Rural Hospital Closure Complicates Cancer Care : Shots – Health News : NPR
Sigh…
Category: Money, Class, and Poverty,
Utah nurse reaches $500,000 settlement in dispute over her arrest for blocking cop from drawing blood from patient
Wubbels will use a portion of the money to help people get body camera footage, at no cost, of incidents involving themselves, she said at the news conference. In addition, Porter’s law firm, Christensen & Jensen, will provide for free any legal services necessary to obtain the video.
…Wubbels said she also will make a donation to the Utah Nurses Association and will help spearhead the #EndNurseAbuse campaign by the American Nurses Association.
…The July 26 encounter leading to Wubbels’ arrest began when she refused to allow Salt Lake City Detective Jeff Payne to draw blood from an unconscious patient who had been involved in a fiery crash in Cache County earlier in the day.
Wubbels pointed out that the crash victim was not under arrest, that Payne did not have a warrant to obtain the blood and that he could not obtain consent because the man was unconscious.
…Utah’s statute specifically requires reasonable suspicion that a person was intoxicated before a sample can be taken.
…On Sept. 13, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski announced an internal affairs investigation had found Payne and Lt. James Tracy violated several department policies [and the law] during their interaction with Wubbels. A review by the city’s independent Police Civilian Review Board also found the officers violated [the law.]
…A criminal investigation into the arrest — which involves the Unified Police Department, the FBI and the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office — continues.
A tiny drop of justice from the American Injustice System.
Joe Biden and the Busing Question Back In 1975
A 1973 Gallup Poll found that while a majority of Americans favored school integration, just 5% believed busing was the best way to do it. That went across racial lines — just 4% of whites and 9% of African Americans thought busing was the best way to do it.
Americans thought other policies should be focused more on and would do a better job of achieving school integration, like changing school district boundaries to bring together students from different social, racial and economic groups (27%) or that there should be more affordable housing in middle-class neighborhoods (22%).
Even a generation later, 82% of Americans said they favored letting students go to their neighborhood school over busing. A 1999 Gallup Poll found that almost 9 in 10 whites said so, and blacks were split — 48% to 44%, with a plurality preference for keeping students in neighborhood schools.
Even nearly three-quarters of younger respondents in 1999 — ages 18 to 29, who might have gone through busing themselves and who thought integration programs were beneficial — said letting children attend neighborhood schools would be better than busing. (Harris would have been 35 in 1999; Biden was 57.)
A 1971 Gallup Poll found that fewer than half of Americans (43%) thought integration programs had improved the quality of education for black students. By 1999, though, 80% of those younger respondents thought they worked. In other words, the generational divide is real.
Joe Biden Supported A Constitutional Amendment To End Busing In 1975 : NPR
hmmmm
Kushner’s Palestinian peace plan resembles real estate brochure
The plan is premised on three tenets: “Unleashing economic potential, empowering the Palestinian people, and enhancing Palestinian governance.” It’s replete with buzzwords, charts, and tables. It promises investments in private enterprise, education, health care, and government in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. It features images of happy Palestinians, with minimal mention of Israel and no discussion of the state of Palestine.
…It contains no political solution to the problem Kushner was tasked with solving. It doesn’t address the famously difficult questions that have doomed other peace proposals, like the status of the city of Jerusalem or Palestinians’ right of return. There’s no talk of what might be done with Israeli settlements in occupied territories, nor any discussion of borders at all.
…Like any business proposal, it is meant to intrigue potential investors and get them dreaming big before getting bogged down by pesky facts on the ground.
Kushner’s Palestinian peace plan resembles real estate brochure — Quartz
hmmm
White House approves military to use lethal force at border
White House approves military to use lethal force at border
Wonder what the status of this order is?
Treasury Will Review Trump Administration’s Delay Of Harriet Tubman Note : NPR
The Treasury Department will conduct an investigation into the circumstances leading to a delay in the production of a new $20 bill featuring a portrait of slave-turned-slave-emancipator Harriet Tubman.
…In 2016, the Treasury Department announced it would replace President Andrew Jackson’s face with that of the famed abolitionist by 2020. As NPR reported, the update would have made Tubman the first woman since Martha Washington to appear on an American currency note and the first ever African American. But last month, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the redesign will be delayed until 2028.
…”If, in the course of our audit work, we discover indications of the employee misconduct or other matters that warrant a referral to our Office of Investigations, we will do so expeditiously,” Delmar said.
