Thursday, November 13, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Mitch McConnell slams U.S.-China climate deal
By REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS
November 12, 2014, 12:10 PM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, the likely majority leader when the new Congress begins in January, is already butting heads with President Obama on his agenda.

At a photo op with the incoming members of the Senate, McConnell said he was "particularly distressed" by President Obama's announcement Wednesday that the U.S. and China had reached a "historic agreement" to reduce greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.

McConnell cited the deal as evidence that the president has no plans to move toward the middle to work with the new Congress, which will be under total Republican control for the first time during his presidency.

"I was particularly distressed by the deal that he has apparently reached with the Chinese on his current trip, which as I read the agreement requires the Chinese to do nothing at all for 16 years, while these carbon emissions regulations are creating havoc in my state and other states around the country," McConnell said in response to a question from CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes. "I would welcome the president moving toward the middle. I have said before I hope we can do some business on trade and maybe tax reform. First indications have not been very helpful."

Under the agreement, the U.S. will speed up the rate at which it cuts pollution, aiming to reduce emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025. China, which is still building coal plants and seeing rising emissions, does not commit to a specific percentage cut. Instead, Chinese President Xi Jinping set a target date of 2030 or earlier for the emissions to peak.



http://www.pbl.nl/en/publications/trends-in-global-co2-emissions-2013-report

Trends in global CO2 emissions: 2013 report
Author
Jos Olivier, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Marilena Muntean, Jeroen Peters
Report no.
1148
Report | 31-10-2013

Actual global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) reached a new record of 34.5 billion tonnes in 2012. Yet, the increase in global CO2 emissions in that year slowed down to 1.1% (or 1.4%, not accounting the extra day in the leap year), which was less than half the average annual increase of 2.9% over the last decade. This development signals a shift towards less fossil-fuel-intensive activities, more use of renewable energy and increased energy saving.

2012 sees slowdown in the increase in global CO2 emissions

Three countries/regions remain responsible for 55% of total global CO2 emissions. Of these three, China (29% share) increased its CO2emissions by 3%, which is low compared with annual increases of about 10% over the last decade. Although China's CO2 emissions per capita are comparable to those in the EU and almost half of the US emissions per capita, its CO2 emissions per USD in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are almost double those in the EU and the United States and similar to those in the Russian Federation. In the United States (16% share) CO2emissions decreased by 4%, mainly because of a further shift from coal to gas in the power sector. The European Union (11% share) saw its emissions decrease by 1.6%, mainly due to a decrease in energy consumption ( oil and gas) and a decrease in road freight transport.

An accelerated growth in renewable energy

Energy carriers in the primary energy supply all showed continuous increases over the past decade, except for nuclear energy, which decreased since 2012 in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident. Renewable energy has shown an accelerated increase since 2002: the use of hydropower has shown an accelerated growth since 2002 and its output increased by 4.3% from 2011 to 2012. The share of the ‘new’ renewable energy sources solar, wind energy and biofuels also increased at an accelerating speed: from 1992 it took 15 years for the share to double from 0.5% to 1.1%, but only 6 more years to do so again, to 2.4% by 2012.

More permanent slowdown?

The small increase in emissions of 1.1% in 2012 (including a downward correction of 0.3% for it being a leap year), may be the first sign of a more permanent slowdown in the increase in global CO2 emissions, and ultimately of declining global emissions, if (a) China achieves its own target for a maximum level of energy consumption by 2015 and its shift to gas with a natural gas share of 10% by 2020; (b) the United States continues a shift in its energy mix towards more gas and renewable energy; and (c) in the European Union, Member States agree on restoring the effectiveness of the EU Emissions Trading System to further reduce actual emissions. These preliminary estimates have been made by PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

The report is based on recent results from the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) and the latest statistics on energy use and various other activities.


www.pbl.nl – “Three countries/regions remain responsible for 55% of total global CO2 emissions. Of these three, China (29% share) increased its CO2emissions by 3%.... In the United States (16% share) CO2emissions decreased by 4%, mainly because of a further shift from coal to gas in the power sector. The European Union (11% share) saw its emissions decrease by 1.6%, mainly due to a decrease in energy consumption ( oil and gas) and a decrease in road freight transport.... ...may be the first sign of a more permanent slowdown in the increase in global CO2 emissions, and ultimately of declining global emissions, if (a) China achieves its own target for a maximum level of energy consumption by 2015 and its shift to gas with a natural gas share of 10% by 2020; (b) the United States continues a shift in its energy mix towards more gas and renewable energy; and (c) in the European Union, Member States agree on restoring the effectiveness of the EU Emissions Trading System.”

CBS NEWS – “McConnell cited the deal as evidence that the president has no plans to move toward the middle to work with the new Congress, which will be under total Republican control for the first time during his presidency.... '… which as I read the agreement requires the Chinese to do nothing at all for 16 years, while these carbon emissions regulations are creating havoc in my state and other states around the country,'... Under the agreement, the U.S. will speed up the rate at which it cuts pollution, aiming to reduce emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025. China, which is still building coal plants and seeing rising emissions, does not commit to a specific percentage cut. Instead, Chinese President Xi Jinping set a target date of 2030 or earlier for the emissions to peak.”

“In the United States (16% share) CO2 emissions decreased by 4%, mainly because of a further shift from coal to gas in the power sector.” When I was young the responsible people said that doing good is its own reward. We have gotten the Chinese to talk in terms of reductions, with a deadline in mind. We, I am proud to say, have reduced our emissions by 4% and are in a continuing trend of shifting toward gas and renewables. Our emissions are expected to be reduced by 26 to 28 % by 2025. China gives its projected date of increase to peak in 2030. It is in a growth phase and can't or doesn't want to slow down carbon emissions.

Besides, China has a population of 1,367,850,000 as compared to the US figure of 319,077,00. India is between the two at 1,262,380,000. It was not compared in this article on its CO2 emission rate. See this Wall Street Journal article, at website http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/12/04/india-carbon-emissions-at-disturbing-levels/, which says the following – “The report, published Monday, found India was the world’s fourth largest carbon dioxide polluter, accounting for 7% of total carbon emissions in 2011. China topped the list, pumping about 23% of the world’s total carbon dioxide last year, followed by the U.S. And European Union, which accounted for 16% and 11%, respectively. True, India’s carbon emissions are still significantly lower than those of the U.S. or China, but with an annual growth rate as high as 7.5%, experts warn that may not be the case for long. 'India’s carbon levels will be at par with China, if not higher, by 2020,' says Corinne Le Quéré, a professor who specializes in climate change and who headed UEA’s research study. “The rates at which India’s carbon levels are multiplying… It’s certainly disturbing,” she said in an interview.”

Just because China didn't promise any specific CO2 rates and India is not making much progress at all, these are not reasons for the US to stop cutting back on the use of coal and oil, compared to natural gas and our burgeoning renewable technologies. Natural gas is a problem as long as so much of it comes from fracking, though. The trend is moving toward a noticeable increase in solar, wind, etc., as has been in the news a number of times this year. We are making progress, leading the world, and we should continue to do so.

