Monday, October 27, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Child being tested for Ebola at NYC hospital
CBS NEWS October 27, 2014, 9:49 AM

NEW YORK -- A pediatric patient is being tested for Ebola at Bellevue Hospital, the New York City Health Department said.

The child, who had been in one of the three West African countries affected by the disease in the past 21 days, was taken to Bellevue Sunday night after reporting a fever, the Health Department said.

Sources told CBS Radio station 1010 WINS the patient is a 5-year-old boy and that the family had traveled from Guinea.

An ambulance crew in full hazmat gear brought the child to the hospital as part of the newEbola precautions put into place in New York City.

While initially being examined, officials said the child did not have a fever, but later developed one around 7 a.m. Monday. After consulting with the hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Department conducted a test for Ebola.

Test results are expected within 12 hours. Health officials are also looking and other causes for the child's symptoms.

"As a further precaution, the Health Department's team of disease detectives has begun to actively trace all of the patient's contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk," the Health Department said in a statement. "The Health Department staff has established protocols to identify, notify, and, if necessary, quarantine any contacts of Ebola cases."

Officials stressed that Ebola is only contagious through coming in direct contactwith an infected patient's bodily fluids and that the changed of the average New Yorker getting Ebola "are extremely slim."




“While initially being examined, officials said the child did not have a fever, but later developed one around 7 a.m. Monday. After consulting with the hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Department conducted a test for Ebola. Test results are expected within 12 hours. Health officials are also looking and other causes for the child's symptoms.” Hopefully test results will be in the news by late this afternoon.





http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Senegal-Boys-Attacked-Bullying-IS-318-Tremont-NYC-280519232.html

African Boys Attacked at Bronx School, Called "Ebola": Advocacy Group
Monday, Oct 27, 2014

A group that advocates for Africans in the Bronx is calling for action after it says two brothers who had recently immigrated to the borough from Senegal were beaten and severely injured by several people who called them “Ebola.”

The boys, in sixth and eighth grade, were attacked Friday afternoon at I.S. 318 in Tremont, according to the African Advocacy Council.

Boy, 5, Tested for Ebola After Developing Fever: Officials

The boys, who have been in the U.S. for about a month, were taken to the hospital after the attack.

The group says that the attack is just the latest incidence of disrespect and bullying of Africans since the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.

Friends: Woman Who Died Working 3 Jobs Had Untold Story

The Department of Education says it's aware of the complaint and that it dispatched additional security to the boys' school. 

Senegal is one of several West African countries where Ebola cases have been reported, but there have been no new cases in that country since late August, according to the CDC.

Nurse in NJ Ebola Quarantine Released From Hospital

Cases continue to be reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. A few health care workers and travelers coming from those countries have also been diagnosed with the disease in other countries, including one person in New York City. 




Here we go with people behaving like animals. This article didn't say whether the “people” who attacked the African boys were young , old, white or black. Their excuse will be that they are afraid, but cruelty and lawlessness are not acceptable to me. We have to think our way beyond our fears and educate ourselves about Ebola. If this kind of thing becomes common, and the African Advocacy Council said this is the last of a number of similar attacks, our cities will become dangerous for everyone. The Department of Education has upgraded the security at the school in question. Hopefully that will solve the problem. The perpetrators should be arrested if they haven't been. The boys were severely injured, and the attackers should be punished as a criminal offense rather than as a school discipline matter.





Federal government recognizes same-sex marriages in six more states
By JAKE MILLER CBS NEWS
October 25, 2014, 1:12 PM


Lin Davis, of Juneau, Alaska, shown wearing an orange rain coat, holds signs supporting gay marriage during a news conference Friday, Oct. 10, 2014, outside the federal courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska.  AP

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Saturday that the federal government would recognize the marriages of same-sex couples in six additional states - Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming - bringing the total number of states in which same-sex marriages are federally recognized to 32, plus the District of Columbia.

The announcement means that gay couples married in those states can now qualify for a variety of federal benefits, including Social Security and veterans' benefits. Holder made a similar announcement last week with respect to seven other states.

"With each new state where same-sex marriages are legally recognized, our nation moves closer to achieving of full equality for all Americans," the attorney general said in a statement. "We are acting as quickly as possible with agencies throughout the government to ensure that same-sex married couples in these states receive the fullest array of benefits allowable under federal law."

The announcement comes after the Supreme Court decided earlier this month to decline to hear any cases involving same-sex marriage, allowing lower court rulings in favor of marriage equality to stand. The decision effectively cleared the way for same-sex marriages in eleven states.

