Wednesday, October 29, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Disabled Vermont Woman Who Led Class-Action Suit Sues Medicare Again – NPR
by SUSAN JAFFE
October 27, 2014

A 78-year-old Vermont mother of four who helped change Medicare coverage for millions of other seniors is still fighting to persuade the government to pay for her own care.

Glenda Jimmo, who is legally blind and has a partially amputated leg due to complications from diabetes, was the lead plaintiff in a 2011 class-action lawsuit seeking to broaden Medicare's criteria for covering physical therapy and other care delivered by skilled professionals. In 2012, the government agreed to settle the case, saying that people cannot be denied coverage solely because they have reached a plateau and are not getting better.

The landmark settlement was a victory for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions and disabilities who had been denied coverage under what is known as "the improvement standard" — a judgment about whether they are likely to improve if they get additional treatment. It also gave seniors a second chance to appeal for coverage if their claims had been denied because they were not improving.

Jimmo was one of the first seniors to appeal her original claim for home health care under the settlement that bears her name. But in April, the Medicare Appeals Council, the highest appeals level, upheld the denial. The judges said they agreed with the original ruling that her condition was not improving — criteria the settlement was supposed to eliminate.

After running out of options appealing to Medicare, her lawyers filed a second federal lawsuit in June to compel the government to keep its promise not to use the improvement standard as a criterion for coverage. They are asking Medicare to pay for the home health care that Jimmo received for about a year beginning in January 2007.

"There was really no expectation that she would improve — she was getting skilled nursing and home health care to maintain her condition and reduce complications," said Michael Benvenuto, director of Vermont Legal Aid's Medicare Advocacy Project, who has filed review requests for 13 other seniors. "It shows there may be real problems with implementing the settlement at the very highest level."

In the settlement, officials had agreed to rewrite Medicare's policy manuals to clarify that as long as patients otherwise qualify for coverage — for instance, they have a doctor's order for skilled care to preserve their health or to prevent or slow deterioration —Medicare must pay for therapy and other care at home, in a nursing home or office. They also agreed to educate providers, billing contractors and appeals judges about the change.

The council's decision on Jimmo makes no sense to Judith Stein, executive director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, which filed the original class action lawsuit with Vermont Legal Aid, and helped negotiate the Jimmo settlement.

"People shouldn't have to decline in order to get the care they need," Stein said.

She recommended that seniors or their families get the center's self-help packet and contact her if they still have problems at improvement@medicareadvocacy.org.

The Parkinson's Action Network, one of the seven advocacy groups that had joined the original Jimmo lawsuit, still receives several calls a week from patients who are told Medicare won't cover their care because they aren't improving. But Parkinson's disease is an incurable chronic degenerative neurological condition.

"Just maintaining function is a victory," said Ted Thompson, chief executive of the Parkinson's group.

Gabe Quintanilla, a lawyer for the city of San Antonio, refused to sign the noncoverage forms when he was told at least seven times this year that his 92-year-old mother's physical and speech therapy would end because she wasn't improving following her hospitalization for a stroke. One doctor suggested hospice care.

"The only reason I was able to keep my mother's therapy going is because I sent a copy of [the] Jimmo [settlement] to her doctor, her insurance company and the home care agency," he said. His mother has a Medicare Advantage plan, a private health insurance program that must also comply with the settlement. He discovered it "by accident," he said, while researching legal options on the Internet.

His mother eventually left the hospital and received follow-up care at a nursing home before returning home. Despite the dire predictions, what began as maintenance therapy has led to unexpected, if slight, improvements.

In a video he posted on YouTube, he leans in close to share his prediction that the Spurs are going to beat Portland. And she smiles, pleased that her favorite basketball team won't let her down.

"The Jimmo settlement saved my mother's life," he said.




“The landmark settlement was a victory for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions and disabilities who had been denied coverage under what is known as "the improvement standard" — a judgment about whether they are likely to improve if they get additional treatment. It also gave seniors a second chance to appeal for coverage if their claims had been denied because they were not improving. … The council's decision on Jimmo makes no sense to Judith Stein, executive director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, which filed the original class action lawsuit with Vermont Legal Aid, and helped negotiate the Jimmo settlement. 'People shouldn't have to decline in order to get the care they need,' Stein said. She recommended that seniors or their families get the center's self-help packet and contact her if they still have problems at improvement@medicareadvocacy.org.... 'The only reason I was able to keep my mother's therapy going is because I sent a copy of [the] Jimmo [settlement] to her doctor, her insurance company and the home care agency,' he said. His mother has a Medicare Advantage plan, a private health insurance program that must also comply with the settlement. He discovered it 'by accident,' he said, while researching legal options on the Internet.”

