Thursday, September 4, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Disturbance quelled at facility where 33 teens escaped
CBS/AP September 4, 2014, 4:45 AM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A violent disturbance broke out involving more than 20 teens at the same Nashville juvenile detention center where more than 30 escaped earlier this week.

About 28 teens - some of whom had also escaped during Monday's massive breakout - were involved in the latest incident at the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center, which began late Wednesday night, Tennessee Department of Children's Services spokesman Rob Johnson said. The teens had gotten out of their dorms and were roaming the campus.

Video shot by CBS Nashville affiliate WTVF-TV showed teens chasing and assaulting a man who appeared to be a staff member at the detention center. Photos published by Nashville newspaper The Tennessean showed teens in the detention center yard carrying sticks. One photo showed someone spraying a fire extinguisher.

Two staff members at the center suffered minor injuries, Johnson said.

At one point, says WTVF, several teens were seen on the roof of one building, with metal objects and rocks. Some were also spotted on the ground, with baseball bats and metal pipes.

Teams from the Tennessee Department of Correction, who are trained to handle uprisings, entered detention center early Thursday and took the teens into custody. Ten described by authorities as ringleaders of the incident were brought to another detention center, Johnson said. The rest were returned to their dorms.

While the teens were outside their dorms, police formed a ring around the detention center's perimeter fence to make sure no one escaped.

Thirty-three teens escaped from the detention center Monday night, WTCF reported. Officials said they had kicked out metal panels under the windows in common areas of their dorms to reach the courtyard and slipped out under a weak spot in the perimeter fence. Six of them remained at large early Thursday.

Johnson said the same panels kicked out during the Monday escape were kicked out again to get to the yard Wednesday night. Officials have begun repairing and reinforcing the panels and will try to get concrete put at the bottom of the perimeter fence, Johnson said.

The detention center has a long history of violence, allegations of sexual abuse and previous efforts to escape. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice ranked Woodland Hills as 13th in the country among juvenile facilities where there had been reports of sexual abuse by staffers.





“Teams from the Tennessee Department of Correction, who are trained to handle uprisings, entered detention center early Thursday and took the teens into custody. Ten described by authorities as ringleaders of the incident were brought to another detention center, Johnson said. The rest were returned to their dorms.” This was a very violent uprising, and coupled with the breakout of just last week, it indicates to me that there is probably abuse by staff on an ongoing basis there. I hope the DOJ will open a new inquiry into the detention center and apply whatever rules or laws there are to prevent staff abuse or other harsh policies. It is very possible that the teenagers are not only angry, they're afraid. When a teenager or child persists in running away from home, they should be put in foster care, because there is something wrong at their parent's home.

“The detention center has a long history of violence, allegations of sexual abuse and previous efforts to escape. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice ranked Woodland Hills as 13th in the country among juvenile facilities where there had been reports of sexual abuse by staffers.” There is no doubt that a fairly large number of teenagers are violent and prone to criminal and gang activity. We need prisons for young people when they do these things, but there should be no abuse – sexual or otherwise – and there should be mental health care, twelve step programs or other drug related treatment, libraries so they can pursue their studies, work activities (some have animal care programs or farms for instance), and other rehabilitative features. There should be no physical punishment, permanent or protracted isolation, sexual abuse, food related punishments such as weeks on end of nothing but nutraloaf, or other techniques that are basically abusive. This should apply to adult prisons, too, I think. Just because people have committed a crime, that's no reason they should be treated as sub-human creatures. We shouldn't even treat our dogs that way.





Fla. town hailed as king of the speed traps under investigation
By VICENTE ARENAS CBS NEWS September 3, 2014, 8:14 PM

WALDO, Fla. - Two of the country's worst speed traps, according to AAA, are on a 20-mile road that runs through this North Florida town.

It's so bad an auto group posted a billboard warning of the rapid changes in speed limit.

"They're just waiting to catch people because they have to write so many tickets in order to meet the budget and that's wrong," said Pat Burgess, who lives in Waldo, a town of 1,000 people and one stop light.

Waldo's seven police officers wrote nearly 12,000 speeding tickets last year, collecting more than $400,000 in fines - a third of the town's revenue.

The problem is there are six different speed limits in just a couple of miles. Drivers enter the city at 65 miles per hour. It then drops to 55, 45 and then 35.