In addition, Holder announced on Saturday that the Justice Department has determined it can recognize marriages performed in Indiana and Wisconsin this past June. Those marriages were performed after federal district courts struck down the states' bans on same-sex marriage, but the status of those marriages was thrown into confusion when officials in those states quickly asked the courts to stay their decision pending an appeal. With Holder's announcement on Saturday, the federal government acknowledged that it would recognize any same-sex marriages performed in those states after the bans were struck down.

It's been a heady few years for proponents of same-sex marriage. In 2013, theSupreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage at the federal level in exclusively heterosexual terms. And though the Supreme Court's decision to not hear any same-sex marriage cases disappointed some advocates who hoped the justices would seize the opportunity to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, others viewed the relatively quiet extension of marriage rights as a victory.

In a CBS News poll released earlier this year, 56 percent of Americans spoke in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. In the spring of 2012, that number was only 42 percent.




I am pleased to see that, one by one, several more states have been brought into compliance on the same sex marriage issue. The District of Columbia and 32 states now allow the unions. Sexual orientation is simply not changeable by “therapy” or forced marriages to members of the opposite sex. It is something which doesn't harm anyone else who is not related to the individuals. Most heterosexual people have no desire to marry a gay person unless they are unaware of what the situation is. Men who have remained “in the closet” may have spent time with a heterosexual female, but they generally are unable to relate to them sexually. Therefore I feel strongly that we should just let them follow their own path and find happiness.






THE GROWING INCOME GAP – THREE ARTICLES

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/most-millionaires-say-they-are-concerned-about-income-inequality-n234806

Most Millionaires Say They Are Concerned About Income Inequality
By Robert Frank, CNBC
 October 27th 2014

Most millionaires are concerned about inequality, and nearly half support a higher minimum wage and more taxes on the rich, according to a new survey. The survey, from PNC Wealth Management, found that 64 percent of millionaires are "concerned" about economic inequality in America, and about half of those millionaires are "extremely concerned."

Fully 49 percent support raising the minimum wage, compared with 38 percent who oppose an increase. A surprising 44 percent of them support raising taxes "on the top income earners," versus 41 percent who oppose. And when it comes to other solutions, 69 percent say they support charities focused on poverty and hunger in the U.S., while 64 percent said they support scholarship and other educational opportunities for low-income children. "These findings show the wealthy realize that our society is better when everyone is in the game and earning—and that economic inequality can have negative consequences," said Thomas P. Melcher, executive vice president and head of Hawthorn, PNC's family office. In this poll, which was conducted in September, 476 people were surveyed who had $1 million or more in assets.



Even Bankers See a Risk in Rising Wealth Gap
By Martha C. White
October 23rd 2014,

You know the expanding wealth gap is getting bad when bankers are warning about the risks to the economy from it. A new surveyconducted for FICO by the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association found that almost two-thirds of bank risk managers in the United States and Canada believe the wealth gap “poses a growing risk to the financial system.”

Of the 149 risk managers who participated in the survey, just over 62 percent said they agreed or agreed strongly with that sentiment, compared with roughly 14 percent who disagreed. Although these professionals, by definition, tend towards risk-aversion, “I do think the gap in wealth is something that is a concern and something that, collectively, all financial institutions need to take a look at,” said FICO spokesman Anthony Sprauve. It’s not just risk managers who are concerned. “Income inequality is a very destabilizing thing in the country,” Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said in a CBS This Morning television interview in June. Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen also said the wealth gap is worrisome and runs counter to American economic ideals.



Fed Chief Janet Yellen: Income Inequality 'Greatly Concerns' Me
First published October 17th 2014, 10:13 am

Is the growing wealth gap un-American? That's a question raised by Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen in a speech Friday in which she said income inequality "greatly" concerns her.

"I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation's history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity," she said. "The extent of and continuing increase in inequality in the United States greatly concerns me," Yellen told a conference on inequality at the Boston branch of the central bank.

She said that the wealth gap is at the widest its been in the past century. "It is no secret that the past few decades of widening inequality can be summed up as significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top and stagnant living standards for the majority," she told economists, professors and community workers. Yellen conceded that rebounding home prices have restored some lost housing wealth, particularly for those at the bottom. Yet at the same time, she said, the wealthiest 5 percent still hold two-thirds of all assets, and while there have been significant gains at the top of the spectrum, things have been stagnant for the majority.



