One Russian radio talk show host speculated that the photos were meant to enhance Putin’s personal appeal to voters - a strong signal that he does not plan to relinquish power.<<<<
Chavez in Venezuela got the laws changed, Putin will too.
you have mail.
Many Columbia River users sick with mysterious illness
06:55 AM PDT on Monday, August 13, 2007
Associated Press
HOOD RIVER, Ore. — They call it “river nose,” an occasional affliction that has been a mystery for at least 20 years.
Some avid wind surfers and kite boarders have complained of symptoms that can include stuffy noses, sinus infections, sneezing attacks, cuts that don’t heal, nausea and fatigue.
This year, the number of reports of symptoms are higher than ever, according to Columbia Riverkeeper.
So the river advocacy group, with the help of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, is investigating.
Potential culprits are many in a deep, wide river that starts at a Canadian glacier and runs 1,200 miles, passing through the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and picking up agricultural runoff, heaps of allergens, dioxins from 13 pulp and paper mills, heavy metals from mines, and sewer outflows from cities and septic tanks along the way.
The windsurfers themselves are split on whether river nose is fact or fiction.
David Bandel Ramirez, a 44-year-old paramedic from The Dalles, said he hasn’t gotten sick from the Columbia; he’s more concerned about the stuff his 2-year-old daughter catches in the city pool. Others said they worry more about wind surfing in ponds than the rapidly recycled waters of the Columbia.
But David Wickman of Rowena, a 20-year surfer at age 61, said he’s taken to wearing nose plugs if he knows he’ll be trying new tricks and hitting the whitecaps often.
“If you get a lot of water up your nose, you’re going to get flu symptoms,” Wickman said. “There are 50 rivers feeding into this one, and a lot of pesticides and runoff, and you’ve got the Hanford plant. It’s just kind of a soup in there.”
Another avid windsurfer, Jeff Castleberry of Underwood, Wash., helped spur interest from Columbia Riverkeeper.
Castleberry and his wife have moved to follow the wind, relocating from Seattle to Portland to Underwood, across from Hood River. He works a late shift as a Hewlett-Packard engineer in Vancouver, leaving more free time for surfing.
Castleberry says he never had health effects from his frequent wind surfing until he hit the Columbia. Now he gets “stuffiness you would not believe,” particularly in the spring, rapid-fire sneezing, some sinus infections, and, this year, unusual fatigue.
“Some of it is you spend hours in the water, and you get tossed around a lot,” Castleberry said. “But I just don’t want to find out 10 years from now that I’ve been poisoning myself.”
Oregon environmental and health regulators say the Columbia’s high volume works in windsurfers’ favor, diluting the effects of pollution. Much of the river’s most infamous pollution — including PCBs and the banned pesticide DDT — persists in river sediment, not surface water.
Deanna Conners, a public health toxicologist with Oregon’s Department of Human Services, said the wide variety of symptoms reported makes them less likely to be from any single cause.
A 1990s state review spurred by windsurfer concerns found no measurable problems, and 1990s monitoring by the group that preceded Columbia Riverkeeper had inconclusive results.
If a health hazard is found, warning signs and advice for windsurfers would likely be posted when the danger is highest.
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_081307_health_river_sickness.2d67cfdb.html#
http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8R7D4900.html
Seattle hospital told to keep backpacks out of operating rooms
08/24/2007
Associated Press
One of the city’s main hospital systems has been told to keep potentially contaminated backpacks and briefcases out of operating rooms and to remind nurses to follow doctors’ orders when dispensing medications.
The deficiencies at Swedish Medical Center hospitals were reported by state health inspectors following scheduled visits in April and May.
According to their reports, nurses were found giving medications to patients for reasons other than what doctors ordered and unlabeled medication was discovered on anesthesia carts in operating rooms. In 2004 a patient at an unrelated hospital, Virginia Mason Medical Center, died after being mistakenly injected with an antiseptic solution from an unlabeled container.
continued............