This seems to be the difference between receiving therapy and receiving palliative care through hospice. I didn't realize Medicare had this rule about the failure of a patient to improve. The article says that one doctor even counseled hospice care for a patient who was in this condition. This is a situation we all may confront if we live long enough – Medicare declining further treatment. The lawyer Gabe Quintanilla knew his rights and simply refused to sign the noncoverage forms. He then sent a copy of the Jimmo settlement to all parties involved in her care and got her treatments continued.

Judith Stein, executive director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, at improvement@medicareadvocacy.org has issued a “self-help packet” to guide those who need further care and have been denied. I suggest readers in their sixties and seventies may want to look into that.





FERGUSON TODAY – TWO ARTICLES

Five Cases Dismissed Because Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson Was No-Show
By Tracy Connor
October 27th 2014

Five criminal cases have been dismissed because the primary witness — the cop who shot unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri — didn't show up to court, prosecutors said Monday. Officer Darren Wilson "wasn't available," said Ed Magee, a spokesman for the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney. He said prosecutors would not take any action against Wilson, who has not been seen publicly since the Aug. 9 shooting that sparked weeks of protest and unrest. "We don't get people in trouble for not showing up for court," he said.

A spokesman for the Ferguson Police Department and Wilson's lawyer did not immediately return requests for comment. Magee said he could not provide details on the cases because they were now closed, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the latest involved a felony drug charge against Christopher Brooks, who claimed in a Facebook post that Wilson roughed him up during the 2013 arrest. The judge tossed out the case after giving Wilson, who received a commendation in the case, weeks to show up before the grand jury.



Protesters Clash With Ferguson Cops After Michael Brown Autopsy Leaked – NBC
Erik Ortiz
October 23rd 2014

Protests heated up in Ferguson, Missouri, overnight Wednesday following the leak of a new autopsy report detailing the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. A crowd of about 200 gathered near the city’s police department as some protesters knocked down barricades and pelted police with objects. Five officers were hit by either rocks, bottles or a metal rod, although no injuries were reported, St. Louis County police said Thursday.

Five people were arrested and charged with either disturbing the peace or failure to disperse, police added. The crowd dwindled down significantly by 2 a.m. Video taken at the scene shows people chanting, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” as officers in riot gear lined up along the sidewalk.

The protests were apparently fueled by the leak of Brown’s autopsy report this week to media outlets. An earlier autopsy conducted for the Brown family revealed the 18-year-old was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, during the incident with Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. The official autopsy suggests that Brown was shot at close range and may have been reaching for Wilson’s firearm. A grand jury is deciding whether to indict Wilson on criminal charges, and an attorney for the Brown family has asked protesters “to take their frustrations to the ballot box, not the streets” once a decision is reached.



Autopsy – “An earlier autopsy conducted for the Brown family revealed the 18-year-old was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, during the incident with Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. The official autopsy suggests that Brown was shot at close range and may have been reaching for Wilson’s firearm.” This first autopsy conducted for the Browns appears to show that Brown was shot from a distance half a dozen times, but the “official autopsy” shows he was shot from close range and “may have been reaching for Wilson's firearm,” which is what Wilson claimed. An earlier news report stated that there was evidence of the gun being fired inside the police car. That report may have come from this official autopsy, however. The eye witnesses said the shooting occurred from a distance. I hope the DOJ will investigate these two stories and conduct yet a third autopsy.

Mysteriously, Wilson hasn't “been seen publicly since the Aug. 9 shooting.” The judge has not charged Wilson with any kind of misconduct for not showing up to court in the Christopher Brooks drug case in which Wilson is accused of “roughing Brooks up.” The judge has thrown the case against Brooks out of court, but the article records the fact that Wilson was given a “commendation in the case, and weeks to show up before the grand jury.” This does look like judicial favoritism, if I understand the situation correctly. It shows, too, that Wilson had at least one prior case of violent policing against him. I can see why the Ferguson black community is still unsatisfied with the proceedings. It is almost time for the Grand Jury to deliver a verdict against Wilson if they are going to. The sooner a decision is reached, the sooner the racial situation can be soothed.





Facing The Islamic State Threat, Kurdish Fighters Unite – NPR
by ALICE FORDHAM
October 28, 2014

At a checkpoint outside the northern Iraq town of Makhmur, I saw something I'd never seen before in Iraq.

