Free Republic

Which are more dangerous for young children, five gallon buckets or guns?  Five gallon buckets result in a small number of fatal accidents for young children; about 27 a year.   The accidents are not tracked as rigorously as those with firearms are.  I found a study that tracked them for six years.  From a pediatrics study:   Analysis of Consumer Product Safety Commission data revealed 160 bucket-related drownings for the years 1984 through 1989, representing a mortality rate of 0.367 per 100 000 persons (younger than 2 years old) per year in the United States. I have not found numbers...

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it had uncovered a new safety breach at its bioterror research laboratories involving dangerous avian flu, just as it was investigating the failures behind the potential exposure of researchers to live anthrax bacteria. In its first findings from an internal probe into the anthrax incident last month, the CDC said multiple failures by individual scientists and a lack of agency-wide safety policies had led to the potential exposure of more than 80 lab workers to the dangerous bacteria at its campus in Atlanta.

A worker at a Pennsylvania sugar plant died buried alive in sugar in an accident that could have been prevented by a safety device removed just 13 days earlier, a ProPublica investigation finds. Janio Salinas—a 50-year-old who, like every other employee in the CSC Sugar warehouse in Fairless Hills, was a temp worker—died after climbing inside a huge hopper to remove sugar clogs on February 25, 2013. The warehouse manager told the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that he had asked for a safety screen to prevent such an accident, but after one was installed, the plant manager decided to...

It's the very symbol of patriotism -- Old Glory, as William Driver, a 19th-century American sea captain, nicknamed it. But even as we close in on Independence Day, more and more people across the country are calling the American flag a threat and inappropriate home garnishing. A week ago, the landlord of a Texas man called the American flag "a threat to the Muslim community" and ordered him to remove it from his home, according to KHOU-TV. Duy Tran said the Stars and Stripes means a lot to him. Posting the flag was the least he could do, he said,...

Safety is first among every oil and gas company. Regardless of whether an employee works in the field, on a rig, or in a high-rise office, they will be reminded time and time again just how important the safety of every employee is to the company, and to the industry. But as more young workers are hired into the industry, the issue has taken on an increased importance. Younger workers differ from older ones by having fewer fatalities, but more total injuries and more serious injuries, according to safety and injury incident research from the Center for Disease Control and...

    In 1865 a Democrat shot and killed Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. In 1881 a left wing radical Democrat shot James Garfield, President of the United States  who later died from the wound. In 1963 a radical left wing socialist shot and killed John F. Kennedy, President of the United States. In 1975 a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at Gerald Ford, President of the United States. In 1983 a registered Democrat shot and wounded Ronald Reagan, President of the United States. In 1984 James Hubert, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 22 people in...

Chadd Bunker says his friends and relatives tell him he drives like an old man. Roll through a stop sign? He would never do that. Exceed the speed limit? Not on your life. He makes three right turns to avoid a left. He can be annoying. But Mr. Bunker, who is only 48 years old, is no ordinary driver. He recently became one of the proud, lucky few to reach the delivery driver equivalent of Eagle Scout—the United Parcel Service Inc. UPS +0.12% 's Circle of Honor. The award goes to those who manage to drive their big brown trucks...

4 killed this year due to suddenly stopping on Dubai roadsFailure to refuel vehicles on time, as soon as the low fuel light in your vehicle goes on, can have fatal consequences, warned Dubai Police. According to Dubai Police statistics, four accidents due to vehicles suddenly stopping in the middle of the road or on the hard shoulder were reported in the first three months of this year, resulting in four deaths and injuring eight people. Statistics also show that 2013 witnessed three such accidents, which resulted in four deaths and two injuries. Major Ahmad Ateeq Al Ketbi, Director of...

I’m in a very polite discussion with someone about gun safety. I’ve managed to use data to convince this person that America is not home to exceptional gun rampages, that they occur in other countries, and that those denied guns go on rampages with other things. I’ve also shown that gun control laws in England have seen increased violent crime in, while gun control laws in Australia did nothing to affect gun crime statistics, which were dropping anyway. The next line of discussion is whether guns in the home are so dangerous to family members that they have no merit...