The coal mining industry is not going to go bankrupt any time soon from the reduced demand, so McConnell's local source of coal mining votes in Kentucky will remain on his side. To achieve a reduction in CO2 so that global warming will be slowed down, we must continue to develop alternate energy and install it across the country in more and more homes and businesses, as is happening already. The science on renewables is improving all the time, and Obama is doing the right thing to sign the agreement with China. I'm proud of him and of us as a country.





After Solyndra Loss, U.S. Energy Loan Program Turning A Profit – NPR
By Jeff Brady
November 13, 2014

In 2011, solar panel company Solyndra defaulted on a $535 million loan guaranteed by the Department of Energy. The agency had a few other high-profile bankruptcies, too — electric car company Fisker and solar company Abound among them. But now that loan program has started turning a profit.

Overall, the agency has loaned $34.2 billion to a variety of businesses, under a program designed to speed up development of clean-energy technology. Companies have defaulted on $780 million of that — a loss rate of 2.28 percent. The agency also has collected $810 million in interest payments, putting the program $30 million in the black.

When Congress created the loan program under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, it was never designed to be a moneymaker. In fact, Congress imagined there would be losses and set aside $10 billion to cover them.

Still, when the Solyndra case emerged Republicans on Capitol Hill had pointed criticism for the Obama administration. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., called the Solyndra case "disgusting" and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, labeled it "a colossal failure." The conservative group Americans for Prosperity produced a television ad accusing President Obama of paying back campaign contributors.

There was an FBI raid on Solyndra's headquarters and an investigation but so far, no prosecutions. Now that the loan program is turning a profit, those critics are silent. They either declined or ignored NPR's requests for comment. And with that, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz wants to change your perception of his agency's loan program.

"It literally kick-started the whole utility-scale photovoltaic industry," Moniz says. The program funded the first of five huge solar projects in the West. Moniz says before that developers couldn't get money from private lenders. But now, with proven business models, they can.

The Energy Department actively monitors all the companies in its portfolio for potential default risks, "And when there are warning flags, then the disbursements are suspended — possibly ended," Moniz says.

But he says the Energy Department doesn't want to go too far in the direction of only lending to safe investments. "We have to be careful that we don't walk away from risk, because otherwise we're not really going to advance the marketplace," he says.

Moniz points to a small company called Beacon Power as an example. It got an Energy Department loan, went bankrupt and defaulted on about $14 million in debt. Today the company is back in business, providing a valuable service to electricity grids and repaying the rest of its loan.

In eastern Pennsylvania, one of Beacon's facilities sits on four acres in an industrial park. Underground are 200 black flywheels that are each seven feet tall, three feet around and weigh 2,000 pounds. They spin faster when storing energy and slow down when releasing it.

"We're recycling excess energy that's on the power grid and then putting it back into the grid when it's needed," explains President and CEO Barry Brits. He says the flywheels are essentially mechanical batteries.

But unlike the battery in your cell phone it doesn't wear out over time. "What's unique about the flywheel is that it really is unlimited in terms of the number of times it can charge and discharge," Brits says.

Being able to store electricity is important because wind and solar generators only produce power when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. That can make life difficult for grid operators who must balance the amount of electricity produced with how much is used. Storing power — even for brief periods — gives them more flexibility and makes it easier to include intermittent forms of renewable generation on the grid.

Brits says the Department of Energy loan allowed his company to test and then improve its flywheels. "Our technology is now well-proven. We have over 7 million operating hours," he says, adding that building a plant costs half of what it did three years ago.

Despite early missteps, the Department of Energy is ready to invest in more projects that could advance clean energy technology in the U.S. Moniz says his agency has about $40 billion to lend in coming years.




“But now that loan program has started turning a profit. Overall, the agency has loaned $34.2 billion to a variety of businesses, under a program designed to speed up development of clean-energy technology. Companies have defaulted on $780 million of that — a loss rate of 2.28 percent. The agency also has collected $810 million in interest payments, putting the program $30 million in the black.... There was an FBI raid on Solyndra's headquarters and an investigation but so far, no prosecutions. Now that the loan program is turning a profit, those critics are silent. They either declined or ignored NPR's requests for comment. And with that, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz wants to change your perception of his agency's loan program. 'It literally kick-started the whole utility-scale photovoltaic industry,' Moniz says. The program funded the first of five huge solar projects in the West. Moniz says before that developers couldn't get money from private lenders. But now, with proven business models, they can.... But he says the Energy Department doesn't want to go too far in the direction of only lending to safe investments. 'We have to be careful that we don't walk away from risk, because otherwise we're not really going to advance the marketplace,' he says.... It got an Energy Department loan, went bankrupt and defaulted on about $14 million in debt. Today the company is back in business, providing a valuable service to electricity grids and repaying the rest of its loan.... ...flywheels that are each seven feet tall, three feet around and weigh 2,000 pounds. They spin faster when storing energy and slow down when releasing it. 'We're recycling excess energy that's on the power grid and then putting it back into the grid when it's needed,' explains President and CEO Barry Brits. He says the flywheels are essentially mechanical batteries.... That can make life difficult for grid operators who must balance the amount of electricity produced with how much is used. Storing power — even for brief periods — gives them more flexibility and makes it easier to include intermittent forms of renewable generation on the grid.”

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 has not been a failure, as Republicans claimed, calling it “disgusting,” but something that gave enough money to entrepreneurs to grow their technology at an encouraging and steady pace. “Building a plant costs half of what it did three years ago;” and new technology like the use of flywheels to regulate the flow of energy and store it in batteries has developed, solving the basic problem of what to do when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.

“Despite early missteps, the Department of Energy is ready to invest in more projects that could advance clean energy technology in the U.S. As with any scientific research and development, it requires funding. If private business won't fund experimental work, the government has to do it.” Old power sources, coal and oil, in which the Republicans and the established energy businesses have been heavily invested, are no longer the only viable methods. Solar does require individual consumers to invest a hefty amount of money into solar panels, batteries, etc., and only solidly Middle Class people can afford it, but where it has been installed on homes and businesses the buyers have reduced their power bills drastically. It does work. I'm expecting more and more progress with solar and wind and a number of other more unusual power sources. See the very interesting article at website “http://listverse.com/2009/05/01/top-10-renewable-energy-sources/.” It's definitely a growing field, and certain to provide a reduction of CO2.






Common Core Reading: The High Achievers – NPR
By Emily Hanford
November 13, 2014

Linnea Wolters was prepared to hate the Common Core State Standards.

She taught fifth grade at a low-income school in Reno, Nev., where, she says, there was always some new plan to improve things. And none of it added up to good education. But, after leading her class through a Core-aligned lesson — a close reading of Emma Lazarus' sonnet "The New Colossus" — she was intrigued, especially by the way different students reacted to the process.

Many of Wolters' typically low-performing students really engaged with the lesson; they gave it their all. But the higher achievers were resistant, she says.

