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(NEXSTAR) – As the clock ticks down toward a potential partial shutdown of the federal government this week, millions who rely on federal assistance for food could be left in the balance. If Congress fails to reach a deal to fund the government, a partial government shutdown would be triggered on March 1. That partial shutdown would impact several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which manages SNAP and WIC food assistance. SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, used to be called the Food Stamp Program. The program helps low-income and no-income families buy groceries...

Sometime in the past year, this tiny planet we live on in an obscure corner of our Milky Way galaxy went through some sort of tipping point, a “state change” of sorts, and now things are different from how they’ve been at any other time in the 300,000 year history of the human race. Nobody knows for sure what that change or tipping point is. - snip - But regardless of the why/how, something has definitely happened in the past year or so that has pushed our atmosphere’s state of equilibrium out of an older, stable range and into a...

One day before the United States conducts a major test of its emergency alert communications network, Russia will hold drills in the event of a major nuclear attack. On Wednesday, the United States' Federal Emergency Management Agency will test its Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. According to The Hill, the test will occur about 2:20 p.m. Eastern Time unless bad weather postpones it for a week. This will mark only the second time FEMA has tested its national alert system for cellphones, which will be accompanied by a test through radios and TVs. In response to the FEMA test,...

Ireland is in the midst of a “medical workforce shortage”, according to the Irish Medical Organization’s Chairman of the Consultant Committee, Dr. Matthew Sadlier. “We are facing an international, global medical workforce shortage,” he said on RTÉ’s Drivetime. “We are competing against countries like Australia and Canada for doctors and frankly we are losing those competitions in being able to recruit doctors.” Dr. Sadlier said it is “increasingly difficult” to recruit junior doctors and there are many vacant consultant posts. He added that if the solution is to make the doctors already in the system work longer hours, that will...

Here are two snippets from Wednesday's New York Times piece contending that Republicans have "embraced" plans to cut Social Security and Medicare: "The fact that Republicans are openly talking about cutting the programs has galvanized Democrats in the final weeks of the midterm campaign." "Still, the fact that key Republicans are openly broaching spending cuts to Social Security and Medicare ..." Boy, it sounds like there's a ton of chatter in Washington about cutting entitlements. And it's about time we embraced reform. So, which brave "key Republicans" are "openly talking" and "openly broaching" the idea of reforming Social Security and...

If you're despairing at recent reports that Earth's water sources have been thoroughly infested with hazardous human-made chemicals called PFAS that can last for thousands of years, making even rainwater unsafe to drink, there's a spot of good news. Chemists have developed a simple way to break down almost a dozen types of these nearly indestructible 'forever chemicals' at relatively low temperatures with no harmful byproducts. ...

Data-driven weather forecasts help leaders know when to deploy resources to respond to hurricanes and individuals decide whether they need to bring an umbrella with them when they go out. Similarly, the CDC's new disease forecasting center aims to guide decisions about broad public health needs like developing vaccines or deploying antivirals, and helping individuals decide whether it's safe for them to go to the movie theater George and a small team of colleagues are faced with tackling a "critical need" to improve the government's "ability to forecast and model emerging health threats." "In short, we need to use data...

By Dr. Tim Ball and Tom HarrisPresident Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change because it is a bad deal for America. He could have made the decision simply because the science is false, but most of the public have been brainwashed into believing it is correct and wouldn’t understand the reason. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and indeed the leaders of many western democracies, though thankfully not the U.S., support the Agreement and are completely unaware of the gross deficiencies in the science. If they did, they wouldn’t be forcing a carbon dioxide (CO2) tax, on...

Distrust, misinformation and delays because of the holidays and bad weather have combined to produce what authorities say are alarmingly low COVID-19 vaccination rates in U.S. children ages 5 to 11. As of Tuesday, just over 17% were fully vaccinated, more than two months after shots became available to the age group. While Vermont is at 48%, California is just shy of 19% and Mississippi is at only 5%. The low rates are “very disturbing,” said Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director for the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “It’s just amazing.” Parents who hesitate...

