Sunday, August 31, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/aug/04/ebola-risk-guinea-fruit-bats

Ebola risk unheeded as Guinea's villagers keep on eating fruit bats
Monday 4 August 2014

Health workers struggle to separate myth from reality of Ebola as residents say abandoning tradition is out of the question

Medical teams struggling to curb Ebola in west Africa have been discouraging bush meat consumption, believed to have caused the outbreak, but some rural communities dependent on the meat for protein are determined to continue their traditional hunting practices.

While meat from wild animals such as fruit bats, rodents and forest antelopes has largely disappeared from market stalls in main towns such as Guéckédou in southern Guinea – the epicentre of the disease, and the capital Conakry following campaigns to avoid contamination, it is still being eaten in remote villages despite the risks.

"Life is not easy here in the village. They [authorities and aid groups] want to ban our traditions that we have observed for generations. Animal husbandry is not widespread here because bush meat is easily available. Banning bush meat means a new way of life, which is unrealistic," said Sâa Fela Léno, who lives in Nongoha village in Guéckédou.

The disease, which erupted in Guinea's southern forest region and was diagnosed in March as Ebola, is west Africa's first outbreak, and the worst known to date globally with more than 700 deaths. Infections continue to spread in Guinea and neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Poor knowledge and superstition especially in rural communities, as well as cross-border movement, a poor public health infrastructure and other epidemiological causes have contributed to its spread.

The immediate concern is to halt human-to-human transmission. Discouraging bush meat consumption and introducing livestock as an alternative to hunting are part of long-term solutions against the risks of contracting Ebola from the wild, said Juan Lubroth, chief veterinary officer with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome.

"We recognize the importance that bush meat has to quality nutrition that you may not get from only crop-based diets. We do not say that you should stop wild meat … but can we replace the need to go to the forest and hunt wildlife with having a source of livestock and livelihood that can be safer?" Lubroth said.

"Can we have a more development agenda where we could have poultry production, sheep, goats, pigs … so that there is no undue encroachment into the forest for hunting?"

Getting the message across

Promoting hygienic practices to avoid contracting Ebola is a protracted endeavor. Urging new norms for diet is far harder. Lubroth said: "It becomes very difficult to convey to an individual about a threat that cannot be seen, in this particular case a virus.

"One of the major aspects is to build trust with communities or villages. The sociology, the anthropology, the communication is so important, not like the veterinary or the wildlife or medical sciences," he told IRIN, explaining that epidemiological facts have to be translated in simple ways for ordinary people to understand, by using local allegories for instance.

Yet promoters of health messages, such as Mariame Bayo in Guinea, have been threatened with death in villages where residents strongly oppose aid workers. "In Nongoha we were told that if we don't leave we would be cut into pieces and our flesh thrown into the water," she said.

"There are those who go even as far as saying that the government and the president have invented Ebola, and that it is meant to avoid holding elections," said the health minister, Colonel Rémy Lamah. The presidential election is due next year.

"It is difficult to change a society's way of life, but when it comes to saving lives I think no efforts should be spared. We didn't say that people will no longer eat meat. [Discouraging bush meat] is just an interim measure," he added.

Because Ebola had not previously broken out in west Africa, many rural communities have been perplexed and grown wary of health workers who have been accused of introducing the virus. Some believe it is witchcraft or an evil spell. Moustapha Diallo of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, however, said fewer villages across the three west African countries remained hostile to aid groups, following public education campaigns.

"The main behaviour change needed is at funerals where a lot of cases are being contracted. That and good protective measures at health structures are the most important targets," said Stéphane Doyone, west Africa coordinator of Médecins sans Frontières.

Virus spillover risks

Exposure to infected people as families care for sick relatives at home,touching bodies during burials or even hospital-acquired infections continue to account for the high death toll. However, rural communities still hunting for bush meat risk further spillover of the virus from infected wild animals, according to the FAO.

"We will die if we must, but abandoning our traditions is out of the question. It is true that we have lost many relatives. That's fate," said Guéckédou resident Mamadi Diawara.

Guinea's communication minister, Alhousseine Makanera Kaké, said bringing the outbreak under control is fraught with challenges. "Obstacles will remain until the outbreak is over. It goes without saying that we will not overcome this easily," he said.

It is still unclear why the Ebola virus crossed from its animal hosts this time in west Africa while communities have consumed bush meat for generations without infection. "We do not know enough about Ebola's natural cycle in the jungle. I'm sure it ticks away every year or every season, but it only makes it into the news when we have human mortality," said Lubroth.

While warning against consuming bats or handling sick or dead animals, Lubroth said an outright ban on bush meat "will likely see it go underground and that is actually worse. So we talk more about management than prohibition."

Providing alternatives to bush meat may solve only part of the problem. In the long run, better equipped and resourced public health systems remain crucial to curbing outbreaks.




"'Life is not easy here in the village. They [authorities and aid groups] want to ban our traditions that we have observed for generations. Animal husbandry is not widespread here because bush meat is easily available. Banning bush meat means a new way of life, which is unrealistic,' said Sâa Fela Léno....The immediate concern is to halt human-to-human transmission. Discouraging bush meat consumption and introducing livestock as an alternative to hunting are part of long-term solutions against the risks of contracting Ebola from the wild, said Juan Lubroth.… Promoting hygienic practices to avoid contracting Ebola is a protracted endeavor. Urging new norms for diet is far harder. Lubroth said: 'It becomes very difficult to convey to an individual about a threat that cannot be seen, in this particular case a virus'.... 'We will die if we must, but abandoning our traditions is out of the question. It is true that we have lost many relatives. That's fate,' said Guéckédou resident Mamadi Diawara.....”

As advanced as the Greeks and Romans were in most ways, they still held to ancient religious beliefs, including multiple gods, magic and fate. They visited oracles to try to see the future rather than following a track of logical thought to determine what would be a good course of action. Wherever logic and scientific thought becomes dominant, the society will spring forward in all ways, especially technology, public health and interrelated fields of knowledge. Where that doesn't happen, the beliefs of the people will be localized, highly traditional and sometimes very primitive. These people have always had plenty of yummy bats to eat, so why raise livestock? When America put its astronauts on the moon I was in a little local store in North Carolina and mentioned the event to the woman at the counter. She said that she didn't believe they really went to the moon, that it was all a lie, and that God didn't mean for man to go to the moon. I was speechless. I paid my bill and left.

In this case in Africa, the people, because their belief system has been reinforced at every hand by their traditions and not sufficiently challenged, such as by the government requiring them to send their children to school where they would have encountered microscopes, are mainly impervious to new ideas such as viruses. An article in wikipedia on education in Guinea says, “In 1999, primary school attendance was 40 percent. One girl attends school for every two boys. Children, particularly girls, are kept out of school in order to assist their parents with domestic work or agriculture. Government resources for education are limited, there are not enough school facilities to adequately serve the population of school-age children, and the availability of school supplies and equipment is poor.” As a result, even in the face of a rampaging illness that is spreading rapidly among them, they consider their death to be a matter of “fate.” It's hard to argue with that.





Justice Department Supports Native Americans In Child Welfare Case – NPR
by LAURA SULLIVAN
August 29, 2014

The Justice Department has weighed in on a class-action lawsuit in South Dakota pitting Native American tribes against state officials, and come down resoundingly in support of tribes.

It's the first time the department has intervened in a federal district court case involving the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law meant to keep Native American families together. The department filed an amicus brief in the case concluding that the state is violating the rights of Native American parents.

In the suit, tribes claim the state is failing to abide by the 36-year-old federal law, removing hundreds of Indian children from their families in court hearings where parents are rarely allowed to speak, and that often last less than 60 seconds.

The children are then placed in foster care, where they may stay for months or years.

"It's disgraceful," says Stephen Pevar, who is a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, which has brought the suit along with the Oglala Sioux and Rosebud Sioux tribes.

As part of the lawsuit, the state had to turn over rarely seen transcripts of 120 recent court hearings. In every one, the Native American children were taken into state custody.

Not a single parent was allowed to testify at the hearings. Most were not allowed to say anything except their names.

"These were virtually kangaroo courts," Pevar says. "There was nothing, nothing that any of the parents did or could have done. It was a predetermined outcome in every one of these cases."

In one case cited in the lawsuit, children were taken away from a mother who the state said was neglectful. Their father, who was divorcing the mother, appeared at the hearing and said, "I am here. Please give custody of my children to me." The judge placed the kids in foster care.

In another example, a mother returned home from work to find her children had been taken away when her babysitter got drunk. She went to the hearing to explain she was the mother. Her children were also placed in foster care.

"This violates every concept of humanity," Pevar says. "If you have a right to a prompt hearing when [your] automobile is seized, they have a right to a prompt hearing when their children are seized."

State officials declined NPR's request for comment, citing the ongoing lawsuit. Pevar says the suit has been a long time coming.

"There is a crisis in many parts of the United States, and there has been one for decades involving the forceable removal of Indian children from their homes by state judges and social services employees," he says. "This lawsuit seeks to do something about it."

In its brief, the Justice Department wrote that state court and state officials with the Department of Social Services have an obligation to "actively investigate and oversee emergency removals of Indian children to insure that the removal ends as soon as possible, and that Indian children are expeditiously returned to their parents or their tribe" from the beginning of the process with the first court hearing to the end.

The Indian Child Welfare Act mandates that states place children with their tribes, their relatives or Native American foster parents if they have to be removed from their families.

In South Dakota, almost 9 out of 10 Native American children are placed in non-Indian homes or group homes, says Chase Iron Eyes, a staff attorney with the Lakota People's Law Project.

"It's a human rights crisis what's going on," he says.

This year, 7 of the state's 9 tribes applied for federal planning grants, with the help of the law project, in an effort to develop their own foster care programs. State officials have said they support that effort.

"We're trying to turn the whole system around," Iron Eyes says, "and give that power back to where it belongs — the power to raise our own families."

Iron Eyes says the future of Native American tribes depends on it.




“The Justice Department has weighed in on a class-action lawsuit in South Dakota pitting Native American tribes against state officials, and come down resoundingly in support of tribes.... In the suit, tribes claim the state is failing to abide by the 36-year-old federal law, removing hundreds of Indian children from their families in court hearings where parents are rarely allowed to speak, and that often last less than 60 seconds. The children are then placed in foster care, where they may stay for months or years.... 'It's disgraceful,' says Stephen Pevar, who is a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, which has brought the suit along with the Oglala Sioux and Rosebud Sioux tribes. As part of the lawsuit, the state had to turn over rarely seen transcripts of 120 recent court hearings. In every one, the Native American children were taken into state custody.... "This violates every concept of humanity," Pevar says. 'If you have a right to a prompt hearing when [your] automobile is seized, they have a right to a prompt hearing when their children are seized.' State officials declined NPR's request for comment, citing the ongoing lawsuit. Pevar says the suit has been a long time coming.... In South Dakota, almost 9 out of 10 Native American children are placed in non-Indian homes or group homes, says Chase Iron Eyes, a staff attorney with the Lakota People's Law Project. 'It's a human rights crisis what's going on,' he says.”

I read that in the early 1900's when one room schools for Native American children were set up, the speaking of their native language while at their studies was banned, for the purpose, I'm sure of forcing them to learn English. It had the result, however, that many Indian languages have almost gone out of use. There was a movement in the 1970's for speakers of these languages to get together and use the languages, plus writing them down, thus teaching young people how to speak them. This policy of taking Indian children away from their parents, strikes me as being for the purpose – the destruction of the Indian cultures. When they placed them in foster homes it was often into white homes rather than relatives or Indian people on the reservation.

The Department of Justice is looking into a large number of shameful hearings in which the parents were not allowed, in many cases, to talk at all except to give their names, after which their children were unceremoniously taken away from them with nothing but a “kangaroo court” proceeding. These actions are directly against the law called the Indian Child Welfare Act, which declares that Indian children should be placed with family members when possible and if not that, with Native American adults on the reservation. How the state departed so far from this law is not stated. The DOJ report states that state officials are to 'actively investigate and oversee emergency removals of Indian children to insure that the removal ends as soon as possible, and that Indian children are expeditiously returned to their parents or their tribe.” Hopefully this will end a practice that is inhumane and without any logical reason, unless indeed it is to break their pride and sense of cultural unity – a type of genocide.