Two men were checking cars. One was young and wearing a sand-colored uniform of the official Iraqi Kurdish forces, called the peshmerga. The other was older, grizzled and dressed in an olive-green, traditional Kurdish overall, and he's with Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"We're happy to be working together," said the older man, Hajji Hussein Abdulrahman.

This is a new development. Until recently, Iraqi Kurdish authorities and the peshmerga didn't deal much with the PKK. There's a long rivalry between the two. Plus, Turkey and the U.S. consider the PKK to be terrorists based on their attacks against civilian targets in Turkey for many years.

But some of those attitudes began to change when the self-described Islamic State, also known as ISIS, charged into northern Iraq and overran large chunks of territory, including this town in June.

The peshmerga were struggling to fight back. But thousands of PKK supporters, who had been kicked out of Turkey, were living in a nearby refugee camp. They picked up their old rifles and joined the fray.

"We evacuated all the civilians, the women and kids and elderly people from the camp," said Polat Mohammad Khalil, a civilian official at the camp. "And then we reorganized ourselves as guerrillas to confront ISIS."

With the help of U.S. airstrikes, the combined Kurdish forces pushed out the Islamic State extremists.

"It was the first time for us to coordinate with the peshmerga — to be in one place, one position," Khalil said. "So we have to thank ISIS because they unified us."

The president of Iraq's semi-autonomus Kurdish region, Masoud Barzani, has long had bad relations with the PKK. But he came to thank them. And many other people in the town of Makhmur also seem grateful.

Aram Karim, who was making sandwiches in a shop, said the PKK help was a surprise. The Kurdish camp has been here since the 1990s, but the Turkish Kurds never did any fighting.

"They were always good neighbors," he said, "but I like them much more now."

This isn't the only place where Kurdish fighters have been active. On northern Iraq's Mount Sinjar in August, the PKK helped tens of thousands of minority Yazidis escape the advancing Islamic State.

And the Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the YPG, has been battling to keep the Islamic State out of the town of Kobani.

In the main Iraqi Kurdish city, Irbil, Shiman Eminoglu is a politician from the BDP party, which leans strongly toward the PKK. She says the PKK is fighting for everyone's benefit, and that this should be recognized by the United States.

"I feel there is a very big injustice against the PKK because they put them on a terror list and they classified them as a terror organization," Eminoglu said. "I think the whole international community should change its opinion about the PKK."

Many think that's unlikely. Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of three soldiers just this week and has been targeting them with airstrikes.

"The United States will not, on the PKK, change policy," says Turkey expert Henri Barkey of Lehigh University. "It doesn't talk to the PKK, it considers it a terrorist organization, it follows the Turkish line."

But when it comes to the PKK's Syrian sister group, the YPG, Barkey thinks there has been a shift. The Syrian Kurdish group is not on the U.S. terror list, and last week, the U.S. airdropped weapons to them.



“Two men were checking cars. One was young and wearing a sand-colored uniform of the official Iraqi Kurdish forces, called the peshmerga. The other was older, grizzled and dressed in an olive-green, traditional Kurdish overall, and he's with Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). 'We're happy to be working together,' said the older man, Hajji Hussein Abdulrahman. This is a new development. Until recently, Iraqi Kurdish authorities and the peshmerga didn't deal much with the PKK. There's a long rivalry between the two. Plus, Turkey and the U.S. consider the PKK to be terrorists based on their attacks against civilian targets in Turkey for many years....The peshmerga were struggling to fight back. But thousands of PKK supporters, who had been kicked out of Turkey, were living in a nearby refugee camp. They picked up their old rifles and joined the fray. 'We evacuated all the civilians, the women and kids and elderly people from the camp,' said Polat Mohammad Khalil, a civilian official at the camp. 'And then we reorganized ourselves as guerrillas to confront ISIS.'... The president of Iraq's semi-autonomus Kurdish region, Masoud Barzani, has long had bad relations with the PKK. But he came to thank them. And many other people in the town of Makhmur also seem grateful. Aram Karim, who was making sandwiches in a shop, said the PKK help was a surprise. The Kurdish camp has been here since the 1990s, but the Turkish Kurds never did any fighting. 'They were always good neighbors,' he said, 'but I like them much more now.... the PKK helped tens of thousands of minority Yazidis escape the advancing Islamic State.... 'I feel there is a very big injustice against the PKK because they put them on a terror list and they classified them as a terror organization,' Eminoglu said. 'I think the whole international community should change its opinion about the PKK.' Many think that's unlikely. Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of three soldiers just this week and has been targeting them with airstrikes.... But when it comes to the PKK's Syrian sister group, the YPG, Barkey thinks there has been a shift. The Syrian Kurdish group is not on the U.S. terror list, and last week, the U.S. airdropped weapons to them.”

