Thursday, September 15, 2016

Multiple symptoms from a Zika infection.

September 15, 2016
By Gillian Mohney


The Zika virus (click here) has been found in fluid around the eyes of some patients, shedding new light on how the virus affects healthy adults, according to a study published today in Journal for the American Medical Association Ophthalmology.
The eyes of six patients infected in South America were swabbed by researchers from the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Public Health in China. When they tested their eye fluids, they found Zika virus RNA.
"Here we have some evidence when the adult is infected, it would appear that highly specialized neural tissue is infected," Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical School, told ABC News. He said the next step would be examining if the virus caused any vision problems.
The virus was known to cause severe eye damage in developing fetuses. Babies born with microcephaly have exhibited symptoms of eye infection, including lesions in the eye. But it was unclear if the development of microcephaly or the Zika virus itself led to the lesions.
Until now, it was also unclear if the virus was present in the eyes of adults....
September 15, 2016
By Jesi Munguia

Left is Zika rash on an arm.


The Centers for Disease Control (click here) says there are 45 confirmed cases of the Zika virus right here in Michigan.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says Michigan is still considered low risk for the mosquito transmission of Zika.
The health department says the main risk of transmission in the state is from traveling to infected areas, or through sexual transmission.
Symptoms of the Zika virus are not considered severe, but can cause birth defects to pregnant women exposed to the virus.
Stay with Northern Michigan's News Leader as we work to bring you more information on exactly where these cases have been confirmed.

It may be that one in four residents in Puerto Rico is destined to be a victim of the Zika virus.

September 15, 2016
By Michael Kuhne

With more than a thousand new cases (click here) of Zika reported in Puerto Rico for the first week of September, the numbers of those infected may rise even higher as the U.S. territory enters its fall rainy season.

Between Aug. 26 and Sept. 2, there were 1,024 new positive cases of Zika reported in Puerto Rico, according Candice Burns Hoffmann, a press officer with the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

"These reflect just diagnosed cases," she said. "Because many people with Zika don't have symptoms, the number of people who have contacted Zika is likely much higher."


September 15, 2016

Tropical Storm Julia will linger (click here) and bring gusty winds, rough surf and showers to the coastal Carolinas into this weekend.

"The center of Julia has wandered over the Atlantic Ocean," AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.

While Julia remains weak, the combination of east to southeast winds and the full moon will cause minor to moderate coastal flooding at times of high tide through the end of the week.

The greatest risk of coastal flooding and beach erosion stretches from near Charleston, South Carolina, to Wilmington, North Carolina.

The lack of resolve to this virus is going to increase monies spent on disabilities and supportive services. This is the most hideous Congress that has ever existed. There is no loyalty to the people. You know, Americans. Women are going to want contraception and abortions. They will seek all that out anyway and Planned Parenthood is one of the best organizations without conflict of interest to religious priorities.

The time is now to allow women to make their decisions about childbearing. NOW!

September 15, 2016
By Newsday Editorial Board

...Congress is stalemated over a $1.1 billion plan (click here) to fight the mosquito-borne virus. Not because anyone disagrees about the need to keep alive a clinical trial to test a vaccine that’s about to run out of money. Not because they don’t want better and more accurate tests for Zika, more thorough mosquito-spraying programs, or more public education on how to reduce one’s risk of getting Zika.

The fight is over a Republican attempt to make sure that Planned Parenthood gets none of the funding for maternal care and contraception, important issues for a virus linked to severe fetal birth defects and one that can be transmitted sexually. The GOP inserted a poison pill, the Democrats spit it out, and Zika rages on.

Since President Barack Obama requested emergency funding in February, the nation has learned that Zika is spread not only by mosquito bites but also through blood transfusions, semen and, perhaps, via contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids. We’re learning Zika also could affect adult brains and impair memory. We know that the 50 states have reported nearly 3,000 cases, 43 of which were acquired in Florida. More than 15,000 cases were reported in Puerto Rico. We know mosquito season in the Gulf Coast lasts through October. Some experts look at Zika’s rapid spread and the lack of scientific knowledge and see similarities with the start of the AIDS epidemic....

It is no different than coal. The price of coal is not going anywhere because there are no new markets.

These are the prices for coal used for the production of energy. Lately, the mining to produce mercantile 
coal has gotten the attention of Wall Street.

The mercantile coal is used in the production of steel. It sells for about 3 and a half times higher than energy coal.

There is a businessman that wants to begin mining mercantile coal in West Virginia, Virginia and a power plant in Montana I believe. There is a limited need for mercantile coal so how he can promise 400 jobs or more on a consistent basis is anyone's guess.

I have to wonder if Dr. Moniz has examined the heat intensive energy of producing steel and found better more efficient ways of producing that heat than burning coal?

Singapore (Platts)
19 Aug 2016 418 am EDT/818 GMT

The seaborne premium hard coking coal market (click here) posted its biggest weekly gain August 19 since the 2011 floods in Queensland, Australia, as a supply shortage in China, the world's largest producer of the steelmaking raw material, prompted end-users to scramble for spot cargoes.

Logistical bottlenecks, including road repairs and slower rail haulage in China's coal producing hub of Shanxi, were responsible for the recent supply squeeze, according to industry insiders.

Platts-assessed spot premium low-vol hard coking coal prices jumped $11/mt to $125.50/mt CFR China during the week ended August 19, the largest increase since February 2011, and a price level not seen since September 18, 2014....