Missing British boy with brain tumor found in Spain – CBS
AP August 30, 2014, 11:01 PM

LONDON - A critically ill 5-year-old boy who was taken out of a British hospital against doctors' advice has been found in Spain, police said Saturday.

An international search began Thursday for Ashya King, who has a severe brain tumor, after his parents removed him from a hospital in the southern English city of Southampton for unknown reasons.

British police said earlier that a European arrest warrant was issued for the boy's parents, Brett and Naghemeh, both Jehovah's Witnesses. The family had last been seen traveling on a ferry to France.

Police said late Saturday that officers are questioning the couple, and are "waiting to hear on Ashya's condition." They did not specify where in Spain the family was found.

Brett King, 51, and Naghemeh King, 45, removed the boy Thursday from Southampton General Hospital in Britain and took a ferry to France with their gray Hyundai and the boy's six siblings, Interpol said.

Police in Hampshire, England, said the boy was likely to be in a wheelchair or pushchair, can't communicate verbally, and is immobile.

While the search was on, authorities urged the public to report any sightings and warned that the child's life was at risk.

"If we do not locate Ashya today there are serious concerns for his life," Detective Superintendent Dick Pearson, a Hampshire police investigator, said in an Interpol statement. "He is receiving constant medical care within the U.K. due to recent surgery and ongoing medical issues."

"Without this specialist 24-hour care, Ashya is at risk of additional health complications which place him at substantial risk," he said.

The press office for Jehovah's Witnesses said it wasn't aware of the facts of the case, but said Jehovah's Witnesses are encouraged to seek the best medical treatment for themselves and their children.

Jehovah's Witnesses accept medical treatment, but believe the Bible forbids some treatments and they often refuse blood transfusions.



Both the Seventh Day Adventists and the Jehovah's Witnesses in the US refuse medical care in many cases, though this article said that the press office for Jehovah's Witnesses denied that . A number of people in this country were in the news recently for refusing to give vaccinations to their children, with the result that some childhood diseases are cropping up in larger numbers now. This goes beyond what I consider to be bad parenting, but is causing a public health problem. I'm glad the British authorities caught and arrested these parents. Now the boy can get the treatments that he needs.

This is one of the ways in which I think our “freedom of religion” in this country goes overboard. When two or three Islamic fathers in the last decade have been on trial for killing their daughters because they had “disgraced the family” by not wearing their hair fully covered, choosing a non-Muslim boyfriend, etc. In some Middle Eastern countries and among some Hindus in India this goes on into modern times. It's called an “honor killing.” In the US it's called murder and may get them the death penalty.






WWII soldier missing since 1945 finally comes home
CBS NEWS August 30, 2014, 3:39 PM

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Friends and family of a Tennessee soldier who was missing for nearly 70 years were finally able to say goodbye Friday, CBS Chattanooga affiliate WDEF-TV reports.

Army Pfc. Cecil E. Harris' platoon came under attack Jan. 2, 1945, in France near the German border during World War II.

Once the smoke cleared, his fellow soldiers noticed the 19-year-old from Shelbyville was missing.

Sixty-eight years later, in 2013, a French national located a possible grave marked by a rock with a crude "H" engraving.

When officials excavated the site, they found Harris' dog tags.

"That was 25,426 days ago," Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Gulley, who served as the family's casualty officer, said Friday. "And on day 25,424 Private First Class Cecil E. Harris finally came home."

Harris was posthumously awarded the Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

"The Lord answered my prayers after 70 years," Harris' widow, Helen Harris Cooke, 90, who was pregnant when Harris went to war, told The Tennessean newspaper.

Harris' funeral was held in Chattanooga, where Cooke lives.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam declared Oct. 22, the day Harris is expected to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, to be a day of mourning with flags at half-staff to honor Harris' ultimate sacrifice.




“Once the smoke cleared, his fellow soldiers noticed the 19-year-old from Shelbyville was missing. Sixty-eight years later, in 2013, a French national located a possible grave marked by a rock with a crude "H" engraving. When officials excavated the site, they found Harris' dog tags. Harris was posthumously awarded the Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star and Purple Heart.”

This is one of those great stories, like the love letter that is suddenly delivered after 40 years has passed. Some French citizen must have found him with his dog tag, buried him probably at risk to his own life, and put his initial "H" on the stone. A beautiful selfless act by a brave person who did the world a good turn. That war made many unsung heroes. Unlike most of our wars in this country, it took place in people's back yards, and involved everyone who had the misfortune to be there. The US Civil War, of course, was like that. My grandmother, who was born in 1875, said that when she was a child they used to find buttons from soldiers uniforms lying on the ground there. That's enough to send a chill down my spine. Talk about ghosts!





Who's Getting a Raise? Minimum Wage Hikes Gain Steam in States, Cities – NBC
BY SETH FREED WESSLER
August 31st 2014

As Americans take a break this Labor Day, workers in many U.S. states and cities are looking forward to getting more money in their paychecks.

Even as Congressional proposals to raise the federal hourly minimum wage to $10.10 stalled earlier this year, the push to boost pay for the nation's lowest-paid workers continues to gain steam across the country. A growing number of state and local governments are responding to pressure from workers to raise the wage floor.

So far, 13 states and 10 county and city governments have increased their minimum wages during 2013 and 2014. In June, Seattle raised its minimum wage to reach $15 an hour by 2018, the highest in the country, more than twice the current $7.25 federal minimum. Of the 10 states that raised their minimum wage this year, Connecticut, Maryland, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont set the floor at $10.10 an hour or more.

“We’re seeing a shift around the country where states are looking to the minimum wage as a way to raise incomes for their residents,” said Jack Temple of the National Employment Law Project, a liberal group that supports wage increases. “Because Congress hasn’t acted, states and cities are doing it instead; $10.10 is the new starting point.”

The momentum toward higher wages does not appear to be waning. In November, San Franciscans will vote on a ballot initiative to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour in the next four years. A decade ago, San Francisco and Santa Fe, New Mexico, became the first localities to independently raise their minimum wages. Not until the last several years have other cities and counties followed in step. This year, San Diego, Richmond and Berkeley in California voted to raise wages. So did Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe County and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti circulated a plan last week to raise that city’s minimum wage to more than $13. In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel supports a $13 hour minimum wage. So does New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Oakland, California, will vote this fall on an increase to more than $12.

As a growing number of Americans have found themselves in low-wage jobs in the years since the recession, demands for higher pay have spread. Minimum wage workers have increasingly made their voices heard in a series of recent labor actions in fast food and retail sectors in dozens of cities. Though high-profile strikes in fast-food chains have not won workers higher wages in that industry, some private workplaces have raised hourly wages themselves. In February, Gap, Inc., agreed to raise wages to $10.10 an hour. In some high-cost cities, Ikea pays workers as much as $13 an hour.

Wage hikes have improved the lives of workers and their families, said Maria Noel Fernandez, organizing director with Working Partnerships, USA, which supported San Jose, California's wage boost to $10 an hour in 2012. “For families here, the $2 hourly difference is real," she said. "It’s allowed people to pay bills, to make rent, to survive."

Opponents of minimum wage hikes argue that raising the floor leads to lost jobs as firms automate and outsource to avoid higher wages. They also note that only about 2.6 percent of workers actually make a minimum wage. But Melissa Kearney, Ph.D., an economist with the Brookings Institution, said that raising wages also helps a larger group of workers who were earning slightly above the minimum.

“Research is quite clear that raising the minimum wage raises wages not just for those now making the minimum,” Kearney said. “Workers who make just above that wage will also see rising incomes. To keep the wage structure in a firm in place, employers will raise wages up the scale.” Kearney said that nearly a third of workers, or 35 million people, would see a pay raise if Congress boosted the federal minimum wage.

“The changes ripple up,” Kearney said.

Congressional Republicans earlier this year blocked a Democratic proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 over several years. Most economists agree that if the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation since its historical high in the 1960s, the lowest paid workers would now make more than $10 an hour.

Recent public opinion polls show two-thirds of Americans support a federal increase. Even among Republicans, who were less likely to support the increase, close to half support a hike.

“There’s been so much emphasis on inequality in recent years,” Kearney said, “that more and more people are aware that people who are not making ends meet are working.”




“Even as Congressional proposals to raise the federal hourly minimum wage to $10.10 stalled earlier this year, the push to boost pay for the nation's lowest-paid workers continues to gain steam across the country. A growing number of state and local governments are responding to pressure from workers to raise the wage floor. So far, 13 states and 10 county and city governments have increased their minimum wages during 2013 and 2014. In June, Seattle raised its minimum wage to reach $15 an hour by 2018, the highest in the country, more than twice the current $7.25 federal minimum. Of the 10 states that raised their minimum wage this year, Connecticut, Maryland, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont set the floor at $10.10 an hour or more.... Recent public opinion polls show two-thirds of Americans support a federal increase. Even among Republicans, who were less likely to support the increase, close to half support a hike. 'There’s been so much emphasis on inequality in recent years,' Kearney said, 'that more and more people are aware that people who are not making ends meet are working.'”


When I first heard President Obama propose $10.00 an hour, I thought he was overreaching, but it looks like he was on target. Five states have already made that the law, and Seattle raised its minimum to $15.00. Republicans are always talking about bringing in big business to create jobs, but that doesn't guarantee a high salary. In fact, such jobs are often minimum wage and relatively few in number. This additional income to each family will almost certain kick our economy up from its stubborn low point over the last six or so years into a boom condition. If people have money to spend, they will “stimulate” the economy the old fashioned way. I do hope this raise to $10.00 goes through. The whole US will be better off if it does. If this bill does make it into law, Obama deserves the credit for proposing it first. I can't wait to see what happens.





Climate Hack? How Plastics Could Help Save Us From Greenhouse Gases – NBC
BY JOHN ROACH
August 30th 2014

What's the fix for a warming planet? Just one word: Plastics.

As the world grapples with greenhouse gas emissions still rising despite years of political wrangling over how to combat global climate change, a technology to convert carbon dioxide and methane into plastic is emerging as one potential market-driven solution. To boot, the process can be less expensive than producing plastics from petroleum.

"You have a new paradigm where plastics are saving the economy a whole lot of money, they are replacing oil, and in the process we are actually sequestering carbon emissions that would otherwise go into the air," Mark Herrema, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Newlight Technologies in Irvine, Calif., explained to NBC News.

The market for plastics is massive — and thus the ability to sequester carbon. Plastics are found everywhere from beverage and food containers to toys, furniture and car parts. About 280 million tons of the stuff is produced every year, according to industry statistics.

The caveat is this: only about 10 percent of the plastic generated each year is recycled. The rest is trashed or escapes to the environment where it is a persistent environmental pollutant.

"They can make plastic out of potatoes, or peaches, or switchgrass, or carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The price of carbon is all the industry cares about," Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research and Education Institute in Long Beach, Calif., told NBC News. "The polluting nature of plastic, and the proliferating of plastic waste, is unaffected by the source of the plastic."

Microbial process

The engines behind the greenhouse gas to plastic conversion technology are microorganisms that feed on methane or carbon dioxide pumped into vessels of liquid. The microbes — some enhanced through genetic engineering, others improved via selective breeding – accumulate a biopolymer inside their cell walls as they feast.

"We influence these bacteria to get as fat as quickly as possible and then we harvest that biopolymer that is inside their cell walls," Molly Morse, the founder and chief executive officer of Mango Materials in Palo Alto, Calif., told NBC News. "That biopolymer comes out in powder form and you can pelletize it and then you have the raw ingredients to make other plastic goods."

