Samples of bats found in the Endless Caverns show cave suspected of
having the deadly white-nose syndrome (WNS) have been sent to a
federal testing facility, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland
Fisheries (VDGIF) confirmed Friday [24 Apr 2009]. (more…)
April 2009
Monthly Archive
April 28, 2009
April 21, 2009
VOTER SUPPRESSION BILLS FAST-TRACKED IN TALLAHASSEE
Posted by Lorelei Jackson under Bush Admin, Civil and Human Rights, Consumer Advocates, Corporate Entities, corporate greed, corruption, Courts or Justice, democratic, Education, Elections, Government, justice, Left wing, mainstream media, Media, Politics, Propaganda, public servant, republican, Right wing, Teachers, WhistleblowerLeave a Comment
VOTER SUPPRESSION BILLS FAST-TRACKED IN TALLAHASSEE
by Kindra Muntz, President
Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections (SAFE)
Citizens groups from all over the state rallied yesterday in opposition to two voter suppression bills being fast-tracked through the Florida legislature.
Voter Suppression – for all the details click here.
Keep your calls going to legislators all over the state to VOTE NO on SB 956 and House companion bill PCB-EDCA 09-08.
Be sure to call House Speaker Larry Cretul 850-488-1450 and Senate President Jeff Atwater 850-487-5100 to stop the bills from going to the floor of the House and Senate, which could happen as early as Tuesday, April 21st in the House and Wednesday, April 22nd in the Senate.
Call your Representative and Senator to VOTE NO on the bills if they get to the floor.
FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR HERE:
List of House of Representatives
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/representatives.aspx?SessionId=61
List of Senators
http://www.flsenate.gov/Legislators/index.cfm?Tab=legislators&CFID=129871154&CFTOKEN=38926163
Call Representative Dorothy Hukill at 850-488-6653, the presenter of the bill in the House, to withdraw her sponsorship.
Call Senator J.D. Alexander at 850-487-5044 and Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla at 850-487-5109 to withdraw their sponsorship of the Senate bill.
Then call Governor Charlie Crist at 850-488-4441 to VETO the bill, no matter how it is amended, if it gets to his desk.
These bills are bad for voters, bad for election integrity, and bad for democracy.
April 17, 2009
Who owns the Rain? Apparently Colorado believes only certain people own it.
Posted by Lorelei Jackson under apocalyptic, Consumer Advocates, corporate greed, Economics, Education, Environmental, environmental problems, fanatics, Food, gardening, global warming, organic gardening, Politics, public servant, river pollution, Science, Teachers, water, water conservation, wildlifeLeave a Comment
Who owns the Rain?
Apparently Colorado believes only certain people own it.
Environmentalists and others like to gather it in containers for use in drier times. But state law says it belongs to those who bought the rights to waterways.
By Nicholas Riccardi
March 18, 2009
Reporting from Denver — Every time it rains here, Kris Holstrom knowingly breaks the law.
Holstrom’s violation is the fancifully painted 55-gallon buckets underneath the gutters of her farmhouse on a mesa 15 miles from the resort town of Telluride. The barrels catch rain and snowmelt, which Holstrom uses to irrigate the small vegetable garden she and her husband maintain.
But according to the state of Colorado, the rain that falls on Holstrom’s property is not hers to keep. It should be allowed to fall to the ground and flow unimpeded into surrounding creeks and streams, the law states, to become the property of farmers, ranchers, developers and water agencies that have bought the rights to those waterways. read the rest here you will be totally amazed that someone can OWN rainwater.
April 1, 2009
Ebola: Cure? or Just Lucky?
Posted by Lorelei Jackson under anthrax, Civil and Human Rights, Consumer Advocates, Consumer Product Safety, Disease, Disease Outbreaks, ebola, emerging disease, health, medicene, plague, Politics, Science, virusLeave a Comment
Source: The Toronto Star, Associated Press report [edited]
<http://www.thestar.com/article/609787>
Ebola scientists turn to Canadian vaccine
——————————
———–
It was a nightmare scenario — a scientist accidentally pricking her
finger with a needle used to inject the deadly ebolavirus into lab
mice. Within hours, members of a far-flung but tightly bound
community of virologists, biologists, and others were tensely
gathered in a transatlantic telephone conference trying to map out a
way to save her life.
It was a nightmare scenario — a scientist accidentally pricking her
finger with a needle used to inject the deadly ebolavirus into lab
mice. Within hours, members of a far-flung but tightly bound
community of virologists, biologists, and others were tensely
gathered in a transatlantic telephone conference trying to map out a
way to save her life.
Less than 24 hours later, an experimental vaccine never before tried
on humans was on its way to Germany from Canada’s National
Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. And within 48 hours of the 12
Mar 2009 accident, the at-risk scientist, a 45-year-old woman whose
identity has not been revealed, was injected with the vaccine. So
far, so good. If the woman is still healthy next Thursday [2 Apr
2009], she can consider herself safe.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever, seen mainly in Africa, is one of the world’s
most feared diseases. It begins with flu-like symptoms, followed by
bloody diarrhea and vomiting. Days later, some victims bleed through
the nose, mouth and eyes. Depending on the strain of virus, it can
kill up to 90 per cent of victims. There is no cure. The virus is
spread through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an
infected person.
Dr Stephan Guenther, head of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for
Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, where the researcher was working, said
tests so far show the scientist is healthy and free of the virus. The
peak period for an outbreak during the 21-day ebolavirus incubation
period passed this week, he said. “We are now on the downside,”
Guenther said, noting that with each passing day the chance of
infection taking root diminishes.
But… and here is the “disclaimer”…
It’s not entirely clear the researcher was actually infected with the
virus. At the time of the accident, she was wearing 3 layers of
protective gloves, and though the needle stuck her, the plunger of
the syringe was not pushed so it’s not certain the virus entered her
bloodstream. That means scientists may never know if the vaccine
worked or she was just lucky. There are 2 other known accidents
involving researchers who came into direct contact with a similar
strain of Ebola. A Russian researcher died, and a British scientist
became ill but survived.
virus. At the time of the accident, she was wearing 3 layers of
protective gloves, and though the needle stuck her, the plunger of
the syringe was not pushed so it’s not certain the virus entered her
bloodstream. That means scientists may never know if the vaccine
worked or she was just lucky. There are 2 other known accidents
involving researchers who came into direct contact with a similar
strain of Ebola. A Russian researcher died, and a British scientist
became ill but survived.
After the needle stick, Guenther knew he had to act swiftly. He
rushed an email to fellow scientists, including Dr Heinz Feldmann,
chief of the virology laboratory at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories,
a research facility in Hamilton, Montana. “We considered this as
serious as (the Russian) case, in terms of the exposure,” Feldmann
said. Feldmann was part of an international group of experts from the
Canadian Public Health Agency, US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious
Diseases, the Boston University, and the University of Texas Medical
Branch. Feldmann, Guenther, and several other experts took part in
the teleconference debating the options. The option that emerged as
the strongest was the vaccine that had been developed by Feldmann and
collaborating researchers at several institutions. Much of the key
work was done about 9 years ago at the microbiology research lab in
Winnipeg where Feldmann worked at the time. Although the vaccine is
based on a different kind of virus, researchers used genetic
engineering to make the virus look like Ebola, triggering an immune
system response.
[Byline: Melissa Eddy, Mike Stobbe]
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