Other Washoe County teachers who tried early Common Core-aligned lessons with their students noticed this too, says Torrey Palmer, who was a literacy coordinator for the school district.

"High-achieving readers were used to reading very quickly through a text, answering a series of comprehension questions, done," she says. They weren't used to being challenged.

Reno High

Reno High School is one of the top-performing high schools in Washoe County. Many teachers there were initially resistant to the Common Core. They thought: We already have high standards, no need for new ones.

But the Common Core has been good for Reno High, says Brien Karlin, a U.S. history teacher. "Common Core teaches us to teach students better," he says.

I visited Karlin's American government class earlier this year, on the day they did a close reading of an article by Larry Sabato called "Ban the Gerrymander."

Before Karlin handed out the article, he did a quick review of what students had already learned about gerrymandering — the process of drawing voting districts to favor one political party or the other.

The class spent a few minutes reviewing what the U.S. Constitution says about how voting districts can be drawn, and Karlin showed several slides of congressional districts with odd bulges and bends thanks to the politics of boundary drawing.

In the past, a lecture about boundary politics might have taken up the entire class period. But one goal of the Common Core is for students to spend more time reading and analyzing complex texts. Karlin warned his standard-level class of 11th- and 12th-graders:

"It's at a reading level past graduation from high school, so it may be a little bit challenging," he said. "But I'm a firm believer that you guys are able to do hard things."

With that, Karlin divided the students into small groups, passed out the article, and asked them to read it aloud, together. They then tackled a series of questions that required them to cite evidence for their answers.

The first question: "On line 6, the author uses the phrase 'artificially intensified partisanship.' What does he mean by this?"

One group of students was stumped because they weren't sure of the word "intensified." Without defining it for them, Karlin tried to help.

"If something has been intensified, it's become what?" Karlin asked the group.

"Better!" one student blurted out.

"Not necessarily better," Karlin said.

"I can't think of a word," said the student, her face pinched with frustration.

"If a feeling becomes more intense," Karlin asked, "it's become what?"

"Stronger?"

"Good. So intensify means 'making stronger.' "

Karlin then moved on to another group struggling with a different question. He says his students aren't accustomed to reading closely like this. Before the Common Core, they were typically asked to read something and summarize it. Or they might have been asked their opinion about a text.

Students love talking about their opinions, says Karlin. "They go crazy on a 'what do you think of ... ' question. That's kind of like their bread and butter as far as skating by," he says. "But when you actually say, 'Identify three specific arguments that Abraham Lincoln was making in the Gettysburg address,' they struggle there."

One of the things Karlin appreciates most about the Core standards is that they've given him new ideas about how to teach without telling him what to do. He wrote the lesson about gerrymandering himself; it doesn't come from a textbook or a curriculum guide or the district office.

For Karlin and other teachers at Reno High, this is one of the best things about Common Core. It's given them common ground to share lessons with each other — and with teachers around the country.

What Do The Kids Think?

Most of the teachers in Washoe County, Nev., are on board with the Common Core. But what about the students?

Several students at Reno High School who were interviewed for this story admitted they'd never heard of the Core until their teacher told them a reporter was coming to ask them about it. But many have noticed a change in the way they've been learning over the past few years.

"We're doing more reading in my physics class, and we're doing more analysis in my history class," 12th-grader Maddi Eckert says. "The way that we're learning now, it seems to encompass so many more different levels of thought."

Ania Cavillo-Mason says she really liked the close-reading lessons. She remembered using the technique in advanced classes early in high school, but in standard-level classes, lectures and note-taking were far more common.

"It's like you're just getting the basics of everything," she says of lectures. "You're getting, like, a term and a definition and one example, maybe."

But she says close reading is different.

"It feels like the point is to actually learn something and to actually gain something from it," says Cavillo-Mason. "You have to use your brain, and you have to struggle a little bit to figure it out. Once you do, you've actually gained something from it."

Once Those Assessments Come Out

Linnea Wolters is now an implementation specialist for the Washoe County School District; she works with teachers across the district as they try to put the Common Core into practice.

She believes the Core is improving education in Washoe County. She says most kids — high achievers and low achievers — are more engaged in school now.

"You can feel in a classroom when kids care about what they're doing," she says. "You can't learn when you don't care. And if you can create environments where students care deeply about what they're doing, learning will follow," she says.

But, she adds, "I don't have a number to support that."

Much of what happens in education these days comes down to numbers. In other words, test scores. Students in Nevada take their first fully-aligned Common Core tests this spring. Wolters and others are anxious about how students will do.

"Once those scores come out, then systems do crazy things to respond and react to them," says teacher Torrey Palmer.

"My hope is that when the test matches great teaching," Wolters says, "and the teaching produces great thinking, that it will all work itself out."

This story originally appeared as part of American RadioWorks' "Greater Expectations: The Challenge of the Common Core."




“But, after leading her class through a Core-aligned lesson — a close reading of Emma Lazarus' sonnet 'The New Colossus' — she was intrigued, especially by the way different students reacted to the process. Many of Wolters' typically low-performing students really engaged with the lesson; they gave it their all. But the higher achievers were resistant, she says. Other Washoe County teachers who tried early Common Core-aligned lessons with their students noticed this too, says Torrey Palmer, who was a literacy coordinator for the school district. 'High-achieving readers were used to reading very quickly through a text, answering a series of comprehension questions, done,' she says. They weren't used to being challenged.... In the past, a lecture about boundary politics might have taken up the entire class period. But one goal of the Common Core is for students to spend more time reading and analyzing complex texts. Karlin warned his standard-level class of 11th- and 12th-graders: 'It's at a reading level past graduation from high school, so it may be a little bit challenging,' he said. 'But I'm a firm believer that you guys are able to do hard things.'... He says his students aren't accustomed to reading closely like this. Before the Common Core, they were typically asked to read something and summarize it. Or they might have been asked their opinion about a text.... One of the things Karlin appreciates most about the Core standards is that they've given him new ideas about how to teach without telling him what to do. He wrote the lesson about gerrymandering himself; it doesn't come from a textbook or a curriculum guide or the district office.... Several students at Reno High School who were interviewed for this story admitted they'd never heard of the Core until their teacher told them a reporter was coming to ask them about it. But many have noticed a change in the way they've been learning over the past few years. 'We're doing more reading in my physics class, and we're doing more analysis in my history class,' 12th-grader Maddi Eckert says. 'The way that we're learning now, it seems to encompass so many more different levels of thought.'...

“But she says close reading is different. 'It feels like the point is to actually learn something and to actually gain something from it,' says Cavillo-Mason. 'You have to use your brain, and you have to struggle a little bit to figure it out. Once you do, you've actually gained something from it.'” I have noticed that when I have had to think actively to keep up with a professor who was explaining something difficult or complex, I have always enjoyed the process and generally made better grades. I have always enjoyed doing research papers, collecting a great many notes and then writing from them. The more I grasp for something new it causes me to dig into my memory banks for connections, and when I find them I learn much more deeply. I look up unfamiliar words after first guessing at their meaning from the root words and spelling, and add that to my reading of the text. It produces a more complex pattern of information than I would have if I used some simplified summary like “Cliff Notes.” Cliff Notes does give information that is useful, but having something predigested like that doesn't give me nearly as much satisfaction or fun.

