July 2, 2016


News and Views


THREE SANDERS ARTICLES


https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/07/01/bernie-sanders-is-winning-some-big-victories-over-the-dem-platform/

Opinion
Bernie Sanders is winning some big victories in the fight over the Democratic platform
By Greg Sargent
July 1 at 12:50 PM

Photograph -- Sanders Speaking, (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Pay Video – 00:53, In an interview with C-SPAN, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said in the strongest terms yet that he will not be the Democratic nominee for president. (C-SPAN)


The latest draft of the Democratic Party platform, which is set to be released as early as this afternoon, will show that Bernie Sanders won far more victories on his signature issues than has been previously thought, according to details provided by a senior Sanders adviser.

The latest version of the platform, which was signed off on recently by a committee made up of representatives for the Sanders and Clinton campaigns and the DNC, has been generally summarized by the DNC and characterized in news reports. Sanders has hailed some of the compromises reached in it, but he has vowed to continue to fight for more of what he wants when the current draft goes to a larger Democratic convention platform committee in Orlando coming weeks, and when it goes to the floor of the convention in Philadelphia in late July.

But the actual language of the latest draft has not yet been released, and it will be released as early as today. It will show a number of new provisions on Wall Street reform, infrastructure spending, and job creation that go beyond the victories that Sanders has already talked about. They suggest Sanders did far better out of this process thus far than has been previously thought. Many of these new provisions are things that Sanders has been fighting for for years.

We already know from the DNC’s public description of the latest draft of the platform that it includes things such as a general commitment to the idea of a $15-per-hour minimum wage; to expanding Social Security; to making universal health care available as a right through expanding Medicare or a public option; and to breaking up too-big-to-fail institutions.

Here’s more.

Warren Gunnels, the chief policy adviser to the Sanders campaign, shared with me some additional details and principles the platform draft commits to:

1) Eliminating conflict of interest at the Federal Reserve by making sure that executives at financial institutions cannot serve on the board of regional Federal Reserve banks or handpick their members.

2) Banning golden parachutes for taking government jobs and cracking down on the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington.

3) Prohibiting Wall Street from picking and choosing which credit agency will rate their product.

4) Empowering the Postal Service to offer basic banking services, which makes such services available to more people throughout the country, including low-income people who lack access to checking accounts.

5) Ending the loophole that allows large profitable corporations to defer taxes on income stashed in offshore tax havens to avoid paying more taxes.

6) Using the revenue from ending that deferral loophole to rebuild infrastructure and create jobs.

Gunnels told me the Sanders campaign has mostly been satisfied with the process and the outcome so far.

“There are some very good initiatives in this platform that will create millions of jobs and rebuild the middle class,” Gunnels said. “This document is not perfect. We hope to improve it. But we’re off to an excellent start, and we look forward to continuing to work with Secretary Clinton’s campaign to make this the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party. The process itself has been very good.”

To be sure, Sanders will continue to fight for more in coming weeks, such as a commitment to oppose any Congressional vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal during this session. And we can’t be certain whether Sanders will endorse Clinton before the convention or if he is unsatisfied with the final platform product.

But it looks as if this process is going better for progressives and Bernie supporters than previously suggested. And this perhaps makes it more likely that, in the end, Sanders could end up backing the nominee and helping to unify the party with less discord than expected



http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/bernie-sanders-democratic-party-platform-concessions-15-dollars-minimum-wage

Sanders wins concessions in Dem draft platform
By Ben Kamisar
July 01, 2016, 05:46 pm


Bernie Sanders won a handful of concessions in the Democratic National Committee’s platform, with the party lining up behind his vision on the minimum wage, financial regulation and other issues.

A draft version of the platform was released Friday, amid an ongoing battle to get Sanders to end his presidential campaign and endorse presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

The platform explicitly calls for a $15 minimum wage, a position long espoused by Sanders.

"Democrats believe that the current minimum wage is a starvation wage and must be increased to a living wage," the text reads.

"We believe that Americans should earn at least $15 an hour and have the right to form or join a union. We applaud the approaches taken by states like New York and California. We should raise and index the minimum wage, give all Americans the ability to join a union regardless of where they work, and create new ways for workers to have power in the economy."

Sanders also campaigned on protecting Social Security, which is reflected in the platform's call to "expand" the program. His push to end the death penalty and nix private immigration detention centers also appear in the draft.

The platform includes a vigorous defense of the Postal Service, something that was not mentioned in the 2012 platform. The section calls for, among other things, post offices to allow simple banking services like cashing paychecks — which is something Sanders fought for.

Sanders didn't win all of his concessions, however, with the platform punting on a number of his key priorities, including a full repudiation the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.

"We have won some huge victories in the Dem Platform," Sanders policy director Warren Gunnels tweeted Friday afternoon.

