Category: regulation

Topps Meat Plant Cut Inspections Before Reall

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Is it any surprise that under the Bush administration’s policies of “self regulation”, that companies would abandon health and safety inspections?

In the months before issuing a massive recall of its frozen hamburgers, Topps Meat Co. curtailed testing of ground beef and skipped other safeguards aimed at preventing contaminated meat from reaching consumers, according to a published report Tuesday.

It may be safer to buy your meat as steaks, and grind it at home…At least then, you can be reasonably certain that you are not getting cow anus in the mix.

Joe Lieberman, Slum Lord

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He is co-exeutor of his Uncle’s estate ($25g/year for not doing much) and the properties in Stamford Connecticut that he was supposed to manage were dilapidated, garbage strewn, and occupied by squatters.

To be fair, he did eventually sell his uncle’s property for $17 million, after he had arranged for millions of dollars in earmarks for the Stamford Urban Transitway, which increased the property’s value.

What a prince.

Now NASA is Kissing Lobbyist Ass

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A while back, NASA surveyed 24,000 pilots about safety. The results were grim, with a much higher number of things like runway incursions, etc. than had been previously recorded, so NASA suppressed the survey because it “could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers and general aviation companies whose pilots participated in the survey.”

In other words, it would scare the hell out of people. Sorry, but covering the ass of the Airline industry should not be a reason for an official coverup, except of course when Bush and His Evil Minions™ are in charge, I guess.

FCC Chair Proposes Being Big Media’s Bitch

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The FCC is proposing changes to media ownership rules. Among other things, it proposes waiving the cross-ownership restrictions.

All you need to know is that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is proposing to implement this in 30 days, in order to facilitate the sale of Tribune Company to real estate magnate Sam Zell.

You know the drill, http://www.fcc.gov/, and tell them that their idea sucks wet farts from dead pigeons (be more polite than I am).

Nobel Economics Winner Says that Markets Can’t Do Everything

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As strange as it may sound, he is actually in the minority with this moderate common sense idea.

Nobel economics winner says market forces flawed
By Jon Hurdle

PRINCETON, New Jersey (Reuters) – Societies should not rely on market forces to protect the environment or provide quality health care for all citizens, a winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for economics said on Monday.

…

He goes on to explain that things like the environment and healthcare are nt private goods, but public ones, and that pure market theory screws them up.

CIA Director Hayden on Jihad Against CIA Inspector General

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General Haden has ordered an inquiry into the work of the CIA’s Inspector General, John L. Helgerson.

Any move by the agency’s director to examine the work of the inspector general would be unusual, if not unprecedented, and would threaten to undermine the independence of the office, some current and former officials say.

Frederick P. Hitz, who served as C.I.A. inspector general from 1990 to 1998, said he had no first-hand information about current conflicts inside the agency. But Mr. Hitz said any move by the agency’s director to examine the work of the inspector general would “not be proper.”

“I think it’s a terrible idea,” said Mr. Hitz, who now teaches at the University of Virginia. “Under the statute, the inspector general has the right to investigate the director. How can you do that and have the director turn around and investigate the I.G.?”

This is clearly an attempt to intimidate or remove the inspector general. It’s pretty much unprecedented, and it is profoundly antithetical to the most basic sort of principals of bureaucratic accountability, so it’s pretty certain that Bush and His Evil Minions™ have knowledge of and approved this.

Bad Desision on Special Education Access

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There is no precedent, as this was a 4-4 split decision, with Kennedy recusing himself for undisclosed reasons.

The basics are as follows: Tom Freston has a child with learning disabilities, and the New York school system evaluated him and placed him at their Lower Laboratory School for Gifted Education.

Freston refused the placement, and placed him in a private school at significant expense, and then went to court for reimbursement.

I have a child in a non-public placement, Charlie, a human metronome and remarkably erudite 8-year old. He has Aspergers.

He is in the private placement, at county expense, because the local school was unwilling to make the necessary accommodations to deal with his disability.

Had the (thankfully now retired) principal at Timber Grove, Charlie’s school, been willing to make some relatively inexpensive accommodations, he would still be there, at less than one tenth the cost to the county.

Basically, if the aid assigned to him had been competent, or even willing to do the necessary training, he would still be there.

So I am in a very similar place to Mr. Freston. The difference is that we attempted to make the system work. The placement could have been appropriate, but the school administration was unwilling to make it so.

Mr. Freston did not give New York City Schools a chance. This is the part that I object too, as does my wife, who is a special education consultant (click here for her web page).

The environment in place at the Lower Laboratory School for Gifted Education would most likely have been adequate to this child’s needs (a reading delay), and the local school system must be given a reasonable chance.

Bush and His Evil Minions&trade Are Conceiling Documents and Testimony from the Utah Mind Disaster

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Here.