The number of Americans hospitalized with Covid-19 has surpassed last winter’s peak, underscoring the severity of the threat the virus continues to pose as the extremely contagious Omicron variant tears through the United States. As of Sunday, 142,388 patients with the virus were hospitalized nationwide, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, surpassing the peak of 142,315 reported on Jan. 14 of last year. The seven-day average of daily hospitalizations was 132,086, an increase of 83 percent from two weeks ago. The Omicron wave has overwhelmed hospitals and depleted staff who were already worn out...

he CNBC headline. “A Harvard nutritionist and brain expert says she avoids these five foods that ‘weaken memory and focus.” She is also the author of “This Is Your Brain on Food,” an Amazon #1 bestseller in obsessive-compulsive disorders. I haven’t read the book, but it would be pointless based on her article, which appeared on many other news outlets. I am well aware of the extensive junk science in the field of nutrition, and her article is just another reflection of it. It is the standard attempt: to extrapolating rodent’s studies to humans; to equate correlations as a cause-and-effect...

Several vials labeled “smallpox” have been found at a vaccine research facility in Pennsylvania, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. “There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen vials,” the CDC said in a statement emailed to CNN. “The frozen vials labeled ‘Smallpox’ were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker while cleaning out a freezer in a facility that conducts vaccine research in Pennsylvania. CDC, its Administration partners, and law enforcement are investigating the matter and the vials’ contents appear intact,” the CDC added. “The laboratory worker who discovered...

In Japan, 1.6 million doses of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine have been withdrawn from use because they are contaminated by foreign matter. "It's a substance that reacts to magnets," a ministry official said. "It could be metal." A Moderna spokesperson confirmed receiving several complaints of particulate matter in vaccine vials distributed in Japan, but denied there were any safety or efficacy issues to be worried about. "Hundreds of millions of people have received this vaccine. A much smaller number have been magnetized, killed or otherwise harmed by it." In the United Kingdom, the Francis Crick Institute conducted a test for antibodies...

SNIP Rodrigo Duterte told a national address on Wednesday: "For those who do not want it, well, for all I care, you can die anytime." He also said he wants the police to restrict the movement of people who refuse coronavirus vaccines: "To those people who do not want to be vaccinated, I am telling you, don't go out of your house." "If you go out of your house, I will tell the police to return you to your home. You will be escorted back to your house because you are a walking spreader."

Climate change has spurred close to a doubling of natural disasters in the last 20 years, and world leaders are failing to prevent Earth from evolving into “an uninhabitable hell” for millions, the United Nations warned on Monday. At least 7,348 major disasters had occurred between 2000 and 2019, claiming 1.23 million lives, affecting 4.2 billion people and costing the global economy some $2.97 trillion, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction said in a new report entitled “The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019.” According to the Geneva-based agency, the last two decades saw the number of disasters caused by...

Mark Zuckerberg is worried the economy could “reopen” too soon. The Facebook founder and CEO said returning life to normal in areas where the coronavirus is still too prevalent could “almost guarantee future outbreaks” and cause the economic downturn to last even longer.

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed over 200,000 people worldwide. More than 2.89 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations' outbreaks.

New York (CNN Business) Dozens of grocery store workers have died from the coronavirus, despite masks, temperature checks and capacity restrictions to keep them safe. So far, supermarkets have resisted the most draconian policy: banning customers from coming inside. However, some worker experts, union leaders and small grocery owners believe it has become too dangerous to let customers browse aisles, coming into close range with workers. Grocery stores are still flooded with customers, and experts say it's time for large chains to go "dark" to the public and convert to curbside pickup and home delivery for food and other essential...

Cooking the books to keep people terrified, and for the economic takedown to continue apace? One can’t help but think… 627 new deaths with coronavirus, not from coronavirus. THAT’S one hell of a precision. Why was it edited out almost immediately? Oh, I think we ALL know why. Numbers are being cooked so that anyone who dies is tested, and if coronavirus is present, the person is counted as a CORONAVIRUS DEATH, even if they died from cancer, or a head injury, or… seasonal H1N1 flu. Remember, in the U.S., in an average flu season year, 150 people die EVERY...

The Trump administration is rejecting appeals to slow its deregulatory drive while Americans grapple with the coronavirus, pushing major public health and environmental rollbacks closer to enactment in recent days despite the pandemic. As Americans stockpiled food and medicine and retreated indoors and businesses shuttered in hopes of riding out COVID-19, federal agencies in recent days moved forward on rollbacks that included a widely opposed deregulatory action by the Environmental Protection Agency. The proposed rule would require disclosure of the raw data behind any scientific study used in the rulemaking process. That includes confidential medical records that opponents say could...