UTMB: Virus missing from secured facility
A virus disappeared from a secure facility at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, officials said.
Officials said they discovered the that the virus was missing during a routine internal inspection on March 20.
The missing vial contained less than a quarter teaspoon of a virus called Guanarito, which is native only to Venezuela and can cause hemorrhagic fever, officials said.
The vial was stored in a locked freezer within a secure laboratory. Officials said they've confirmed there was no breach in the facility's security, so they don't suspect foul play. UTMB officials said the vial was likely destroyed during the normal laboratory decontamination and cleaning process.
Kristen Hensley with UTMB said the virus can be transmitted by rodents only native to Venezuela where the virus is found. Hensley said they don't believe the virus to be capable of surviving naturally in rodents in the U.S.
Officials said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was notified immediately, and UTMB has began a rigorous process to assure the safety of its researchers, employees and the community.
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U.S. dairy industry petitions FDA to approve aspartame as hidden, unlabeled additive in milk, yogurt, eggnog and cream
But now the situation is getting even more insane than you could have imagined: the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) have filed a petition with the FDA asking the FDA to alter the definition of "milk" to secretly include chemical sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose.
Importantly, none of these additives need to be listed on the label. They will simply be swept under the definition of "milk," so that when a company lists "milk" on the label, it automatically includes aspartame or sucralose. And if you're trying to avoid aspartame, you'll have no way of doing so because it won't be listed on the label.
This isn't only for milk, either: It's also for yogurt, cream, sour cream, eggnog, whipping cream and a total of 17 products, all of which are listed in the petition at FDA.gov.
As the petition states:
IDFA and NMPF request their proposed amendments to the milk standard of identity to allow optional characterizing flavoring ingredients used in milk (e.g., chocolate flavoring added to milk) to be sweetened with any safe and suitable sweetener -- including non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame.
This is all being done to "save the children," we're told, because the use of aspartame in milk products would reduce calories.
Milk industry specifically asks to HIDE aspartame from consumers
Astonishingly, the dairy industry is engaged in extreme doublespeak logic and actually arguing that aspartame should be hidden from consumers by not listing it on the label. Here's what the petition says:IDFA and NMPF argue that nutrient content claims such as "reduced calorie" are not attractive to children, and maintain that consumers can more easily identify the overall nutritional value of milk products that are flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners if the labels do not include such claims. Further, the petitioners assert that consumers do not recognize milk -- including flavored milk -- as necessarily containing sugar. Accordingly, the petitioners state that milk flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners should be labeled as milk without further claims so that consumers can "more easily identify its overall nutritional value."
In other words, hiding aspartame from consumers by not including it on the label actually helps consumers, according to the IDFA and NMPF!
Yep, consumers are best served by keeping them ignorant. If this logic smacks of the same kind of twisted deception practiced by Monsanto, that's because it's identical: the less consumers know, the more they are helped, according to industry. And it's for the children, too, because children are also best served by keeping them poisoned with aspartame.
Consumers have always been kept in the dark about pink slime, meat glue, rBGH and GMOs in their food. And now, if the IDFA gets its way, you'll be able to drink hormone-contaminated milk from an antibiotics-inundated cow fed genetically modified crops and producing milk containing hidden aspartame. And you won't have the right to know about any of this!
The FDA confirms this "secret" status of aspartame, stating, "If the standard of identity for milk is amended as requested by petitioners, milk manufacturers could use non-nutritive sweeteners in flavored milk without a nutrient content claim in its labeling."
FDA requests comments
The FDA is requesting comments on this petition. You have until May 21st, 2013 to submit your comments. Click here for instructions.This is a clue to stop drinking processed milk and milk products altogether
There's a bigger story here than just the industry hoping to get FDA approval to secretly put aspartame in milk products while not listing aspartame on the label.The bigger question is this: If an industry is pushing to hide aspartame in its products, what else is it already hiding?
How about the pus content of its dairy products? How about its inhumane treatment of animals who are subjected to torture conditions and pumped full of genetically engineered hormones? How about the fact that homogenization and pasteurization turn a whole food into a dietary nightmare that promotes obesity, autoimmune disorders and cardiovascular disease?
There are lots of dirty little secrets in the dairy industry of course, and that doesn't even get into the secret closed-door conversations to encourage the FDA to destroy the competition of raw milk.
The only rational answer to all this is to stop buying and consuming processed dairy products, period!