A similar microbial-driven process takes place inside the vessels used by Newlight Technologies, according to Herrema. The breakthrough for his company came by engineering its system to produce enough high-quality polymer to make the technology economically viable without having to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.

"I can go to someone in Texas or the Midwest and whatever they feel about climate change, everyone likes to replace oil and reduce cost, and so it sells itself," he said. The benefit of sequestering greenhouse gases becomes an afterthought, he added.

Using methane from sources such as landfills and wastewater treatment plants to make the plastic, noted Morse, is at least six times more economical than using the gas, for example, to generate heat or electricity. Many industrial facilities are legally required to capture methane emissions, noted Morton Barlaz, a civil, construction and environmental engineer at North Carolina State University.

"Having markets for that methane is a good thing as long as you are using that methane to make something that you are going to make anyway, in this case a plastic," he told NBC News.

Environmental pros and cons

According to Morse, the biopolymer produced by Mango Materials is biodegradable – it is designed to break down in the marine environment, compost piles, and landfills. In fact, the company is pursuing clients in markets "where biodegradability is key," she said. This includes plastic films used on farms and as an exfoliant in cosmetic products that often slip through wastewater treatment plants out to sea.

Newlight Technologies produces a biodegradable grade of its plastic as well, though several of its clients, according to Herrema, are opting for recyclable grades instead. All grades, he noted, have been certified by third-party carbon accounting firms as carbon negative — that is the products "sequester more carbon than they emit during the production process."

Marquee products made with Newlight's plastic pellets include computer bags for Dell, cell phone cases for Sprint and a chair for furniture manufacturer KI.

"There are pluses and minuses here," Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley, said of the greenhouse gas to plastic technology in an email to NBC News. "At the one level, capturing what would otherwise be (methane) emissions into products is a big step forward."

For his part, Moore declined to choose between what he called the "bad alternatives" of more greenhouse gases or plastics, but noted that in a list of all the maladies facing humanity including climate change and infectious disease, "the one pollutant that may cause humans to be unable to reproduce is plastic."



http://consumer.healthday.com/disabilities-information-11/misc-birth-defect-news-63/plastics-chemical-bpa-may-harm-fertility-study-678759.html

Plastics Chemical BPA May Harm Human Fertility: Study
However, experts say lab findings might not translate to real-life risk
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Jul 31, 2013

Please note: This article was published more than one year ago. The facts and conclusions presented may have since changed and may no longer be accurate. And "More information" links may no longer work. Questions about personal health should always be referred to a physician or other health care professional.

WEDNESDAY, July 31, 2013 (HealthDay News) -- A chemical used in everything from food-can linings to store receipts might also pose some risk for infertility and birth defects, a new study suggests.

Exposure to bisphenol A, or BPA, may disrupt the human reproductive process and play a role in about 20 percent of unexplained infertility, said researchers from Harvard University.

In laboratory experiments, they exposed 352 eggs from 121 consenting patients at a fertility clinic to varying levels of BPA.

"Exposure of eggs to BPA decreased the percentage of eggs that matured and increased the percentage of eggs that degenerated," said lead researcher Catherine Racowsky, director of the assisted reproductive technologies laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

BPA also increased the number of eggs that underwent an abnormal process called "spontaneous activation" that makes eggs act as if they have been fertilized when in fact they haven't been, Racowsky said.

Moreover, many eggs exposed to BPA that matured did so abnormally, increasing the odds for infertility and birth defects such as Down syndrome, she said.

Eggs exposed to the highest levels of BPA were the most likely to show these ill effects, the researchers found. Their results are similar to earlier research examining the effect of BPA on animal eggs, they said.

Racowsky cautioned that these latest results with human eggs were seen in the laboratory, so whether BPA exposure works the same way in real life isn't known. And the research also found only an association between BPA and infertility and birth defects, not necessarily a cause-and-effect link.

In addition, the eggs used in the experiment were going to be discarded because they didn't respond normally and thus could be considered damaged to begin with, she said.




About the article on BPA, Racowsky threw in several cautions on its accuracy, and I do hope she is right about that. I've been hearing about BPA for years now, and I choose not to believe I'm in danger from it. It is present in many things that we eat and drink all the time, with as far as I can tell no ill effects. It's like the fear that giving your babies needed vaccinations causes autism. Studies have been made, and they didn't show that autism is caused that way. They're looking more at genetic causes now. Besides, not all plastics contain BPA.

“... a technology to convert carbon dioxide and methane into plastic is emerging as one potential market-driven solution. To boot, the process can be less expensive than producing plastics from petroleum." Sounds miraculous and it is a process that requires the use of bacteria. These plastics can be either biodegradable or not, according to which company produces them and how they do it. Both have their uses. The key is that they sequester carbon dioxide and methane, keeping them from escaping into the air. Methane has a marketable use already as fuel, but as far as I know carbon dioxide is mainly a wasted byproduct that invades the atmosphere and causes global warming. The only thing that uses carbon dioxide - except for these bacteria - is photosynthesizing plants, so every time we cut another tree down in the rain forests of the world we are ruining our atmosphere further. These specially bred bacteria eat both gasses and produce what is called “biopolymer,” much as our bodies produce fat, and it accumulates inside their cells. It is then taken from the bacteria and put into the form of a powder which can be made into plastic. It sounds very easy, and according to how much gas is used up by the bacteria and how much plastic they make, it is a partial cure for our global warming problem. We still need to keep the rain forests, though, because I can't see this using up all the carbon dioxide. I hope the oil industry and the Republicans don't fight the development of these processes just because it means less oil will be bought. That would be truly unpatriotic.





Russians Get Creative With Ukraine Protests Despite Danger – NBC
BY ALBINA KOVALYOVA
August 31st 2014

MOSCOW - Under relentless pressure from heavy-handed officials, Russians protesting their country’s policies in Ukraine are getting creative.

At a recent Moscow fashion show, a young girl stepped down the catwalk dressed in Ukraine's national colors of yellow and sky blue before stopping and holding a gun to her head. The video of the performance went viral, causing a stir in Russian social media.

Any morning commute on the Moscow Metro reveals a smattering of accessories in blue and yellow -- a subtle but striking statement.

On Aug. 20 the Russian capital awoke to televised images of one of the iconic “seven sisters” Stalin-era skyscrapers flying the Ukrainian flag, its showpiece golden star painted yellow and blue. Four young Russians were detained by the authorities even as journalists rushed to the scene.

Two days later, a daredevil going by the pseudonym “Mustang Wanted” posted a selfie on top of the skyscraper, and released a statement on his Facebook page claiming responsibility for the stunt.

He was demonstrating against Russia’s actions in Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin’s government is widely accused of fomenting and actively supporting a separatist rebellion. The United Nations estimates that the fighting between pro-Russian separatist and Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine has left over 2,590 people dead since the fighting began in mid-April this year.

Russian citizens could "become victims of the Russian law, which is widely famed for its fairness,” Mustang Wanted said in his Facebook post, with obvious sarcasm. He repeated the stunt on Sunday, this time to mark Ukraine's Independence Day.

Wanted may have escaped censure but others haven't been so fortunate. When activists in Moscow tried to hang a Ukraine flag on the famous Bolshoi Kamenny Bridge to mark Ukraine's Independence Day, police detained them before they could finish.

The police's swift reaction underlines a bitter reality for any members of the opposition in Russia – Putin is overwhelming popular so only a minority support protests against his policies.

A translator who helps administrate a Facebook group against Russia’s involvement in Ukraine is one of those determined to hang in there.

“I cannot let go of the situation that is going on and there is a Hitler-like dark gloom ahead. Where else can one go?” she told NBC News on the condition of anonymity.

Moscow teacher Tamara Eidelman said the government’s disregard for the rule of law is frightening.

"I think that there is nothing more important right now than to fight against the war [in Ukraine],” she said.

And it seems for Putin, there is little more important than punishing those who dare protest his government’s actions. On July 22, he signed a new law criminalizing repeated street protest violations with up to five years in jail.

Protesting against the government was already pretty dangerous before the latest crackdown.

On May 6, 2012 tens of thousands of people took place in large anti-government demonstrations in what was widely known as the Bolotnaya protests. They became violent when some activists clashed with police, and 31 people have been prosecuted, and prison sentences up to four-and-a-half years.

They were charged activists for rioting, but the consensus is that they have been punished for simply daring to challenge the government. Similarly, members of the all-woman punk band Pussy Riot were convicted of hooliganism after performing an anti-Putin song in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in Feb. 21, 2012.

Band members were sentenced to jail time after a trial that made news headlines around the world.

As with the Bolotnaya and Pussy Riot cases, Russian state media and most politicians have portrayed recent demonstrators as a fifth column – or the enemies from within. Meanwhile, their cause has been taken up by international rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch.

So it isn't surprising that fear stalks even the most dedicated anti-Putin demonstrators these. Varvara Pakhomenko, who works for a nongovernmental organization in Moscow, said that for the first time ever she's afraid to attend demonstrations.

"There is a mass hysteria in the air right now," she said. "There is a lot of public aggression which can turn into violence."




On Aug. 20 the Russian capital awoke to televised images of one of the iconic “seven sisters” Stalin-era skyscrapers flying the Ukrainian flag, its showpiece golden star painted yellow and blue. Four young Russians were detained by the authorities even as journalists rushed to the scene..... The police's swift reaction underlines a bitter reality for any members of the opposition in Russia – Putin is overwhelming popular so only a minority support protests against his policies.... And it seems for Putin, there is little more important than punishing those who dare protest his government’s actions. On July 22, he signed a new law criminalizing repeated street protest violations with up to five years in jail.... Varvara Pakhomenko, who works for a nongovernmental organization in Moscow, said that for the first time ever she's afraid to attend demonstrations. 'There is a mass hysteria in the air right now,' she said. 'There is a lot of public aggression which can turn into violence.'"

Putin is clearly not without criticism, though this article and another earlier said that he mainly enjoys popularity. Many people like the “strong” image he is putting forth. Others are concerned about the loss of life – over 2,590 just since April – and honor Ukraine's right to operate independently of Russia. The protests have been mainly non-violent and even humorous, but some people have been arrested. The Bolotnaya protests were much more serious, involving some 10,000 people and violent interactions with the police. On August 20th, four young people succeeded in flying the Ukrainian flag from a Moscow skyscraper. The police nabbed them almost immediately and they were arrested, but the flag was seen by all on the television. Another group maintains a facebook page against Russia's involvement in Ukraine. A translator who works on the page said, “'I cannot let go of the situation that is going on and there is a Hitler-like dark gloom ahead. Where else can one go?'” I didn't find that Russian facebook page, but I did find this one in Kiev – https://www.facebook.com/euromaidanpr if you want to look at it. There is a picture of Putin on that page that makes him look like a snarling wolf. They definitely don't like him.

Saturday, August 30, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://news.yahoo.com/audacity-taupe-obama-suit-creates-sartorial-stir-222521652.html

'The audacity of taupe': Obama suit creates sartorial stir

Washington (AFP) - The subjects were serious enough at President Barack Obama's impromptu press conference Thursday, but many viewers and the collective press corps seized on something more immediately visible: his tan suit.

The president's decision to address the media in a breezy, light-colored summer suit swiftly took center stage for many even as he addressed Russian responsibility for rebel actions in Ukraine and ongoing US air strikes against Islamists in Iraq.

"Yes we tan!" became the mocking rally cry on social media as Obama gave a statement and then took questions from what some have deemed a horrified press corps.

Back in 2012 Obama told Vanity Fair that "I wear only gray or blue suits." By breaking that promise Thursday -- even with what many acknowledge was a sharp-looking, seasonal get-up -- Obama inadvertently gave birth to #suitgate.

And the snark from America's aspiring fashion critics exploded on Twitter.

"I'm sorry but you can't declare war in a suit like that," guffawed Wall Street Journal reporter @damianpaletta.

"The Audacity of Taupe," tweeted Jared Keller, a programming director at startup MicNews.

Other comments were similarly charitable.