I noticed in the article that one of the tasks was to analyze a poem. Some people absolutely hate poetry because it usually isn't very simple and straightforward. I have always enjoyed the thinking process that enables me to understand a poem. One of the best things about poetry is that there are layers of meaning there, and a second reading will bring out more. You can read a good poem numerous times and only enjoy it more as time goes on. It doesn't become boring like a mystery novel that I have already read just a year or so ago. I will inevitably remember who the villain is. One of the most complex poems I ever struggled with was Four Quartets by T S Eliot. Very slowly I read them until parts of it became more clear to me. The more I read the more I liked it. I know that a college professor wouldn't have as much trouble with it as I did, but I enjoyed the way it challenged my mind.

If Common Core can do that on the high school level it will only improve the education that a student gains from his coursework, and exercise his “mental muscles” to gain a better ability to think and process information. Such a student will almost surely, if he has consistently read his assignments as he should, make a higher score on a test like the College Board. Voila! More kids will go to college and get scholarships. Even if they don't want to go to college, they will still be better equipped to think out life problems and be an ethical and active citizen. That's what we need.






40 Percent Of The World's Cropland Is In Or Near Cities – NPR
By Eliza Barclay
November 12, 2014

Urban agriculture is clearly taking off around the world — in backyards, on rooftops and on local farms.

But just how much of the world's cropland can we really call urban? That's been a big mystery.

Now, a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters has an answer: Somewhere around 1.1 billion acres is being cultivated for food in or within about 12 miles (20 kilometers) of cities. Most of that land is on the periphery of cities, but 16.6 percent of these urban farms are in open spaces within the municipal core.

The researchers — who hail from the International Water Management Institute, the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University — looked at a combination of remote-sensing analyses of satellite imagery and agricultural census, population and socioeconomic data. They say theirs is the first global assessment of urban croplands and the water they consume.

Anne Thebo, an environmental engineer at the University of California-Berkeley and the study's lead author, says that the research revealed that a surprisingly large number of urban farms rely on irrigation, especially in South Asia. Since many cities in this region are growing rapidly and already face challenges accessing enough water, these farms end up competing with the city for the scarce resource.

The study "has a lot of interesting implications for urban water management," Thebo tells The Salt.

But even though the analysis found that some 80 percent of the world's urban farms (at least the ones big enough to be visible by satellite) are in the developing world, governments in those countries are not always supportive of them.

As Pay Drechsel, a scientist at the International Water Management Institute and co-author on the paper, notes, what's hip and green in rich nations is viewed as backwards in poorer ones — "an inconvenient vestige of rural life that stands in the way of modernization."

"That's an attitude that needs to change," Drechsel said in a statement.

As we reported in 2012, a survey from the Food and Agriculture Organization found that urban farms in Africa are at risk of being lost to housing and industry.

Thebo notes that her research may be an underestimate of urban farms also because she and the other researchers only considered farmed areas in and around cities with at least 50,000 residents, even though many countries define areas with smaller populations as "urban."




“Now, a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters has an answer: Somewhere around 1.1 billion acres is being cultivated for food in or within about 12 miles (20 kilometers) of cities. Most of that land is on the periphery of cities, but 16.6 percent of these urban farms are in open spaces within the municipal core.... They say theirs is the first global assessment of urban croplands and the water they consume. Anne Thebo, an environmental engineer at the University of California-Berkeley and the study's lead author, says that the research revealed that a surprisingly large number of urban farms rely on irrigation, especially in South Asia. Since many cities in this region are growing rapidly and already face challenges accessing enough water, these farms end up competing with the city for the scarce resource.... But even though the analysis found that some 80 percent of the world's urban farms (at least the ones big enough to be visible by satellite) are in the developing world, governments in those countries are not always supportive of them.... … notes, what's hip and green in rich nations is viewed as backwards in poorer ones — 'an inconvenient vestige of rural life that stands in the way of modernization. 'That's an attitude that needs to change,' Drechsel said in a statement.”

City people have always looked down on those who live in rural areas, especially farming people. In Jane Austen's novels the local gentry went to London for “the season” which was a time when people got together to show off their fine clothing and “connections.” There is always so much more entertainment and wealth concentrated in cities, that city dwellers almost always feel superior to small town and country people. People who live in New York City always look on Southerners with a certain amount of scorn, but those from “Upstate New York,” which is largely small towns and rural country, more often make respectful and affable friends. I noticed that when I lived in Washington DC – a massive melting pot of people from all across the country – where people congregate to take the relatively larger supply of jobs that were linked to the government and the IT firms in Maryland and Northern Virginia. If I hadn't developed arthritis, I would have stayed there longer. It's far enough to the north that the winters are both cold and wet – a very bad combination.

When I lived in DC I remember a large neighborhood garden which had been planted by a number of people who lived there. It cheered me up to see plants growing tall and beautiful in the urban environment. Those gardens have become more common now as Americans have become more conscious of the need for fresh food in cities. I remember a few farmers markets there, too, and they sold a great deal of produce. Freshly picked red tomatoes taste better than those pale, barely ripe ones that came from Florida or California. In those big industrial level farms they pick them barely turning red so they will last longer in the stores, but as a result they haven't had time to develop the full and delicious tomato flavor that a truly vine ripened one has.

One of the most interesting news articles that I reported on within the last 6 months was about an 8 story building in some city – I can't remember where now – which had been filled with growing vegetables of a number of kinds. Water had been piped in. It wasn't hydroponic, so they must have hauled soil in for the bins. That indoor “farm” supplied local stores and farmers markets with produce. The more people crowd their way into more and more cities in this country, there will be a greater need for such locally produced food, and as water becomes more scare it may be more efficient to pipe it into indoor production units like that one to water very selectively. When water is sprayed on the ground in a huge field, much of it goes to waste. Only the roots need to be watered. Daddy taught me that when I was a kid. Spraying water on the whole plant reduces the amount that gets to the root, but if you put the hose on at little more than a trickle and lay it on the ground, the water will slowly soak down to the root area. There is even a type of hose that can be bought which has holes in it for laying alongside a row of plants for several minutes and then moving it to another row. Those hoses provide a smaller amount of water that soaks down to the root rather than washing soil away or wetting the foliage. Water spots in bright sunlight can actually burn little spots on the leaves.

The trend of the last twenty years or so toward “factory farming,” both of animals and plants, dominates now. There are still markets for small local farmers whose land is located just on the outer edges of town. Such locally produced vegetables are preferred by many because they are fresher and often “organic,” or grown without fertilizers and insect or weed killing chemicals. I'm glad to see that, because so much that I grew up with in my life has been superimposed by new and often mass produced goods and processes. There is a private farm just outside of Jacksonville that advertises “pick your own” deals for we city folk who want some truly vine ripened strawberries or tomatoes. I really enjoy getting out and doing that. I have a great need to experience nature up close and savor the taste of such fruit.