Florida is now investigating whether the Waldo Police Department violated state law banning ticket quotas.

Asked if the situation "rings well" with him, Gordon Smith, the sheriff in neighboring Bradford County, said: "It doesn't because you're creating this cash cow. Where there's cash register justice."

Smith was put in charge of the police department in Hampton, just nine miles down State Highway 301, after the city's police department was disbanded this year. Several town officials are suspected of stealing some of the money raised by fines.

"That's legalized robbery," Smith said. "And we shouldn't be doing that."

The Waldo investigation began after police officers there filed complaints. Waldo's mayor declined to speak to us. But a spokesperson told CBS News Waldo's police department will also be taken over by a county sheriff's deputy for the next 30 days.

Another sign of change? The town has asked the state to post just one speed limit here.





“Waldo's seven police officers wrote nearly 12,000 speeding tickets last year, collecting more than $400,000 in fines - a third of the town's revenue. The problem is there are six different speed limits in just a couple of miles. Drivers enter the city at 65 miles per hour. It then drops to 55, 45 and then 35. Florida is now investigating whether the Waldo Police Department violated state law banning ticket quotas.... The Waldo investigation began after police officers there filed complaints. Waldo's mayor declined to speak to us. But a spokesperson told CBS News Waldo's police department will also be taken over by a county sheriff's deputy for the next 30 days. Another sign of change? The town has asked the state to post just one speed limit here.”

Police officers being required to meet a quota of traffic tickets is nothing new. That happened in Piedmont NC where I grew up. It does cause an abusive police environment, for the officers who may have trouble meeting their quota, to those people who were just 5 miles over the speed limit and not going dangerously fast. There are, of course, many drivers who make a daily practice of exceeding the speed limits so they can get to their destination sooner, or they simply enjoy driving fast. In town where many cars are entering the road and especially from areas other than a crossroad with a stoplight, it is a dangerous situation if anyone is driving at 50 mph or higher in a 35 to 40 mph zone. A crash resulting from such a situation can be lethal. On the busier roads in Jacksonville I will go out of my way to cross at an intersection with a stoplight, especially if I'm making a left turn, because the traffic load is so high and they are going so fast. In a place like Waldo there well may be children in the road along with cars, so the speed limits should be low, but a quota for speeding tickets does set up an unfair situation.





Could blood of survivors save Ebola patients? – CBS
AP September 4, 2014, 11:28 AM

As West Africa struggles to contain the biggest ever outbreak of Ebola, some experts say an unusual but simple treatment might help: the blood of survivors.

The evidence is mixed for using infection-fighting antibodies from survivors' blood for Ebola, but without any licensed drugs or vaccines for the deadly disease, some say it's worth a shot.

"This is something that's fairly simple to do," said Dr. Peter Piot, director of London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the co-discoverer of theEbola virus.

Using blood of survivors is one of the experimental Ebola treatments under discussion at a two-day meeting that began Thursday in Geneva. The more than 200 experts assembled by the World Health Organization are looking at issues of safety and effectiveness and considering which treatments should be prioritized for testing during the current outbreak.

There are about a half dozen medicines and vaccines in development. None has been rigorously tested in humans but early testing of one vaccine began this week in the United States.

Much attention has focused on the untested drug ZMapp, which was given to seven patients, two of whom died. But the limited supply is now exhausted and its developer says it will take months to make even a modest amount.

In contrast, WHO's blood network, an international group of blood regulators, noted there are thousands of survivors from past Ebola outbreaks in Africa who could be tapped as a source of survivor blood.

The group recently issued a paper on how the strategy might be used. It said blood from survivors should be considered experimental and it recommended studies be done during the outbreak.

Some scientists think antibodies in the blood of Ebola survivors could help patients infected with the deadly disease. Antibodies are produced by the body's immune system to fight off harmful things like viruses; they remain in the blood ready to fight off any future infections by the same foreign substance.

Piot said it is vital to find out if the blood treatment is effective.

"I hope this is the last Ebola outbreak where all we have is isolation, quarantine and supportive care to treat patients," he said.

Experts say blood from survivors could be collected and processed for multiple patients, or a survivor could donate blood to an individual patient. Both methods require screening the blood for diseases like HIV or malaria.

While direct donation would be easier, the levels of Ebola-fighting antibodies produced by a survivor can vary. Ideally, experts said, the amount of antibodies should be measured.