"I hope they have a suitable strategy to keep isis at beige, i mean what?" tweeted Washington Post blogger Alexandra Petri (@petridishes).

Not everyone was amused. Someone immediately started the parody handle @Obamasuit, but Twitter has already suspended the account.


COMMENTS:

JM 3 minutes ago

Yesterday I wore a navy t-shirt, black shorts, gray Hanes underwear, white Hanes ankle-high socks, and gray Skecher tennis shoes. I can honestly say nobody gave a #$%$ what I wore. If anybody really had any class they wouldn't care what Obama wears either. People tend to forget that the President is a human being although Republicans would have you believe otherwise. He is married, has children, eats food, wears clothes, probably belches and passes gas. I know I do. I know you do too. Give it a rest. Tomorrows headlines will probably be Obama orders missile attack in Middle East after eating a hot dog with ketchup and mustard smothered in onions.


Donald B 4 hours ago

I find myself wondering just how small and insignificant would a persons life have to be to think that this sort of thing was important? There is war, hunger, poverty, and unrest around the world, and people are dying in their thousands, and these people think that this sort of thing is not only important enough to post about, but then some person who apparently had the good sense to leave his or her name off the story wrote about it, Yahoo used to be a good place to get the news, but now it's just bubblegum for the brain dead.


Road Runner 3 hours ago

Are you kidding me press corp? You focus on the color of the President's suit? You are acting like a bunch of gossiping "women" (pardon me, Ladies as I am a woman too but just trying to make a point we all understand). President Obama looked professional and color does not matter content of the speech matters. In South Florida you would wear any color any time. Focus, focus on what is important and not waste space nor words on s... like this. Absurd!!!


Tabbs 9 hours ago

Oh for the love of all ... It's no wonder this country is falling apart when the press corp is more worried about what color his suit is (it isn't like he came out in his boxers or briefs) than what his policy is over whatever issue he was speaking about. I don't like the man's politics and have never hidden that, but I also don't believe he should be judged on anything that isn't affecting the welfare of this country. Suit color does not meet the litmus test.


Truth-hurt 19 hours ago

I wonder where are the real news reporters now days... The media is turning into a joke. Who cares what he or anyone is wearing. Anything you can write about that is related to what is happening in the world? Are these journalists just out of college? Grow up and bring some worthy news! Nice way to try to distract the masses with stupidity. Sad thing is that some people buy into it.


Sgt Tyree 1 hour ago

There was a time in the not so distant past when suits like this were considered both fashionable and seasonal. Men wore suits, women wore dresses, and people dressed up to go out to dinner and/or church. I think people felt good about themselves both inwardly and outwardly. In fact I think people behaved better then and paid attention to their grooming. Then "casual Friday" came to be and business in America started dressing like a bunch of PGA pro's. Then it became standard business fare. Now people dress like slobs and grooming has been replaced by tattoos. This suit should be the least of anyone's concerns.




I did notice with surprised pleasure how the president looked in that new suit. He also sometimes is seen in blue jeans and a couple of times topless at the beach. He is a very well-built, trim and handsome man, and he looks good in all his clothes. Without being vain, he is obviously interested in dressing well, and I don't think his wife has to pick his tie color, either. The comments from the public underneath the article were as interesting as the article itself. As a criticism of the president, his failure to wear blue or gray is completely unimportant to any logical person, and I noticed that it was considered so by most of the readers. These people showed me how many people do like the president, unlike the Tea Partiers and other disgruntled types who seem to hate him deeply. There is no question that much of their attitude is due to racial bias.





California man found guilty of murder after his dogs kill woman
CBS/AP August 29, 2014, 9:17 PM

LANCASTER, Calif. -- A man whose four dogs mauled a 63-year-old woman to death was found guilty Friday of murder.

A Los Angeles County jury convicted 31-year-old Alex Jackson of second-degree murder in the death of Pamela Devitt, CBS Los Angeles reported. He could get 24 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 3.

Devitt was out for a morning walk in the desert town of Littlerock on May 9, 2013, when she was set upon by four pit bulls.

The coroner said she died from blood loss after being bitten 200 times. The dogs dragged her 50 yards, took off her scalp and removed an arm.

Prosecutors said Jackson was not just negligent but knew that his animals could endanger someone's life. They presented evidence that Jackson's dogs were involved in at least seven other altercations in the 18 months leading up to the attack on Devitt.

Several horseback riders said they had been chased or bitten by Jackson's dogs. Neighbors said the dogs jumped over the fence and made it difficult to retrieve mail. A mail carrier testified that he was unable to make a delivery to Jackson's residence because of a threatening dog that eventually chased his vehicle for half a mile.

Defense attorney Al Kim said Jackson was taking the brunt of the rural area's growing frustration over abandoned animals.

"At some point, something needs to be done about these stray dogs, and I think an unfair amount of responsibility is being directed at my client," Al Kim said. "Does that mean he's a murderer? Absolutely not."

The National Canine Research Council estimates about 30 people are killed by dogs each year. Murder charges are rare because prosecutors must prove that the defendant knew the dogs were dangerous before the killing.

Jackson testified he was unaware of most of the incidents. He said if he thought the dogs were capable of killing someone, he would have gotten rid of them.

At the time of his arrest, Jackson had eight dogs living at the home he shared with his mother. He had placed the four involved in the attack in his garage.

"I feel terrible about it. This isn't anything that I orchestrated or planned, that I wanted to have happen," he said.

Animal control officers testified that an inebriated Jackson told them shortly after the attack: "If you mess with me, you're coming into the lions' den."

The victim's husband, Ben Devitt, said he wanted a guilty verdict "so it sets a precedent and makes people aware that their dogs can create a dangerous situation."

Jackson was also found guilty of three drug charges. Police said that when they first went to his property to investigate the mauling, they found a marijuana farm. The drug charges included cultivating marijuana and possession and sale of a controlled substance.

Jackson was found not guilty of an assault charge stemming from an alleged run-in with a horseback rider who claimed his dogs also attacked the horse.




Animal control officers testified that an inebriated Jackson told them shortly after the attack: "If you mess with me, you're coming into the lions' den." The victim's husband, Ben Devitt, said he wanted a guilty verdict "so it sets a precedent and makes people aware that their dogs can create a dangerous situation." Jackson was also found guilty of three drug charges. Police said that when they first went to his property to investigate the mauling, they found a marijuana farm. The drug charges included cultivating marijuana and possession and sale of a controlled substance.... Prosecutors said Jackson was not just negligent but knew that his animals could endanger someone's life. They presented evidence that Jackson's dogs were involved in at least seven other altercations in the 18 months leading up to the attack on Devitt..... Defense attorney Al Kim said Jackson was taking the brunt of the rural area's growing frustration over abandoned animals.'At some point, something needs to be done about these stray dogs, and I think an unfair amount of responsibility is being directed at my client,' Al Kim said. 'Does that mean he's a murderer? Absolutely not.'

Of course the defense attorney will say the community is up in arms against the “stray dogs” that live there, but these dogs aren't strays. They are owned by a man who probably wanted protection for his marijuana farm. Secondly, they are not just any breed. They are pit bulls. They are one of the top two or three killer breeds, and they are bred specifically to fight. They are not very tall, but they are heavy and very strong, with strong jaws. In addition, if they are not very carefully and gently raised and socialized, they are aggressive.

See this article on dangerous banned dogs: http://listverse.com/2011/08/23/top-10-banned-dog-breeds/. From that article is the following. “In the late 1980s, an epidemic of attacks by Pit Bull type dogs, and other related breeds, led to widespread bans. In 1991, the Parliament of the United Kingdom banned the ownership of Japanese Tosa Inus, Argentine Dogos, Fila Brasilieros and Pit Bulls, with many other countries following suit soon after. Even in areas where having such dogs is legal, it can be nearly impossible for homeowners to get liability insurance if they own one of the breeds below.”

To me, we need to ban them in this country as well, along with the others on the list. At the top of the list is the American Bulldog, which is not a pit bull. The pit bull is also on the list. Here is the description of an American Bulldog. I have never seen one, so I don't think most people have them. Of this dog the article says, “ Banned in Denmark, Singapore and various municipalities, the American Bulldog’s origins are in the deep south, where it was used as a farm dog. Its specialty is catching feral hogs, which can weigh several hundred pounds and wield savage tusks. When cornered, these razorbacks are nasty fighters, requiring a dog of great strength and athleticism to fight them, battling the hog into submission and holding it down until the hunter arrives. For this reason, they have a very high pain threshold. The American Bulldog can weigh from 70-120lbs., though many have been known to grow even larger.” This simply isn't a dog that fits into a quiet neighborhood in a city, or for that matter in the country. They can't be controlled, and nobody needs to fight wild hogs or bear anymore.

Interestingly the German Shepherd, Doberman and Rottweiler are not on the list, though all have been known to kill people. All of them are relatively intelligent dogs,though, and not so aggressive as the pit bull unless they have been abused by their owners. It's possible to make any dog vicious if it is beaten heartlessly or kept tied up on a short chain all the time. Whatever the type of dog, though, if it aggressively attacks any human or even the neighbor's dog or cat, it should be euthanized in a merciful manner. People should not have a right to keep such a dog.







Hamptons residents shocked by KKK recruitment fliers
CBS NEWS August 30, 2014, 9:36 AM

HAMPTON BAYS, N.Y. -- Some homeowners in the Hamptons are puzzled and angry after finding recruitment pamphlets for the Ku Klux Klan at their homes,CBS New York station WCBS-TV reports.

Fernando Alvarez said he found the fliers under his Hampton Bays door. His family was left wondering if they were targets of the hate group or if the leafleting was random.

"We were really shocked that ... in this area we can have KKK," Alvarez said.

Hampton Bays, the town of Southampton's most populous hamlet, has 13,000 residents - 30 percent of whom are Hispanic.

Brandon Scibek, a Hampton Bays homeowner, said he, too, received the pamphlet.

"It's unfortunate," he said. "But it's not something you can really prevent. It's covered under freedom of speech."

Others on Columbine Avenue who found the fliers stuffed into their mailboxes were at a loss to explain why bigotry over race and ethnicity would rear its ugly head there.

"It is offensive," one man said. "There's no doubt about it."

"I'm just saddened," one woman said. "It's just sad."

Local community center St. Rosalie's said those responsible for the fliers are a small group of people living in the past.

"These people came in the middle of the night," Sister Mary Beth Moore said. "We know somebody heard their dogs barking at midnight. These are people who are not honorable enough to share their point of view in the daylight, and we hope they go back to North Carolina, where their horrible little pamphlets came from."

The Loyal White Knights, a KKK branch based in the South, referred WCBS-TV to its grand dragon, Robert Jones. He said he is unaware of the efforts in the Hamptons but added: "Everybody's fed up with immigration ... that is why we have so many people from New York calling right now."

Police said the action is not criminal thus far.

"No charges at this time," said Southampton Town Police Sgt. Susan Ralph. "Right now, it's relating to freedom of speech. We have referred the incident to Suffolk County Police Department's bias crimes unit."

Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said the KKK is looking for attention and that residents should be careful not to overrespond, adding they should rip up and throw away the literature.

Community advocates vowed to rally against the KKK if more recruitment pamphlets appear.




“They're here!” the little girl in the movie “Poltergeist” cries out, as a host of evil ghosts make contact with her. To me, going out in your pleasant community to find KKK posters inviting everyone to join in with their vile organization is like this little girl. She doesn't realize that the beings are demonic. The KKK, amazingly, still finds enough converts to continue to exist. The brochure pictured with this article has a crude drawing of a Mexican, a Jewish man, and a black man, each with exaggerated facial and cultural features to make them recognizable by their stereotypes.

Most Americans today wouldn't join the KKK, but too many of them still carry de facto racism within their own minds, in that too many whites will not voluntarily associate with black or Jewish people. That keeps individuals from getting to know each other personally and making friends across the color lines. A small majority of the US population are progressives, politically, economically and socially, and want to work for what I call a civilized society, but a loud and very stubborn large minority want a return to the Jim Crow days in which all whites, even the poor, were considered superior to blacks. Of the Jewish people, unfortunately, some of them are anti-black as well.