When I was young and living in Thomasville, NC, that was a daily part of my life. “Factory farms” just don't cheer me up the way a single field tended by one who loves his plants does. Besides there is an ongoing need for more and more food now, as populations increase in the US. Food banks that serve the poor run out on a frequent basis and are always needing more. What used to be acres and acres of open or wooded land in NC when I was growing up is now settled thickly with Middle Class houses in suburban neighborhoods. The Piedmont of NC has one of the fastest growth rates in the country. A scientific area 50 or so miles to the north, called the Research Triangle Park, is the center of a wide swath of urbanization now. I enjoy the city, but I miss the small and more personable environments of my young days. I'm glad to know that the tradition of neighborhood gardens hasn't died out, but rather is becoming stronger. It's heartwarming and encouraging that we haven't lost the ability to do some simple like grow our own food.






Coal Mines Keep Operating Despite Injuries, Violations And Millions In Fines – NPR
By Howard Berkes, Anna Boiko-Weyrauch, and Robert Benincasa
November 12, 2014

Jack Blankenship was pinned facedown in the dirt, his neck, shoulder and back throbbing with pain.

He was alone on an errand, in a dark tunnel a mile underground at the Aracoma Alma coal mine in Logan County, W.Va., when a 300-pound slab of rock peeled away from the roof and slammed him to the ground. As his legs grew numb, he managed to free an arm and reach his radio. For two hours, he pressed the panic button that was supposed to bring help quickly.

"I couldn't hardly breathe," Blankenship remembered four years later. "I'd black out and come to. I was waiting to die. I'd already had my little talk with God."

Aracoma Alma and then-owner Massey Energy had a history of serious safety problems, including falling rock. In the two years before Blankenship's accident, the mine was cited by federal regulators more than 120 times for rock fall violations, according to records from federal regulators. That included inadequate roof support and deficient safety checks for loose rock..

Citations and the fines that go with them are key components of the federal law designed to protect miners. They are supposed to make violations expensive — costing hundreds of thousands of dollars for the most serious offenses — and create an incentive for mine owners to keep workers safe.

Yet on that December day in 2010, as Blankenship lay pinned and in pain, Aracoma Alma owed $200,000 in overdue mine safety fines, federal records show. The penalty system that is designed to discourage unsafe practices failed Blankenship, and his story is not unique.

Dangerous Delinquents

A joint investigation by NPR and Mine Safety and Health News found that thousands of mine operators fail to pay safety penalties, even as they continue to manage dangerous — and sometimes deadly — mining operations. Most unpaid penalties are between two and 10 years overdue; some go back two decades. And federal regulators seem unable or unwilling to make mine owners pay.

Our joint investigation looked at 20 years of federal mine data through the first quarter of 2014, including details about fines, payments, violations and injuries. We used raw Department of Labor data and delinquency records provided by the Mine Safety and Health Administration to calculate the number of injuries and injury rates, and violations and gravity of violations, at mines with delinquent penalties while they were delinquent.

Among the findings:

2,700 mining company owners failed to pay nearly $70 million in delinquent penalties.

The top nine delinquents owe more than $1 million each.

Mines that don't pay their penalties are more dangerous than mines that do, with injury rates 50 percent higher.

Delinquent mines reported close to 4,000 injuries in the years they failed to pay, including accidents that killed 25 workers and left 58 others with permanent disabilities.

Delinquent mines continued to violate the law, with more than 130,000 violations, while they failed to pay mine safety fines.

Most mine operators pay their penalties, our investigation found. Delinquents account for just 7 percent of the nation's coal, metals and mineral mining companies. But that small subset of the industry is more dangerous than the rest, federal data show.

The violations at delinquent mines included 40,000 that are labeled in government safety records as "Significant and Substantial," which means serious injury or illness were likely if inspectors hadn't intervened. More than 15,000 violations were the kind found in fatal accidents, major disasters or mining deaths, the records also show.

And when those safety records are compared with other government data on coal production, it shows that some of the top delinquents continued to mine coal and reap millions of dollars in revenue while their safety fines remained unpaid.

"Most folks out there, including me, are totally shocked when they find out that ... you can actually just sit around and not pay the fine and keep producing coal and put money in the bank," said Tim Bailey, Blankenship's attorney and a West Virginia native with three generations of coal miners in his family.




“You load sixteen tons, what do you get / Another day older and deeper in debt / Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go / I owe my soul to the company store…” I can still hear the deep, rich, melodious tones of Tennessee Ernie Ford's singing voice in the 1950's. We always sat down in front of the TV to see him. He was not only a wonderful singer, he was a real “hunk.” He was, by today's standards, overweight, but he very clearly looked like a man. His face was gentle and he always put comedy into his performances. He's one of the people I miss.

He sung about the dangerous life of a coal miner. Jack Blankenship is one such miner. Falling rock was a common problem in the mine where he worked, and his employer had numerous citations for such incidents which he had failed to pay. The government is not cracking down on such offenders, NPR and Mine Safety And Health News found when they looked into it. “A joint investigation by NPR and Mine Safety and Health News found that thousands of mine operators fail to pay safety penalties, even as they continue to manage dangerous — and sometimes deadly — mining operations. Most unpaid penalties are between two and 10 years overdue; some go back two decades. And federal regulators seem unable or unwilling to make mine owners pay.”

This is a system of overlooked failures that Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans want to perpetuate. They hate OSHA rules (and any other rules). “Delinquents account for just 7 percent of the nation's coal, metals and mineral mining companies. But that small subset of the industry is more dangerous than the rest, federal data show.... More than 15,000 violations were the kind found in fatal accidents, major disasters or mining deaths, the records also show.”

The statistics NPR found are overwhelmingly convincing. There is a need for a sizable number of those mines to be closed down until they pay their fines and shore up their roofs so that the rocks stop falling. Doing business that way is simply immoral. It's beyond “unethical.” It's greedy and inhumane to put workers through the things mentioned in this article. “2,700 mining company owners failed to pay... the top nine delinquents owe more than $1 million each.... Mines that don't pay their penalties are more dangerous than mines that do, with injury rates 50 percent higher.... Delinquent mines reported close to 4,000 injuries in the years they failed to pay, including accidents that killed 25 workers and left 58 others with permanent disabilities.”

Poor people in this country are not lazy. They are simply underpaid, overworked and abused in too many cases. Employers use the fact that they are uneducated and often black or Hispanic as an excuse. Coal mining, fishing, logging, those are things that people do because they pay fairly well, but they are all dangerous. I remember a chicken processing factory that burned down with the workers inside because the management had locked the doors to keep workers from going outside and smoking. That was in a small city called Hamlet, NC. There wasn't a wide choice of jobs, and people worked there despite despicable conditions. Many times those people are illegal aliens. The employers like them illegal because they will work for under the minimum wage. When I was young my mother worked in a hosiery mill for a few years. She said that they were not allowed to take bathroom breaks except twice a day and at their half hour lunch break. Some women literally lost control of their bladder and wet themselves. It's situations such as these that have been in the public knowledge since I was in my twenties, but they still go on.





