.”
Those eligible for loan forgiveness must have been enrolled at the school when it closed and not enrolled at another Title-IV school within three years of the previous school’s closing, according to the Education Department.
PLUS loans – which parents took out on behalf of children – could also be eligible for discharge.
•••••
Chief justice of California Supreme Court leaves GOP over Kavanaugh confirmation
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/421346-chief-justice-of-california-supreme-court-leaves-gop-over-kavanaugh
By Morgan Gstalter - 12/13/18 08:46 PM EST
The chief justice of California’s Supreme Court announced on Thursday that she had left the Republican Party following the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye told CALmatters that she had been deliberating her decision for a while but made up her mind after watching the backlash following multiple sexual assault allegations leveled against Kavanaugh.
•••••
Cantil-Sakauye joins a number of many prominent Republicans who have disavowed or left the GOP in recent months.
Former Rep. David Jolly (Fla.) said in October that he would re-register without a party affiliation with his wife in an attempt to reject partisan politics.
"It's also just a personal rejection of partisanship. It's a very comfortable place for us to be," Jolly said of his decision.
Lori Stegmann, an elected official in Oregon, left the Republican Party in July because she could not condone “the misogyny, the racism, and the unethical and immoral behavior of the current administration.”
Republican strategist Steve Schmidt left the party in June citing the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings, which led to the separation of thousands of migrant parents and children.
By Morgan Gstalter - 12/13/18 08:46 PM EST
The chief justice of California’s Supreme Court announced on Thursday that she had left the Republican Party following the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye told CALmatters that she had been deliberating her decision for a while but made up her mind after watching the backlash following multiple sexual assault allegations leveled against Kavanaugh.
•••••
Cantil-Sakauye joins a number of many prominent Republicans who have disavowed or left the GOP in recent months.
Former Rep. David Jolly (Fla.) said in October that he would re-register without a party affiliation with his wife in an attempt to reject partisan politics.
"It's also just a personal rejection of partisanship. It's a very comfortable place for us to be," Jolly said of his decision.
Lori Stegmann, an elected official in Oregon, left the Republican Party in July because she could not condone “the misogyny, the racism, and the unethical and immoral behavior of the current administration.”
Republican strategist Steve Schmidt left the party in June citing the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings, which led to the separation of thousands of migrant parents and children.
As Winters Warm, Blood-Sucking Ticks Drain Moose Dry
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-winters-warm-blood-sucking-ticks-drain-moose-dry/?fbclid=IwAR3k8zAkyo-Nl3Bwh-IMqPXWSXFHsLk8mFLswzssF8z3UyEjRf1Lmnjr5nY
By Laura Poppick on December 11, 2018
Moose numbers have declined roughly 10 percent in Maine and as much as 50 percent in New Hampshire since the early 2000s; Kantar and his colleagues in New England attribute this largely to a climate change–linked explosion in winter tick populations. In a recent Canadian Journal of Zoology study they report three consecutive years of tick epizootics (epidemics among animals of the same species) from 2014 through 2016—a run they say is unprecedented in this region. The ticks have become so voracious in some places a single moose can carry an appalling 90,000 at once, they report. In such numbers the ticks drain so much blood that the host moose can become anemic and malnourished and “can’t replace the blood fast enough,” Kantar says. In the case of many first-year calves like the one Kantar responded to in April, they die.
•••••
ticks “quest” (search for hosts) in the fall and stop once freezing temperatures settle in. As winter continues to arrive later everywhere, the time window for moose to pick up ticks stays open longer, Kantar notes.
Increasingly warmer and snow-free springs also mean female ticks that fall off their hosts can more easily survive to lay nests of larvae that emerge in the fall, says Helen Schwantje, a veterinarian for British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations Wildlife Management. The resulting decline in moose populations leaves holes in the cultural landscape as well as the ecological one, Schwantje says. “They have huge cultural and nutritional value to our First Nations,” she says. And when moose forage in wetlands, they help release nutrients into the environment and make them available to other plants and organisms, studies have shown.
Schwantje says the worrying growth of winter tick infestations in British Columbia has now spread to populations of boreal caribou—an alarming sign the ticks are infiltrating species and ranges they have not significantly occupied in the past. Boreal caribou are already listed as a threatened species, and the increased threat of ticks is “just one more thing they have to deal with,” Schwantje says.