But Gunnels also noted in his tweet that Sanders also missed out on some key pieces of his policy agenda. The platform does not ban fracking or institute a carbon tax, and it effectively punts on the TPP.

"On the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), there are a diversity of views in the party," it says.

"Many Democrats are on record stating that the agreement does not meet the standards set out in this platform; other Democrats have expressed support for the agreement. But all Democrats believe that any trade agreement must protect workers and the environment and not undermine access to critically-needed prescription drugs."

It also eschews Sanders' call for a more nuanced stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead underscoring the party's unwavering support for Israel.



Excerpts – washingtonpost – “It will show a number of new provisions on Wall Street reform, infrastructure spending, and job creation …. a general commitment to the idea of a $15-per-hour minimum wage; to expanding Social Security; to making universal health care available as a right through expanding Medicare or a public option; and to breaking up too-big-to-fail institutions. …. 1) Eliminating conflict of interest at the Federal Reserve by making sure that executives at financial institutions cannot serve on the board of regional Federal Reserve banks or handpick their members. 2) Banning golden parachutes for taking government jobs and cracking down on the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington. 3) prohibiting Wall Street from picking and choosing which credit agency will rate their product. 4) Empowering the Postal Service to offer basic banking services, which makes such services available to more people throughout the country, including low-income people who lack access to checking accounts. 5) Ending the loophole that allows large profitable corporations to defer taxes on income stashed in offshore tax havens to avoid paying more taxes. 6) Using the revenue from ending that deferral loophole to rebuild infrastructure and create jobs.
…. Gunnels told me the Sanders campaign has mostly been satisfied with the process and the outcome so far. “There are some very good initiatives in this platform that will create millions of jobs and rebuild the middle class,” Gunnels said.”


Excerpts -- thehill – “Bernie Sanders won a handful of concessions in the Democratic National Committee’s platform, with the party lining up behind his vision on the minimum wage, financial regulation and other issues. …. We should raise and index the minimum wage, give all Americans the ability to join a union regardless of where they work, and create new ways for workers to have power in the economy." …. Sanders also campaigned on protecting Social Security, which is reflected in the platform's call to "expand" the program. His push to end the death penalty and nix private immigration detention centers also appear in the draft. …. The platform includes a vigorous defense of the Postal Service, something that was not mentioned in the 2012 platform. The section calls for, among other things, post offices to allow simple banking services like cashing paychecks — which is something Sanders fought for. …. The platform does not ban fracking or institute a carbon tax, and it effectively punts on the TPP. "On the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), there are a diversity of views in the party," it says. …. But all Democrats believe that any trade agreement must protect workers and the environment and not undermine access to critically-needed prescription drugs." It also eschews Sanders' call for a more nuanced stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead underscoring the party's unwavering support for Israel.”


This is the first mention I have heard of PRIVATE Immigration Detention Centers. That means profit-driven enterprises and that means more aggressive activity by Border Patrol and INS to bring in more inmates. That trend in our prisons has already increased the incidence in US courts’ of the unthinkable imprisonment of people (poor people) for the inability to pay fines, and arrests for things like a broken tail light, in other words, virtual “debtors’ prison” not merely sanctioned, but enabled by the courts, which has long been outlawed but still squeaks by because it is not CALLED debtors’ prison. Poverty means a great deal more than the simple inability to pay for housing and food. Thank goodness we do have an active social services system in this country, but yet there are probably as many as several million people living on the street including whole families. Let us not allow such an increase in our INJUSTICE system as these detention centers.

Other key changes are -- $15.00 indexed minimum wage, right to join a union no matter where the person is employed, expanding rather than diminishing Social Security, universal health care available as a right, limits in the options currently available to executives at financial institutions, illegal and unfair financial links between Wall Street and the government, basic banking services through the Postal Service, preventing corporations from offshoring profit into accounts not subject to the US IRS and using the tax income from that on infrastructure repair and job creation, DNC work to end the death penalty. TheHill stresses that Sanders didn’t win some others, but as we know Sanders isn’t ready to give up the fight. Some think that Sanders is just stubborn and self-centered, but it’s clear to me that if he gives up now and endorses Clinton he will lose all leverage. He’s too smart and too dedicated to do that. At first the fight resembled a marathon or a horse race, but now it’s more like poker. At any rate, he’s still a contender, and I’m behind him.

The following article has just come out. It covers most of the same material, but has some more detail in it. Read through it also.


http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/democrats-take-step-left-new-platform-n602791

POLITICS JUL 1 2016, 6:51 PM ET
Democrats Take a Step Left With New Party Platform
by ALEX SEITZ-WALD

Democrats are considering approving what is almost certainly the most progressive platform in the party's history, though supporters of Bernie Sanders are still not satisfied with provisions on trade and other issues.