I gave up ALL milk products many years ago and have never looked back. I drink almond milk, not pus-filled pasteurized cow's milk. (Click here for a recipe to make your own almond milk at home.) I don't eat yogurt. If I want probiotics, I get them from tasty chewable probiotics supplements such as Sunbiotics. I parted ways with processed dairy products many years ago, and as a result, my cardiovascular health, skin health, digestive health and stamina have all remained in outstanding shape.
There's also a philosophical issue here: Don't buy products from an industry that habitually LIES about everything. The dairy industry is like a mafia. They actively seek to destroy the competition, keep consumers ignorant and monopolize the market. They run highly deceptive ads with ridiculous claims like, "drinking milk helps you lose weight" and other nonsense.
The U.S. dairy industry is steeped in deception at every level, and now they want you and your children to unknowingly drink aspartame that's secretly blended into the product.
The dairy industry is to food as Lance Armstrong is to sports. It's all a big lie, laced with secret chemicals and false claims.
Stop drinking milk. Stop financially supporting the food mafia.
Recommended videos:
Raw Milk Rover (hilarious animation)
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=273C2497DFDE9F61CB9E8867113CA5CA
Got a PUStache? (satire)
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=C463AA940B9AEBA5D294F87FF0716579
Jonathan Emord raw milk freedom speech:
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=F8DF9A42CC5479D8829A2445C56AFEF3
Farmageddon interview with Kristin Canty
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=3340FCCC93B2C17EEFA43C7E6296728D
Sources for this article:
This petition was originally brought to our attention by a reader who says it was covered on Activist Post. I haven't yet read that article but may update this article with a link to that article once I identify the URL.
FDA petition page:
http://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/02/20/2013-03835/flavore... Read More >>
Outrage over Joe Biden's London, Paris $1M hotel bills.
Republican opponents are berating Vice President Joe
Biden on Twitter for running up more than $1 million in hotel bills for
two nights in London and Paris in the midst of sequester spending cuts.
According to ABC News,
the VP incurred hotel bills totaling more than $1 million for himself,
his staff and security details for two nights in London and Paris.
The official contract filing documents were first obtained online by the Weekly Standard.
They show that the US State Department obtained contracts with two
five-star hotels in London and Paris where Biden stayed during a
five-day tour of Europe in February.
According to the documents, his bill for a night at the Hyatt Regency London was $459,338.65 and his bill for a night at the Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand, $585,000.50.
The Weekly Standard
explains that "due to obvious security concerns, such contracts are not
open to the competitive bidding normally required on government
contracts."
The accompanying document for the London contract says that the vice
president and his entourage required "approximately 136 hotel rooms for
893 room nights." This amounts to about $500 per night at the hotel.
According to the Daily Mail,
Biden probably stayed in a two-room, 1,851-square-foot Presidential
Suite with an interconnecting entertainment area, marble bathrooms and
"upscale" linens. He traveled with his wife Dr Jill Biden.
A State Department official, responding to critics, said that the bills
may look hefty but they are "nothing out of the ordinary," ABC News reports.
The official said: "They are in line with high-level travel across
multiple administrations. The contract costs cover the entire range of
support, including accommodations for military, communications, secret
service staff, and other support professionals. Security experts are
also required to travel in advance of the president or vice president.
Safety and security are not negotiable."
According to the Daily Mail,
Brad Dayspring, strategist for the National Republican Senatorial
Committee, making a reference to the Obama administration's decision to
stop tours at the White House because of budget cuts, said: "Bet that's a
lot of White House tours."
The controversial conservative commentator Ann Coulter, joked on
Twitter, saying: "We need to keep him out of the mini-bar," even though
Biden is known to be a teetotaler who abstains from alcohol, as the Daily Mail notes.
Conservative Congressman Randy Neugebauer from Texas also used the opportunity to attack the Democrat's plan for spending cuts. Newsmax reported he said: "Still no WH tours, but VP Biden’s recent trip to Europe racked up $1mil in hotel room bills."
ABC News
notes that in comparison, a 1999 GAO report showed that President Bill
Clinton's trips to Africa, Chile and China in 1998 cost $42.8 million,
$10.5 million and $18.8 million, respectively, a total of over $72
million.
The White House does not normally disclose the amount paid for the trips
of the president and the vice president. Responding to a question about
how much the president's trip to Illinois cost earlier in the month,
the White House press secretary Jay Carney said: "I don’t have a figure
on the cost of presidential travel. It is obviously something, as every
president deals with because of security and staff, a significant
undertaking. But the president has to travel around the country. He has
to travel around the world. That is part of his job."