•••••
By Laura Poppick on December 11, 2018
Moose numbers have declined roughly 10 percent in Maine and as much as 50 percent in New Hampshire since the early 2000s; Kantar and his colleagues in New England attribute this largely to a climate change–linked explosion in winter tick populations. In a recent Canadian Journal of Zoology study they report three consecutive years of tick epizootics (epidemics among animals of the same species) from 2014 through 2016—a run they say is unprecedented in this region. The ticks have become so voracious in some places a single moose can carry an appalling 90,000 at once, they report. In such numbers the ticks drain so much blood that the host moose can become anemic and malnourished and “can’t replace the blood fast enough,” Kantar says. In the case of many first-year calves like the one Kantar responded to in April, they die.
•••••
ticks “quest” (search for hosts) in the fall and stop once freezing temperatures settle in. As winter continues to arrive later everywhere, the time window for moose to pick up ticks stays open longer, Kantar notes.
Increasingly warmer and snow-free springs also mean female ticks that fall off their hosts can more easily survive to lay nests of larvae that emerge in the fall, says Helen Schwantje, a veterinarian for British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations Wildlife Management. The resulting decline in moose populations leaves holes in the cultural landscape as well as the ecological one, Schwantje says. “They have huge cultural and nutritional value to our First Nations,” she says. And when moose forage in wetlands, they help release nutrients into the environment and make them available to other plants and organisms, studies have shown.
Schwantje says the worrying growth of winter tick infestations in British Columbia has now spread to populations of boreal caribou—an alarming sign the ticks are infiltrating species and ranges they have not significantly occupied in the past. Boreal caribou are already listed as a threatened species, and the increased threat of ticks is “just one more thing they have to deal with,” Schwantje says.
•••••
Del Monte Recalls Canned Corn Over Contamination
https://patch.com/georgia/peachtreecorners/s/gkonm/del-monte-recalls-canned-corn-ga-over-contamination?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_term=business&utm_campaign=autopost&utm_content=peachtreecorners&fbclid=IwAR3aD0ffVaJVBtYb3hyseznbJsIZl6bT1FqByQ1Mxi4hFe35W5vbX_1finI
See link below for specifics.
By Deb Belt, Patch National Staff | Dec 13, 2018 2:28 pm ET
Del Monte Foods on Dec. 11 said it is recalling a type of its canned corn sold in Georgia and 24 other states because of the risk of contamination. The company said that 64,242 cases of fiesta corn seasoned with red and green peppers are subject to recall. Changes in the commercial sterilization process could result in contamination and life-threatening illness if the product is consumed.
To date there have been no reports of illness associated with the recalled shipments of canned corn, Del Monte Foods said in a news release. No other production codes or products are affected by this recall.
•••••
Thursday, December 13, 2018
The reason millennials aren’t spending as much money is they don’t have any
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/12/13/reason-millennials-arent-spending-much-money-is-they-dont-have-any/?utm_term=.e2316acef47b
One problem is that the power elite don't want to admit that high income inequality, and lower wages for workers, hurt the economy by holding down spending by large numbers of people.
By Matt O'Brien
December 13 at 6:23 PM
It is the question that has launched a thousand TED talks: What do millennials want? Or, more precisely, why don’t they want the things I am selling?
•••••
Or maybe, just maybe, the generation that graduated both with more debt and into the worst recession in 80 years simply cannot afford to spend money like the ones that preceded it. Now, I know, I know, there is nothing delightfully counterintuitive about this.
•••••
… Which, according to economists at the Federal Reserve, really is the reason young people today are not buying as much stuff as young people of yore.
•••••
Which is to say young people are not spending as much money right now not because they do not want to, but rather because they do not have any. Or at least not as much as young people did in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s.
•••••
The question, then, is not whether this is true, but rather why it was so hard for us to see something that so obviously was. After all, as the researchers succinctly put it, millennials “are less well off than members of earlier generations when they were young, with lower earnings, fewer assets and less wealth." Is it really a surprise that only 34 percent of them had bought a home by 2016, compared with the nearly 50 percent of Gen Xers and baby boomers who had at that stage of their lives? It should not be.
The problem, though, is we live in a media culture that prioritizes what is interesting but wrong over what is boring and true. Take unemployment. We literally spent years debating why it was so high in the wake of the biggest financial shock in history, worse even than the Great Depression.
•••••
Never mind that it was entirely predictable unemployment would still be high when the stimulus had not been big enough to fill our economic hole.
Sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one. Sometimes unemployment is high because we have not done enough to make it low. And people are not buying things because they cannot afford to.
The only thing worse than not being clever is trying to be too clever.