As long as we hold these destructive biases, our society will continue to fail as a benign and fair democracy. I am sad every time I see one of these stories, and they do continue to come out in the press. Luckily, such people are not in the majority, and I can successfully avoid associating with them just as they avoid the blacks, Hispanics and Jews. I would like to see us as one well-integrated society moving toward an enlightened goal, but unfortunately here is another accursed KKK flyer.

“Local community center St. Rosalie's said those responsible for the fliers are a small group of people living in the past. 'These people came in the middle of the night,' Sister Mary Beth Moore said. 'We know somebody heard their dogs barking at midnight. These are people who are not honorable enough to share their point of view in the daylight, and we hope they go back to North Carolina, where their horrible little pamphlets came from.'.... The Loyal White Knights, a KKK branch based in the South, referred WCBS-TV to its grand dragon, Robert Jones. He said he is unaware of the efforts in the Hamptons but added: 'Everybody's fed up with immigration ... that is why we have so many people from New York calling right now.'.... Community advocates vowed to rally against the KKK if more recruitment pamphlets appear.” If the local community does unite against the KKK propagandists, here and in other places where this activity occurs, we will continue to move toward a moral, educated and liberated culture. I hope and believe that most Americans do want this goal.





Blueprint for Peace: What Ferguson Can Learn From Cincinnati – NBC
BY JON SCHUPPE
August 30th 2014

A few days after the rioting began in Ferguson, Missouri, earlier this month, Damon Lynch III and Iris Roley flew down from Cincinnati with a document they believed could help bring peace.

Lynch, a pastor, and Roley, a small business owner, had been leading voices against Cincinnati police in 2001, when an officer’s shooting of an unarmed young black man triggered riots there. The scene in Ferguson was eerily reminiscent of that experience, and the activists felt a duty to share the story of how their divided city healed itself and became a model for community-police relations. “I’d hate to see Ferguson waste this opportunity for change,” Lynch explained.

Their first stop after arriving in Missouri was an Office Depot, where they ran off 100 copies of the document: a historic agreement between the Cincinnati police and local civil rights groups that served as the framework for an arduous reform process. They stuffed each stack of more than 20 double-sided pages into a white envelope and wrote their names and numbers on the outside, along with their message: "A Way Forward." Then they hit the streets.

It was Saturday, a full week since Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson had shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. A brief period of calm had been shattered overnight by a new wave of violence, triggered in part by local police's release of a video that appeared to show Brown stealing a box of cigars from a liquor store minutes before the confrontation with Wilson. Maybe Ferguson wasn't quite ready for their message. They continued anyway.

They stayed four days, handing their packets to officials, academics and civil rights advocates during the day and joining the protests and rallies at night. And they tried to identify the street-level leaders who would be needed to guide their community out of this mess. They saw the anger and fear, and felt the sting of tear gas. “But the main goal was, ‘How does Ferguson get reformed?'” Lynch recalled.

The way forward may still seem impossible. But the Cincinnati project is widely seen as a proven path, and perhaps Ferguson’s best hope.

One of the people Lynch and Roley met was Tony Rothert, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. Rothert didn’t know much about the Cincinnati story. After they told it, his initial response, he said, was: “That’s great, but how did you get there? How did you get started?”

The first step, the activists told him, was arguably the toughest.

In Cincinnati, things once seemed just as grim as they do in Ferguson. The April 2001 shooting of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas set off four days of looting and rioting, the boiling over of long-simmering distrust between police and the black community. The Cincinnati Black United Front, of which Lynch and Roley were members, organized a devastating boycott of downtown businesses. Police staged a work slowdown. Crime increased. The U.S. Justice Department stepped in to monitor the situation.

But even with the federal government looking over Cincinnati’s shoulder, some forward-looking leaders realized that true reform required a genuine desire for change. They initiated a parallel trust-building effort that explored in painful detail each side’s long history of concerns and complaints — which then-Police Chief Thomas Streicher called a “living autopsy.” It took a long time just to get everyone to sit at the table voluntarily.

“Once people get organized, they become focused on what they want, and that’s when the shift happens,” Roley said.

The result was the Collaborative Agreement of 2002, signed by the local ACLU, the Black United Front, the city government and the police union. It outlined a series of reforms that would profoundly alter the way police and blacks dealt with each other. A related deal with the Department of Justice went a step further, adding a federal monitor to oversee compliance.

After six years, the federal government stepped away. Left in place was a new culture of law enforcement, and a growing confidence among blacks. Police began closely tracking the use of force and traffic stops, and readily shared that information with the public. They adopted a “problem-oriented policing” strategy to focus on the most troublesome places and people. They trained officers to be more mindful of citizens’ concerns. They improved recruiting. They set up an “early warning system” to identify rogue officers. The city also created a Citizens Complaint Authority to investigate police shootings, other uses of force and accusations of misconduct.

Streicher led the police department through those changes before retiring in 2011. He now runs a consulting business, helping other cities navigate similar crises. His partner is one of his former antagonists, an ACLU lawyer who sued him multiple times. In the early days of the Cincinnati talks, Roley “wouldn’t have spit on me if I was on fire,” Streicher said. But when the rioting broke out in Ferguson, she called him and said, “They’re going to need our help.”

"I need your help, whether you trust me or you don’t.”

Streicher said that if he were leading the Ferguson police, he’d start by seeking out the most influential people in the business, religious and advocacy communities. “I’d tell them, ‘I need your help, whether you trust me or you don’t.’ Some will help, and some will say, 'You should have come to me before.' But a voice of reason will emerge.”

Whether that will happen in Ferguson is an open question. The city remains in crisis mode. Federal, state and local officials have said they will review policies, ranging from police militarization to the lack of black officers, that fueled the riots. But frustration and skepticism run rampant. Police are still on the defensive, with citizens filing lawsuits alleging improper use of force during the protests. NBC News sought comment from the local police chief, as well as current and former leaders of other police agencies in the St. Louis region. Only one of them responded, but that person declined to speak publicly.

The uncertainty is why people who were involved with the Cincinnati agreement insist that Department of Justice monitoring is crucial. Federal oversight kept opposing sides at the table in the early days of negotiations. “A lot of it was forced, initially,” said Robin Engel, who heads the Institute of Crime Science at the University of Cincinnati and helped police implement reforms.

And yet there is movement.

Inspired by Lynch and Roley’s visit, the Missouri ACLU has begun exploring ways to bring people together for initial talks, Rothert said. “The experience in Cincinnati has shown that the police and the community can put things into place so they are much more effective in making everyone’s life better,” he said. "I hope everyone realizes that we can’t just go back and hope everything will go away.”

Roley, meanwhile, has returned to Ferguson on a second visit, this time at the request of residents. She’s telling them more about the Cincinnati story, and encouraging them to get organized and to focus their attention on police reform. It’s a hard sell, because many cannot imagine working alongside the police — and many officers probably think the same thing.

“Before you get to collaboration, there’s a lot of organization and work that has to happen in the community,” Roley said. “That is the blueprint. But first, residents have to believe in it. And then the police will be forced to change.”




“The scene in Ferguson was eerily reminiscent of that experience, and the activists felt a duty to share the story of how their divided city healed itself and became a model for community-police relations. 'I’d hate to see Ferguson waste this opportunity for change,' Lynch explained..... Their first stop after arriving in Missouri was an Office Depot, where they ran off 100 copies of the document: a historic agreement between the Cincinnati police and local civil rights groups that served as the framework for an arduous reform process.... Roley, meanwhile, has returned to Ferguson on a second visit, this time at the request of residents. She’s telling them more about the Cincinnati story, and encouraging them to get organized and to focus their attention on police reform. It’s a hard sell, because many cannot imagine working alongside the police — and many officers probably think the same thing.”

I am tempted to quote this whole article, as nearly every paragraph contains vital information, but I won't. I will just say that this story is so good that I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone should make a movie of the changes that occurred for the better in Cincinnati, as a result of this process; and the uses that Ferguson then chooses to make of it, which is a story yet to be enacted. People in these small cities and towns across the US, who tend to vote “conservative,” are not, I don't believe deeply evil. They are just caught up in a vicious back and forth between blacks and whites – like the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys – and nobody can figure out how to put their guns down. Asian people, Islamic groups, Hindus and American Indians, plus of course, Jews, have also been known to be the butt of the “white backlash.” We have to build justice and tolerance for all as people or we will lose our beloved “City on the hill.”

Our country has to come to terms, one individual at a time, one city at a time, with the fact that unless we want a new civil war here, people will have to step across the color line and meet each other in respect rather than because they are forced to do so. If we consider ourselves to be Christians or otherwise religious, we should accept the Golden Rule and make it our basic tenet. I suspect Jesus would hate to see his people engaging in this interracial hatred. A certain set of Christians stress that their members should “believe” every word of the Bible verbatim – especially about Jesus rising from the dead – but they don't pay the same attention to the rules that he specifically gave them to build their lives around: “God is Love” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Until Christianity is reformed in that way, we will remain crippled by our hatreds and lack of generosity.





Saudi King Warns of Terrorist Threat to Europe, US – ABC
By Abdullah Al-Shihri and Sameer Yaacoub
Associated Press
August 30, 2014

The king of Saudi Arabia has warned that extremists could attack Europe and the U.S. if there is not a strong international response to terrorism after the Islamic State group seized a wide territory across Iraq and Syria.

While not mentioning any terrorist groups by name, King Abdullah's statement appeared aimed at drawing Washington and NATO forces into a wider fight against the Islamic State group and its supporters in the region. Saudi Arabia openly backs rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, but is concerned that the breakaway al-Qaida group could also turn those very same weapons on the kingdom.

"If neglected, I am certain that after a month they will reach Europe and, after another month, America," he said at a reception for foreign ambassadors Friday.

Official Saudi media carried the king's comments early Saturday.

"These terrorists do not know the name of humanity and you have witnessed them severing heads and giving them to children to walk with in the street," the king said, urging the ambassadors to relay his message directly to their heads of state.

The Islamic State group has been fighting moderate rebels, other extremists and Assad's forces in Syria for nearly three years. Iraq has faced an onslaught by the Sunni extremists and their supporters since early this year, and the country continues to be roiled by instability.

While providing arms and support to Sunni militants in Syria, Saudi Arabia has denied directly funding or backing the Islamic State group.

British officials raised the country's terror threat level Friday to "severe," its second-highest level, because of developments in Iraq and Syria, but there was no information to suggest an attack was imminent. The White House has said it does not expect the U.S. to bump up its terrorism threat warning level.

Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally in the region, has taken an increasingly active role in criticizing the Islamic State group. Earlier this month, the country's top cleric described the Islamic State group and al-Qaida as Islam's No. 1 enemy and said that Muslims have been their first victims. State-backed Saudi clerics who once openly called on citizens to fight in Syria can now face steep punishment and the kingdom has threatened to imprison its citizens who fight in Syria and Iraq.

A decade ago, al-Qaida militants launched a string of attacks in the kingdom aimed at toppling the monarchy. Saudi officials responded with a massive crackdown that saw many flee to neighboring Yemen. In the time since, the kingdom has not seen any massive attacks, though it has imprisoned suspected militants and sentenced others to death.

Meanwhile Saturday, police in Iraq said a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into an army checkpoint in the town of Youssifiyah, killing 11 people, including four soldiers, and wounding at least 24 people. Youssifiyah is 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Baghdad.

Hours later, a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol killed two soldiers and wounded five in Latifiyah, a town 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to journalists.