I'm very glad to see that the US is furnishing at least some of the Kurdish groups with weapons. The US is closely allied with Turkey, so we don't recognize the PKK, calling them instead a terrorist group. If it is true that they are operating as a terrorist group in Turkey, they need to stop that practice and make peace formally with Turkey. There was a story a couple of weeks ago saying that Turkey was forcibly prohibiting its Kurdish population from crossing the border into Syria and joining the fight there. I don't know why Turkey would care if they fight in Syria or Iraq, as long as they don't combat the Turkish government forces. Of course, if the PKK is a committed enemy to Turkey, they would be an even more dangerous enemy if they were well armed. The interrelations between groups in the Middle East are so complex and filled with hostility that it's no wonder so many of the countries there are basically unstable. In the case of the Palestinians, they are not acknowledged by the US, among others, as a nation at all, yet they are clearly a unified culture. Likewise with Kurdistan. See the following article on the Kurds in Wikipedia. Wikipedia shows them to be truly ancient, going back to the time of the Assyrians. Look below at the article on DNA studies of Kurdistan.


Kurds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kurds (Kurdish: کورد Kurd) are an ethnic group in theMiddle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which spans adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They are an Iranian people and speak the Kurdish languages, which form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian branch ofIranian languages.[22]

The Kurds number about 30 million, the majority living in West Asia, including significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey outside of Kurdistan. A recent Kurdish diaspora has developed in Western countries, primarily in Germany. The Kurds are in the majority in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan and are a significant minority group in the neighboring countries Turkey, Syria and Iran, whereKurdish nationalist movements continue to pursue (greater) autonomy.

Contemporary use of Kurdistan refers to large parts of eastern Turkey (Turkish Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan), northwestern Iran (Iranian Kurdistan) and northeastern Syria(Syrian Kurdistan) inhabited mainly by Kurds.[15] Kurdistan roughly encompasses the northwestern Zagros and the eastern Taurus mountain ranges.[16]

Some Kurdish nationalist organizations seek to create an independentnation state of Kurdistan, consisting of some or all of the areas with Kurdish majority, while others campaign for greater Kurdish autonomy within the existing national boundaries.[17][18] Iraqi Kurdistan first gained autonomous status in a 1970 agreement with the Iraqi government, and its status was re-confirmed as an autonomous entity within the federal Iraqi republic in 2005.[19] There is a province by the name Kurdistan in Iran; it is not self-ruled. Kurds fighting in the Syrian Civil War were able to take control of large sections of northeast Syria as forces loyal to al-Assad withdrew to fight elsewhere. Having established their own government, some Kurds called for autonomy in a democratic Syria; others hoped to establish an independent Kurdistan.[20]

One of the earliest records of the phrase land of the Kurds is found in anAssyrian Christian document of late antiquity, describing the stories of Assyrian saints of the Middle East, such as the Abdisho. When the SassanidMarzban asked Mar Abdisho about his place of origin, he replied that according to his parents, they were originally from Hazza, a village in Assyria. However they were later driven out of Hazza by pagans, and settled inTamanon, which according to Abdisho was in the land of the Kurds. Tamanon lies just north of the modern Iraq-Turkey border, while Hazza is 12 km southwest of modern Irbil. In another passage in the same document, the region of the Khabur River is also identified as land of the Kurds.[28]

The Kurds are a people of Indo-European origin. They speak an Iranian language known as Kurdish, and comprise the majority of the population of the region – however, included therein are Arab, Armenian, Assyrian, Azeri, Jewish,Ossetian, Persian, and Turkic communities. Most inhabitants are Muslim, but adherents to other religions are present as well – including Yazidis, the Yarsan, Alevis, Christians,[53] and Jews.[54]



http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/kurds.html

Kurdish Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries
Family Tree DNA

DNA studies from 2005 to 2011 are abstracted in this article, which is long and goes into very technical detail. It does give some summarized information, however. The Kurds are genetically linked with the Jews, Yazidi, Georgians, and to “the European gene pool.” “'In comparison with data available from other relevant populations in the region, Jews were found to be more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks, and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors." “ According to the current results, present-day Kurds and Azeris of Iran seem to belong to a common genetic pool." “Genetic analysis has shown that the Kurdish people are closely related to the Azeri, Armenian, Georgian, and Jewish peoples, descending from some common ancestors in the northern Near East region.”