Treasury Will Review Trump Administration’s Delay Of Harriet Tubman Note : NPR
hmmm
Facebook urged to pause Libra crypto-currency project
“Given the company’s troubled past, I am requesting that Facebook agree to a moratorium on any movement forward on developing a crypto-currency until Congress and regulators have the opportunity to examine these issues and take action,” said Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters.
She cited the firm’s history of controversies involving user-data among her concerns, and called on Facebook’s executives to testify before her committee.
…US Senator Sherrod Brown, who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, said he thought Facebook had become “too big and too powerful”.
“We cannot allow Facebook to run a risky new crypto-currency out of a Swiss bank account without oversight,” he said in a statement.
Facebook urged to pause Libra crypto-currency project – BBC News
hmmm
EPA rolls back Obama-era plan limiting coal emissions
EPA rolls back Obama-era plan limiting coal emissions – CNNPolitics
Ignorant, irresponsible asshat
Seniors face foreclosure in retirement after failed reverse mortgage
Nearly 100,000 loans that allowed senior citizens to tap into their home equity have failed, blindsiding elderly borrowers and their families.
…In many cases, the worst toll has fallen on those ill-equipped to shoulder it: urban African Americans, many of whom worked for most of their lives, then found themselves struggling in retirement.
…These elderly homeowners were wooed into borrowing money through the special program by attractive sales pitches or a dire need for cash – or both. When they missed a paperwork deadline or fell behind on taxes or insurance, lenders moved swiftly to foreclose on the home. Those foreclosures wiped out hard-earned generational wealth built in the decades since the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
…Borrowers living near the poverty line in pockets of Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, Detroit, Philadelphia and Jacksonville, Florida, are among the hardest hit, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis of more than 1.3 million loan records.
…Consumer advocates said the analysis supports what they have complained about for years – that unscrupulous lenders targeted lower-income, black neighborhoods and encouraged elderly homeowners to borrow money while glossing over the risks and requirements.
USA TODAY found that reverse mortgages end in foreclosure six times more often in predominantly black neighborhoods than in neighborhoods that are 80% white.
Even comparing only poorer areas, black neighborhoods fare worse. In ZIP codes where most residents make less than $40,000, the analysis found reverse mortgage foreclosure rates were six times higher in black neighborhoods than in white ones.
…Regulators said actual evictions of seniors are rare. There’s no way to verify that, though, since HUD, the top government regulator of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans, does not sign off on evictions – or even count them.
…They work like this: Lenders appraise the value of a house and allow homeowners to borrow back money against that market value.
Borrowers can stop making monthly mortgage payments, and they can stay put for life, so long as they maintain the home and pay property taxes and insurance.
…At the end – a move out, death or default – the bank calls the loan due, to be paid back either by the sale of the home or an heir or homeowner repaying the loan money. Lenders and their investors make their money through origination fees that can top $15,000 with fees and mortgage insurance, and by charging interest on the loan balance.
…“Adult children that have been trying to take care of their mother or father or both get the idea that ‘When mom or dad passes, I’m going to have a little inheritance or get this place on the market,’ ” Nordgren said. “Then the death happens and … here comes the foreclosure.”
…Charles, [Frazier] died at 88 of a heart attack in the family home a few miles west of Roseland, in Beverly. At that point, in December 2017, an unpaid $4,351 property tax bill led to the default.
,,,,,Celink told Frazier in February that she could buy the house by paying off the loan’s balance: $209,053, including fees and interest. Frazier and her brother said it’s far more than they can afford to pay.
…Even when both husband and wife are old enough to qualify, reverse mortgage lenders often advise them to remove the younger spouse from loans and titles.
…Widows not on the title must meet various deadlines – at 90 and 120 days after the death – to provide their loan companies with death certificates and other documents.
Blair sent in paperwork she thought solved the problem. She discovered she had missed one document – changing the deed to her name within 90 days – months later after a foreclosure notice arrived in her mailbox.
…The suit alleged brokers targeted the minority homeowners for the “mortgage products and overpriced home repair work that they did not need or cannot afford” to capitalize on elderly widows unaccustomed to both the home’s finances and home repair.
Seniors face foreclosure in retirement after failed reverse mortgage
sigh…
Canada plans to ban ‘harmful’ single-use plastics by 2021 – CNN
Canada will ban many single-use plastic items by 2021, including bags, straws, cutlery and stirring sticks.
