ARE HOMESCHOOLERS RAISING FUTURE MASS MURDERERS? SANDY HOOK ADVISORY COMMISSION THINKS SO

10/3/2014

The Sandy Hook Commission released some preliminary details from their full report on the causes of the tragic mass shooting in 2012 and how to prevent another such event.

Some of their recommendations were expected – stricter gun control, more thorough emergency protocols in schools, etc. However, one particular recommendation is cause for alarm and it’s aimed directly at homeschoolers.

Here’s my video response to the shocking assumptions that homeschoolers are basically raising future-Adam Lanzas.

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Obamaphone use up 100-fold in Maryland

10/3/2014

OBAMAPHONE TRENDING: The Obamaphone has grown in popularity in Marlyand– by twice the number eligible for the program.

The use of consumer-subsidized “Obamaphones” in Maryland grew 100-fold in three years, to 645,000, twice the number eligible for the program, Washington Examiner reports.

Officially called Lifeline, the federal program, administered by the Federal Communications Commission, provides free cell phone service to qualified low-income customers.  Cell phone companies that sign up low-income customers are reimbursed $9.25 per customer through universal service charge fees on other cell phone customers’ monthly bills.

In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the Committee on Energy and Commerce last year, a telecom consultant testified that:

“The greatest increase in Lifeline subscribership has occurred in Maryland. In the third quarter of 2009, there were only 6,504 Lifeline subscribers in Maryland, representing only 2 percent of the eligible low-income households in that state.  By the third quarter of 2012, the number of Lifeline subscribers in Maryland had risen almost 100 fold to 645,000.  Moreover, the current number of Lifeline subscribers in Maryland is almost double the number of low-income households in the state, as shown by the graph. The dashed red line is the number of eligible low-income households. The blue line is the number of Lifeline subscribers by quarter.”

One of the main suppliers of Lifeline service is TracFone, owned by Obama fundraiser Carlos Slim.  According to the Examiner, TracFone refused to answer questions about the company’s actual cost to provide the service.

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ABQ Health Partners cut staff by 5 percent Thursday, could amount to 63 layoffs

10/3/2014

ABQ Health Partners has confirmed the company laid off about 5% of their staff on Thursday.

A spokesperson for DaVita, the company that runs ABQ Health Partners, wouldn't give specific numbers on how many people lost their jobs.  But right on their website, it lists that they employ 163 physicians, 86 mid-level care providers, and 1,011 staff members in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho.

That amounts to 1,260 employees.  5% of that would be 63 staffers cut.

KOB Eyewitness News 4's Danielle Todesco spoke with an employee who still has a job, and she wanted to remain anonymous to keep her job.

"I think everybody will have their heads down, keeping their nose clean.  Everybody that I talk to...I mean, the morale is terrible," the employee said.

The spokeswoman said they serve about 170,000 patients and that they will continue to have access to all the current specialties offered.

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Two Patients Quarantined in Kentucky With Ebola-Like Symptoms

10/3/2014

Two patients were quarantined in Kentucky recently with Ebola-like symptoms. Neither Kentucky patient had the virus, but the cases show that the system of detection, isolation and investigation in place in Kentucky worked as it should.
Lex18 reported:

Two patients in Kentucky with Ebola-like symptoms have been quarantined for examination.

After the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in the US, doctors say they don’t want to take any risks even though the two patients in Kentucky tested negative for the infection.

“The business of detecting it and finding out what it is, we’re in good shape. If we get cases we need to be working more closely with the hospitals to see how we will manage individual cases,” said Dr. Rice Leach, commissioner of health at the Fayette County Health Department. ” But where did you get it, what is it, and who did you give it to? So far we’re in great shape because we’ve practiced this thing three times going back as far as Anthrax, H1N1 and vaccine shortage 10 years ago.”

Doctors will be taking every precaution necessary when it comes to patients who suffer Ebola-like symptoms.