Promising test results for progressive multiple sclerosis treatment
https://www.ms-uk.org/researchers-test-epstein-barr-virus%E2%80%93specific-t-cell-therapy-progressive-multiple-sclerosis
Nov. 28, 2018
A recent Australian study has looked at a new potential treatment being developed for multiple sclerosis (MS), which involves extracting a sample of T-cells from the patient’s own immune system.
The T-cells are ‘trained’ to target and kill Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) cells and then reintroduced back into the patient’s bloodstream.
EBV has long been associated with MS, with many patients found to be carriers of the virus, but it is still unclear what role the virus plays in developing the condition.
The open-label phase I trial treated 10 MS patients, five patients with secondary progressive MS and five patients with primary progressive MS. Researchers found that patients tolerated the treatment well, with only one person experiencing a side effect, which was reported as an altered sense of taste.
Seven of the 10 patients who participated either reported or showed measurable improvement in symptoms such as fatigue and improved quality of life.
Researchers concluded that clinical improvement following treatment was associated with the potency of EBV-specific reactivity of the administered T-cells. Further clinical trials are warranted to determine the efficacy of EBV-specific T-cell therapy in MS.
Nov. 28, 2018
A recent Australian study has looked at a new potential treatment being developed for multiple sclerosis (MS), which involves extracting a sample of T-cells from the patient’s own immune system.
The T-cells are ‘trained’ to target and kill Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) cells and then reintroduced back into the patient’s bloodstream.
EBV has long been associated with MS, with many patients found to be carriers of the virus, but it is still unclear what role the virus plays in developing the condition.
The open-label phase I trial treated 10 MS patients, five patients with secondary progressive MS and five patients with primary progressive MS. Researchers found that patients tolerated the treatment well, with only one person experiencing a side effect, which was reported as an altered sense of taste.
Seven of the 10 patients who participated either reported or showed measurable improvement in symptoms such as fatigue and improved quality of life.
Researchers concluded that clinical improvement following treatment was associated with the potency of EBV-specific reactivity of the administered T-cells. Further clinical trials are warranted to determine the efficacy of EBV-specific T-cell therapy in MS.
2017's Extreme Heat, Flooding Carried Clear Fingerprints of Climate Change
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10122018/extreme-weather-climate-attribution-lucifer-heat-wave-harvey-flooding-ams-study
By John H. Cushman Jr.
Dec. 10, 2018
Many of the world's most extreme weather events witnessed in 2017, from Europe's "Lucifer" heat wave to Hurricane Harvey's record-breaking rainfall, were made much more likely by the influence of the global warming caused by human activities, meteorologists reported on Monday.
In a series of studies published in the American Meteorological Society's annual review of climate attribution science, the scientists found that some of the year's heat waves, flooding and other extremes that occurred only rarely in the past are now two or three times more likely than in a world without warming.
Without the underlying trends of global climate change, some notable recent disasters would have been virtually impossible, they said. Now, some of these extremes can be expected to hit every few years.
For example, heat waves like the one known as "Lucifer" that wracked Europe with dangerous record temperatures, are now three times more likely than they were in 1950, and in any given year there's now a one-in-10 chance of an event like that.
In China, where record-breaking heat also struck in 2017, that kind of episode can be expected once every five years thanks to climate change.
•••••
Martin Hoerling, a NOAA researcher who edited this year's collection, said the arrival of these damages has been forecast for nearly 30 years, since the first IPCC report predicted that "radical departures from 20th century weather and climate would be happening now."
Not every weather extreme carries the same global warming fingerprint. For example, the drought in the U.S. High Plains in 2017, which did extensive damage to farming and affected regional water supplies, chiefly reflected low rainfall that was within the norms of natural variability—not clearly a result of warming.
Even so, the dry weather in those months was magnified by evaporation and transpiration due to warmer temperatures, so the drought's overall intensity was amplified by the warming climate.
•••••
Attribution studies should not just place the blame on pollution-driven climate change for increasingly likely weather extremes, the authors said. They should help society "better navigate such unprecedented extremes."
tags: extreme weather, severe weather
By John H. Cushman Jr.
Dec. 10, 2018
Many of the world's most extreme weather events witnessed in 2017, from Europe's "Lucifer" heat wave to Hurricane Harvey's record-breaking rainfall, were made much more likely by the influence of the global warming caused by human activities, meteorologists reported on Monday.
In a series of studies published in the American Meteorological Society's annual review of climate attribution science, the scientists found that some of the year's heat waves, flooding and other extremes that occurred only rarely in the past are now two or three times more likely than in a world without warming.