…It comes after the European Parliament passed a similar ban on single-use plastic items in late March, including a target to recycle 90% of plastic beverage bottles by 2029.
…”Less than 10 per cent of plastic used in Canada [is sent to be] recycled. Without a change in course, Canadians will throw away an estimated $11 billion worth of plastic materials each year by 2030.”
…A report by the European Commission found that 80% of litter in the world’s oceans is plastic.
…Plastic has been found inside marine animals including [thing we eat seems like a reasonably conclusion but somehow is not listed in the animals the quote names.]
Canada plans to ban ‘harmful’ single-use plastics by 2021 – CNN
hmmm
You probably are swallowing a credit card’s weight in plastic every week
This plastic contamination comes from “microplastics” — particles smaller than five millimeters — which are making their way into our food, drinking water and even the air.
…The average person consumes as many as 1,769 particles of plastic every week just by drinking water — bottled or from the tap. But there could be large regional variations. It quotes a 2018 study that found twice as much plastic in water in the United States and India than in European or Indonesian tap water.
…Shellfish is the second biggest source of plastic ingestion, with the average person consuming as many as 182 microparticles — 0.5 grams — from this per week. The report says this is because “shellfish are eaten whole, including their digestive system, after a life in plastic polluted seas.”
…Globally, more than 330 million metric tons of plastic is produced each year, and global plastic production is expected to triple by 2050.
…[When] microplastics are shown to damage human health, it will be very difficult to remove them from the environment.
“Therefore we need to tackle plastic pollution at its very source [and] stop it from getting into the nature in the first place,” [Kavita Prakash-Mani, global conservation director at WWF International] told CNN, stressing that the priority should be reducing plastic production [emphasis: peanut gallery].
You could be swallowing a credit card’s weight in plastic every week – CNN
hmmmm
Why some countries are shipping back plastic waste
Many wealthy countries send their recyclable waste overseas because it’s cheap, helps meet recycling targets and reduces domestic landfill.
For developing countries taking in the rubbish, it’s a valuable source of income.
But contaminated plastic and rubbish that cannot be recycled often gets mixed in.
…Only a tiny fraction of all plastics ever produced has been recycled.
Often, materials that can’t be recycled end up being burned illegally, dumped in landfills or waterways, creating risks to the environment and public health.
….Until January 2018, China imported most of the world’s plastic waste.
But due to concerns about contamination and pollution, it declared it would no longer buy recycled plastic scrap that was not 99.5% pure.
…Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Turkey, India and Poland all took up the slack.
…But the rubbish arriving in these countries wasn’t sufficiently recyclable, and it has caused problems.
…”What the citizens of the UK believe they send for recycling is actually dumped in our country,” said Malaysian Minister Yeo Bee Yin.
…However, there is still an overwhelming demand for locations to send plastic and other waste to for recycling, and the challenge of how to dispose of it remains.
…In 2016, 235 million tonnes of plastic waste was generated globally.
On current trends, this could reach 417 million tonnes per year by 2030.
Why some countries are shipping back plastic waste – BBC News
hmmm
Here and Now Episode: Carbon Capture Plant In Switzerland Opens To Sell CO2 For Reuse
The first commercial facility that can extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then sell it for reuse opened earlier this month in Switzerland. …But critics say the technology uses too much energy and is too expensive.
Carbon Capture Plant In Switzerland Opens To Sell CO2 For Reuse | Here & Now
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Mississippi residents flooded out for four months think ecosystem-devastating pumps could save them
“There are layers of reasons why this is a bad project,” said Melissa Samet, senior counsel at the National Wildlife Federation, who has followed the project for decades, ”but worst of all is it really gives a false promise of hope to people who are suffering from flooding.”
…Many residents believe there is a solution to their persistent, yearly flooding woes — if only the government would cut through the red tape to enact it. Locals like Deere believe that an unfinished Army Corps of Engineers project known as the Yazoo Pumps, a potential drain for the levee system that protects the Delta, would hold back the floodwaters that regularly threaten almost 20,000 people here.
…Residents of the region, local farmers and Mississippi politicians are calling for the revival of the pumps — a project vetoed by then-President George W. Bush’s administration, called “one of the worst projects ever conceived by Congress” by the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain in 2004, and endlessly decried by environmental advocates.
…The project has been debated for almost 80 years, with frustration and anger building with the passing time.