Wall Street never asks how much demand there is for mercantile coal. The financial community sees a flashy article in the newspaper about coal production for this particular market and believe this is the next big thing. It is not. The articles are about producing more coal in an election year, NOT, the increase in need through the building of more steel plants. Wall Street is wrong and this is simply a political stunt for the elections. 

Prices of prime hard coals from Australia rose $8.75/mt to date this week, to be assessed at $117.25/mt August 19....


Hello? There are no new steel plants! Hellooooooo........

Every defunct coal mine and bankrupting companies have just played the biggest scam of all times and dumped their shares at hideously high prices. 

Dah!

Saudi Arabia was beginning to move toward a reduction in production to increase reviews.

If the USA increases production to take away market share from Saudi Arabia; the Saudi oil fields will return to maximum production to lower the price of oil again.

The Saudis can do that because the overhead to their oil fields is very low in comparison to the USA oil fields. The overhead of the much beloved $100.00 a barrel oil return is high. The petroleum industry in the USA leveraged their future earnings for a fast return as 90% of inflated values such as $100.00 per barrel. That is exactly why they failed financially and are in bankruptcy.

The Saudis are not about to allow the USA to take their market share and Donald Trump's focus on destroying more American land with hydraulic fracturing is wrong in many ways, including financial.

It is foolish to base an economy on oil and gas. It's desire in future economies will become more and more diminished over time as consumers turn to alternatives.

Oil is not going anywhere. It is not liquidity anymore. The investments currently exceed any return on the wells. It is a losing scheme.

September 15, 2016
By Jim Tankersley

...Trump's economic team (click here) estimated that the complete tax plan, combined with rollbacks to some federal regulations and new initiatives to open up more public and private lands for oil and gas drilling, would deliver 3.5 percent growth per year for the next decade and produce 25 million new jobs....

There is more than ample amounts of oil and gas already drilled and in storage bunkers such as the one in California that chronically leaks. The foreign suppliers are not interested in another price crisis for oil and gas and that is exactly what will occur if the USA increases its market share. Such actions on the part of the USA does not create income to the USA Treasury, quite the opposite. Oil prices will again plummet and decrease the income to the US Treasury because the oil and gas companies will have over extended its credit. Companies will sustain losses and the taxes to the USA will be reduced and not increased in any scheme no matter to what extent they want to fudge the numbers.

The name of this scheme is "Bail out the Petroleum Industry."

The Working Poor have limited time to vote.

Nationally, (click here) the population identifying as Hispanic/Latino represents 17 percent (54 million people) of the U.S. population.[i] The Latino population in the U.S. grew 43 percent over the decade prior to 2010 and growth increasingly occurred in new communities. Overall population growth in the U.S. was just 10 percent over that time.[ii]Latinos are disproportionately affected by poverty, food insecurity, and unemployment. They are also more likely to receive emergency food assistance than their White, non-Hispanic peers and less likely to receive SNAP benefits.

...The 89 counties in 2013 with a majority Hispanic population compose 3 percent of all U.S. counties. Twenty-seven percent of these majority Hispanic counties fall into the top 10 percent of counties with the highest rates of childhood food insecurity....

I am not real keen on Pew Research, but, this study is taken directly off the 2013 Census data.

Hispanics (click here) are the only major racial or ethnic group to see a statistically significant decline in its poverty rate, according to 2013 Census Bureau figures released this week. The drop in the poverty rate among Hispanics – from 25.6% in 2012 to 23.5% in 2013 – contributed to the first decline in the nation’s overall poverty rate since 2006....

The Hispanic population in the USA need to hang on to the advantage they received under President Obama. These folks are among the working poor. They do rise above poverty because they are probably holding down two jobs or more. They need a minimum wage hike to move into a stabilized income to grow wealth and within reach of purchasing a house.

These are primarily Red State areas.

We know that bankruptcies are frequently occurring in the USA due to medical costs. These states primarily do not have the Medicaid Expansion and people are suffering. They are suffering financially, but, also dying due to lack of health care insurance.

Getting to know these populations with a strong political ground presence will begin to move them to vote. Spanish is a language barrier when it is not addressed to reach potential voters.

September 14, 2016
By Binyamin Applebaum, Patricia Cohen and Jack Healy

...The answer is in plain sight. (click here) While the economy finally is moving in the right direction, the real incomes of most American households still are smaller than in the late 1990s. And large swaths of the country — rural America, industrial centers in the Rust Belt and Appalachia — are lagging behind.

“We ain’t feeling too much of all that economic growth that I heard was going on, patting themselves on the back,” said Ralph Kingan, the mayor of Wright, Wyo. “It ain’t out in the West.

That bleak reality helps to explain why the good news the Census Bureau issued Tuesday about a rise in household income was greeted gleefully by economists but is unlikely to change the complexion of the presidential race....'

The businesses that serve obsolete energy sources should have seen this coming. The climate crisis is real and we know coal burning power plants have produced 35 percent of the greenhouse gases, ie: Duke Energy. Mark Perkins need to take the imitative to be retrained for a new job if he can't continue his coal dependent business.

This is typical of the people Republicans promise to protect when elected. That is a lie. The case in Kentucky is a prime example of the lies. As the Kentucky politicians, including Mitch McConnell, promise to save coal jobs those jobs are shed because of mechanization. They can't save jobs because the CEOs are making this decision and not the politicians.

...“We are waiting on the election with high hopes that we do get a Republican in there who does understand about working men and women,” said Mark Perkins, 49, who shut down his electrical storefront in the coal town of Wright earlier this year as he lost once-plentiful jobs servicing mines and large generators....