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No need to report rape of minors says Virginia Attorney General in shocking opinion

10/3/2014

The Attorney General of Virginia recently released an opinion sure to delight rapists, sex traffickers, and pedophiles all over the state, freeing them to do more of their deeds without fear of being known. No longer do medical personnel–which includes abortion clinics–need to report suspected rape when a teenage girl is found to have an abortion. According to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, those reporting laws only apply if someone thinks a parent or guardian raped a girl.

The opinion, which includes, “prenatal or abortion services” as possible rape indicators that no longer have to be reported to law enforcement, was quietly released last month, Herring writes:

“It is my opinion that a Virginia Department of Health (VDH) licensing inspector who is a nurse and who, during the course of a hospital inspection, learns from the review of a medical record that a 14-year-old girl received services related to her pregnancy is not required to make a report of child abuse and neglect pursuant to Virginia Code § 63.2-1509 unless there is reason to suspect that a parent or other person responsible for the child’s care committed, or allowed to be committed, the unlawful sexual act upon the child.”

Virginia Code § 63.2-1509, the opinion says, mandates “‘certain persons, who in their professional or official capacity, have reason to suspect that a child is an abused or neglected child’ to report the matter immediately’….  An ‘abused or neglected child’ is defined as “any child less than 18 years of age … [ w]hose parents or other person responsible for his care commits or allows to be committed any act of sexual exploitation or any sexual act upon a child in violation of the law …. ‘”

Herring manages to maneuver words of the abuse statutes just right to issue his opinion, which some pro-lifers say puts him in cahoots with the abortion industry, helping to protect them. Herring writes of the law being “construed” wrong:

“To construe §63.2-1508 as expanding the reporting requirements of “§63.2-1509, thereby expanding the definition of ‘an abused or neglected child,’ results  in an inharmonious interpretation in which both statutes could not stand. Such an interpretation is even more absurd given that §63.2-1508  only requires the local department of social  services to investigate reports where the alleged abuser is a parent or other person responsible for the child’s care.”

What’s actually absurd is the removal of responsibility to report suspected abuse, as if no one but a parent could abuse or allow abuse of a child. The Family Foundation responded to this opinion yesterday saying:

“This surprising opinion absolves health care professionals at abortion centers or the health department of responsibility to report the suspected rape of a child to the Department of Social Services or law enforcement.”

The Family Foundation adds that to reach this decision and “protect the abortion industry,” Herring had to overrule two previous Attorney Generals’ decisions, notingone was particularly troubling:

“More concerning, the second was a 2001 Opinion by then Attorney General and now respected Court of Appeals Judge Randolph Beales requiring teachers to report sexual acts against a child regardless whether the teacher suspected or believed the child’s parent or other responsible person committed the sex crime.”

The Family Foundation also notes their report earlier this year when it “discovered from inspection reports that the Roanoke Medical Center for Women performed abortions on three minors without parental consent. At least one of the girls was only 14 years old.”

The Washington Free Beacon notes the work of Live Actionwhich recently investigated the way the abortion industry covers up sex trafficking and abuse:

“[P]ro-life activist Lila Rose produced a series of undercover videos where investigators identified themselves as minors to seek an abortion after a much older man had impregnated them. The videos show abortion clinic workers advising many of the investigators to remain with their abuser and assuring them they would not report the rape to authorities.”

Herring has just made it easier for such abuse to happen without consequence for abortion workers. A man sworn to uphold the law has created a free-for-all in VA for everyone who is not a parent or guardian because now the girl can have an abortion and remove evidence of the abuse without repercussions.

Apparently the Attorney General has never heard of an uncle raping a family member, or maybe a friend of a parent, or a boyfriend, or random abuser, or pedophile down the road, or sex trafficker.  Tragically, many young girls know that abuse happens at far more than only the hand of a parent or guardian. This narrow interpretation of the law had opened a wide chasm for abusers to manipulate–at the hands of innocent girls.

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Great News: Ibuprofen Is All It Takes to Avoid Airport Ebola Screening, Say Experts

10/3/2014

Fighting Ebola 101: 6 Household Items That Can Protect You

NBCNEWS.COM

 
 
 

NEW YORK - People who contract Ebola in West Africa can get through airport screenings and onto a plane with a lie and a lot of ibuprofen, according to healthcare experts who believe more must be done to identify infected travelers. At the very least, they said, travelers arriving from Ebola-stricken countries should be screened for fever, which is currently done on departure from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. But such safeguards are not foolproof.