A draft of the platform, obtained by NBC News, was approved by a 15-member subcommittee and sent Friday to members of the full platform committee. The full committee will have a chance to make changes before sending it to the an up-or-down vote by the entire Democratic National Convention later this month in Philadelphia.

The draft includes many of the provisions sought by Sanders and his allies on the minimum wage, death penalty and more. But it lacks concessions they sought on climate, trade and healthcare.

Related: Democrats Urged to Make Immigration a Priority in Platform

"This draft touches on the many pressing issues facing Americans and includes new language on economic inequality and the minimum wage, Wall Street reform, reproductive health, criminal justice reform, and voting rights, among many other topics," Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a memo to platform committee draft members.

The draft platform states Americans should earn $15 per hour and have a right to join a union, and it supports a so-called "model employer executive order" to raise standards for federal government contractors.

It calls for the complete abolishment of the death penalty, stating, "It has no place in the United States of America."

PlayA new focus for Bernie Sanders Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed
A new focus for Bernie Sanders 7:33

On Wall Street, the platform lays out a number of reforms proposed by Clinton, Sanders and other Democrats, and states the party "will not hesitate to use and expand existing authorities as well as empower regulators to downsize or break apart financial institutions," it states.

The platform adopts Elizabeth Warren's mantra that "personnel is policy" to promise, "We will nominate and appoint regulators and officials who are not beholden to the industries they regulate."

On social security, the draft platform calls for changing the cap on taxes so people contribute to the fund on income above $250,000.

Related: Sanders on Israel, Peace and the Democratic Platform

The draft platform calls for making community college free and easing student loan burdens through a number of measures, like a Student Borrower Bill of Rights.

It calls for repealing the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the use of taxpayer funds for abortion, and states the party will "strongly and unequivocally support a woman's decision" on abortion.

It calls for giving the District of Columbia statehood, banning assault weapons and overturning Citizens United. Democrats vow to protect voting rights, "reaffirm our commitment to eliminate poverty," and reform the criminal justice system to make it easier for people to re-enter society after incarceration.

The platform also took a step towards Sanders on drug policy, saying states should be able to decriminalize marijuana if they chose to. Marijuana reformers, including Sanders, had hoped for more.

However, some of the stickiest issues remain unresolved -- at least as Sanders supporters see it.

Related: Hillary and Bernie Agree to Work Together

On climate change, the Sanders wing tried to insert a ban on fracking and a tax on carbon. Neither made it. However, the draft platform makes a strong commitment to reducing carbon emissions and investing in renewable energy.

Sanders and Clinton sparred on health care this year, with Sanders calling for a single-payer system and Clinton favoring a more pragmatic approach to expand the Affordable Care Act.

The draft platform states, "we believe as Democrats that healthcare is a right," but it does not mention single-payer.

PlayDonald Trump's incoherence on trade Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed
Donald Trump's incoherence on trade 9:37

The most contentious issue in the platform fight was on trade and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), with Sanders allies insisting that opposition to the trade deal be included in the platform.

Both Clinton and Sanders oppose the TPP, but President Barack Obama supports it, so the draft platform opted for a compromise in the language. "[T]here are a diversity of views in the party," the draft states. "But all Democrats believe that any trade agreement must protect workers and the environment and not undermine access to critically-needed prescription drugs."

Related: Bernie Sanders Says He Will Vote For Hillary Clinton

Neil Sroka of Democracy for America, which supported Sanders in the primary, said the platform had "some good things in here that reflect the impact that Bernie Sanders has had on the race," but didn't believe the draft was complete.

"There is still a great deal that's missing from the platform that needs to be in there," he added. "At the end of the day the only reason why an anti-TPP plank would not end up in the platform is because some democrats are too afraid to offend their corporate paymasters."

It remains unclear, however, how much leverage Sanders and his supporters still have to make changes.



"There is still a great deal that's missing from the platform that needs to be in there," he added. "At the end of the day the only reason why an anti-TPP plank would not end up in the platform is because some democrats are too afraid to offend their corporate paymasters."


Too bad that the party of my choice and their sworn enemies have so much in common!



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-tweet-with-star-of-david-draws-social-media-backlash/

Donald Trump tweet with Star of David draws social media backlash
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
July 2, 2016, 12:08 PM


Accusing rival Hillary Clinton of corruption, Donald Trump sent a controversial tweet Saturday morning, invoking a six-pointed Star of David -- a well-known Jewish symbol -- overlaid on piles of money.

screen-shot-2016-07-02-at-10-59-24-am.png
(The original tweet has since been deleted.)

The graphic appears to be photoshopped from several different elements, including a Fox News poll that found 58 percent of voters believed Clinton to be "corrupt." It's juxtaposed against a photo of Clinton and a riff off her own campaign statement about making history as the first presumptive female nominee of a major party.