'Wealth Gap' Seen in American Diet
JAMAInternalMed 
1 Sep 2014

Americans' eating habits have improved — except among the poor, evidence of a widening wealth gap when it comes to diet. Yet even among wealthier adults, food choices remain far from ideal, a 12-year study found. On an index of healthy eating where a perfect score is 110, U.S. adults averaged just 40 points in 1999-2000, climbing steadily to 47 points in 2009-10, the study found. Scores for low-income adults averaged almost four points lower than those for high-income adults at the beginning; the difference increased to more than six points in 2009-10. The results are published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Higher scores mean greater intake of heart-healthy foods including vegetables, fruits, whole grains and healthy fats, and a high score means a low risk of obesity and chronic illnesses including heart disease, strokes and diabetes. Low scores mean people face greater chances for developing those ailments. The widening rich-poor diet gap is disconcerting and "will have important public health implications," said study co-author Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health. Diet-linked chronic diseases such as diabetes have become more common in Americans in general, and especially in the poor, he noted. "Declining diet quality over time may actually widen the gap between the poor and the rich," Hu said.




American Diet – “On an index of healthy eating where a perfect score is 110, U.S. adults averaged just 40 points in 1999-2000, climbing steadily to 47 points in 2009-10, the study found. Scores for low-income adults averaged almost four points lower than those for high-income adults at the beginning; the difference increased to more than six points in 2009-10.”

Millionaires Polled – “Fully 49 percent support raising the minimum wage, compared with 38 percent who oppose an increase. A surprising 44 percent of them support raising taxes 'on the top income earners,' versus 41 percent who oppose. And when it comes to other solutions, 69 percent say they support charities focused on poverty and hunger in the U.S., while 64 percent said they support scholarship and other educational opportunities for low-income children. "'These findings show the wealthy realize that our society is better when everyone is in the game and earning—and that economic inequality can have negative consequences,'" said Thomas P. Melcher, executive vice president and head of Hawthorn, PNC's family office. In this poll, which was conducted in September, 476 people were surveyed who had $1 million or more in assets.”

Yellen On The Issue – “'I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation's history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity,' she said.... She said that the wealth gap is at the widest its been in the past century. 'It is no secret that the past few decades of widening inequality can be summed up as significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top and stagnant living standards for the majority,' she told economists, professors and community workers. Yellen conceded that rebounding home prices have restored some lost housing wealth, particularly for those at the bottom. Yet at the same time, she said, the wealthiest 5 percent still hold two-thirds of all assets, and while there have been significant gains at the top of the spectrum, things have been stagnant for the majority.”

The wealthiest 5% hold 2/3 of all assets, with the trend still shifting toward the top. Income for “the majority” has been stagnant for the last several decades. That's the problem. 49% of millionaires suggest raising the minimum wage and taxing the wealthy more heavily. 69% support charities focused on US poverty, hunger and education.

The jobs that have been shipped overseas in response to 1980's business tax rules are another issue, and perhaps the worst of the problems. Raising the minimum wage won't help those who can't get a job. When the US faced joblessness in the 1930s Roosevelt created government sponsored jobs such as highway improvements, dams, etc. Modern day Republicans hate Roosevelt on principle, but he saved the country. Of course when we joined Europe in WWII it also created jobs making military supplies and weapons, and many Americans left their farms and small towns to fight overseas. Their wives went to work in the factories for the war effort. That brought in money for US citizens, too. When the anti-draft movement toward a smaller, all-volunteer army went through in 1973 that created a loss of jobs, of course. I can't see Americans embracing a military draft again, even though it would create jobs.

We are now faced with smaller wars in several places with a smaller military to handle them. Obama needs to find another way to create jobs through government, such as the infrastructure improvements and building of environmentally friendly energy plants which we need so much to relieve the CO2 pollution problem. I don't want to see millions more of our citizens resorting to full scale dependence on poverty programs for their daily sustenance. It isn't a good solution, and doesn't actually solve the problems. The income gap is still growing in such a case.





Ancient Viruses Lurk In Frozen Caribou Poo – NPR
by GEOFF BRUMFIEL
October 27, 2014

A careful examination of frozen caribou poop has turned up two never-before-seen viruses.

The viruses are hundreds of years old: One of them probably infected plants the caribou ate. The other may have infected insects that buzzed around the animals.

The findings prove viruses can survive for surprisingly long periods of time in a cold environment, according to Eric Delwart, a researcher at Blood Systems Research Institute in San Francisco.

"The DNA of viruses is preserved extremely well under cold conditions," he says.

Delwart's day job at Blood Systems is to find new viruses that could contaminate the blood supply. But he enjoys looking in odd places too. He got interested in ice cores from high mountain regions, after reading about all the interesting old things the ice contained.
"Things like old shoes and arrowheads," he says, "and then I realized this is nature's freezer, which should also contain organic remains."