An interesting book report, with a lot of facts in it:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/19/RVF9RA7EN.DTL&feed=rss.books
Drinking water systems much improved, but still challenging
Abe Streep
Sunday, August 19, 2007
“The Blue Death Disease, Disaster and the Water We Drink”...
The Blue Death
Disease, Disaster and the Water We Drink
By Dr. Robert D. Morris
HARPERCOLLINS; 310 PAGES; $24.95
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/23/state/n051245D00.DTL
Sheriff’s dog nabs suspect after LA deputy is shot
Thursday, August 23, 2007
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/24/BAC9ROQ77.DTL
Motorist from L.A. stopped in Geyserville, held on drug charge
Marisa Lagos
Friday, August 24, 2007
A Los Angeles man was arrested this week on suspicion of transporting narcotics for sale after he was stopped near Geyserville with about three gallons of GHB in his car - roughly enough for 20,000 doses of the “date rape drug,” the California Highway Patrol said Thursday.
continued..........
WHITESBORO — The Rev. Mike Ballman has two full-time jobs — working as a pastor at Cornerstone Community Church in New York Mills and caring for his chronically ill son, Noah.
Noah, 7, was born with a rare metabolic disorder and requires constant monitoring.
Mike Ballman and his wife, Pam, have to stay up all night with Noah when he’s ill or when they’re short on nursing staff. They rarely get to spend time together, since they care for Noah in shifts.
Amid the chaos of his son’s illness, Mike Ballman’s church is moving to Oneida Square in Utica.
Noah’s disorder complicates the Ballmans’ relationship with God, they said. The church congregation is their built-in support group.
“We always say, it takes a community to raise Noah,” Mike Ballman said.
Ballman shares his duties with a co-pastor, Leon Hayduchok, so his hours are flexible. The congregation understands when Noah’s hospitalizations whisk the Ballmans, who live in Whitesboro, out of town for weeks at a time.
Church members often stop by with homemade meals. Some offer to clean the house or mow the lawn, and others come over just to keep the Ballmans company, the couple said.
A severe condition
Doctors say they know of no other child with Noah’s exact condition, which leaves him unable to stand, walk or talk, the Ballmans said. Noah also has developmental delays.
Noah has chronic problems with nausea and vomiting. He goes through unpredictable phases of feeling well and getting sick.
When he’s feeling well, he can stay sitting up on his own. He smiles easily, looks at books and watches television. He gets occupational therapy and physical therapy, his parents said. His favorite activity is aqua therapy, where he gets to splash around in the water.
Noah is social. Sometimes, his expression changes as he takes you in. His eyes, bright blue, are wide and alert.
In these moments, Pam Ballman imagines what Noah would say if he could talk.
“I wish I could hear your thoughts once,” she told her pajama-clad son Tuesday afternoon as he curled up in her lap on the living room floor.
From October 2006 until April of this year, Noah experienced relative good health. The Ballmans call the breakthrough the “happy months.”
But then the medications stopped working.
Even though Noah is seeing the best doctors in the country for his disorder, the details of his condition remain a mystery even for expert physicians.
He has no prognosis. He’s had many surgeries. Last summer he was in the hospital for two months straight: a month in Syracuse, a month in Boston.
When the medications abruptly stopped working this past spring, doctors could not explain why, the Ballmans said.
Bouts of vomiting can last seven days or more. Noah can stay awake for days in a row without sleeping when he’s feeling ill, and he has no verbal way of expressing his pain.
Another ongoing challenge is keeping a full nursing staff, the Ballmans said. Noah can get 20 hours of private nursing care per day, but it’s difficult to find qualified nurses with Medicaid provider numbers, the Ballmans said.
And when Noah needs extended hospitalization, it can be impossible for the Ballmans to retain nurses while they’re out of town.
Maintaining faith
Mike Ballman said he often questions why God would allow such a small boy to suffer as much as Noah does.
Noah first was diagnosed as an infant in 2000. Ballman was walking through a hallway in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore when he realized just how many other families were suffering.