"'If neglected, I am certain that after a month they will reach Europe and, after another month, America,' he said at a reception for foreign ambassadors Friday.... 'These terrorists do not know the name of humanity and you have witnessed them severing heads and giving them to children to walk with in the street,' the king said, urging the ambassadors to relay his message directly to their heads of state.... While providing arms and support to Sunni militants in Syria, Saudi Arabia has denied directly funding or backing the Islamic State group..... Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally in the region, has taken an increasingly active role in criticizing the Islamic State group. Earlier this month, the country's top cleric described the Islamic State group and al-Qaida as Islam's No. 1 enemy and said that Muslims have been their first victims.”

This is what I would like to see – for the peaceful followers of Islam to say that al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are “Islam's No. 1 enemy,” as they are rapidly giving the name of Islam a terrible reputation. Many people in the US at this time either fear or hate Islamic influences, which is a very short distance from hating Islamic people themselves; and I must say, if any group should ever try to institute Sharia Law in the US, I personally would advocate making such an effort a crime. That anti-feminist body of rules is totally vile in my view and against democracy's most basic beliefs.

For now, however, what we have is a pointed warning for Western powers to unite immediately against ISIS militarily. I agree that it shouldn't be allowed to continue to gain strength until it proceeds to Europe and the US to conduct attacks. Saudi Arabia has made a turnaround in its policies toward Saudi citizens going to fight in Syria or Iraq, imprisoning them. The Saudi leader stressed that though their forces are fighting against Assad, they are not fighting with ISIS, which is meanwhile fighting all comers in Syria as it tries to carve out its own territory there. It's a complicated situation, but as long as Middle Eastern countries are fighting against ISIS, I feel more secure. There seems to be a need for a coalition to fight ISIS, and Saudi Arabia could be part of that.





How Are Different Asian-American Groups Faring Economically? – NPR
by KAT CHOW
August 30, 2014

The United States Department of Labor recently published a report with a detailed breakdown of the different economic outcomes that various Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have faced.

As a group, the report points out, "AAPI workers have had more favorable economic outcomes than workers in any other racial group." But the report is a good reminder that each of the ethnic groups within the monolithic umbrella of "Asian-Americans" is vastly different, with varying financial circumstances and degrees of educational attainment.

This report is a follow-up to a similar report from 2011. While some of the 2011 report's findings were widely reported, a few of the details in this more recent update stuck out to us (emphasis ours):

• "Overall, 53.4 percent of Asians over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher — the highest percentage by far among the major race groups."

• "The AAPI community has the second highest share of unemployed workers who are long-term unemployed (41.7 percent) ... Asian Americans who are unemployed, are without work for longer than whites and Hispanics."

• "When controlled for age, sex and educational attainment, unemployment rate for Indians is actually higher than comparable whites. This difference suggests that the Indian community as a whole tends to be more educated, but when looking at similarly situated white workers, their employment outcomes are less favorable."

• "More Filipino women are employed (57.1 percent) than any other community; Indians had the smallest share of employed women (36.8 percent.)"

• "Like other predominantly immigrant groups, members of the AAPI community also tend to have a lower median age than the overall population (Asian 33.6, Pacific Islanders 27.4, and U.S. Overall 37.6)."

• "Within the AAPI community, the Vietnamese, 'Other Asian,' and Chinese groups have the highest percentage of high school dropouts (29.3, 22.3 and 18.4 percent respectively) and all have a higher percentage than the white community (13.0 percent). On the other hand, the Japanese, Korean, and Filipino groups have the lowest percentage of members with less than a high school diploma (4.8, 7.1, and 7.4 percent respectively)."

• "The official poverty measure for the AAPI community as a whole is 12.1 percent, which is still much lower than black (27.2 percent) and Hispanic (25.6 percent) measures, but closer than might be expected to the white official poverty levels (12.7 percent)." But as the report notes, "The official poverty measure (OPM), however, has well known flaws that may particularly distort comparisons of AAPI poverty to that of other racial groups."




“As a group, the report points out, 'AAPI workers have had more favorable economic outcomes than workers in any other racial group.' But the report is a good reminder that each of the ethnic groups within the monolithic umbrella of 'Asian-Americans' is vastly different, with varying financial circumstances and degrees of educational attainment.... 'The official poverty measure for the AAPI community as a whole is 12.1 percent, which is still much lower than black (27.2 percent) and Hispanic (25.6 percent) measures, but closer than might be expected to the white official poverty levels (12.7 percent).'”

To boil this down, “53.4 percent of Asians over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher … The AAPI community has the second highest share of unemployed workers who are long-term unemployed (41.7 percent)... the Indian community as a whole tends to be more educated, but when looking at similarly situated white workers, their employment outcomes are less favorable.... Vietnamese, 'Other Asian,' and Chinese groups have the highest percentage of high school dropouts.... Japanese, Korean, and Filipino groups have the lowest percentage of members with less than a high school diploma...”

So let's say that those who don't drop out of high school and especially if they attain at least a bachelor's degree , they should have jobs and make more money than other racial and cultural minorities. Unfortunately, they don't. The AAPI community has 41.7 percent of the long term unemployed groups in the US, and have almost the same number of people living under the poverty level as whites, but significantly less than blacks and Hispanics. Nearly everything about the ranking of groups in the US has to do with skin color and cultural or religious affiliation, including who is more likely to be hired with an equivalently high level of education. The Asians haven't as a whole made better incomes and held employment than the whites, but they have over blacks and Hispanics.

Men who went to Vietnam sometimes married a Vietnamese woman and brought her home, but many of them came back with a hard set prejudice against them instead, calling them unpleasant names in many cases. It didn't help that Vietnamese came here as refugees in fairly large numbers after the war (thus becoming a nuisance to many whites, like the present-day Hispanics) and “took American jobs.” Many of them became fishermen as they had been in Vietnam, competing for the same fish with Americans. There were some incidents of attacks against them in the Gulf of Mexico over fishing competition.

There is a persistent prejudice that many Asians are the most intelligent of all the races. Clearly if Chinese students are dropping out of high school at a high rate, unless it is due to bullying or something like that, they may not be so much brighter than the whites. I think that the simple fact that WASPS or White Anglo-Saxon Protestants have the highest status ranking in this country in almost any group selection process, they will tend to have the highest self-confidence as a result, and therefore probably succeed more easily in most ways. White Protestant Americans tend to be very highly prejudiced against all other groups which will, therefore, define who is running the businesses and who is hiring the employees, and the result is shown in this article – 41% of the long term unemployed are Asian. It's the old “invisible hand of the market” at work.

Friday, August 29, 2014


News Clips For The Day


https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/roger-goodell-admits-he-didn-t-get-ray-rice-suspension-right--announces-new-strict-policy-on-domestic-violence-193411459.html

Roger Goodell admits he didn't get Ray Rice suspension right, announces new strict policy on domestic violence
By Ben Rohrbach
August 28, 2014

In direct response to widespread public criticism over Ray Rice's recent two-game suspension, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell accepted blame in a memorandum to all 32 of the league's owners, introducing a new policy with severe penalties for future domestic abuse and sexual assault violations.

While Goodell did not mention the Baltimore Ravens running back by name, his memo was a clear reaction to the controversy surrounding the rather lenient disciplinary action taken after Rice allegedly knocked his then-fiancée Janay Palmer unconscious in an Atlantic City casino elevator this past February.

In the memo obtained by Yahoo Sports, Goodell went so far as to admit, "I didn't get it right."

"Although the NFL is celebrated for what happens on the field, we must be equally vigilant in what we do off the field.

"At times, however, and despite our best efforts, we fall short of our goals. We clearly did so in response to a recent incident of domestic violence. We allowed our standards to fall below where they should be and lost an important opportunity to emphasize our strong stance on a critical issue and the effective programs we have in place. My disciplinary decision led the public to question our sincerity, our commitment, and whether we understood the toll that domestic violence inflicts on so many families. I take responsibility both for the decision and for ensuring that our actions in the future properly reflect our values. I didn’t get it right. Simply put, we have to do better. And we will."

Also in the memo, which can be read in its entirety here, Goodell announced a mandatory six-game suspension for first-time violators of the league's new policy on domestic abuse and sexual assault. A second violation will result in a potential lifetime ban from the NFL.

Effective immediately, violations of the Personal Conduct Policy regarding assault, battery, domestic violence or sexual assault that involve physical force will be subject to a suspension without pay of six games for a first offense, with consideration given to mitigating factors, as well as a longer suspension when circumstances warrant. Among the circumstances that would merit a more severe penalty would be a prior incident before joining the NFL, or violence involving a weapon, choking, repeated striking, or when the act is committed against a pregnant woman or in the presence of a child. A second offense will result in banishment from the NFL; while an individual may petition for reinstatement after one year, there will be no presumption or assurance that the petition will be granted. These disciplinary standards will apply to all NFL personnel.

This is no small concession from Goodell's office, even if it is long overdue. While Rice admitted the incident was "the biggest mistake of my life" and "my actions that night were totally inexcusable" during a press conference, he pled not guilty and ultimately settled into a pre-trial intervention program to avoid jail time, and the NFL initially used that in defense of its two-game suspension.

"The discipline that was taken by the NFL is the only discipline that occurred with respect to Mr. Rice in this case,” Adolpho Birch, the league's vice president of labor policy and government affairs, told ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike show last month. “Were he not an NFL player, I don’t know that he would have received punishment from any other source.

"We believe that the discipline we issued is appropriate. It’s multiple games and hundreds of thousands of dollars (in fines). It doesn’t reflect that we condone the behavior.”

Goodell completely reversed course on that stance Thursday, also announcing expanded educational and support programs for league personnel, youth football players and community members — all of which could have been instituted prior to Rice's two-game penalty.

The memo comes a day after the NFL upheld the one-year suspensionof Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Gordon for a positive marijuana test.




NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell “accepted blame in a memorandum to all 32 of the league's owners, introducing a new policy with severe penalties for future domestic abuse and sexual assault violations.” I am so glad to see this, though to me domestic abuse should be punished by going to jail, rape with life in prison, and a 6 game suspension is still not so very stiff a sentence, especially when one player was punished by a year long suspension simply for smoking marijuana. Which is the worse crime? Surely domestic violence or rape is worse. Nonetheless, Goodell's statement, as quoted in this article, does include some interesting things: “Goodell completely reversed course on that stance Thursday, also announcing expanded educational and support programs for league personnel, youth football players and community members — all of which could have been instituted prior to Rice's two-game penalty.”

Football concerns me in general, as it is a basically violent sport with occasional extra rough actions by some players leading to injury of the other player. One NFL coach in the last six months or so was even accused of encouraging players to hurt their opponents. Head injuries have become a major problem, with ex-football players having debilitating brain damage. The other thing that really bothers me about football is that coaches give the players drugs, from pain killers to keep an injured player on the field, to male hormones that cause players to “bulk up” more, but are known to increase violence in some men. Football players in high school have been involved in more bullying episodes without being punished by the school administation which makes them feel “privileged,” and as adults they have a higher rate of violent crime in general, from domestic violence to robbery. I don't hear the same things about basketball, baseball, tennis, even soccer players.





BENEATH THE SURFACE AT FERGUSON, MO – THREE SOBERING STORIES

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/08/27/ferguson_police_dog_urinated_on_michael_brown_memorial.html

Police Handler Let Dog Urinate on Michael Brown Memorial the Day He Was Killed
By Ben Mathis-Lilley
AUG. 27 2014 

Several hours after Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, a police dog handler let his dog urinate on a makeshift memorial that had been created on the street where Brown fell, a Mother Jones piece citing "several sources" says:

The incident was related to me separately by three state and local officials who worked with the community in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. One confirmed that he interviewed an eyewitness, a young woman, and pressed her on what exactly she saw. "She said that the officer just let the dog pee on it," that official told me. "She was very distraught about it." The identity of the officer who handled the dog and the agency he was with remain unclear.

Police also drove their cars over the top of candles and flowers that Brown's mother had helped spread on the spot that her son fell, the article reports:

Missouri state Rep. Sharon Pace ... joined Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, and others as they placed the candles and sprinkled flowers on the ground where Brown had died. "They spelled out his initials with rose petals over the bloodstains," Pace recalled.