Kurds were promised an independent nation in 1920 by the Treaty of Sèvres but never got one. The Kurds' identity — even their use of the Kurdish language — was widely suppressed in Turkey and Syria. In Iraq beginning in the 1990s the Kurds managed to assert their political autonomy but they are still part of that country and since the fall of Saddam Hussein they've reintegrated into the countrywide Iraqi political system.




Pope Says God Not 'A Magician, With A Magic Wand' – NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
October 28, 2014

In a move that could be aimed at healing a rift between science and religion, Pope Francis has said that evolution and the Big Bang are consistent with the notion of a creator. And according to the pontiff, believers should not view God as "a magician, with a magic wand."

Francis made the remarks at an assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, billed as meeting to discuss "Evolving Concepts of Nature."

"When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so," Francis told the gathering, where he also dedicated a statue of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. God, Francis said, "created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment."

To be sure, the Catholic Church's views on the origins of the universe and life, unlike those of many Protestant sects, have for years been largely in line with the scientific consensus. The church has long leaned toward what some describe as "theistic evolution," i.e., a God supernaturally created the universe and life but allowed natural processes to work over billions of years.

In 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed that evolution was not at odds with Catholic teachings, and Pope John Paul II endorsed the view himself in 1996.

However, Pope Benedict hinted at accommodating "intelligent design," a form of creationism that has become popular in many religious circles in recent decades.

(As an aside, a recent Chapman University survey showed that more Americans believe in the lost civilization of Atlantis and that "UFOs are probably spaceships" than in evolution, and that as many people believed in Bigfoot as in the Big Bang.)

The Associated Press notes: "Francis has gone out of his way to embrace Benedict even as he steers the church on a vastly different course than that charted by the German theologian."

Francis' remarks are in keeping with a more open view he has taken to church matters and the intersection between the spiritual and secular worlds since becoming pope last year.

He has downplayed the importance of such hot-button issues as abortion, contraception and gay marriage, denounced the "cult of money," and even said that atheists can be redeemed.

But earlier this month, a group of bishops meeting at the Vatican showed that the church as a whole remains deeply divided on many of those issues.




"'When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,' Francis told the gathering, where he also dedicated a statue of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. God, Francis said, 'created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment.'... (As an aside, a recent Chapman University survey showed that more Americans believe in the lost civilization of Atlantis and that 'UFOs are probably spaceships' than in evolution, and that as many people believed in Bigfoot as in the Big Bang.)... He has downplayed the importance of such hot-button issues as abortion, contraception and gay marriage, denounced the 'cult of money,' and even said that atheists can be redeemed. But earlier this month, a group of bishops meeting at the Vatican showed that the church as a whole remains deeply divided on many of those issues.”

Here is another proof that Pope Francis is a rational man who stresses the things that Jesus taught, such as helping the poor, over dogma. He speaks of the human tendency to worship money, especially ones own money, as a cult. I think that is a very good description of the modern-day Republican/ultra-conservative view of wealth as the ultimate goal in life, the proof of all virtue, and the holy “marketplace” as the ultimate judge. It is not surprising that his congregation is “divided” over these issues. They have been taught that the hot button issues described above are the teachings of Jesus. That is funny to me, because those are all modern issues that Jesus never mentioned.

The use of the death penalty was not mentioned here, but many Catholics and other Christians are opposed to it. The Pope in some other news articles has been softer toward many of the social issues as being forgivable. See the following from IBTimes. http://www.ibtimes.com/catholic-pope-francis-talks-sex-marriage-divorce-vatican-synod-meeting-1701174 in the article titled Marriage, Divorce At Vatican Synod Meeting of October 8, 2014, quotes him as saying, “The procedures for the annulment of marriage must be looked into,” the Pope said in May. “The faith with which a person enters marriage must also be examined, and we also need to make it clear that the divorced are not excommunicated. So often they are treated as though they have been excommunicated.”



DEATH PENALTY LAW

China May Drop 9 Crimes From List Of Death Penalty Offenses – NPR
by FRANK LANGFITT
October 28, 2014

Chinese lawmakers are considering removing nine crimes from eligibility for the death penalty. A draft amendment to that effect went to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in Beijing this week. It appears to be part of a trend to reduce the use of the death penalty in a country that still executes more people than any other.

Legislators are considering striking the use of the death penalty for such offenses as weapons smuggling, counterfeiting, forcing others into prostitution, and spreading rumors to mislead others during wartime, according to the New China News Service. The maximum punishment for those crimes would become life imprisonment, though it was not immediately clear how many people are actually executed for those offenses now.