So many children on Noah’s floor were battling serious illnesses, Ballman said.
“It’s not just about us,” Ballman said.
Pam and Mike Ballman said they hope their family’s ordeal makes them more compassionate to the troubles of others.
“It’s learning how to be transparent about our own struggle as a way to lead people,” Mike Ballman said. “We’re sharing our struggles, rather than pretending everything’s great.”
Outreach and support
Grace Wu, a member of Cornerstone Community Church, visits her friend Pam Ballman whenever she can.
The congregation as a whole has come together to provide the Ballmans with financial and emotional support, said Wu and her husband, Steve.
Grace Wu said she hopes her company makes her friend feel less isolated and alone.
Pam Ballman does part-time administrative work for a local doctor’s office and stays home with Noah the rest of the time. She often works from home.
Sometimes, Grace Wu and Pam Ballman just sit with Noah and talk, Wu said.
“Wherever he goes, I think people notice him,” Grace Wu said of Noah. “He often has a smile on his face...He’s just such a trooper. He really brings people together.”
Co-pastor Leon Hayduchok said he and Mike Ballman are very close. Hayduchok sometimes helps the Ballmans with projects around the house. He tries to serve as Mike Ballman’s sounding board whenever possible.
“What’s really amazing is how resilient Mike and Pam are,” Hayduchok said. “With how much direct care Noah needs, I often don’t understand how they survive day to day — their energy level, their ability to give.”
And for Hayduchok, Mike Ballman is more than a colleague.
“Mike’s been the best friend that I’ve ever had,” Hayduchok said. “He’s very able to listen and be there for other people ... I have never heard him say to anybody, ‘You think you’ve got it bad?’”
By Stephanie Veale
Observer-Dispatch
sveale@utica.gannett.com
http://www.uticaod.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070822/NEWS/708220338
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=mystery+illness&yhdr_submit_button=Web+Search&fr=ush1-mail
This one pulls the illnesses and so much more, talk about odd news:
http://www.wbtv.com/news/topstories/9352106.html
Fire at American Freight Services in North Charlotte
A large metal shed caught fire at American Freight Services on Johnson Road, just off of North Graham Street.
The building was fully engulfed by the time firefighters arrived on scene.
No one was hurt.
Story Created: Aug 24, 2007 at 6:45 AM EDT
http://www.wbtv.com/news/topstories/9355491.html
Shootout at Gas Station in Indian Trial
The Union County Sherif’s Office is investigating a possible gang-related shooting at a gas station Friday morning.
Two Hispanic men were at the BP gas station on Highway 74 and Wesley Chapel Stouts when a dispute broke out between a group of people.
Deputies said shots were fired, luckily no one was injured.
The two men were arrested a short time later on Sardis Church Road near the Crooked Creek Public Works facility.
Story Created: Aug 24, 2007 at 11:57 AM EDT
Story Updated: Aug 24, 2007 at 12:28 PM EDT
Thanks to Milford421 for this report:
[This one you should read....granny]
Posted: Thursday, 23 August 2007 7:39PM
Yale Student Faces Additional Weapons Charges
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Yale University student was charged with
attempting to make a bomb and possessing armor-piercing ammunition
Thursday, a month after he allegedly shot blanks from a
semiautomatic pistol into the ceiling at his fraternity.
David Light, 21, was arraigned on numerous new charges, including
criminal attempt to commit the manufacture of bombs, 12 counts of
reckless endangerment, eight counts of second-degree breach of
peace, 23 counts of possession of armor-piercing ammunition, and
manufacture or storage of explosive material near the property of
another.
An arrest warrant affidavit filed in New Haven Superior Court
portrays Light as a college student fascinated with chemicals and
throwing them in lakes and the ocean to create explosions, but does
not accuse him of plotting to intentionally harm anyone.
Continued.............................
http://www.1010wins.com/pages/851525.php?contentType=4&contentId=834702