Delwart had one particular type of organic remains in mind: caribou poop. Just about everything an animal eats can be infected with a virus. And that makes animals, including humans, virus vacuums that suck up every virus in their path.

"I mean we're constantly shoving viruses down our throat and if you look at poo samples from humans and from animals you will find a lot of viruses," he says.

Caribou hang out on ice, so these pristine ice cores are actually full of poo. And as scientists go through layer after layer of ice, the poo gets older and older.

Delwart examined poop from Northern Canada that was 700 years old. The result, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the discovery these two, never-before-seen viruses.

The DNA was so well-preserved that Delwart's collaborators could even reconstitute one virus and use it to infect a plant in the lab.

As far as Delwart can tell, these viruses aren't dangerous, which is good. As the North warms and ice melts, more caribou poo infected with ancient viruses will be finding its way into the modern ecosystem.




“The findings prove viruses can survive for surprisingly long periods of time in a cold environment, according to Eric Delwart, a researcher at Blood Systems Research Institute in San Francisco. 'The DNA of viruses is preserved extremely well under cold conditions," he says. Delwart's day job at Blood Systems is to find new viruses that could contaminate the blood supply. But he enjoys looking in odd places too. He got interested in ice cores from high mountain regions, after reading about all the interesting old things the ice contained. 'Things like old shoes and arrowheads,' he says, 'and then I realized this is nature's freezer, which should also contain organic remains.'”

The two viruses found in the poo piles appear to be harmless to people, which is good because they will be becoming a part of our current environment as the ice melts. More fun to me are the “old shoes and arrowheads.” Delwart's goal is to discover viruses that could be harmful if they get into our blood supply. Ice cores have always been interesting to me. They are a hands on and very real life way of doing what archaeologists do by looking at human artifacts, campsites, caves, etc. The difference is that a lot of what the archaeologists do is theoretically based and educated guesswork.

One modern trend in archaeology is impressive to me, though – the experimental studies in which groups of scientists use ancient tools and seed types to operate a farm, live in rude structures as the neolithic and iron age people did, and other work that provides some proof for their theories. A team of archaeologists (from a documentary in the last ten years) put together groups of volunteers and successfully moved huge stones almost as large as those at Stonehenge with log rollers, ropes, and a large pulling team, then dug a hole and set the stone upright in it. It did eliminate some of the questions that archaeologists have had about how Stonehenge was built.





In Crimea, Many Signs Of Russia, Few Of Resistance – NPR
by DAVID GREENE and LAUREN MIGAKI
October 27, 2014

Morning Edition host David Greene and producer Lauren Migaki traveled to Crimea to see what's changed since Russia sent troops in this spring and shortly afterward annexed the territory despite widespread international criticism. Their stories will be on air and online this week.

We're traveling through flat farmland on a two-lane road in the far north of Crimea, when suddenly it's interrupted by a checkpoint. Actually, Russia now considers it the border, a physical reminder of the new divide between Russia and Ukraine — and the West.

A guy in military camouflage, with a Kalashnikov rifle slung over his shoulder, sees NPR producer Lauren Migaki with her tape recorder going, and he makes it clear he wants it off.

She turns off the recorder. But that's not enough. Another guy in military fatigues comes over and says we broke the law as foreigners by being so close to a Russian border. He takes our passports and asks our interpreter to come with him, leaving us to wait.

This little episode is a personal reminder that Russia is now in control. All across Crimea, the signs of Russian power and influence have arrived.

Ukrainian flags that flew atop government buildings have been removed, replaced by Russian flags. Menus in restaurants have been reprinted with prices in Russian rubles. New labels have been glued on wine bottles — even older vintages — saying the wine is from "Crimea, Russia."



I hope no Ukrainian speakers are left in Crimea now, and that no Jews will be persecuted. There has been so little Ukraine news in the last two months or so that I have concluded it must be peaceful. I will look specifically under the term “Ukraine” and see what I find. See below.


http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-voters-embrace-west-peace-rebels-025755891.html

Ukraine's pro-West parties negotiate coalition
By Sebastian Smith
October 27, 2014

Kiev (AFP) - The pro-Western winners of Ukraine's parliamentary poll entered coalition talks Monday, but attacks by pro-Russian insurgents in the east highlighted the obstacles to their ambitious promises of peace and deepening ties with the European Union.

The day after pro-West and moderate nationalist forces backing President Petro Poroshenko scored a big win in Sunday's election, the hard work of forming a ruling coalition began.

