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.

Shutterstock image

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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Australian Patriot Act Begins: New Anti-Terrorist Law to Allow Australia to Monitor Internet

10/2/2014

SYDNEY – The Australian Parliament Wednesday granted more powers to its secret service agencies to monitor the web by approving the first of three sections of new anti-terrorism laws.

The controversial National Security Legislation Amendment Bill was approved in the House of Representatives after being given the go-ahead by the Senate last Thursday.

“The government’s number one priority is to keep Australia safe,” Justice Minister Michael Keenan said in defense of the laws which were criticized during the debate by members of the Australian Greens, two independent legislators and one from the Labor Party.

The most important update of security laws since the 1970s will allow intelligence agencies to secure the powers and capacities needed to carry out their work in a “new era of danger,” according to the government of conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Under the new law, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) will be able to search, monitor, copy, erase or modify data in computers or access a computer that is part of a network through a third party, all with a single warrant.

“ASIO will have access to the entire web and will be able to monitor the activity of all Australians at any moment, whether through their Twitter and Facebook accounts, the webpages they visit, their communications with other people, everything,” Australian Lawyer’s Association president Greg Barns recently told Efe.

The amendments approved Wednesday also include up to 10-year sentences for informants and journalists who disclose information pertaining to special intelligence operations, and limited immunity for secret agents participating in such operations.

This month, a parliamentary committee on intelligence and security will analyze the second batch of laws concerning Australian citizens fighting in the ranks of jihadist groups abroad, while another law related to the collection of metadata will be addressed at the end of the year.

Last month, Australia raised the terrorist alert level to “high” amid an international offensive against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq for which the country is providing humanitarian aid and weapons.

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Latin American Leftists Warn of Threats to Progressive Change

10/2/2014

QUITO – Hundreds of delegates from leftist political parties from 20 Latin American nations warned of threats to the process of change taking place in the region on the final day of the first Latin American Progressive Encounter (ELAP).

The two-day event held in the Ecuadorean capital ended late Tuesday at the Plaza de San Francisco, where a final statement of the meeting was read.

The “Quito Declaration” expressed support for the progressive governments in the region and rejected intervention by “neo-colonialist powers” in the processes of change occurring there.

Left-wing representatives from Germany, Spain and Greece attended the event to learn from the Latin American experience, said Pablo Iglesias of the Spanish Podemos (We Can) party.

In the final declaration, the ELAP, organized by Ecuador’s leftist PAIS Alliance, urged all the progressive Latin American governments to strengthen integration and support efforts such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Union of South American Nations and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, among others.

The ELAP also proposed “radicalizing democracy” in these countries and deepening the participation of groups of young people and women in political debates.

On the other hand, the ELAP issued a warning about the “imminent danger” of a “counter-offensive” by the conservative right in an attempt to regain power in these nations through media campaigns against the progressive governments.

“We strongly protest the permanent interference by the right in Venezuela,” read the declaration, in open support of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

It also rejected what it called “imperialist aggression” in “any part of the world” through economic and political pressure.

In a show of support for Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, the ELAP proposed denouncing the practice of a group of U.S. debt creditors of that country, known as “vulture funds,” calling them “predators.”

The ELAP also supported Argentina’s claim on the Falkland Islands, which belong to Britain, and criticized U.S. commercial and economic sanctions against Cuba, which it described as “unjust and criminal.”

The ELAP called for a consolidation of the regional multilateral financial agencies to deal with speculative capital and the pressure from powerful countries and corporations.

It also endorsed the ratification of the “Kyoto Protocol” to battle climate change and backed Ecuador in its campaign against the American oil company Chevron for alleged environmental damage in the Amazon region of the country.

Representatives of leftist movements and parties of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela participated in the ELAP.

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Name That Party: Connecticut state representative Christina Ayala arrested on 19 voting fraud charges in local and state elections

10/2/2014

Christina Ayala was charged with fraud in local and state elections 

The Connecticut state representative is accused of fabricating her address

Fraudulent voting is a felony punishable by not less than one year in jail

Bridgeport Democratic state representative Christina ‘Tita’ Ayala has been arrested and charged with voting in local and state elections in districts where she did not live.

Ayala, 31, from Bridgeport, was charged with eight counts of fraudulent voting, 10 counts of primary or enrollment violations, and one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the State Elections Enforcement Commission in the Office of Governmental Accountability referred the matter to the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney in October 2013.

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Bridgeport state Representative Christina ‘Tita’ Ayala has been arrested and charged with voting in local and state elections in districts where she did not live

Ayala was charged with eight counts of fraudulent voting, 10 counts of primary or enrollment violations, and one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence

The warrant alleges Ayala voted in various Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee elections, a municipal primary election and a state primary election between 2009 and 2012, in districts inconsistent with location of her residence. 

In addition, the warrant alleges that she voted in the Bridgeport state general election in 2012 in a district where she did not reside.

The warrant further alleges that Ayala presented fabricated evidence to Elections Enforcement Commission investigators that she lived at an address in a district where she voted while actually residing at an address outside that district.

Fraudulent Voting is a felony punishable by not less than one year or more than two years imprisonment and a fine of $300 to $500 on each count.

Primary or enrollment violations and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence are class D felonies carrying a maximum prison sentence of up to 5 years on each count.

Ayala, who lost the Democratic primary in the 128th House District in August, was released on a promise to appear for arraignment at Bridgeport Superior Court, on October 7, 2014.

If found guilty of election fraud it wouldn’t be the first time that she’s been in trouble with the law.

She was fined $350 for a hit-and-run car accident shortly after winning the 2012 Democratic primary for the House seat. 

She later got into a fight with her boyfriend and faced domestic violence charges, which were dropped after she completed counseling.

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