In 2011, China dropped the death penalty for 13 non-violent, economic crimes, including smuggling of culture relics as well as gold and silver. That move, though, was seen as largely symbolic. Fifty-five crimes are still punishable by death.

The move to reduce use of the death penalty is driven by concerns about miscarriages of justice in a legal system that has been known in the past for forced confessions and a 99-percent conviction rate.

The number of people executed in China remains a secret, but human rights activists believe it is in significant decline. In 2002, China executed about 12,000 people. The Duihua Foundation, a human rights group based in San Francisco, estimates the number last year was around 2,400.




“Chinese lawmakers are considering removing nine crimes from eligibility for the death penalty. A draft amendment to that effect went to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in Beijing this week. It appears to be part of a trend to reduce the use of the death penalty in a country that still executes more people than any other. Legislators are considering striking the use of the death penalty for such offenses as weapons smuggling, counterfeiting, forcing others into prostitution, and spreading rumors to mislead others during wartime, according to the New China News Service. The maximum punishment for those crimes would become life imprisonment, though it was not immediately clear how many people are actually executed for those offenses now. In 2011, China dropped the death penalty for 13 non-violent, economic crimes, including smuggling of culture relics as well as gold and silver. That move, though, was seen as largely symbolic. Fifty-five crimes are still punishable by death.... In 2002, China executed about 12,000 people. The Duihua Foundation, a human rights group based in San Francisco, estimates the number last year was around 2,400.”

I am glad to see that the courts in China have become concerned about unjust convictions due to “forced confessions and a 99-percent conviction rate.” That still happens quietly in the US under unscrupulous police officers, as a kind of short-cut to solving the crime by examining the evidence. Just pick a minority individual and beat a confession out of him. I don't believe that happens here as often now, since John Q Public has become very concerned about such unjust events. The fear that the innocent have been convicted is a large part of why I am unconvinced on the subject of the death penalty. The Innocence Project has freed too many of our criminals by the use of DNA evidence for me to feel sure that everyone in prison is guilty of a crime.

Unlike many Democrats, if the police have developed a really solid case by DNA evidence on a child rape and murder charge, or egregious torture, rape and murder of anyone, I feel that the criminal should be executed. As long as faulty execution methods are being used, however, such as chemical cocktails that don't work rapidly and painlessly, I would rather see life in prison without parole.

Some of the crimes listed as resulting in the death penalty in China did surprise me, especially counterfeiting and “spreading rumors” during wartime. Those don't sound like capital crimes to me, even though the US has high penalties for spying. The following several Wikipedia articles provide a summary of the law in the UK and the US on the subject.


Capital punishment in the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was used from the creation of the state in 1707 until the practice was abolished in the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom were by hanging, and took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder (in 1965 in Great Britain and in 1973 in Northern Ireland). Although not applied since, the death penalty was abolished in all circumstances in 1998. In 2004 the 13th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights became binding on the United Kingdom, prohibiting the restoration of the death penalty for as long as the UK is a party to the Convention.[1]


Capital punishment by the United States federal government
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United States federal government (in comparison to the separate states) applies the death penalty for certain crimes: treason, espionage, federal murder, large-scale drug trafficking, and attempting to kill a witness, juror, or court officer in certain cases. Executions by the federal government have been rare compared to those by state governments. Twenty-six federal (including military) executions have been carried out since 1950. Three of those (none of them military) have occurred in the modern post-Gregg era. This list only includes those executed under federal jurisdiction. The Federal Bureau of Prisons manages the housing and execution of federal death row prisoners. As of January 19, 2014, fifty-nine people are on the federal death row for men at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana; while the two women on the federal death row are at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.[1]

Gregg v. Georgia, Proffitt v. Florida, Jurek v. Texas, Woodson v. North Carolina, and Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 153 (1976), reaffirmed the United States Supreme Court's acceptance of the use of the death penalty in the United States, upholding, in particular, the death sentence imposed on Troy Leon Gregg. Referred to by a leading scholar as the July 2 Cases[1] and elsewhere referred to by the lead case Gregg, the Supreme Court set forth the two main features that capital sentencing procedures must employ in order to comply with theEighth Amendment ban on "cruel and unusual punishments." The decision essentially ended the de facto moratorium on the death penalty imposed by the Court in its 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia 408 U.S. 238 (1972).