Next to Clinton is a red six-pointed Star of David with text reading "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" Hundred-dollar bills are scattered in the photo behind her.

It raised the eyebrows of more than a few Twitter users.

Follow
Matthew Yglesias ✔ @mattyglesias
Some interesting graphic design choices here. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/749235486389043200 …
10:53 AM - 2 Jul 2016
38 38 Retweets 56 56 likes
Follow

Zeke Miller ✔ @ZekeJMiller
Uh oh... (That star...) https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/749235486389043200 …
10:46 AM - 2 Jul 2016
19 19 Retweets 23 23 likes
Several bluntly called the tweet anti-Semitic.

Follow
Prof. Jeff Brexit @ProfJeffJarviss
Interesting to see a major party nominee leverage the antisemitism meme so aggressively: pic.twitter.com/LmHZWegQte
10:52 AM - 2 Jul 2016 · Manhattan, NY, United States
39 39 Retweets 57 57 likes

Follow
Rembert Browne @rembert
pen and pixel antisemitism https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/749235486389043200 …
10:52 AM - 2 Jul 2016
47 47 Retweets 95 95 likes

A Clinton campaign staffer and an economic policy adviser also weighed in:

Follow
Josh Schwerin @JoshSchwerin
Why is there a Star of David? https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/749235486389043200 …
9:53 AM - 2 Jul 2016
86 86 Retweets 75 75 likes

2h
Michael Shapiro @mpshapiro
Yet another example of @realDonaldTrump 's divisive imagery and rhetoric. https://twitter.com/jbarro/status/749236405226901504 …

Follow
Michael Shapiro @mpshapiro
.@realDonaldTrump will deport 11M; attack judges heritage; bar Muslims. This new divisive dogwhistle isnt surprise: pic.twitter.com/3tiOTcC9PZ
10:43 AM - 2 Jul 2016 · New York, USA, United States
4 4 Retweets 3 3 likes

Trump later tweeted an amended version of the graphic, nearly two hours after the Twitter firestorm began. The latest version uses a red circle in place of the Star of David:

View image on Twitter
Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Crooked Hillary -- Makes History! #ImWithYou #AmericaFirst
11:19 AM - 2 Jul 2016
2,293 2,293 Retweets 4,874 4,874 likes

Trump, for his part, has defended against accusations of anti-semitism and racism before.

In a March speech to AIPAC, the largest pro-Israel lobby in the United States, Trump proclaimed his love for Jewish people and Israel.

"I love the people in this room," Trump told AIPAC attendees. "I love Israel. I've been with Israel so long in terms of - I've received some of my greatest honors from Israel. My father before me. Incredible. My daughter Ivanka, is about to have a beautiful Jewish baby. In fact, it could be happening right now which would be very nice as far as I'm concerned."



Unfortunately there are an increasing number of people in this great nation who will become even more enamored with Trump over this. Luckily, they are still a minority.



NORTH CAROLINA, FOR SHAME!


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-brain-eating-amoeba-found-at-whitewater-center-after-teens-death-lauren-seitz/

CDC: Brain-eating amoeba found at whitewater center after teen's death
CBS/AP
July 2, 2016, 12:49 AM

Photograph -- An undated photo shows 18-year-old Lauren Seitz. WBNS

9 PHOTOS -- Brain-eating amoeba: How to stay safe from Naegleria fowleri


RALEIGH, N.C. -- The chlorination and filtration systems at an artificial water rapids course where Olympic kayakers train were inadequate to kill a rare, brain-attacking organism, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said after an Ohio teenager died from the amoeba.

The rushing water channels at the U.S. National Whitewater Center had become so murky with debris that the chlorine and ultraviolet light that might have killed the Naegleria fowleri amoeba didn't work, Dr. Michael Beach said Friday.

"It's kind of a murky water," said Beach, the CDC's associate director for healthy water. Speaking by phone, Beach wouldn't comment on whether a more effective system could have saved the life of Lauren Seitz, 18, of Westerville, Ohio.

The whitewater center closed its whitewater rafting and kayaking operations on June 24. The fast-water channels will be drained, dried and scrubbed to kill any vestiges of the amoeba, the non-profit said on its web site.

The center didn't indicate when the rapids course might reopen and a spokesman declined to comment Friday on the CDC findings.

Seitz died June 19, just three weeks after graduating from high school and more than a week after returning home to suburban Columbus, Ohio, from a trip that included a visit to the whitewater center about 15 miles west of Charlotte.

"Lauren and I have known each other since we were four," friend Katie Busch told CBS affiliate WBNS after Seitz's death. "I don't have anything but good memories of her."

Busch said Seitz wanted to share her musical gifts, so she joined the youth choir of her Westerville church on a trip to sing in nursing homes and other churches. One stop made by the 32 teens on that trip changed everything.