"With drugs, you can at least do some quality control," said Tom Geisbert, an Ebola expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "If you're just taking blood blindly from (survivors) without testing it for antibody levels, how can we predict what outcome they will have?"

In West Africa, there have been no organized attempts to use the blood of survivors to treat patients. Blood from a 14-year-old boy who survived Ebola was given in July to American doctor Kent Brantly, who was infected in Liberia. Brantly also got some ZMapp and was released from an Atlanta hospital last month. It's unknown whether the drug or the boy's blood aided his recovery.

Blood from survivors of diseases including Ebola, bird flu and anthrax has been used in the past when doctors ran out of options and seems to work best in diseases where there's a toxin, like anthrax and tetanus.

For treating Ebola, "you would need to come up with how much you should give, how long, and what's a safe infusion rate," said Dr. Michael Kurilla, director of BioDefense at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. "If you know what the potency of the serum is, you could theoretically help the body clear Ebola out of their cells before it can do too much damage."

Dr. Colin Brown, who recently worked in Ebola clinics in Sierra Leone for King's College London's partnership with the country, said local hospitals should be able to provide survivors' blood if doctors want to offer it.

So far, more than 3,000 people have been infected. Last week, WHO estimated there could be another 20,000 cases before the Ebola outbreak is stopped, a figure Brown described as unfortunate but realistic.

"It does give us the opportunity to try some new therapies," he said. "And as long as they are not harmful, why shouldn't we try to do something, hopefully help some patients and learn from this?"





A month ago NPR wrote a story about the use of serum to combat Ebola. Two or three years ago there was an outbreak in Africa and an African doctor went out on a limb by treating 8 patients with the directly transfused blood of a cured patient. Seven of the eight new patients survived. It works, and it has been known to work. Why haven't they don't it yet? An older treatment going back to the eighteenth century is to separate out the serum – a clear liquid blood factor – from the clotted blood of a disease survivor and it was effective as a cure to those who had newly come down with the disease. Also, within the last few years the Russians used Ebola serum derived from goats, and that worked, too.

Thousands of people are dying in Africa, and it is only a matter of time before it spreads to other continents. Meanwhile the scientists fiddle around worrying about the scientific method and Africans are dying. With such an emergency at hand these doctors should be using serum and whole blood transfusions on patients who have developed symptoms already, because those people are for the most part under a death sentence without it. It shocks me that they are still talking about this as though it were a somewhat shocking new idea and a completely speculative treatment. True, the FDA hasn't ruled on it, but even if there is some danger from a serum or blood transfusion, the result without it is almost certainly a miserable and painful death and an epidemic that marches on.





Inside the mind of an ISIS fighter
By Arwa Damon and Holly Yan, CNN
September 4, 2014

(CNN) -- To the outside world, they're a force of ruthless yet mysterious insurgents bent on terrorizing civilians and expanding Islamist rule.

But as one former ISIS fighter tells CNN, the mentality goes much deeper.

"The main and principal goal of the Islamic State that they tell their new members is to establish an Islamic state that will encompass the Arab world," the man said in Turkey. "And after that, we go to other countries."

Just two weeks ago, the man was in Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold in northern Syria. Like many cities across Syria and Iraq, Raqqa has been overrun by ISIS militants who show no mercy for those who don't follow their hard line.

Crucifixions and public executions take place virtually every day. Women not fully covered in niqabs are lashed with alarming frequency.

Even store owners who leave their shops open during times of prayer can get beaten or sent to prison.

The former insurgent, in his 20s, left ISIS two weeks ago because he said the group is "spreading injustice in the name of justice."

But he still agrees with the ideology of the group that is forcing its beliefs on everyday life, including in education.

"Philosophy is prohibited; they canceled it as a kind of blasphemy," he said. "Many subjects have been canceled, like music and even sometimes sports. All of them have been canceled from the school curriculum."

Perhaps the only thing as disturbing as ISIS' terror rampage is the growing number of foreigners joining its ranks.

Thousands of foreign fighters are estimated to have joined ISIS. And the ex-ISIS militant said these foreigners could carry out attacks when they go home, but security measures in those countries could make it difficult -- at least for now.

"Since Western fighters joined ISIS, they consider their home country as infidels," he said. "If they have a chance, they will carry out attacks."