President Obama also defended the cost of his trips and allegations that
he his out of touch with Americans with his family "jetting around."
He told KMOV:
"The fact of the matter is, I think if you look at my track record, I’m
raising a family here. When we travel, we got to travel through Secret
Service, and Air Force One, that’s not my choice. I think most folks
understand how hard I work and how hard this administration is working
on behalf of the American people."
Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/346294#ixzz2OTIV3XbV
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Appeals Court Rejects CIA Secrecy on Drones
A federal appeals court has just ruled that the CIA cannot continue to “neither confirm nor deny” the existence of the drone war, in a court case prompted by a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“This is an important victory. It requires the government to retire the absurd claim that the CIA’s interest in the targeted killing program is a secret, and it will make it more difficult for the government to deflect questions about the program’s scope and legal basis,” said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer, who argued the case before a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Appeals Court in September. “It also means that the CIA will have to explain what records it is withholding, and on what grounds it is withholding them.”The ACLU’s FOIA request, filed in January 2010, seeks to learn when, where, and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, and how and whether the U.S. ensures compliance with international law restricting extrajudicial killings. In September 2011, the district court granted the government’s request to dismiss the case, accepting the CIA’s argument that it could not release any documents because even acknowledging the existence of the program would harm national security. The ACLU filed its appeal brief in the case exactly one year ago, and today the appeals court reversed the lower court’s ruling in a 3-0 vote.“We hope that this ruling will encourage the Obama administration to fundamentally reconsider the secrecy surrounding the targeted killing program,” Jaffer said. “The program has already been responsible for the deaths of more than 4,000 people in an unknown number of countries. The public surely has a right to know who the government is killing, and why, and in which countries, and on whose orders. The Obama administration, which has repeatedly acknowledged the importance of government transparency, should give the public the information it needs in order to fully evaluate the wisdom and lawfulness of the government’s policies.”
You can read the unanimous 19-page decision here. The crux of the opinion: “It is implausible that the CIA does not possess a single document on the subject of drone strikes.”
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More People Moving Into NYC Than Moving Out for the First Time in Over 60 Years
The increase is fueled by a continuing increase in people moving to the city and a decline in the number of people leaving the city, as well as the continued growth in the surplus of births over deaths due to life expectancy in the city reaching new record highs. Each of the five boroughs registered gains in population. The largest percentage change occurred in Brooklyn, where the population grew by 2.4 percent or 60,900 people; followed by Manhattan (2.1 percent or 33,200 people); Queens (1.9 percent or 42,000 people); the Bronx (1.7 percent or 23,400 people); and Staten Island (0.4 percent or 2,000 people). New York City’s increase since April 2010 represented 84 percent of the total population increase in New York State, which slightly increased the city’s share of the state’s population, from 42.2 percent to 42.6 percent.
The city’s population has grown by more than 300,000 since Mayor Bloomberg took office. Earlier this week, the MTA announced that subway annual ridership for 2012 was 1.654 billion, the highest in 62 years. Average weekend ridership on the subway grew by three percent, matching the all-time historic high for weekend ridership set in 1946.
“For the first time since before 1950, more people are coming to New York City than leaving,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We have many indicators of quality of life in the city – record low crime, record high tourism, record high life expectancy, record high graduation rates, record job growth and more – but there’s no better indication of the strength of our city than a record high population and a net population influx. People are voting with their feet.”
The all-time high population and net influx of residents for the first time in more than 60 years is one of a number of recent measures that show quality of life in New York City is better than ever:
Record Lows
Murders: 419 in 2012
Shootings: 1,353 in 2012
Incarceration rates: 474 inmates per 100,000 residents in New York City in 2011
Teen pregnancy: 72.6 pregnancies per 1,000 girls in 2010
Emergency response times: Six minutes and 30 seconds in 2012
Fire fatalities: 58 in 2012
Record Highs
Private-sector jobs:3.2 million
Life expectancy: Average of 80.9 years
Tourists: 52 million in 2012
High school graduation rate: 65 percent
Percentage of New Yorkers who live within a 10-minute walk of a park: 76 percent
The Census Bureau’s methodology for data gathered prior to 1950 does not allow for calculation of the influx of people to New York City. More information and analysis on the Census Estimates is available at www.nyc.gov.
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