Colin Evans sat next to Seitz on the bus and shared a raft with her the day health officials believe Seitz contracted the brain-eating amoeba.

"I was lucky enough to have her in the boat with me. We went around three times," Evans told WBNS. "Everybody fell out. It was fun. We both fell out at the same spot both times. We helped each other back in."

Seitz's only known underwater exposure was thought to be when her raft overturned at the whitewater center.

She planned to study music and environmental science at Denison University in Ohio, according to an obituary posted by the funeral home handling arrangements. A celebration of her life is scheduled Saturday. Her family didn't return a telephone call seeking comment.

The center held Olympic qualifying trials for U.S. canoe and kayak competitors in April and also hosted the qualifying races before the 2012 and 2008 Olympics, said Aaron Mann, a spokesman for USA Canoe/Kayak. American Olympians haven't used the Charlotte course in recent weeks because they've been competing in Europe ahead of a training camp in France leading up to the Rio de Janeiro games, he said.

The amoeba is very common in lakes and other kinds of warm, fresh water, yet it's very rare that it will make anyone sick, said Dr. Thomas Kerkering, chief of infectious diseases cat Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, Virginia. The amoeba won't infect a person who drinks or swallows water containing it, and must enter the body through the nose to cause harm.

"Where most people get it is when they wipe out waterskiing and the water goes up their nose," Kerkering said.

The odds that the organism will cause the dangerous, brain-eating disease are just about chance, Kerkering said, since some people jumping into the water might contract the illness while most others don't.

Only 138 people nationwide have been stricken by the disease between 1962 and 2015, according to the CDC. Florida and Texas have had the most cases with 34 each in that time. North Carolina had four cases prior to Seitz, none of them involving the whitewater center, while Ohio is one of 32 states without a recorded case over the five-decade span. All five cases last year were fatal. They were in California, Oklahoma, Arizona, and two in Texas. The most recent was in Texas last August.

Initial symptoms showing up on average five days after exposure may include headache, fever or vomiting and worsen to include stiff neck, confusion, seizures and hallucinations.

The deadly amoeba was found in all 11 water samples taken from the National Whitewater Center's fast-flowing whitewater channel, said Dr. Stephen Keener, Mecklenburg County's medical director. Four samples from the neighboring Catawba River didn't find the organism, but it was found in one sample of the river's sediment, Keener said Thursday.

Water for the center's courses comes from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg municipal system, two water wells and rain, the operator said.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoeba

Amoeba
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photograph -- Chaos carolinense

An amoeba (/əˈmiːbə/; rarely spelled amœba, US English commonly ameba; plural am(o)ebas or am(o)ebae /əˈmiːbiː/),[1] often called amoeboid, is a type of cell or organism which has the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopods.[2] Amoebas do not form a single taxonomic group; instead, they are found in every major lineage of eukaryotic organisms. Amoeboid cells occur not only among the protozoa, but also in fungi, algae, and animals.[3][4][5][6][7]

Microbiologists often use the terms "amoeboid" and "amoeba" interchangeably for any organism that exhibits amoeboid movement.[8][9]

In older classification systems, most amoebas were placed in the class or subphylum Sarcodina, a grouping of single-celled organisms that possess pseudopods or move by protoplasmic flow. However, molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that Sarcodina is not a monophyletic group whose members share common descent. Consequently, amoeboid organisms are no longer classified together in one group.[10]

The best known amoeboid protists are the "Giant Amoebae" Chaos carolinense and Amoeba proteus, both of which are widely cultivated and studied in classrooms and laboratories. Other well known species include the so-called "brain-eating amoeba" Naegleria fowleri, the intestinal parasite Entamoeba histolytica, which causes amoebic dysentery, and the multicellular "social amoeba" Dictyostelium discoideum.

Shape, movement and nutrition[edit]

Foraminifera have reticulose (net-like) pseudopods

Amoebae move and feed by using pseudopods, which are bulges of cytoplasm formed by the coordinated action of actin microfilaments pushing out the plasma membrane that surrounds the cell.[11]

The appearance and internal structure of pseudopods are used to distinguish groups of amoebae from one another. …. Free-living amoebae may be "testate" (enclosed within a hard shell), or "naked" (lacking any hard covering). The shells of testate amoebae may be composed of various substances, including calcium, silica, chitin, or agglutinations of found materials like small grains of sand and the frustules of diatoms.[13]

A "naked" Amoebozoan

To regulate osmotic pressure, most freshwater amoebae have a contractile vacuole which expels excess water from the cell.[14] This organelle is necessary because freshwater has a lower concentration of solutes (such as salt) than the amoeba's own internal fluids (cytosol). Because the surrounding water is hypotonic with respect to the contents of the cell, water is transferred across the amoeba's cell membrane by osmosis. Without a contractile vacuole, the cell would fill with excess water and, eventually, burst.