For some sex assault victims, rape kits come at a price
By KRIS VAN CLEAVE CBS NEWS
November 12, 2014, 12:04 PM

A week before Christmas 2013 Christine, a sexual assault forensic nurse from suburban Chicago, went out for a night of dinner and drinks with friends. It was a night that forever changed her life.

"I don't remember anything after leaving the dinner portion," Christine told CBS News. "I woke up naked and I don't remember anything else after that."

She was a victim of sexual assault, and would feel victimized again by the hospital where she received a forensic medical exam, commonly known as a rape kit. At her request, CBS News is withholding Christine's last name because she was the victim of a violent crime.

"The next day I got my first bill for my copay," Christine said through tears. "The bills just kept coming after that."

The bills should have never come. Illinois has a voucher system that pays for medical expenses not covered by insurance incurred up to 90 days following a sexual assault.

Since 2005, the federal Violence Against Women Act has prohibited sexual assault survivors from being billed for the forensic collection of evidence, including copays. VAWA requires that the exam, at a minimum, include assessing physical trauma, determination of penetration or force, a patient interview and the collection of evidence. But, sexual assault victim advocates say, the medical guidelines for the rape exam goes beyond what the law provides for. Who pays for that treatment varies by state and at times, county by county.

Victims' advocates in 13 states told CBS News that there were issues with billing for services related to a sexual assault forensic exam in their state. Stretching coast to coast, those advocates described a hodgepodge of laws that for some victims means a rape kit and the associated medical treatment come at a price.

"When you keep getting revictimized once a month you get a reminder in the mail, hey you were raped, hey this happened, you know, it's hard to move on," said Christine.

For Christine, the horror of her assault was made worse by the medical bills that kept coming. She was unable to get out of bed for months. The hospital threatening to send her to collections if she didn't pay was the very same hospital where she'd worked on crafting a sexual assault response protocol.

"It becomes extremely devastating for them and oftentimes triggers reliving the assault itself or the forensic-medical exam," said Sarah Layden, Director of Advocacy Services at Rape Victim Advocates in Chicago.

RVA says it receives as many as six calls a month from survivors of sexual assault who wrongly receive bills. The organization says the errant billing happens at hospitals across the state and at some with regularity.

"It is very common for a survivor to get a bill," Layden said during an interview with CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave. "We have a full time staff advocate who spends the bulk of their time helping clients resolve bills."

The Illinois Department of Public Health says in a statement to CBS News it investigates complaints of patient billing. It requires hospitals found to be out of compliance to provide "evidence of its billing policy and how the hospital will make its system better moving forward."

Earlier this year, reports surfaced of rape victims in Louisiana receiving large medical bills after seeking a rape kit at state-owned LSU Hospitals. Operations of those hospitals had recently been turned over to a private company that ended the state's practice of writing off those related charges.

"For two nights in a row, I was raped and sexually assaulted, most of which I don't remember," a college student, whose name was withheld, told a Louisiana Senate committee during the legislature's first hearing on the billing issue. "It was around $2,000 of which my insurance covered none of it at all."

Hours after her testimony, Governor Bobby Jindal issued an executive order calling for changes to medical billing practices in the state and pledging to work with legislators to change the law.

"I believe that the victim should never be charged," said Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Kathy Kliebert. "The next part of this is that we would work with legislators for next session to make sure providers could bill directly to fund to assure that victims were not billed and that there are statutes in place to make sure the victims are not billed."

The Louisiana Hospital Association acknowledged to state lawmakers during the Oct. 20 hearing that there are a number of inconsistencies across the state and that reimbursement policies vary by hospital.

"We are committed to working through this and try to figure out how to make this as painless for the victim as possible," Sean Prados, Executive Vice President of the Louisiana Hospital Association, told the state Senate Select Committee on Women and Children.

Advocates in Arizona, California, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin all expressed concern about victims receiving bills in their states. The laws are different and the reasons for the charges vary.

Quantifying the scope of the billing issue is challenging. The Department of Justice estimates more than 237,000 sexual assaults occur annually in the United States, but only 40 percent are reported--and other studies put that number even lower. In at least 34 states, a survivor who reports the attack and cooperates with law enforcement may be eligible to have medical bills reimbursed by state-run crime victim compensation funds, according to a 2014 Urban Institute case study. Survivors who choose not to report their attack, such as Christine and the college student who testified in Louisiana, are blocked from accessing that money.

A 2012 AEquitas study found 33 states cover specific "collateral" services to victim care, 15 states will pay for tests for sexually transmitted infections, 15 states cover medications prescribed during the forensic exam, 10 states pay for emergency room and hospital fees, 13 states cover the cost of a pregnancy test, six will pay for emergency contraception and at least two will pay for victims' counseling related to the sexual assault. According to the study, only five states will pay for treatment of injuries caused by the attack, another four states provide payment for reasonable medical care related to the assault. Several states allow the victim's insurance to be billed for uncovered medical expenses.

Delaware does not allow a survivor to be billed. And just last summer Colorado passed a law creating a state fund to pay the entire bill for the forensic medical exam and related charges regardless of reporting after survivors received medical bills for thousands of dollars.

In the majority of cases victims are not billed says Janine Zweig, the lead researcher on the Urban Institute study, "but that left a substantial minority" who, in some fashion were billed.

Her report finds, while victims typically are not billed for the costs associated directly with the forensic collection of evidence, "they might be billed for other services that are not covered by the public payer in state statutes. This distinction may be lost on victims--a bill is a bill."

In six states the payment is left up to the individual counties. Advocates in all six--Minnesota, Kansas, Arizona, South Dakota, Nevada and Louisiana--told CBS News about reports of survivors receiving bills for medical care. In Minnesota that means 87 counties with their own individual policies about what gets paid for and by whom.

The Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault Executive Director Donna Dunn says the system results in inconsistency across the state and "a lot of confusion."

The Urban Institute report concludes "victims in some portions of the states may have more services paid for...than do victims in other portions of the states."

"We have heard anecdotally that this is a significant issue," says Allie Bones, the CEO of Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. Her office just hired someone to study the hospital billing practices in the state.

"The choice to go to the hospital to get the exam is not theirs to make. It's the only place to get it," she said.

Advocates in Nebraska cited several examples of victims receiving bills in the last six months alone. It's a similar story in South Dakota and Kansas where some survivors may be billed for medical treatment associated with the forensic exam and can languish in a system advocates say can be hard for survivors to navigate. In Nevada, the county is required to pay for all medical care in the first 72 hours, but in rural counties there have been reports of victims being billed anyway. While the numbers are likely small, so is the population in smaller Nevada counties and advocates admit a small number of people could still be a big problem.