With 67 percent of precincts reporting, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's People's Front and the Petro Poroshenko Bloc were neck and neck, getting about 22 percent of the votes each.

Expectations were that the two would work together, with Yatsenyuk retaining the premier's post.

Russia welcomed the outcome of the election as backing for "a peaceful resolution" of the separatist war, while the head of the EU executive, Jose Manuel Barroso, said the election was a "victory of democracy and European reforms".

US President Barack Obama called the vote -- declared mostly fair by a European observer team on Monday -- an "important milestone in Ukraine's democratic development."

Rebel rockets -

But in a fiery reminder of the hurdles Poroshenko faces, an election-period lull in the rebel-held east ended early Monday in a barrage of artillery fire.

Dozens of rockets fired by pro-Russian insurgents could be heard blasting from the city of Donetsk towards a nearby Ukrainian military base, AFP correspondents said.

More shelling was reported near the government-held coastal city of Mariupol, while military authorities reported the deaths of two soldiers in a rebel attack on Sunday near Lugansk.

Kiev and its Western backers see the six-month uprising, and the March annexation by Russian troops of Crimea, as an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to cripple Ukraine.

But Moscow says it is simply coming to the aid of Russian speakers who feel threatened by Ukraine's lurch toward the West.

In response, the United States and European Union have imposed damaging economic sanctions on Moscow, fueling the kind of East-West tensions last seen in the Cold War.

Sunday's election was meant to finalise a revolution that began in February, when huge street protests ousted Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych after he abruptly rejected a landmark EU pact.

Communists and other Yanukovych allies were routed Sunday, although a party made up of his former associates won a small share of seats through proportional representation.

Radicals who rejected Poroshenko's peace deal with the insurgents did poorly, as did corruption-tainted politicians who had steered Ukraine through two decades of stuttering reforms.

- Tough challenges -

However, the pro-West regime now faces giant challenges: restoring relations with Russia, ending the insurgency, eradicating corruption, tackling massive debt, and resolving a near permanent crisis over Russian gas supplies.

"Poroshenko and his government will have a difficult time resolving the task of moving into Europe," Yuriy Romanenko at the Stratagema think-tank told AFP.

"The war will also go on for a long time. The standoff there could continue for several years."

Moscow gave a guarded thumbs up to the new Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk era.

Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin said the results showed "that parties which support a peaceful resolution of the internal Ukrainian crisis received a majority".

He also said that "the election, in spite of a rather harsh and dirty campaign, is valid."

Western governments welcomed the vote, with France saying the results "confirmed the people's fundamental choice".

Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna told Ukraine that it "had guarantees of support from the European Union and the United States. Everybody wants to help Ukraine in its economic reforms."

However, he also urged Ukraine "to resolve its relations with Russia".

Peace talks or breakup? -

Poroshenko says there can be no military victory against the separatists and that he is ready to negotiate autonomy, though not independence, for pro-Russian regions.

A Moscow-backed truce agreement signed by Kiev and the separatists on September 5 calmed the worst fighting, despite frequent violations, especially around the disputed Donetsk airport.

But after so much bloodshed it remains unclear whether either side is ready for tough compromise, with some analysts expecting the fighting to intensify now that the election is over.

Despite the rise of relatively moderate parties, radical nationalists, including large formations of volunteer fighters, remain an important force in Ukraine.

On Sunday, voters living in Crimea and the separatist areas of the east -- about five million people in all -- were excluded from the election. Twenty-seven seats in the 450-seat parliament will remain empty.

That, plus the separatists' plan to hold their own leadership polls next Sunday, risked adding another layer of formality to what already appears to be the de facto breakup of Ukraine.




Some fighting is continuing at Donetsk, Lugansk, and Mariupol, but the peace seems to be holding elsewhere. Yatsenyuk's People's Front and the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, both of which got 22% of the votes, are expected to work together with Yatsenyuk as Premier and Poroshenko as President. Pro-Russian groups who voted won “a small share of seats through proportional representation.” The pro-Western regime will now have to deal with improving their relations with Russia, ending the insurgency of pro-Russian rebels, and economic problems due to “massive debt” and “a near permanent crisis over Russian gas supplies,” and “moving into Europe.” Yuriy Romanenko of the Stratagema think-tank said that “the war could go on for a long time.” “Moscow gave a guarded thumbs up to the new Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk era.” In other words, there is a good deal of relative stability now unless the rebel forces fail to approach a peaceful relationship under their new autonomous status and proportional representation in the government. I hope Ukraine does join the EU and develop its economic strength. I am impressed with its standoff against Russia during the last months.