Marine amoebae do not usually possess a contractile vacuole, because the concentration of solutes within the cell are in balance with the tonicity of the surrounding water.[15]

Amoeba phagocytosis

The food sources of amoebae vary. Some amoebae are predatory and live by consuming bacteria and other protists. Some are detritivores and eat dead organic material.

Amoebae typically ingest their food by phagocytosis, extending pseudopods to encircle and engulf live prey or particles of scavenged material. Amoeboid cells do not have a mouth or cytostome, and there is no fixed place on the cell at which phagocytosis normally occurs.[16]

Some amoebae also feed by pinocytosis, imbibing dissolved nutrients through vesicles formed within the cell membrane .[17]

Amoebae as specialized cells and life cycle stages[edit]

Some multicellular organisms have amoeboid cells only in certain phases of life, or use amoeboid movements for specialized functions. In the immune system of humans and other animals, amoeboid white blood cells pursue invading organisms, such as bacteria and pathogenic protists, and engulf them by phagocytosis.[18]

Amoeboid stages also occur in the multicellular fungus-like protists, the so-called slime molds. Both the plasmodial slime molds, currently classified in the class Myxogastria, and the cellular slime molds of the groups Acrasida and Dictyosteliida, live as amoebae during their feeding stage. The amoeboid cells of the former combine to form a giant multinucleate organism,[19] while the cells of the latter live separately until food runs out, at which time the amoebae aggregate to form a multicellular migrating "slug" which functions as a single organism.[8]

Other organisms may also present amoeboid cells during certain life-cycle stages, e.g., the gametes of some green algae (Zygnematophyceae),[20] of pennate diatoms,[21] of some foraminiferans,[22] the spores (or dispersal phases) of some Mesomycetozoea,[23][24] the sporoplasm stage of Myxozoa and of Ascetosporea.[25]


Excerpt -- CBS -- "It's kind of a murky water," said Beach, the CDC's associate director for healthy water. Speaking by phone, Beach wouldn't comment on whether a more effective system could have saved the life of Lauren Seitz, 18, of Westerville, Ohio. The whitewater center closed its whitewater rafting and kayaking operations on June 24. The fast-water channels will be drained, dried and scrubbed to kill any vestiges of the amoeba, the non-profit said on its website. …. "Lauren and I have known each other since we were four," friend Katie Busch told CBS affiliate WBNS after Seitz's death. "I don't have anything but good memories of her." Busch said Seitz wanted to share her musical gifts, so she joined the youth choir of her Westerville church on a trip to sing in nursing homes and other churches. One stop made by the 32 teens on that trip changed everything. …. The amoeba is very common in lakes and other kinds of warm, fresh water, yet it's very rare that it will make anyone sick, said Dr. Thomas Kerkering, chief of infectious diseases cat Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, Virginia. The amoeba won't infect a person who drinks or swallows water containing it, and must enter the body through the nose to cause harm. "Where most people get it is when they wipe out waterskiing and the water goes up their nose," Kerkering said. The odds that the organism will cause the dangerous, brain-eating disease are just about chance, Kerkering said, since some people jumping into the water might contract the illness while most others don't.”


Excerpt -- “Initial symptoms showing up on average five days after exposure may include headache, fever or vomiting and worsen to include stiff neck, confusion, seizures and hallucinations.” I’ve seen descriptions of some dangerous viral illnesses with these first four symptoms – polio and rabies come to my mind. In rabies an early symptom is also a sore throat. Others, from Google, include meningitis, strep throat, and mononucleosis. While a headache alone will probably go away with some analgesic medication and a nap, a collection of symptoms like this should send you to a doctor ASAP. Personally I have never been comfortable swimming in pond water, as it is USUALLY murky looking, and often the bottom is “slimy” under the feet. My reaction to all that is just “YUCK!” Several times there have been warnings on the local news here in Jacksonville not to swim in the water, between coliform bacteria and the “red tide” organism, both of which are serious problems.

I am so sorry to hear that this promising and attractive young woman died by this strange disease. I have heard of it before. Anything described as “brain eating” or in the case of another one, “flesh eating,” is really shocking. It’s like a couple of horror movies I ran across down through the years. We must understand that we are surrounded by bacteria and protozoa, which unfortunately aren’t visible to the naked eye, and we are usually immune to them. They won’t make us sick. Thence the daily ritual of hand washing is usually enough. We also have millions of them living harmlessly inside us, and in a good many cases our biology is actually dependent on their presence. Sometimes, though, an alien interloper like this one which infects us only when it enters by the nose (there must be a connection to the brain from there, but I don’t know where it is) does it cause this really terrible disease ending in death.