In essence, while the medical treatment a sexual assault survivor receives during a forensic medical exam is similar nationwide, who pays for that care varies widely. The end result is a patient may end up being billed for a service that a patient in another state may not.

For victims in California, the bill for the exam goes to law enforcement, but the state law does not require medical care beyond the scope of the federal requirements to be paid by that agency. Those who choose not to report to law enforcement may ultimately find they themselves, or their insurance, billed for those costs.

"It's not something that people expect at all," says Sandra Henriquez, the Executive Director of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She believes the state's victim compensation fund should cover rape kit-related medical costs for all survivors.

"It's a matter of prioritization," she said. "I think they should have to pay for it and not have survivors revicitimized by getting a bill."

Maryland hospitals are not supposed to bill for related medical costs, but there remains confusion over what's covered, says Lisae Jordan, Executive Director of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She's received complaints from victims who were hit with costs like ambulance fees, and follow up testing.

"There is not consistent application of the law," said Jordan. The state has formed a panel to study access to forensic exams. The panel's first meeting is Thursday.

Katie Hanna, the executive director of Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, would like to see changes in her state as well. In Ohio, the state pays $532 for an exam; the excess can be passed on to the survivor.

"It varies county to county and hospital to hospital, and needs to change," said Hanna. "The level of care and the amount of charges a survivor incurs should not depend on the zip code in which they live or the hospital that just so happens to be nearest to them after being raped."

The Texas coalition against sexual assault hears about survivors surprised by medical bills "with frequency."

"Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault is receiving fewer reports of victims receiving bills associated with the forensic exam," Executive Director Pennie Meyers told CBS News in an email, "However, there is more work to be done."

"Across the United States, victims are being victimized by the very system that is set up to help and protect them after they've been a victim of this crime," said Kellie Greene, the Founder and Director of Speak Out Against Rape, or SOAR.

For Greene, the billing issue is a very personal one. On January 18, 1994 Greene was brutally raped by a stranger who broke into her Florida home. After being taken to the hospital for the forensic exam and medical treatment, she began receiving bills for the entire procedure, from the rape kit to the towel used on her bleeding head in the ambulance.

"It's like being punched in the gut when you open that mailbox and you see that bill," she said.

Greene refused to pay and the hospital sent her bills to collections. She worked with the state attorney general to change Florida's law a year later.

Now through her Washington, D.C. non-profit she tries to help other survivors by speaking about her experiences. In the last few months, she says SOAR has been contacted by at least a half dozen survivors across the country looking for help with medical bills. Her group pays some of the bills itself.

Greene believes the change needs to come on a national level. Sen. Al Franken introduced legislation in 2009 and 2011 to address the issue, but both bills died in committee.

In a statement, the American Hospital Association says "it is every hospitals' goal to treat and care for sexual assault victims in a safe and compassionate manner. While fees related to their care vary by state, we encourage all hospitals to review their policies on charges related to sexual assault victims."

"Would we like to see a standardized best practice response across the country? Of course," says Dr. Kimberly Lonsway, Ph.D., the Research Director for End Violence against Women International. "We are working very hard to get there but we aren't there yet."

In Christine's case, her bills were due to hospital error, she had been marked as self-pay; a simple coding error that took more than 10 agonizing months to resolve. Later this year, she will complete her master's program to become a nurse practitioner. She and her husband are considering a move west and away from the memories of her attack.

CBS News Producer Polly Leider contributed to this report.




This is a lengthy article about case after case of unregulated and often unpredictable hospital charges, many of which should have been waived if the insurance didn't pay for them. County to county presented a different set of rules on the matter, and state to state. A federal law that mandates the waiver of these hospital costs on such an extreme emergency should be in place. Laws that don't cover rape victims medical expenses are simply inhumane. Without a rape kit the attacker will probably not be convicted, even if there are witnesses. If there is a rape kit and DNA evidence is found, it can be compared to national databases, sometimes thereby identifying the criminal when there was no other physical evidence for the prosecutor to use. It's another one of those situations that tend to work against women, and therefore have not received the direct legal attention that the rape of a man would have. There are cases in which men are raped, of course. It's a shocking and hideous crime, no matter who the victim is. Even babies as young as 18 months have occasionally been raped. It should get the death penalty, I think. And whatever happens to the perpetrator, the victim shouldn't have to go into debt financially because the hospital expenses.

“Delaware does not allow a survivor to be billed. And just last summer Colorado passed a law creating a state fund to pay the entire bill for the forensic medical exam and related charges regardless of reporting after survivors received medical bills for thousands of dollars.” Congratulations to these two states for doing the right thing without even being sued. I don't understand why the federal law does not guarantee that all states will abide by those rules, rather than allowing this mishmash of financial demands to be made on victims.





Twins with rare genetic disorder could hold clue to cure for Ebola
By JESSICA FIRGER CBS NEWS
November 12, 2014, 6:00 AM

Chris Hempel has spent the last eight years fighting for the lives of her twin girls. Her 10-year-old daughters, Addi and Cassi, both have Niemann-Pick Type C, an incredibly rare hereditary disease that's caused primarily by mutations in the NPC1 gene, which is responsible for the body's ability to metabolize lipids.

"This gene is critical," Hempel told CBS News. "If it's nonoperational, it's catastrophic. As a result of it not even working they have childhood Alzheimer's."

To help their daughters, Hempel and her husband, Hugh, have gone far beyond the measures most parents could ever imagine. They've spent years contacting any doctor or scientist that might be of help to their family and started a foundation to raise money for Niemann-Pick research. Most remarkably, the couple -- whose story wasfeatured last year in the Wall Street Journal-- worked with doctors, researchers, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Niemann-Pick community to fast-track a Phase 1 clinical trial for a drug Chris Hempel helped to create.

But one thing Hempel never imagined was that her family would end up in the middle of some of the most promising scientific research on Ebola.

It's estimated that there are currently just 500 known cases in the world of Niemann-Pick Type C, a neurodegenerative condition that causes delay and loss of cognitive and motor function, neurological problems and seizures. The disease causes a harmful buildup of lipid proteins in organs including the spleen, liver, lungs, bone marrow and brain, and eventually proves fatal; patients usually die before they reach adolescence. Addi and Cassi began to show signs of Niemann-Pick at age 2. Despite receiving exceptional care, their health continues to decline, said Hempel. They have regular seizures and both are unable to walk or talk.

Out of necessity, the Hempels, who live in Reno, Nevada, became involved in the scientific community for rare diseases, which typically is severely underfunded. "When our twins were first diagnosed we wanted to give a lot of ourselves," said Hempel. "We were getting requests from researchers who wanted to study the cells of children like mine."

But scientists studying rare diseases weren't the only ones interested in Addi and Cassi's DNA. Virologists wanted it as well. It turns out two rare diseases -- one viral and one genetic -- are connected in an unexpected way.