"The fever-screening instruments run low and aren't that accurate," said infection control specialist Sean Kaufman, president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, a biosafety company based in Atlanta. "And people can take ibuprofen to reduce their fever enough to pass screening, and why wouldn't they? If it will get them on a plane so they can come to the United States and get effective treatment after they're exposed to Ebola, wouldn't you do that to save your life?" On Thursday, Liberia said the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the United States had lied on a questionnaire at Monrovia's airport about his exposure to an Ebola patient.Thomas Eric Duncan's arrival and hospitalization in Dallas have underscored how much U.S. authorities are relying on their counterparts in West African countries to screen passengers and contain the worst Ebola outbreak on record.

Virologist Heinz Feldmann of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has studied Ebola for years and helped develop an experimental Ebola vaccine. He told Science magazine in September that airport screeners in Monrovia, where he spent three weeks, "Don't really know how to use the devices." He said he saw screeners record temperatures of 32 degrees C (90 F), which is so low it "is impossible for a living person." Feldmann said in an email that according to his colleagues who have returned from Liberia in the last few days procedures for taking temperatures and doing clinical checks have improved.

IN-DEPTH

• NBC News Freelancer in Liberia Diagnosed With Ebola
• No Law Requires People to Tell Airlines They're Sick
• How Ebola Made Its Way to the U.S.

- Reuters

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Minnesota mulls policy to allow transgender boys to shower in girls’ locker room

10/2/2014

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. – The Minnesota State High School League is set to vote Thursday on a recommended policy for transgender student athletes that outraged parents because it calls for its 500 member schools to keep their identity under wraps.

The Minnesota Child Protection League published a full-page in the sports section of the Star Tribunerecently that depicted a school locker room and posed a question to parents: “A male wants to shower beside your 14-year-old daughter. Are YOU ok with that?”

Currently female athletes in Minnesota are permitted to play on either male or female sports teams, but males cannot play on female teams.

The policy proposed by the Minnesota State High School League – a nonprofit aimed at promoting high school sports and interscholastic activities and establishing uniform eligibility rules – used best practices from 32 states to develop guidelines for Minnesota’s transgender athletes for issues like documentation necessary to identify as transgender, and how schools should handle privacy concerns in school facilities, Minnesota Public Radio reports.

“Its guiding principles are that transgender students should have the opportunity to compete in sports and their privacy will be protected,” according to the news site.

The Child Protection League, a group that fights to protect children from “exploitation, indoctrination and violence,” contends it “categorically rejects the underlying premise of the policy that gender is a matter of choice, not biology,” state coordinator Michele Lentz told the Star Tribune.

“The parents that we’re talking to are up in arms. They didn’t know that this was going on. They didn’t know that this policy was being considered and they’re appalled,” she told MPR.

Lentz said the policy could create safety issues for some students.

“We don’t see the transgender student themselves as dangerous,” she told the Tribune. “But other kids who might lack maturity could make situations in the locker room dangerous.”

Lentz also took issue with keeping the identity of transgender students from their teammates and parents.

“If a girl wants to play on the boy’s team and a boy wants to play on the girl’s team that’s one thing,” she told MPR.

“Do you think it’s possible in these kinds of situations where they are using facilities, showers, bathrooms, maybe traveling that … that identity might accidentally be revealed?” she questioned.

“And have we then created a situation that is potential traumatic for these students?”

News reports cited former high school track athlete Jae Bates, who attended Hopkins High School as a female for freshman and sophomore year, then converted to male for the last two years.

Bates, who is now attending the University of Puget Sound in Washington State, told the media he used the unisex bathroom or nurse’s bathroom to change, and didn’t really have any issues with aggressive students or acceptance from his peers.

“I was, you know, treated equally and fairly on the team and they called me by my correct pronouns I wanted to go by,” Bates told MPR. “I wasn’t treated any different. Everyone really wanted to respect and allow me to still be part of the community and part of the team.”