….Environmental advocates and longtime civil servants who have worked on the project, however, argue that the pumps come at a high cost, potentially draining tens of thousands of vital wetland acres that supports one of the most unique wildlife habitats in the country.
…Conservationists say the Delta’s bottomland hardwood wetlands create one of the most important ecosystems in the country. Twenty percent of the nation’s ducks, 450 different species, including 257 species of birds, rely on these wetlands’ natural resources.
They [would] be devastated by the pumps, according to the EPA’s veto, which said that [up to] 67,000 acres of wetlands could be drained if the pumps were installed.
…“It was a hard decision because EPA knew the area needed flood protection but our analysis of widespread environmental impacts, costs, and other complications fully justified the veto.”
…Buyouts, wetland reforestation and raised homes and roadways are ideas proposed by Shabman in another report that he produced for the EPA about potential alternatives. Environmental advocates, however, claim local leaders were never curious to explore such ideas because they didn’t come with expensive construction contracts benefiting a small number of people in Mississippi.
…Because of those rising waters, Branning entered his property into the Wetlands Preserve Program in 1999, which provides him compensation for the land that he can’t farm if he allows it to be reforested.
“We did that because the program added value, in my opinion, to the land because the land had been cleared and being farmed unsuccessfully numerous years,” he said. “It may do okay for two years and then in two years the high water comes.”
…Branning said he’s happy that it’s helping the environment and noticed that some wildlife has returned, which is good for him as a hunter.
Mississippi residents flooded out for four months say the EPA could save them but won’t
Oy….
The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Deserves to Celebrate
Instead of Team USA being celebrated for what its players achieved, the victory became an opportunity to lecture these women on how to behave. That lecture is all the more galling given that, in March, the team filed a gender-discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation.
… It isn’t the U.S. national team’s job to spare Thailand from humiliation—especially when, in this phase of the tournament, the differential between goals scored and goals allowed can determine whether a team advances. Considering that Alex Morgan tied a tournament record with five goals, and Morgan’s teammates Sam Mewis and Rose Lavelle each scored the first World Cup goals of their careers, this team had every right to celebrate as it wanted.
…Despite having won three World Cup titles, earned four Olympic gold medals, and generated millions of dollars more in revenue than the men in 2015, the women sometimes earn 38 percent of what the men earn per game.
In fact, the 13 goals the women scored were more than the men have tallied in every World Cup appearance since 2006 combined. So if anyone deserved to celebrate on their own terms, it’s these women.
The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Deserves to Celebrate – The Atlantic
mmhmm
Iran will get the blame, but the Gulf of Oman truth is likely a lot murkier
Inevitably, similarities have been drawn between Thursday’s attacks and events a month ago, when four ships were targeted near the Emirati port of Furajah. For that, officials in Washington and beyond pointed the finger at Iran.
But Thursday’s incident is significantly more blatant. Yet the same officials will doubtless blame Tehran again. If and when that happens, we should remember US national security advisor John Bolton promised to present evidence to the UN Security Council backing up those previous claims, but has yet to do so.
…There are few easy facts here, as there are few easy culprits. But the sense of uncertainty stokes rather than dampens the fears of mismanagement and conflict.
Iran will get the blame, but the Gulf of Oman truth is likely a lot murkier – CNN
hmmm
Elon Musk vs. Jeff Bezos: How their space plans are different, similar
Musk, the tech mogul behind Tesla and the founder of SpaceX (a now-$33-billion rocket company), wants to establish a permanent, self-sustaining city on Mars.
Meanwhile, Bezos — the founder and CEO of Amazon — has his own space company, Blue Origin. Its work so far focuses on building a “road to space” with new rockets that could ultimately pave the way for floating colonies.
Elon Musk vs. Jeff Bezos: How their space plans are different, similar – Business Insider
hmmmm
Toxic Stress Affects How Kids Learn
Children with low family income—children with a family income of $20,000 or less—are more likely to encounter threatening experiences and the “toxic stress” that accompanies it. They also find black children generally have more exposure to these experiences than white children.
…These threatening experiences cause particular physiological reactions: When these reactions happen too often, the body’s responses can become chronic and disrupt normal processes.
…Schools can be a hindrance, the report notes, if they have unsympathetic or threatening adults—or they can help, providing mental-health services that enable children to process trauma and improve their academic performance.
Toxic Stress Affects How Black and Poor Kids Learn – CityLab
hmmmmmmmm
Comments From The Peanut Gallery 