The United Kingdom is already on high alert, raising its terror threat level from "substantial" to "severe" on Friday. Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed a radical new measure to ban Britons from coming home once they join jihadi ranks abroad.

And the United States got a harsh reminder of ISIS' reach when Douglas McAuthur McCain, a 33-year-old from the Midwest, became the first known American to be killed while fighting for ISIS.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has called ISIS "beyond just a terrorist group."

"They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess," he said last week. "This is beyond anything we have seen, and we must prepare for everything."

ISIS may have wanted to show off its global reach by having a militant with a British accent front the videos of the beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

And that kind of tactic could also inspire more foreigners, the former ISIS fighter told CNN.

"It is possible that the goal was to project the image that a European, or a Western person, executed an American so that they can showcase their Western members and appeal to others outside Syria and make them feel that they belong to the same cause."





“The former insurgent, in his 20s, left ISIS two weeks ago because he said the group is 'spreading injustice in the name of justice.''But he still agrees with the ideology of the group that is forcing its beliefs on everyday life, including in education. 'Philosophy is prohibited; they canceled it as a kind of blasphemy,' he said. 'Many subjects have been canceled, like music and even sometimes sports. All of them have been canceled from the school curriculum.' … Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed a radical new measure to ban Britons from coming home once they join jihadi ranks abroad.” The US, likewise, has begun arresting American jihadi “wannabees” before they make it to join ISIS. See this story from NBC today – http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/jihad-interrupted-feds-grab-isis-wannabes-they-reach-syria-n195171. I'm glad to see this. If the US massive phone data file is useful for anything, it is for discovering who these would be ISIS members are and arresting them. We will still have to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq, but if we can interfere with their spread to other countries, that will be very helpful.





Lack of sleep may shrink your brain
By Val Willingham, CNN
updated 11:56 AM EDT, Thu September 4, 2014

(CNN) -- Can a lack of sleep affect the size of your brain? It's possible, a recent study published in an online issue of Neurology suggests.

European researchers looked at 147 adults between the ages of 20 and 84. With two MRI scans, they examined the link between sleep problems like insomnia and the study participants' brain volume. The first scan was taken before patients completed a questionnaire pertaining to their sleep habits. The second scan was done approximately 3½ years later.

The questionnaire showed that 35% of those in the study met the criteria for poor sleep health. Investigators found that those with sleep problems had a more rapid decline in brain volume or size over the course of the study than those who slept well.

The results were even more significant in participants over the age of 60.

Numerous studies have showed the importance of sleep and the effect sleep deprivation can have on our brains. It is well-known that poor sleep patterns can contribute to such brain disorders as Alzheimer's and dementia.

So it stands to reason that, if a lack of sleep can lead to memory loss, the size of the brain would also be affected.

"We know that a lack of sleep can lead to all kinds of problems," explained Dr. Neal Maru, a neurologist and sleep specialist with Integrated Sleep Services in Alexandria, Virginia, who is not associated with the study. "Poor sleep can affect our immune systems, our cardiovascular health, weight and, of course, memories. But we still don't know why.

"Studies have shown poor sleep can cause protein buildup in the brain that attacks brain cells. So we're still trying to put the puzzle together."

The study authors agree.

"It is not yet known whether poor sleep quality is a cause or consequence of changes in brain structure," said author Claire Sexton of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

"There are effective treatments for sleep problems, so future research needs to test whether improving people's quality of sleep could slow the rate of brain volume loss. If that is the case, improving people's sleep habits could be an important way to improve brain health."

"The problem is, we really don't know what comes first," Maru agreed. "Is it a sleep problem that causes the atrophy (wasting away of a body part), or is it the atrophy that causes the sleep problems? That's a question we need to sort out."





The phrase 'a more rapid decline in brain volume or size over the course of the study than those who slept well' implies that everyone's brain is shrinking with age, but lack of sleep makes it worse. According to this article, poor sleeping habits do increase dementia and Alzheimer's. … "Poor sleep can affect our immune systems, our cardiovascular health, weight and, of course, memories. But we still don't know why. 'Studies have shown poor sleep can cause protein buildup in the brain that attacks brain cells. So we're still trying to put the puzzle together.' … 'The problem is, we really don't know what comes first," Maru agreed. 'Is it a sleep problem that causes the atrophy (wasting away of a body part), or is it the atrophy that causes the sleep problems? That's a question we need to sort out.'”