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Nanny of the Week: Seattle imposes fine on residents who throw away food

10/2/2014

Each week in this space, we focus on government run amuck.

Usually, that means government officials wielding their power to tell you what you cannot do, by banning juice, bake sales or Chapstick, to name a few. But government coercion comes in many forms, and sometimes being told you must do something — particularly under the threat of fine or imprisonment — is worse than being told what you cannot do.

Such is the case this week in Seattle, where the City Council has imposed a mandatory composting ordinance, requiring all residents to separate their biodegradable trash from other kinds of refuse.

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COMPOSTING COMMON SENSE: Composting might be a fine option – rather than an option that will get you a fine if you don’t choose it – for people with a large backyard and room for a compost bin. But apartment-dwellers will now have to keep their smelly, decomposing leftovers somewhere in their homes, right alongside the trash and mandatory recycling bins.

Residents of the Emerald City who don’t comply with the new rules could face fines of $1 per violation.

It doesn’t appear the city will hire dumpster-diving cops to inspect the trash, but they’re expecting garbage collection companies to enforce the rules.

According to the Seattle Times “collectors can take a cursory look each time they dump trash into a garbage truck. If they see compostable items make up 10 percent or more of the trash, they’ll enter the violation into a computer system their trucks already carry, and will leave a ticket on the garbage bin that says to expect a $1 fine on the next garbage bill.”

“The point isn’t to raise revenue,” Tim Croll, director of solid waste for the Seattle Public Utility agency, told the Times. “We care more about reminding people to separate their materials.”

Nothing like a gentle reminder that comes with the threat of financial penalty if you don’t do it, am I right?

But wait, it gets worse: Even if you’re the most conscientious composter in the city, you’ll end up paying more because your neighbors might make the mistake of throwing food in the trash.

Under the ordinance, apartment complexes and offices would be fined $50 for each violation. In other words, landlords probably can expect they’ll be hit with a few violations during the year — and guess what that means for your rent? It’s not going down, that’s for sure.

Seattle hopes the new rule will boost residents’ recycling. The city has a goal of recycling 60 percent of refuse by 2015.

Composting might be a fine option — rather than an option that will get you a fine if you don’t choose it — for people with a large backyard and room for a compost bin. But apartment-dwellers will now have to keep their smelly, decomposing leftovers somewhere in their homes, right alongside the trash and mandatory recycling bins.

The Seattle City Council seems to have no concern about the amount of floor space, cost of rent or the unpleasant odor soon to be wafting from every residence in the city.

And these new rules regarding composting come only months after the Council announced that the Seattle Public Utilities would have to raise trash-collection rates by 5 percent, meaning residents will pay more to have the trash men haul away less.

For composting common sense and issuing “reminders” with the equivalent of parking tickets, the Seattle City Council is this week’s winner.

Their prize is the city’s largest compost bin — hopefully located at the center of its Council chambers.

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World Bank Chief Links Ebola Outbreak to Global Inequality

10/2/2014

WASHINGTON – The Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 3,000 people in West Africa is not only a health crisis, but evidence of the danger of global inequality, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said Wednesday.

“The knowledge and infrastructure to treat the sick and contain the (Ebola) virus exists in high and middle income counties. However, over many years, we have failed to make these things accessible to low-income people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,” Kim said, referring to the countries hit hardest by the outbreak.

“So now, thousands of people in these countries are dying because, in the lottery of birth, they were born in the wrong place,” he said in a speech at Washington’s Howard University.

“If we do not stop Ebola now, the infection will continue to spread to other countries and even continents,” Kim said. “This pandemic shows the deadly cost of unequal access to basic services and the consequences of our failure to fix this problem.”

Kim, a physician with experience in treating HIV and tuberculosis in developing countries, said the global response to the Ebola outbreak “has been inadequate,” though he acknowledged that the U.S., British and French governments have begun to allocate greater resources to the issue.

The World Bank has promised $400 million to support the efforts of the affected countries to contain the outbreak and treat Ebola patients, Kim said.

Under Kim, the World Bank has established a goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030.

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