Without the underlying trends of global climate change, some notable recent disasters would have been virtually impossible, they said. Now, some of these extremes can be expected to hit every few years.
For example, heat waves like the one known as "Lucifer" that wracked Europe with dangerous record temperatures, are now three times more likely than they were in 1950, and in any given year there's now a one-in-10 chance of an event like that.
In China, where record-breaking heat also struck in 2017, that kind of episode can be expected once every five years thanks to climate change.
•••••
Martin Hoerling, a NOAA researcher who edited this year's collection, said the arrival of these damages has been forecast for nearly 30 years, since the first IPCC report predicted that "radical departures from 20th century weather and climate would be happening now."
Not every weather extreme carries the same global warming fingerprint. For example, the drought in the U.S. High Plains in 2017, which did extensive damage to farming and affected regional water supplies, chiefly reflected low rainfall that was within the norms of natural variability—not clearly a result of warming.
Even so, the dry weather in those months was magnified by evaporation and transpiration due to warmer temperatures, so the drought's overall intensity was amplified by the warming climate.
•••••
Attribution studies should not just place the blame on pollution-driven climate change for increasingly likely weather extremes, the authors said. They should help society "better navigate such unprecedented extremes."
tags: extreme weather, severe weather
The Oil Industry’s Covert Campaign to Rewrite American Car Emissions Rules
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/climate/cafe-emissions-rollback-oil-industry.html
By Hiroko Tabuchi
Dec. 13, 2018
When the Trump administration laid out a plan this year that would eventually allow cars to emit more pollution, automakers, the obvious winners from the proposal, balked. The changes, they said, went too far even for them.
But it turns out that there was a hidden beneficiary of the plan that was pushing for the changes all along: the nation’s oil industry.
In Congress, on Facebook and in statehouses nationwide, Marathon Petroleum, the country’s largest refiner, worked with powerful oil-industry groups and a conservative policy network financed by the billionaire industrialist Charles G. Koch to run a stealth campaign to roll back car emissions standards, a New York Times investigation has found.
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The industry had reason to urge the rollback of higher fuel efficiency standards proposed by former President Barack Obama. A quarter of the world’s oil is used to power cars, and less-thirsty vehicles mean lower gasoline sales.
In recent months, Marathon Petroleum also teamed up with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a secretive policy group financed by corporations as well as the Koch network, to draft legislation for states supporting the industry’s position. Its proposed resolution, dated Sept. 18, describes current fuel-efficiency rules as “a relic of a disproven narrative of resource scarcity” and says “unelected bureaucrats” shouldn’t dictate the cars Americans drive.
A separate industry campaign on Facebook, covertly run by an oil-industry lobby representing Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Phillips 66 and other oil giants, urged people to write to regulators to support the rollback.
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The Trump plan, if finalized, would increase greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by more than the amount many midsize countries put out in a year and reverse a major effort by the Obama administration to fight climate change.
What on Earth Is Going On?
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Even while doubling down on gasoline, Marathon has projected an environmentally friendly public image.
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By Hiroko Tabuchi
Dec. 13, 2018
When the Trump administration laid out a plan this year that would eventually allow cars to emit more pollution, automakers, the obvious winners from the proposal, balked. The changes, they said, went too far even for them.
But it turns out that there was a hidden beneficiary of the plan that was pushing for the changes all along: the nation’s oil industry.
In Congress, on Facebook and in statehouses nationwide, Marathon Petroleum, the country’s largest refiner, worked with powerful oil-industry groups and a conservative policy network financed by the billionaire industrialist Charles G. Koch to run a stealth campaign to roll back car emissions standards, a New York Times investigation has found.
•••••
The industry had reason to urge the rollback of higher fuel efficiency standards proposed by former President Barack Obama. A quarter of the world’s oil is used to power cars, and less-thirsty vehicles mean lower gasoline sales.
In recent months, Marathon Petroleum also teamed up with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a secretive policy group financed by corporations as well as the Koch network, to draft legislation for states supporting the industry’s position. Its proposed resolution, dated Sept. 18, describes current fuel-efficiency rules as “a relic of a disproven narrative of resource scarcity” and says “unelected bureaucrats” shouldn’t dictate the cars Americans drive.
A separate industry campaign on Facebook, covertly run by an oil-industry lobby representing Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Phillips 66 and other oil giants, urged people to write to regulators to support the rollback.
•••••
The Trump plan, if finalized, would increase greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by more than the amount many midsize countries put out in a year and reverse a major effort by the Obama administration to fight climate change.