By then, police had prohibited all vehicles from entering Canfield Drive except for their own. Soon the candles and flowers had been smashed, after police drove over them.

St. Louis alderman Antonio French took a picture.

Mother Jones also reports that Pace and another Missouri state representative named Tommie Pierson say they were nearly maced by a Missouri Highway Patrol officer at a later protest.



http://www.mediaite.com/tv/st-louis-police-chief-apologizes-for-officers-embarrassing-comments/

St. Louis Police Chief Apologizes for Officer’s ‘Embarrassing’ Comments
by Matt Wilstein | 7:32 pm, August 22nd, 2014

This week, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar relieved Officer Dan Page of his duty after video emerged of him making an hour-long speech full of hateful remarks directed towards African-Americans, women and President Barack Obama among others. Page also happened to be the officer who was caught on camera physically pushing CNN’s Don Lemon during a live report on the Ferguson protests.

On Friday, Lemon said he personally sent a link of Page’s speech to Chief Belmar, who immediately responded to agreed to discuss it with the host. “As police chief, it’s embarrassing when you find out about stuff like this,” Belmar told Lemon, noting that the video has been on YouTube since April. Because he doesn’t personally use social media, he said these things can be “difficult to unearth at times.”

Asked if Page’s comments adhere to his department’s code of conduct, Belmar said, “Not at all. They are not indicative of the St. Louis County police department, they’re not indicative of the officers that he works beside, and frankly, he’s let them down.”

Belmar apologized to anyone in the community who was offended by Page’s remarks.



http://www.loonwatch.com/2014/08/ferguson-cop-dan-page-relishes-being-a-killer/

Ferguson Cop Dan Page Relishes Being A “Killer”
By Mark Piggot (IBTimes)
 August 23, 2014 in Loon-at-large

One of the police officers tasked with keeping security in riot-torn Ferguson, Missouri has been placed on “administrative leave” after a video circulated in which he appears to rant about Muslims and Barack Obama – and boasts about killing people.

Officer Dan Page, who during the Ferguson unrest was filmed pushing CNN TV reporter Don Lemon and other protesters, was giving a speech to the St. Louis/St. Charles chapter of the Oath Keepers, which according to its website is “a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to ‘defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.’”

In his talk, which apparently took place on 22 April and was uploaded soon after, Page makes a number of extraordinary boasts, including ones about his being a multiple-killer.

“I personally believe the Lord Jesus Christ is my saviour, but I’m also a killer,” he is seen saying. “I’ve killed a lot and, if I need to, I will kill a whole bunch more. If you don’t want to get killed, don’t show up in front of me.”

In the speech Page, a former Vietnam veteran and military reservist, rails about black people being “little perverts”, homosexuals, and the “four sodomites on the Supreme Court.” He tells someone in the audience: “Policemen are very cynical. I know I am. I don’t trust anybody. I hate everybody. I hate y’all, too. I hate everybody. I’m into diversity – I kill everybody. I don’t care.”

The head of the St. Louis County police department. Jon Belmar. told CNN the video was bizarre and found the boasts about killing particularly disturbing: “As a police chief, that’s something I’m not going to be able to endure.”

A psychiatric evaluation of Officer Page will now take place.

Police in Ferguson have been strongly criticized for the shooting of Michael Brown which sparked the riots, but the events have also seen rising concern over the increasing militarisation of police.

Under the “1033 program” hundreds of millions of dollars of surplus military equipment from Iraq and Afghanistan has been passed on to local police forces across the US including grenade-launchers and armoured vehicles.




“The head of the St. Louis County police department. Jon Belmar. told CNN the video was bizarre and found the boasts about killing particularly disturbing: 'As a police chief, that’s something I’m not going to be able to endure.' A psychiatric evaluation of Officer Page will now take place.” I'm glad to see that this officer is to be examined by a psychiatrist. The amount of unnecessary violence that occurs all across the country makes me think that if police departments would require a psychiatric examination of recruits before they hired them, some would be weeded out at that point.

The other equally disturbing article is about a police dog urinating on the Brown memorial and the officers then driving over it, crushing the candles, and that within hours of the death, was evidence of a wider police department disregard for human relations in their work with the community. Too many police have become totally irresponsible and undisciplined, operating outside the bounds of the law, and this is often without a proper oversight by their supervisors. Either the supervisors don't know everything that is happening or they don't care. Incidents like this with the memorial shouldn't occur, especially without any discipline being administered from above. Also, in one article recently, it stated that the shooting victim Brown's body was left untouched as it lay in the street for several hours. There were witnesses among the people in the neighborhood of these things, and that is thought to be partly responsible for the level of rage that occurred in Ferguson. They definitely have a problem in the police culture there. Hopefully Mr Belmar and others will take action to improve police attitudes to the people they are supposed to be “protecting and serving,” and their human relationships within the Ferguson community in general.

Gone are the days of the “neighborhood cop.” I noticed one article that mentioned a plan to require that police officers live within Ferguson. That would really help. Police officers should be known and trusted by their community. When I was young, it wasn't a full scale war between police and their community, but a much more cooperative interaction. Some police were thought to be bullies, but most were gentlemanly and considered to be friends. . Of course I was in a lily white community. We only had about 10% black people in Thomasville, and most of the blacks were employed. There were no riots.

One last comment -- the members of the Ferguson black community need to form groups among themselves and leaders who will interact with the city government more often and more effectively in order to improve their living conditions. They need to use the power of the ballot to elect a larger number of blacks to the city government. They are simply underrepresented. Three black officers and no blacks on the city council in a city that has a clear majority of blacks in the population is ridiculous.





ISIS recruits fighters through powerful online campaign
CBS NEWS August 29, 2014, 6:55 AM

As many as 3,000 Westerners are fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and other jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq.

Terror analysts say those fighters pose the greatest threat to the United States because of their ability to travel freely and blend in. Many are recruited through a powerful online media campaign, CBS News' Julianna Goldman reports.

"I am your brother in Islam here in Syria. We have safety here for your family and children," said a Western jihadist on video, urging potential ISIS recruits to come join the fight in Syria.

It's all part of a high-tech propaganda machine ISIS has developed to reach out to militants in Europe, Canada and the United States.

The terror group now has its own multilingual media arm, Al Hayat, which is behind the creation and distribution of glossy magazines and highly produced slick videos. ISIS even uses drones and GoPros to appeal to the Western eye.

A "mujatweet," a short promotional video, shows a softer side of jihad. In one such video, a Belgian hands out ice cream to excited Syrian children.

Elliot Zweig is deputy director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, which has been tracking ISIS on the Web.

"You see messages of camaraderie," Zweig said. "The focus of these are much more on 'come and join us', it is not all difficulty and gore and suffering. It is 'come and join us, join me and we'll fight the good fight together.'"

A celebrity culture has even emerged around some of these ISIS fighters, like the French militant who goes by Guitan and a German rapper who goes by Deso Dogg.

"The message is very much, here we are at the beach, here we are eating pizza, the guys, it's pizza night, almost as an aside it says 'death to Jews,'" Zweig said.

Rita Katz is the co-founder of SITE, an intelligence group pushing for social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to crack down on jihadi postings.

"They are serving here terrorist material," Katz said. "There are very inspiring images, very inspiring individuals, individuals that were followed that were celebrities in the West, now they are celebrities of jihadist. They are all over Twitter, inciting for killing others."

Twitter had no comment but has shut down official ISIS accounts. Even so, tweets show how easy it is for Jihasits to skirt the system and get their message out.

"At the end of the day, they don't need big numbers," said Frank Cilluffo, director of the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute. "They're trying to appeal to small numbers, which unfortunately in the terrorism business is all it takes."

When it comes to policing these social media sites, sources say the intelligence community is divided. On the one hand, jihadists use them as recruitment tools, but ISIS postings also help track these militants and teach us about their activities when intelligence on the ground is limited.




“The terror group now has its own multilingual media arm, Al Hayat, which is behind the creation and distribution of glossy magazines and highly produced slick videos. ISIS even uses drones and GoPros to appeal to the Western eye. A 'mujatweet,' a short promotional video, shows a softer side of jihad. In one such video, a Belgian hands out ice cream to excited Syrian children.... 'You see messages of camaraderie,' Zweig said. 'The focus of these are much more on 'come and join us', it is not all difficulty and gore and suffering. It is 'come and join us, join me and we'll fight the good fight together.' A celebrity culture has even emerged around some of these ISIS fighters, like the French militant who goes by Guitan and a German rapper who goes by Deso Dogg. 'The message is very much, here we are at the beach, here we are eating pizza, the guys, it's pizza night, almost as an aside it says 'death to Jews,'" Zweig said. … Twitter had no comment but has shut down official ISIS accounts. Even so, tweets show how easy it is for Jihasits to skirt the system and get their message out.”

This article uses a term I have never seen before, and which is not defined anywhere on the Internet – Jihasits. While it seems to be a specific group of radical Muslims (it is capitalized here), if it has a more specialized meaning I am unable to find it. I did pull up four or five references using the word in a sentence, but without seeing a definition. It may, on the other hand, be a slang term that is popular at the moment.

For such grotesquely violent people as ISIS to sugar coat their organization's goals and activities in this way is really obscene. People who are very young and who don't read the news very much can be lured by the promise of a good time – a party almost – into what will become battlefield horrors the very first time they are required to participate in the mass killing of several hundred villagers. I can't believe that many of them won't want to run away within weeks. Those who enjoy it must be crazed or intensely cruel individuals.

Of course, they are probably “brainwashed,” as a part of their training. The problem for Western countries is that these young men who are being lured in won't find out the truth about the organization until they're already in Syria, and I imagine that a recruit who wants to go home again will be threatened with his life. I'm glad that I never felt the pull to join some religious cult, which underneath its warlike goals is what ISIS is. When I was young it was “the Moonies.” Some insecure and lonely types were drawn to the group to have a “purpose” in life and a substitute family. ISIS offers the same thing, it just isn't non-violent. Those who want to fight for a “cause” are drawn to it. I was glad to learn yesterday that the US government has begun to arrest young men who are trying to link up with them and sneak across the border from Turkey into Syria. I'm glad we're not being caught off guard as we were with 9/11.





Forced switch? Drug cos. develop maneuvers to hinder generic competition
By JONATHAN LAPOOK CBS NEWS August 28, 2014, 8:40 PM

Fifty-four-year-old Michael Hitch of Maryville, Tennessee, has early onset dementia and says he is helped by an Alzheimer's medication called Namenda. The drug is due to go generic next year.

But Forest Laboratories, the company that makes Namenda, plans to stop the sale of the version that Hitch takes at least six months before a less expensive, generic product could become available.

"They have no excuse whatsoever to stop making that drug available. None," Hitch said.

The company is telling doctors to transition patients to a newer form, one that has additional patent protection and is unlikely to go generic for years.

Industry critics believe this is an example of a "forced switch."

The purpose of a forced switch is "to get patients over to this new product as fast as possible," said David Maris, a stock analyst with BMO Capital Markets who covers pharmaceuticals. Thus, when the patent ends on the old product, "patients are already on the new product and there's no existing product left."

"All of a sudden you don't have that cliff, you don't have a drop off in sales like you would otherwise," Maris said.

The retail price of Namenda is more than $300 a month. When generic companies compete, the price of a drug usually drops 70 to 80 percent. Namenda generates about $1.5 billion in annual sales. So loss of patent protection could translate to more than a billion dollars in lost revenue in a single year.

When patients are forced to switch from one form of a product to another, "almost everyone stays" once they've switched, Maris said. "The reason drug companies do these forced switches is that the switches are sticky. So in most drugs it's only about 10 percent to 20 percent ever go back to the generic."

The newer version, Namenda XR, is taken once a day, unlike the older version which is taken twice a day. Hitch has tried Namenda XR and says it doesn't work for him.

"They are yanking the rug right out from under me," Hitch said. "And that is not fair play."