Troy Leon Gregg (1953 – July 29, 1980) was the first condemned individual whose death sentence was upheld by the United States Supreme Court after the Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia invalidated all previously enacted death penalty laws in the United States. Gregg was convicted of having murdered Fred Edward Simmons and Bob Durwood Moore in order to rob them. The victims had given him and another man, Dennis Weaver, a ride when they were hitchhiking. The crime occurred on November 21, 1973.



EBOLA – TWO ARTICLES


Blood Test For Ebola Doesn't Catch Infection Early – NPR
by RICHARD HARRIS
October 28, 2014

Photograph – Magnified 25,000 times, this digitally colorized scanning electron micrograph shows Ebola virus particles (green) budding from an infected cell (blue).

In an ideal world, health care workers returning from West Africa would get a quick blood test to prove they aren't carrying the Ebola virus. A test like that would likely put to rest some of the anxiety surrounding these doctors, nurses and scientists.

Unfortunately, even the best blood test in the world can't do that.

The test uses a technology called PCR, for polymerase chain reaction. It can detect extraordinarily small traces of genetic material from the Ebola virus.

But the catch is, the test is usually used on blood samples. And in the beginning, that's not where the Ebola virus hides.

"The initial sites of replication actually are not in the blood itself — they're mostly in tissues like spleen or liver," says Thomas Geisbert, a microbiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

It's not practical to sample these organs to look for Ebola. But the virus doesn't stay there forever, Geisbert explains. As the infection grows, virus particles are gradually released into the blood, as well.

And as soon as a small amount of virus ends up in the blood, PCR will detect it. It can find one or two virus particles in a drop of blood. That concentration is so low, Geisbert says, that an infected person's body fluids pose a minuscule risk to others at that stage. The problem is, that can change pretty quickly.

"As the disease progresses, and people start to get sick," he says, "in that same small drop of blood [there can be] 100 particles — or a thousand particles."

That's the point when body fluids do pose a risk. It's also the moment when the infected person starts to feel sick.

"You're going to start to detect the virus at about the same time you're going to have clinical signs of disease," Geisbert says.

So — sensitive as the PCR test is — it doesn't reliably give you much advance warning that a person is infected.

On the plus side, this pattern of infection also explains why people infected with Ebola aren't a risk to others until they actually fall ill with symptoms.



“Unfortunately, even the best blood test in the world can't do that. The test uses a technology called PCR, for polymerase chain reaction. It can detect extraordinarily small traces of genetic material from the Ebola virus. But the catch is, the test is usually used on blood samples. And in the beginning, that's not where the Ebola virus hides. 'The initial sites of replication actually are not in the blood itself — they're mostly in tissues like spleen or liver,' says Thomas Geisbert, a microbiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.... And as soon as a small amount of virus ends up in the blood, PCR will detect it. It can find one or two virus particles in a drop of blood. That concentration is so low, Geisbert says, that an infected person's body fluids pose a minuscule risk to others at that stage. The problem is, that can change pretty quickly. 'As the disease progresses, and people start to get sick,' he says, 'in that same small drop of blood [there can be] 100 particles — or a thousand particles.' That's the point when body fluids do pose a risk. It's also the moment when the infected person starts to feel sick....

“On the plus side, this pattern of infection also explains why people infected with Ebola aren't a risk to others until they actually fall ill with symptoms.” This is the first proof I've seen that people who don't have symptoms yet are not contagious. I still feel uneasy about cases such as the most recent US doctor to become ill, who “felt weak” while running the day before he developed any fever. I think at the airports all they are really doing is testing for fever and questioning the travelers about their trip, unless a traveler did begin to vomit while on the airplane. One case of that did occur, though the man tested negatively for Ebola.

Finally, in all the reports I've seen, airport encounters are all that have discussed in the news. People walking across the Mexican or Canadian border, or sailing into a seaport haven't been mentioned, it seems. Hopefully every traveler at every port of entry or border crossing is being questioned and tested for fever or other signs of illness. We can only do our best, but we should do that much.



Emory Hospital Shares Lessons Learned On Ebola Care – NPR
by JIM BURRESS
October 29, 2014

Atlanta's Emory University Hospital got the first call at the end of July. An American doctor who'd been treating Ebola in Liberia was now terribly sick with the virus himself. In just 72 hours, Dr. Kent Brantly would be coming through Emory's doors. Then, almost immediately, the staff learned that a second Ebola patient was also on the way. Dr. Jay Varkey's first thought was, "What do we need today, in order to care for these patients tomorrow?"

In the three months since, Emory has treated four Ebola patients; all survived. Most recently, Dallas nurse Amber Vinson spent more than a week in a special treatment unit at Emory before being discharged in restored health and good spirits Tuesday.