The question is, why? The owner of the mine, Robert E. Murray is a politically connected Republican, and it probably serves his purposes for there not to be disclosure.

Additionally, the release of information leading to more regulation of the mine industry that might result from disclosure is not something that either the mining industry, or the Bush administration wants.

Topps Meat Closes its Doors Because of Recall

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The massive recall of ground beef has forced Topps Meat to shut down.

To quote my 2nd favorite movie of all time, John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing,

Garry: The generator’s gone.
MacReady: Any way we can we fix it?
Garry: It’s “gone”, MacReady.

They aren’t shutting their doors to reopen later after a cleanup, they have just shut down completely. They will be liquidating.

In some ways, the regulations that the Bush administration has been systematically dismantrling protect both the companies and the consumers out there. Had a more aggressive FDA or Agriculture Department caught this sooner, Topps would probably still be around.

Tamiflu Remains in Environment, Likely to Create Resistant Bird Flu

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This press release is important because new flu strains begin in birds, particularly waterfowl, that tend to swim in, and eat from bodies of water where this might accumulate, and hence lead to the development of drug resistant strains of bird flu.

Contact: Jerker Fick
jerker.fick@chem.umu.se
46-480-446-225
Public Library of Science
Tamiflu survives sewage treatment

Swedish researchers have discovered that oseltamivir (Tamiflu); an antiviral drug used to prevent and mitigate influenza infections is not removed or degraded during normal sewage treatment. Consequently, in countries where Tamiflu is used at a high frequency, there is a risk that its concentration in natural waters can reach levels where influenza viruses in nature will develop resistance to it. Widespread resistance of viruses in nature to Tamiflu increases the risk that influenza viruses infecting humans will become resistant to one of the few medicines currently available for treating influenza.

”Antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu must be used with care and only when the medical situation justifies it,” advises Björn Olsen, Professor of Infectious Diseases with the Uppsala University and the University of Kalmar. “Otherwise there is a risk that they will be ineffective when most needed, such as during the next influenza pandemic.”

The Swedish research group demonstrated that oseltamivir, the active substance in Tamiflu, passes virtually unchanged through sewage treatment.

“That this substance is so difficult to break down means that it goes right through sewage treatment and out into surrounding waters,” says Jerker Fick, Doctor in Chemistry at Umeå University and the leader of this study.

The Swedish research group also revealed that the level of oseltamivir discharged through sewage outlets in certain countries may be so high that influenza viruses in nature can potentially develop resistance to the drug.

“Use of Tamiflu is low in most countries, but there are some exceptions such as Japan, where a third of all influenza patients are treated with Tamiflu,” explains Jerker Fick.

Influenza viruses are common among waterfowl, especially dabbling ducks such as mallards. These ducks often forage for food in water near sewage outlets. Here they can potentially encounter oseltamivir in concentrations high enough to develop resistance in the viruses they carry.

“The biggest threat is that resistance will become common among low pathogenic influenza viruses carried by wild ducks.” adds Björn Olsen. These viruses could then recombinate with viruses that make humans sick to create new viruses that are resistant to the antiviral drugs currently available.

The Swedish researchers advise that this problem must be taken seriously so that humanity’s future health will not be endangered by too frequent and unnecessary prescription of the drug today.

###

Disclaimer

This press release refers to an upcoming article in PLoS ONE. The release has been provided by the article authors and/or their institutions. Any opinions expressed in this are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLoS. PLoS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.

Their study was published in the high-ranked journal PLoS ONE. The entire article is available free online, and can be read at the following address: http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000986

Citation: Fick J, Lindberg RH, Tysklind M, Haemig PD, Waldenstro¨m J, et al (2007) Antiviral Oseltamivir Is not Removed or Degraded in Normal Sewage Water Treatment: Implications for Development of Resistance by Influenza A Virus. PLoS ONE 2(10): e986. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000986

PLEASE ADD THE LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL live from October 2): http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000986

Sallie Mae Deal Going Balls Up

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Sallie Mae, the former GSE and current student loan powerhouse, had a deal to go private, and it’s now in jeopardy.

There are two reasons, the difficulty in obtaining capital in the past few months, and the fact that Congress has reigned in some of the absurdly high fees in the guaranteed student loan business.

The fact is that the GSLs are handled better and cheaper by the government than by for-profits, and hopefully this market will move increasingly in that directions.

Henry Wasman and the Case of the Inspector General Who Didn’t

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Henry Waxman has founc another winner in the Bush Administration, this tiem, it’s the Inspector General for the State Department.

Case in point, When asked to investigate allegations of slave labor in the construction of the Iraqi Embassy, he interviewed only those employees that the contractor hand picked for him to interview.

At the rate this guy is going, he’ll soon be Cheney’s chief of staff.