I have known for many years of the “gut” amoeba found in tropical waters which causes an often deadly form of dysentery. And I have personally met amoebas in my life. My parents gave me a wonderful Christmas gift when I was a young teen, a microscope. It wasn’t a large laboratory model, but it worked quite well. I looked at rocks, soil, sea water, stagnant water, etc., and they all include a small world within a half teaspoonful. One of my “pets” was indeed an amoeba. They are very interesting. Nearly all other animals use some form of “swimming” but these give the appearance of “flowing.”

Wikipedia’s discussion also gives me the impression that amoeba may be one of the earliest life forms, since I think protoplasm probably preceded cells and from cells to multicellular. Something like a naked amoeba might have been one of the earliest forms. Some amoebalike functions are in fact included in some multicellular life forms, including the “white corpuscles” that make up most of our germ killing immunity system. So they not only live in us as their environment, but perform basic functions for us. From reading the Wikipedia article below I know that my pond water amoeba was of the “naked” variety -- which was the way I had thought until now that all amoebas are -- but there are quite a few others as well with a hard shell covering.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-fbi-email-investigation-election-2016/

Hillary Clinton interviewed by FBI on email server
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
July 2, 2016, 12:37 PM

Play VIDEO -- Why didn't AG step out of Clinton email probe entirely?


Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton met with FBI officials Saturday about her private email server that has sparked a federal investigation, her campaign said.

"Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was Secretary," Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in an email Saturday afternoon. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview."

Sources confirm to CBS News that the investigation is in its final phase and interviewing Clinton was one of the last steps before concluding the investigation and submitting recommendations on whether charges should be filed.

The meeting, which lasted approximately three-and-a-half hours, took place at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., according to a campaign aide.

Federal investigators have already interviewed close aides to the former secretary of state, including Huma Abedin, who faced questioning in April at the FBI's Washington field office.

In May, Clinton told CBS News that she expected a quick conclusion to the FBI probe into whether she mishandled classified information on her server, which Clinton used exclusively to send and receive State Department correspondence.

"I always took classified material seriously," she told "Face the Nation" host John Dickerson. "There was never any material marked classified that was sent or received by me. And I look forward to this being wrapped up."

The news comes just as increased scrutiny has been turned on the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch after the nation's top law enforcement officer had a spontaneous half-hour-long meeting with former President Clinton earlier this week.

In an interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival Friday, Lynch confirmed that she would be accepting the recommendations of the career prosecutors in the email case, though the attorney general stopped short of formally recusing herself from the matter.



Excerpt -- "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview." Sources confirm to CBS News that the investigation is in its final phase and interviewing Clinton was one of the last steps before concluding the investigation and submitting recommendations on whether charges should be filed. …. "I always took classified material seriously," she told "Face the Nation" host John Dickerson. "There was never any material marked classified that was sent or received by me. And I look forward to this being wrapped up." …. Lynch confirmed that she would be accepting the recommendations of the career prosecutors in the email case, though the attorney general stopped short of formally recusing herself from the matter.”


The Republicans have several times hinted the Clinton SHOULD have known a given email SHOULD have been marked classified, and may perhaps either carelessly or knowingly misused it – sent it to the wrong person. Some of the Republicans who have gone through her thousands of emails have discovered a small handful of them that to them were suspicious enough that she shouldn’t have sent it on. So far, however, there is no sign that she committed treason. It can be concluded, probably that the government server should have been used. Several other Secretaries of State have been known to use private email for government purposes, but not, I don’t think, a personal encrypted server located at her home like she did.

Personally I think she did it out of a certain amount of paranoia. The Feds are known to sometimes spy on people, and the market for actionable information about both of the Clintons has been brisk, I am sure. Every now and then a story about Bill’s misdeeds still comes out in the conservative press. Though I wish she hadn’t done this unwise thing, I don’t think she has jeopardized the workings of our government in this way. I’m still for Sanders as the presidential candidate, but I do feel sorry for Hillary. The “conservatives” have hated her and Bill since they first made the political scene. They were clearly a “power couple” and she openly declared that she “didn’t bake cookies.” Not only were they liberal and frighteningly popular, she wasn’t the “right kind” of woman.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/elie-wiesel-holocaust-survivor-and-nobel-laureate-dead-at-87/

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, dead at 87
CBS/AP
July 2, 2016, 4:15 PM

Photograph -- Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and founding chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, leaves after introducing President Obama at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum April 23, 2012, in Washington, D.C. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


NEW YORK -- Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87.

His death was announced Saturday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, of which Wiesel was a founding member. No other details were immediately available.

"When my life seems to be partly or wholly in ruins, I build on them. I may even use the ruins for the buildings. Second, I will never allow anyone to change my life or destroy what I have done with it," Wiesel told CBS News in 2009. "Somehow what I must keep in mind is what I think of myself."

The short, sad-eyed Wiesel, his face an ongoing reminder of one man's endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

For more than a half-century, he voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was "Night," a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust.