What on Earth Is Going On?
•••••
Even while doubling down on gasoline, Marathon has projected an environmentally friendly public image.
•••••
Fox News Analyst Quits, Calling Network a ‘Propaganda Machine’
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/business/media/fox-news-analyst-ralph-peters.html?fbclid=IwAR0lq8kmMhGHYLGjBOwwE9CiNxcWYo_GBn2wUdblE4-Hda8vM3QgIYe-yn0
By Michael M. Grynbaum
March 20, 2018
A longtime analyst for Fox News is leaving the network, saying that he could not “in good conscience” remain with an organization that, he argued, “is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.”
In a searing farewell note sent to colleagues on Tuesday, Ralph Peters, a Fox News strategic analyst and a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, castigated the network for its coverage of President Trump and the rhetoric of its prime-time hosts.
“In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration,” Colonel Peters wrote in his message, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.
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By Michael M. Grynbaum
March 20, 2018
A longtime analyst for Fox News is leaving the network, saying that he could not “in good conscience” remain with an organization that, he argued, “is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.”
In a searing farewell note sent to colleagues on Tuesday, Ralph Peters, a Fox News strategic analyst and a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, castigated the network for its coverage of President Trump and the rhetoric of its prime-time hosts.
“In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration,” Colonel Peters wrote in his message, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.
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Work stress increase cancer risk
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/w-dws121218.php
Public Release: 12-Dec-2018
Wiley
In an International Journal of Cancer study of data on more than 280,000 people from North America and Europe, work stress was associated with a significantly increased risk of colorectal, esophagus, and lung cancers.
When looking more closely at the data, investigators observed a link between work stress and colorectal cancer in North America, but not in Europe. By contrast, a significant association between work stress and esophagus cancer was found in Europe, but not in North America. In addition, there was no association between work stress and the risk of prostate, breast, or ovarian cancers.
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Public Release: 12-Dec-2018
Wiley
In an International Journal of Cancer study of data on more than 280,000 people from North America and Europe, work stress was associated with a significantly increased risk of colorectal, esophagus, and lung cancers.
When looking more closely at the data, investigators observed a link between work stress and colorectal cancer in North America, but not in Europe. By contrast, a significant association between work stress and esophagus cancer was found in Europe, but not in North America. In addition, there was no association between work stress and the risk of prostate, breast, or ovarian cancers.
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Increased motor activity linked to improved mood
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/jhub-nri121218.php
Public Release: 12-Dec-2018
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Increasing one's level of physical activity may be an effective way to boost one's mood, according to a new study from a team including scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in collaboration with the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program.
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The researchers found that increases in physical activity tended to be followed by increases in mood and perceived energy level. This beneficial effect was even more pronounced for a subset of the study subjects who had bipolar disorder.
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Public Release: 12-Dec-2018
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Increasing one's level of physical activity may be an effective way to boost one's mood, according to a new study from a team including scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in collaboration with the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program.
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The researchers found that increases in physical activity tended to be followed by increases in mood and perceived energy level. This beneficial effect was even more pronounced for a subset of the study subjects who had bipolar disorder.
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Exercise following weight loss may reduce colorectal cancer risk
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/aps-efw121218.php
Public Release: 12-Dec-2018
Exercise following weight loss may reduce colorectal cancer risk, study finds
Physical activity + weight reduction could lessen chances of tumor development
American Physiological Society
New research suggests that exercise is a key factor in reducing colorectal cancer risk after weight loss. According to the study, physical activity causes beneficial changes in the bone marrow.
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Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Occurrence of colorectal cancer is on the rise among young adults in the U.S. Previous research has shown that obesity and lack of physical activity increases the risk of developing this type of cancer. Recent studies have found that cells in bone marrow that produce blood cells (hematopoietic cells) play a role in the development of cancerous tumors in the colon.
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Public Release: 12-Dec-2018
Exercise following weight loss may reduce colorectal cancer risk, study finds
Physical activity + weight reduction could lessen chances of tumor development
American Physiological Society
New research suggests that exercise is a key factor in reducing colorectal cancer risk after weight loss. According to the study, physical activity causes beneficial changes in the bone marrow.
•••••
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Occurrence of colorectal cancer is on the rise among young adults in the U.S. Previous research has shown that obesity and lack of physical activity increases the risk of developing this type of cancer. Recent studies have found that cells in bone marrow that produce blood cells (hematopoietic cells) play a role in the development of cancerous tumors in the colon.
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