"The general dogma in our industry in July was that if patients got so ill they required dialysis or ventilator support, there was no purpose in doing those interventions because they would invariably die," Dr. Bruce Ribner, who heads Emory's Ebola team, told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. Emory, he said, proved instead that aggressively treating the illness can be effective.

Emory's plan to treat patients who have diseases like Ebola actually began 12 years ago. That's when the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started working with the hospital to create a special isolation unit.

Since then, Varkey says, a core team of health workers has trained yearly and held practice drills every six months to stay sharp — ready for whatever infectious disease comes their way. Once, in 2005, the unit was used for a suspected SARScase that turned out to be negative.

But in July, with two Ebola patients on the way, it quickly became clear that Emory's specially-trained team was too small, says Nancy Feistritzer, the hospital's chief of nursing.

Critical care nurses volunteered to help fill in the gaps, but weren't part of the core group that had long practiced for this day. The expanded team had to quickly train — and not everybody made the cut.

Once all the team members were in place, they focused on supportive care of these patients — administering IV fluids and preventing infections.

"The true cure for Ebola virus is keeping the patient alive long enough to develop the antibodies that will cause them to get over the infection," Varkey says.

Emory learned lessons, big and small, from each case, he says.

For example, just increasing the amount of working space around patients sick with Ebola helped a lot, he says. So did "having a hand sanitizer dispenser available, that wouldn't require us to actually touch it with a gloved hand."

In Emory's experience, nurses on the Ebola unit who started out on 8-hour shifts, preferred 12-hour rotations instead. And caring for the emotional health of patients in isolation is as important as promoting physical well-being, the staff learned.

Team members also worked hard to coordinate their efforts. From top administrators to waste management crews, to pharmacists and lab technicians — every department played a role.

"Every morning the team meets to discuss what worked well, what might be refined," Feistritzer says, looking for lessons that might be put into practice the next shift, or the next day.

The Emory team doesn't claim to have all the right answers, Varkey says. But what they do know, they're sharing.

"Our entire 84-page document, in terms of our protocols," he says, "is now available to any person who wants to access that on the web."
Those protocols went live a week ago. So far, more than 11,300 people have registered to get access to them.

This story is part of a reporting partnership between NPR, WABE and Kaiser Health News.




“Emory's plan to treat patients who have diseases like Ebola actually began 12 years ago. That's when the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started working with the hospital to create a special isolation unit. Since then, Varkey says, a core team of health workers has trained yearly and held practice drills every six months to stay sharp — ready for whatever infectious disease comes their way. Once, in 2005, the unit was used for a suspected SARScase that turned out to be negative. But in July, with two Ebola patients on the way, it quickly became clear that Emory's specially-trained team was too small, says Nancy Feistritzer, the hospital's chief of nursing.... Once all the team members were in place, they focused on supportive care of these patients — administering IV fluids and preventing infections. 'The true cure for Ebola virus is keeping the patient alive long enough to develop the antibodies that will cause them to get over the infection,' Varkey says.... For example, just increasing the amount of working space around patients sick with Ebola helped a lot, he says. So did 'having a hand sanitizer dispenser available, that wouldn't require us to actually touch it with a gloved hand.' In Emory's experience, nurses on the Ebola unit who started out on 8-hour shifts, preferred 12-hour rotations instead. And caring for the emotional health of patients in isolation is as important as promoting physical well-being, the staff learned. Team members also worked hard to coordinate their efforts. From top administrators to waste management crews, to pharmacists and lab technicians — every department played a role.... 'Our entire 84-page document, in terms of our protocols,' he says, 'is now available to any person who wants to access that on the web.' Those protocols went live a week ago. So far, more than 11,300 people have registered to get access to them.”

Personally I won't try to read 84 pages of information on Ebola, but it's good that professionals in the field will have easy access to Emory's acquired knowledge. I am delighted that an unpleasant tasting, but easy to make , drink is saving people who don't have access to an antiviral agent or antibodies. It's sugar, salt and a quart of water, to be drunk endlessly as long as they are suffering from stomach symptoms which are dehydrating. That can be found in an NPR article from the last several days. The simple replacement of bodily fluids can keep the patient alive long enough for his own immunity system to create antibodies which will fight the virus, and if they are not replaced he will almost surely die. We still need a vaccine, though, which can be given to everybody in those parts of Africa that foster the disease, probably by the eating of fruit bats. Several kinds of bats have been found to have ebola virus in their blood. If a vaccine can provide full immunity it can save a whole continent from the next epidemic – and there will surely be another one.