There will still be a liquid version of Namenda. Actavis, the parent company of Forest Laboratories, declined an interview but CBS News asked via email why the company decided to discontinue the sale of the twice-daily Namenda tablets and if the transition to Namenda XR is a forced switch.

The company responded: "We believe that the Namenda XR extended-release capsules have significant advantages over the twice-a-day Namenda tablets that are particularly meaningful for the Alzheimer's patient population and their caregivers.”




“The company is telling doctors to transition patients to a newer form, one that has additional patent protection and is unlikely to go generic for years.” Industry critics believe this is an example of a "forced switch." Anything to make a buck! The fact that poor people depend on generic drugs in order to get the medications they need is not a big drug company's problem, of course – just the patient's – and the fact that Actavis won't get top dollar anymore is a genuine hardship on the company. Despite the fact that they already get a certain number of years at top price and without competition as a compensation for their R & D costs, apparently the drop in profits when a drug goes to generic is really problematic. “'All of a sudden you don't have that cliff, you don't have a drop off in sales like you would otherwise,' Maris said. The retail price of Namenda is more than $300 a month. When generic companies compete, the price of a drug usually drops 70 to 80 percent. Namenda generates about $1.5 billion in annual sales. So loss of patent protection could translate to more than a billion dollars in lost revenue in a single year.”

This “forced switch” is clearly not illegal, but it does border on being unethical, as it is keeping the cost of medications high, which will make Medicare and Medicaid have to pay out more. That seems to me to be a reason for the government to make laws preventing companies from doing these switches.

There was one article within the last year about doctors being courted by drug companies to get them to prescribe certain things, even giving them gifts or paying them fees to give talks about the drug at medical meetings and, of course, prescribe them for their patients. My doctor prescribes generic forms for me. Of course, if the company literally doesn't make the drug in that form anymore, it can't be bought for any price unless another company does. A doctor can still prescribe another drug which is still available in generic form, though. I ran into a problem just recently when my insurance company isn't covering the generic form of the old drug, and I am having to pay for it out of pocket. It's not $300.00 a month, of course, so I'm going to keep getting it.





http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/Newark-Memorial-High-School-Teacher-Tweets-Land-Her-in-Hot-Water-273074771.html

Bay Area Teacher Tweets About Wanting to Stab Students
By Damian Trujillo and NBC Bay Area Staff
August 29, 2014

A teacher in California's Bay Area has been reprimanded after she reportedly tweeted that she wanted to stab some students and that her "trigger finger is itchy."

The Oakland Tribune Newark Memorial High School administrators disciplined teacher Krista Hodges with a written reprimand, but she remains in the classroom as the new school year begins. The tweets, which were sprinkled with obscene language, were posted before the end of the last school year, in June.

Some parents said they found the posts insulting. One tweet allegedly insinuated that Hodges wanted to dump hot coffee on some of her students.

“I have a student here. He was expelled when he was a freshman for saying something to a teacher. They kicked him out of school. So now this is going on with this teacher, and I don’t feel it’s acceptable," parent Angela Newell said. “I feel that she should be able to receive the same punishment he did – get expelled from the district.”

Hodges told the newspaper she has apologized, saying she was only kidding, and realizes she acted unprofessionally.

The district had no comment on the issue, but one parent told NBC Bay Area on Thursday that she plans to start a campaign to get the teacher fired.

"I know the kids love her, but I think she should be fired," parent Vanessa Chavez said. "She should not work in the school -- it's not OK, it's unacceptable."

On Twitter, fittingly, Hodges appeared Thursday to be getting some support from students, including one who wrote that the "tweets were blown up into a bigger deal than what it was. Everyone vents."

Meanwhile, the Newark Police Department is taking the incident seriously and investigating.

"I think the concern is safety of everybody -- the admin, students, teacher, faculty," Cmdr. Mike Carroll said. "Concerned about everybody's safety. It doesn't matter where the threat is coming from."




Of course this teacher has apologized and said she was “just kidding,” but it's a lot like going up to a guard in the airport and saying you have a bomb. It won't be taken as a joke. I have no sympathy for this teacher. Her choice of words was alarmingly violent, which indicates to me that she actually had those thoughts, whether she would act on them or not. I hope the school system requires her to get psychiatric help if they don't fire her.

Personally, I wouldn't want to be responsible for teenage kids because they are too often real problems, and I think I might feel like swatting them with a ruler, as teachers used to do before all the clamping down on how educational institutions operate. In the 1950s and 60s when I went through, there were numerous teachers who used corporal punishment, especially principals. In fact, letting your kids get out of hand could get you fired sooner than not teaching well. Even then, though, no teacher did more than paddle or use a ruler in the hand, and certainly nothing as twisted as pouring hot coffee on a student.




Ukrainian Prime Minister Says Government Will Seek NATO Membership – NPR
by EYDER PERALTA
August 29, 2014

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says his government has sent parliament a bill that allows Ukraine to open a path toward membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"The main and only goal of Ukraine's foreign policy is to join the European Union," Yatsenyuk said in a statement.

Remember, it was the rejection of a trade deal with the European Union that sparked the protests that ultimately led tounrest and a new government in Ukraine.

And this is all happening, of course, just as NATO announced that about 1,000 highly-trained Russian troops had been deployed in eastern Ukraine. The Russian army, NATO said, is fighting alongside pro-Russian separatists.

NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow toldMorning Edition that the thinking is that Russia is trying to create a land passage along the southern part of Ukraine into Crimea, which it annexed earlier this year.

Russia has denied that it is taking any direct involvement in Ukraine.

Vershbow said NATO would continue to support Ukraine with its defense reforms and its to pursuit professionalize its military.

Morning Edition's David Greene asked Vershbow if there were more options for NATO.
Vershbow said that at this point, it will be up to individual members of NATO to decide how they want to help Ukraine. The new appeals for help from Kiev, he said, "will require some serious decision-making in NATO capitals."

David asked him if that included military action.

Vershbow said that President Obama had ruled out "direct NATO military involvement."



NATO Chief Rasmussen: Russian Troops Are Fighting Inside Ukraine – NBC
- F. Brinley Bruton
Reuters contributed to this reportedly
August 29, 2014

Russian troops are involved in "direct military operations" inside Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday. "Despite Moscow’s hollow denials, it is now clear that Russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border into eastern and south-eastern Ukraine," he said in a statement. "This is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous pattern over many months to destabilize Ukraine as a sovereign nation."

Also on Friday, Ukraine said it would work towards becoming part of the U.S.-led security alliance, a move that looked set to inflame tensions with Russia. Prime Minister Minister Arseny Yatseniuk also said that his country still sought to become a member of the European Union. The toppling of pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovich by protesters calling for closer ties with the West earlier this year helped precipitate the current crisis, with separatist forces besieging much of the east of the country and the Crimean peninsula being annexed by Russia. Ukraine has accused Russia of bringing tanks, artillery and troops to support separatists in eastern Ukraine, which Moscow denies.




“Also on Friday, Ukraine said it would work towards becoming part of the U.S.-led security alliance, a move that looked set to inflame tensions with Russia. Prime Minister Minister Arseny Yatseniuk also said that his country still sought to become a member of the European Union.” Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen accuses Russia of sending its troops into Ukraine, saying it is a part of a “dangerous pattern over many months to destabilize Ukraine as a sovereign nation.”

I hope this mean that NATO is going to add Ukraine to its group of nations and send in troops to protect Kiev against the Russians. NPR's article states that, according to Yatsenyuk, Ukraine's “main and only goal” is membership in the EU, with joining NATO as being secondary. Also, the various NATO nations are of differing opinions about military intervention in Ukraine, the US in particular being against it at this point. I hope Western Europe doesn't just watch from a distance while Russia gobbles up Ukraine. I was so glad when the wall was knocked down under Gorbachev, and then Russia and the US cooperated in a number of ways. Now we're back to the Cold War again. This is not only disheartening and depressing, it is boring.






Senegal Confirms Its 1st Case of Ebola – ABC
By Babacar Dione AP
August 29, 2014

A man infected with Ebola traveled to Senegal, becoming the first recorded in this country of an outbreak that has hit four other West African countries and has killed more than 1,500 people, the Ministry of Health said Friday.

The infected person is a university student from Guinea who sought treatment at a hospital in Senegal's capital, Dakar, this week, Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told reporters. The young man said he had had contact with Ebola patients while he was in Guinea and was immediately put under quarantine, she said.

Tests from the Institut Pasteur have confirmed that he has Ebola, and the World Health Organization has been alerted.

The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa began last year in Guinea. Since then, the disease has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. At least 3,000 have contracted the disease, which is spread by bodily fluids and for which there is no known cure.

The arrival of the dreaded disease in Senegal, which is a tourist destination and whose capital is a major transportation hub for the region, underscores that the outbreak is not under control, despite efforts by the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders and other organizations.

WHO on Friday said the past week has seen the highest increase of cases — more than 500 — since the outbreak began.

It is not clear how or when the young man came to Senegal, which has closed its border with Guinea. But Seck said that this week an epidemiological surveillance team from Guinea alerted Senegalese authorities that they had lost track of a person who had had contact with the sick. The team said this person may have come to Senegal.

Seck said authorities have determined that the young man now in quarantine is one who fled.

WHO, which is the U.N. health agency, has warned that the disease could eventually infect 20,000 people, and unveiled a plan Thursday to stop transmission in the next six to nine months.

But a top official from Doctors Without Borders, which is running many of the Ebola treatment centers, said the agency wasn't doing enough.

"The World Health Organization can't handle" the outbreak, Mego Terzian, the group's president for France, told France Inter radio. "I don't see how with the current measures how we're going to control the outbreak and stop the outbreak."

He called for a far greater response from the international community, saying the U.N. Security Council should take up the matter and noting that there are countries with military medical units that could be useful.

In a detailed report Friday, WHO said more than 500 cases were recorded over the past week, by far the worst toll of any week so far. The week before, around 400 new cases were reported.

Most new cases are in Liberia, but the agency said it was also the highest number of cases in one week for Guinea and Sierra Leone. Nigeria has recorded a small number of cases.

"There are serious problems with case management and infection prevention and control," the report said. "The situation is worsening in Liberia and Sierra Leone."

Neither of those countries has enough space in treatment centers to handle the tremendous and increasing number of cases, it said.




“The infected person is a university student from Guinea who sought treatment at a hospital in Senegal's capital, Dakar, this week, Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told reporters. The young man said he had had contact with Ebola patients while he was in Guinea and was immediately put under quarantine, she said. Tests from the Institut Pasteur have confirmed that he has Ebola, and the World Health Organization has been alerted.... The arrival of the dreaded disease in Senegal, which is a tourist destination and whose capital is a major transportation hub for the region, underscores that the outbreak is not under control, despite efforts by the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders and other organizations.”

No, it is definitely not “under control,” and the fact that Dakar is a tourist hub is even more frightening. Of course most people will have enough common sense not to travel to Africa for a vacation at this time, but every time someone slips out of the area after becoming exposed, there is the threat of a new site for the virus to pop up. The trouble with a virus that doesn't manifest itself for several weeks is that these people don't know they've been exposed in many cases, and until they are suddenly very ill indeed, they don't know they have it. One African nation was in the news recently for closing its borders, and it seems to me that they all should.

The US government is making noises now about putting a rush order on human trials for vaccines, and it just seems to me that they should have done that several months ago when it became obvious that the epidemic was spreading more widely than in previous years and killing many people. I cynically have thought that if such large numbers of white people in the US or Europe – important people, in other words – were to die of a disease there would be a vaccine for it much sooner. After the prior epidemics which were just as frightening, though relatively short-lived, there should have been serious work under way already on getting a treatment for it, as it showed signs then of being a grave threat to people in Africa. One article said that drug companies hadn't shown as much interest in making it because the need for it seemed to be limited, and thus the income from the sales would be less. So, okay, the major companies didn't want to make it, but the government should have done research on it due to its threat level as a matter of public health. Thank goodness, Canada's government did do that, and has a vaccine in the making now which may be out soon.