"Night" was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages.

"'Night' is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read," wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of "A Thousand Darknesses," a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010.

"There are no epiphanies in 'Night. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezer's account of what happened, spoken in his voice."

Wiesel began working on "Night" just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined.

"Night" was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print."

In one especially haunting passage, Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz:

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never."

"Night" was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to an ongoing debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the book's accuracy, doubts that Wiesel denounced as "a mortal sin in the historical sense." Wiesel's publisher called the book a memoir even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book "technically a novel," albeit so close to Wiesel's life that "it's generally - and not inaccurately - read as an autobiography."

In 2006, a new translation returned "Night" to the best-seller lists after it was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. But the choice also revived questions about how to categorize the book. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, both of which had listed "Night" as fiction, switched it to nonfiction. Wiesel, meanwhile, acknowledged in a new introduction that he had changed the narrator's age from "not quite 15" to Wiesel's real age at the time, 15.

"Unfortunately, 'Night' is an imperfect ambassador for the infallibility of the memoir," Franklin wrote, "owing to the fact that it has been treated very often as a novel."

Wiesel's prolific stream of speeches, essays and books, including two sequels to "Night" and more than 40 books overall of fiction and nonfiction, emerged from the helplessness of a teenager deported from Hungary, which had annexed his native Romanian town of Sighet, to Auschwitz. Tattooed with the number A-7713, he was freed in 1945 - but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in Nazi camps. Two other sisters survived.

After the liberation of Buchenwald, in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper L'Arche and Israel's Yediot Ahronot.

French author Francois Mauriac, winner of the 1952 Nobel in literature, encouraged Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences.

In 1956, Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Forward. His contact with the city's many Holocaust survivors shored up Wiesel's resolve to keep telling their stories.

Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. Based in New York, Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall.

Wiesel also taught at Yale University and the City University of New York.

In 1978, he was chosen by President Carter to head the President's Commission on the Holocaust, and plan an American memorial museum to Holocaust victims. Wiesel wrote in a report to the president that the museum must include denying the Nazis a posthumous victory, honoring the victims' last wishes to tell their stories. He said that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not Jewish, all Jews were victims. Wiesel advocated that the museum emphasize the annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the others; today the exhibits and archives reflects that.

Among his most memorable spoken words came in 1985, when he received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan and asked the president not to make a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Adolf Hitler's personal guards.

"We have met four or five times, and each time I came away enriched, for I know of your commitment to humanity," Wiesel said, as Reagan looked on. "May I, Mr. President, if it's possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims."

Reagan visited the cemetery, in Bitburg, despite international protests.

Wiesel also spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. His words are now carved in stone at its entrance: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness."

Wiesel defended Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of African famine and victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Wiesel was a longtime supporter of Israel although he was criticized at times for his closeness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu. When Netanhayu gave a highly controversial address to Congress in 2015, denouncing President Obama's efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with Iran, Wiesel was among the guests of honor.

"What were you doing there, Elie Wiesel?" Haaretz columnist Roger Alpher wrote at the time. "Netanyahu is my prime minister. You are not an Israeli citizen. You do not live here. The Iranian threat to destroy Israel does not apply to you. You are a Jew who lives in America. This is not your problem."

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wife's own personal investments. At a panel discussion in February 2009, Wiesel admitted he bought into the Madoff mystique, "a myth that he created around him that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret." He called Madoff "a crook, a thief, a scoundrel."

Despite Wiesel's mission to remind the world of past mistakes, the greatest disappointment of his life was that "nothing changed," he said in an interview.

"Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope."

But personally, he never gave up - as reflected in his novel "The Town Beyond the Wall."

Wiesel's Jewish protagonist, Michael, returns to his native town in now-communist Hungary to find out why his neighbors had given him up to the Nazis. Suspected as a Western spy, he lands in prison along with a young man whose insanity has left him catatonic.

The protagonist takes on the challenge of "awakening" the youth by any means, from talking to forcing his mouth open - a task as wrenching as Wiesel's humanitarian missions.

"The day when the boy suddenly began sketching arabesques in the air was one of the happiest of Michael's life. ... Now he talked more, as if wishing to store ideas and values in the boy for his moments of awakening. Michael compared himself to a farmer: months separated the planting from the harvest. For the moment, he was planting."



http://www.nbcnews.com/slideshow/thousands-march-europe-reverse-brexit-vote-n602996

NEWS BREXIT REFERENDUM GALLERY 9 PHOTOS
JUL 2 2016, 5:24 PM ET
Thousands 'March For Europe' to Reverse Brexit Vote
Tens of thousands of EU supporters sang, danced and marched down the streets of London on Saturday to protest the UK's Brexit vote.

There is no text story, but go to the website and look at the photos. It looks like a Bernie Sanders rally.