Academia is hell. In the latest higher-education fad, students want "trigger warnings," according to The New York Times. It appears that some students are so fragile that they want university staff to protect them from big bad ideas. Students around the country say they want "explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans." An Oberlin College draft -- now "under revision" -- for trigger warnings suggested faculty "be aware of racism,...

A U.S. food safety summit in Maryland earlier this month has become a cautionary tale after more than 100 attendees came down with suspected food poisoning. Most of those affected complained of diarrhea, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement.

According to Gallup, 70.5% of Americans surveyed in 2012 and 2013 said they felt safe walking alone at night. This is effectively unchanged from 2011, when 71% of respondents said they felt safe. In a number of metro areas, however, far fewer residents felt safe at night. In McAllen, Texas, where Americans were least likely to feel safe, less than half of all respondents were comfortable outside of their homes after dark. Based on data gathered by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, these are the 10 cities where Americans felt the least safe.Seven of the 10 metro areas in which residents...

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” — Arthur Schopenhauer Please remember that quote as I propose what will appear outlandish — a ban on left turns on heavily-trafficked roads. Making left-hand turns is as American as apple pie. But remember, we once accepted slavery and the beating of wives and children. There’s no doubt we’re doing things today that future generations will find abhorrent. Here’s why turning left on crowded streets is one of them: Left turns are unsafe for everyone. Federal data have...

Mark.Levy@svherald.com Sierra Vista Police Department Corp. Mike Mitchell stands with his Belgium Malinois “Bones” during Thursday’s brief ceremony at the station. Bones’s new protective vest was made possible by a donation from a Tucson resident. SIERRA VISTA — Sierra Vista K-9 Officers Bones and Izzy will be outfitted with life saving bullet- and stab-proof vests, complete with their own department patch, thanks to Tucson-based Protect Police K-9 (PPK-9) and a generous, anonymous Sierra Vista donor. “Police dogs are working officers, just like their two-legged counterparts,” says Lawrence Boutte, Sierra Vista lieutenant. “They are trained to ‘serve and protect’ and...

Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers have recently introduced legislation to allow for the sale of raw milk, i.e., unpasteurized milk. Their Milk Freedom Act of 2014 would make it legal for “certified dairy farmers” to sell unpasteurized milk products without harassment and criminal prosecution on the part of the FDA. If enacted, this would be a major victory for those who are health conscious and understand the grievous misperception by our medical establishment regarding the safety of raw milk. The distribution of raw milk has been banned in the U.S. since inception of the pasteurization...

Several months ago, a confusing call was placed by a Planned Parenthood worker in Houston to 911 dispatch during complications following an abortion. A 33-year-old woman continued to lose a dangerous amount of blood at the behemoth abortion mill on the Gulf Freeway as Planned Parenthood tried to circumvent the fact that the woman was bleeding out. It is likely that Planned Parenthood knew that pro-lifers would be pulling the call records to find out what had prompted the ambulance to arrive at Planned Parenthood, and wanted to obfuscate the facts for the public. But in so doing, the worker...

"It turns out that all the Titanic needed was a drone. A Montreal-based shipping company has become the first in the world to use drones to scout out ice hazards as its freighters navigate through the waters of the Arctic. The company, Fednav, has found the drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are able to transmit crucial information back to the wheelhouse, allowing ship captains to thread their way through frozen waters and dodge icebergs, like the one that sank the iconic ship more than a century ago."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSO_HTBHLFIVideo Only

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is setting up new facilities to process driver’s license applications for illegal immigrants alone. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill, AB 60, which will allow illegal immigrants to obtain the documents beginning Jan. 1, 2015. The bill was signed along with a number of others laws seen as favorable to undocumented immigrants. As part of the driver’s license application process, immigrants will have to acknowledge that they are undocumented. But AB 60 protects applicants from criminal prosecution. The measure will provide an avenue for the state’s three to four million...

The Miami-Dade County School Board joined teachers unions and [SOME] parents Wednesday in opposition of legislation moving through the state capital that would allow designated school employees or volunteers to carry guns on campus. The board voted 8 to 1 to oppose the proposal, which would allow Florida superintendents and principals to authorize certain trained and permitted individuals to carry concealed firearms at school as a safety measure. Sen. Alan Hays, a Republican from Umatilla who is sponsoring the senate version of the bill, says the legislation is “in the interest of maintaining a safe learning environment for all of...