In 2011, Hempel received a Google news alert on a story from Science Daily about a new study published in the journal Nature: "Ebola virus entry requires the cholesterol transporter Niemann-Pick C1." In other words, a person without a functioning NPC1 gene appears to be incapable of catching the Ebola virus.

In the paper, the researchers noted the skin cells for their study had come from the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, a biobank and independent non-profit organization for human genomics in Camden, New Jersey. Several years before, Hempel had donated skin cells from Cassi and Addi to Coriell for scientists to use in lab-based research.

"I read the articles and instantly realized that the cells used in the Ebola experiments were from kids and families like mine," she said. "My first thought was 'holy cow' followed by a strange visual of our cells floating around in petri dishes with the Ebola virus and people suited up in Hazmat suits."

She emailed Dr. Kartik Chandran, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, N.Y., a coauthor of the study, to request a copy of the paper and learn more about his research.

Chandran, who has been studying Ebola for a decade, has for the last five years focused his research on how the virus uses the NPC1 gene as a receptor to infect human cells. Through his work, he's discovered that once the virus has entered into the cell membrane it latches on to the protein made by the NPC1 gene. But if cells do not produce the protein -- due to a mutation in this gene -- the virus cannot enter the cells. Similar research has also found AIDS and the Marburg virus also exploit the protein made by the NPC1 gene.

"They try to infect my twin' cells with Ebola and AIDS, and they can't infect them," Hempel said of virologists who have studied the NPC1 gene. "Their cells are on lockdown. Their NPC receptor doesn't even work."

As is the case with the more than 20,000 genes that make up the human genome, every person has two copies of the NPC1 gene. Both copies of Addi and Cassi's NPC1 gene have mutations, which causes Niemann-Pick disease. Hempel and her husband each have one functioning NPC1 gene and the other with mutations. The disease that afflicts the Hempel girls is a result of both parents passing on their mutated copies.

Though her daughters appear to be Ebola-resistant due to their genetic makeup, Hempel said subsequent research has indicated that she and her husband, with one mutated gene, are also probably more likely to survive the virus compared to the general population.

Chandran's studies back this up. In one study, Chandran and his team gave Ebola to mice that had mutations in both copies of the NPC1 gene and another control group with two working copies of the gene. He found the mice without NPC1 mutations died from Ebola within a week of infection, whereas the mice with faulty copies of the gene did not get sick. In another study, soon to be published, Chandran added a third group of mice that had one working copy of the gene and one with mutations. That group of mice still became ill when they were infected with Ebola, but they recovered much faster and survived.

"In those mice there's some kind of advantage that helps their immune system mount a very effective defense," Chandan told CBS News. He conducted his Ebola research in partnership with other institutions, including the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Netherlands Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.

Chandran said he hopes his research will lead to the development of drug that uses NPC1 to stop an Ebola infection.

"What we're trying to do is develop small molecule therapy that would incapacitate the gene temporarily, and then take them off the drug and everything goes back to normal," he said.

Hempel believes the drug Chandan hopes to develop could also benefit patients with Niemann-Pick since the ability to "turn on" the NPC1 gene could effectively cure the disease. However, Chandran says he doesn't want to create any false expectations -- especially since an Ebola drug that targets this gene will take years to develop.

But Hempel says she is hopeful, and her work has already come full circle. In a number of lab experiments cyclodextrin, the drug she helped to develop and which her daughters currently take, effectively killed the AIDS virus in petri dishes. A clinical trial of the drug on AIDS patients will soon to be underway at the University of California Davis School of Medicine.

"It's so mind-boggling that I can hardly express how I think about it in my mind and heart and what it feels like to be able to part of something this far reaching to advance research," said Hempel. "It also provides me a sense of relief from a terrible burden that I carry from giving my children this gene that is killing them. I am starting to piece together the puzzle as to why we have this gene in the first place."




A strange and rare genetic condition called “Niemann-Pick Type C,” which is responsible for the body's ability to metabolize lipids, is being studied because, while it is fatal and the doctors are searching for a cure, it offers insight into the terrible Ebola disease. "'Ebola virus entry requires the cholesterol transporter Niemann-Pick C1. In other words, a person without a functioning NPC1 gene appears to be incapable of catching the Ebola virus.' Chandran, who has been studying Ebola for a decade, has for the last five years focused his research on how the virus uses the NPC1 gene as a receptor to infect human cells. Through his work, he's discovered that once the virus has entered into the cell membrane it latches on to the protein made by the NPC1 gene. But if cells do not produce the protein -- due to a mutation in this gene -- the virus cannot enter the cells. Similar research has also found AIDS and the Marburg virus also exploit the protein made by the NPC1 gene.”

“He found the mice without NPC1 mutations died from Ebola within a week of infection, whereas the mice with faulty copies of the gene did not get sick. In another study, soon to be published, Chandran added a third group of mice that had one working copy of the gene and one with mutations. That group of mice still became ill when they were infected with Ebola, but they recovered much faster and survived.... Chandran said he hopes his research will lead to the development of drug that uses NPC1 to stop an Ebola infection. ' What we're trying to do is develop small molecule therapy that would incapacitate the gene temporarily, and then take them off the drug and everything goes back to normal,' he said.” That wouldn't be a permanent Ebola preventative, but would work for a time to stop the Ebola virus from taking control of the victim's body. It's interesting, but it seems to me that the most effective thing to combat a raging epidemic in which many people need treatment is an old fashioned vaccine. At least one is on schedule for January, according to a recent news article.

“But Hempel says she is hopeful, and her work has already come full circle. In a number of lab experiments cyclodextrin, the drug she helped to develop and which her daughters currently take, effectively killed the AIDS virus in petri dishes. A clinical trial of the drug on AIDS patients will soon to be underway at the University of California Davis School of Medicine.” If this drug cyclodextrin can kill AIDS viruses in a petri dish, perhaps it would work for Ebola and Marburg as well. Maybe people who have already developed symptoms of Ebola could be treated with the drug since it directly kills viruses. Of course, maybe that won't work in the human body.

“Small molecule therapy” is a new term to me. See the following article in Wikipedia. Most of the Internet articles that I found about small molecule therapies concerned cancer treatment.

Small molecule
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“In molecular biology and pharmacology, a small molecule is a low molecular weight (<900 daltons[1]) organic compound that may help regulate a biological process, with a size on the order of 10−9 m. Most drugs are small molecules.... The upper molecular weight limit for a small molecule is approximately 900 daltons, which allows for the possibility to rapidly diffuse across cell membranes so that they can reach intracellular sites of action.[1][2 …. Pharmacology usually restricts the term to a molecule that binds to a specific biopolymer—such as protein or nucleic acid—and acts as an effector, altering the activity or function of the biopolymer. Small molecules can have a variety of biological functions, serving as cell signaling molecules, as drugs in medicine, as pesticides in farming, and in many other roles. These compounds can be natural (such as secondary metabolites) or artificial (such as antiviral drugs); they may have a beneficial effect against a disease (such as drugs) or may be detrimental (such as teratogens and carcinogens).”