Since I have never found it easy to go to sleep, this study isn't good news to me. I hope I don't end up with severe dementia. I think most people have it to some degree, though by the time they are in their late 80s. This article answers the question of whether a sleeping drug is a good investment or not. It definitely is. unless the drug itself is dangerous. Many of them used to be addictive, but I don't think most of them are today. Luckily I have been prescribed a small dose of an old antidepressant that causes drowsiness, and within 30 minutes of taking it I am asleep.





Health Law Gets Reprieve As Appeals Court Agrees To Rehear Key Case – NPR
by JULIE ROVNER
September 04, 2014

The controversial federal court decision that threatened the future of the Affordable Care Act is no more.

The full District of Columbia Court of Appeals Thursday agreed to rehear Halbig v. Burwell, a case charging that the federal government lacks the authority to provide consumers tax credits in health insurance exchanges not run by states.

The order technically cancels the three-judge ruling from July that found for the plaintiffs. That ruling, if upheld, could jeopardize the entire structure of the Affordable Care Act by making insurance unaffordable for millions of consumers in the 36 states where the federal government operates the exchange.

The court will hear oral arguments in the case in December. For the time being, the order also eliminates the so-called circuit split that could prompt the Supreme Court to take up the case. The same day the panel from the Washington, D.C., circuit had decided that tax credits are not allowed in federal exchanges, a three-judge panel from the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., decided exactly the opposite.

The losers in that case, King v. Burwell, appealed the decision to the Supreme Court on July 31.

But now that there are no appeals courts in technical disagreement, "it's much less likely the Supreme Court will take it," said Ian Millhiser of the Center for American Progress.
It is also considered likely that the full District Court of Appeals in Washington will rule that the subsidies are allowable in federal exchanges. A majority of judges on the full appeals court are Democratic appointees, including four appointed by President Obama and recently confirmed by the Senate.

Millhiser said the full appeals court's action is rare. "Usually they mean [a majority of the full court] disagree with the panel's decision."

The issue is still live, however. Similar lawsuits asserting the subsidies are not allowed in the federal exchange are pending in Indiana and Oklahoma. Those cases are still at the lower, district court level.

The Cato Institute's Michael Cannon, who has been among those advocating the hardest for the lawsuits' claims, called the full court's decision "unwise and unfortunate." He said the ruling "has the appearance of a political decision and will likely only delay Supreme Court review."

But Millhiser says the longer subsidies remain in place, the harder it would be for the Supreme Court to take them away. With a full D.C. Appeals Court decision not likely until next spring, the soonest the Supreme Court would hear the case would be in the 2015-2016 session. By that time, he said, "people will have had subsidies going on three years."




“The controversial federal court decision that threatened the future of the Affordable Care Act is no more. The full District of Columbia Court of Appeals Thursday agreed to rehear Halbig v. Burwell, a case charging that the federal government lacks the authority to provide consumers tax credits in health insurance exchanges not run by states. The order technically cancels the three-judge ruling from July that found for the plaintiffs. That ruling, if upheld, could jeopardize the entire structure of the Affordable Care Act by making insurance unaffordable for millions of consumers in the 36 states where the federal government operates the exchange.”

It does astound me the lengths the right-wing forces will go to to derail Affordable Healthcare and other actions by Obama and his administration. They are doing the same thing about abortion, of course on that issue they cite religious reasons. The medical community meanwhile, especially some specialist doctors, are fighting to keep getting as much money out of every patient as they possibly can. The Affordable Healthcare plan has cut back on how much pay the doctor gets.

The Hippocratic Oath used to be almost holy – doctors were thought to be servants of mankind, the equivalent almost of a priest. In old movies the medical doctor was known locally to everyone and charged very little for his services, nothing if the family was very poor. Now they live in Mcmansions within gated communities and send all their kids to Harvard or Yale. Today so many new doctors have gone into the highly paid specialties that it has become difficult to find a General Practitioner, and with nearly all insurance policies now, a GP is required to be a go-between with the specialist and the insurance company. Of course, my GP does seem to have a wide range of knowledge and if he feels doubtful about that, he always refers me to a specialist. I do respect doctors, but not in the godlike way we used to when I was growing up in the 1950s. Luckily, my doctor doesn't require that I revere him, and he has no problem with answering my questions and listening to what I say.