Where does any Michigan legislator get the idea they can simply do as they please without consulting authorities?

There are parts of Flint that do not have clean pipes yet. Their water tests are not normal. The entire city of Flint cannot simply be considered safe. This isn't even a matter of consulting with the professionals as Mayor Weaver is seeking. This is about SAFE PIPES that water flows through.

KNOCK IT OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leave them alone and provide the bottled water!

December 9, 2017

By Casey Mendoza

Michigan lawmakers may soon reconsider supplying bottled water to Flint. (click here)

For the past year, Flint's water has tested pretty clean. And unless new tests show lead or copper levels above the federal threshold, the city's water distribution program could end as soon as next month.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said in a statement that she would consult with medical and public health professionals before supporting the decision. She said she hoped other state officials would do the same.

If the distribution program is cut, it likely wouldn't affect the bottled water supplied in Flint schools. That water is reportedly from private donations. A Flint schools spokeswoman told MLive the district is working on ensuring the donations last the remainder of the school year....

I take it all the American troops will be home for Christmas.

It is good to know there won't be extra-ordinary budget needs to hurt domestic programs.

December 9, 2017

Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi. Haider al-Abadi (click here) has announced the ‘end of war’ with ISIS after his troops regained full control of the Syrian border.

Baghdad — Iraq said Saturday (click here) that its war on the Islamic State group is over after more than three years of combat operations drove the extremists from all of the territory they once held.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced Iraqi forces were in full control of the country’s border with Syria during remarks at a conference in Baghdad, and his spokesman said the development marked the end of the military fight against IS.

A senior military commander confirmed that combat operations had been completed.

“All Iraqi lands are liberated from terrorist Daesh gangs and our forces completely control the international Iraqi-Syrian border,” Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah said in a statement released shortly after al-Abadi’s remarks. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for IS.

Juneau has been pleasantly warm all this week with a high of 49 degrees Fahrenheit.

Juneau, AK (click here)

Rain

45 degrees Fahrenheit

Winds: 15 mph out of the east

Humidity : 98%

Juneau City and Borough Web Cam (click here)

Below is the current water vapor image from UNISYS. The reason Juneau, Alaska is warm is due to a heat transfer system off the west coast of North America. The entire area of southern Alaska is warm (click here). As a matter of fact, moving inland to Sitka Airport the tempature is 56 degrees Fahrenheit.

It is quite a mess, isn't it? That big deep Arctic Air mass dipping into North America. 

Current Temperatures (click here)

What I find interesting is all the 'white' areas on the map. That is very, very cold air. It is dangerous air, as a matter of fact.

Mexico is so lucky to be the neighbor of the most climate abusive country in the world. Now, Mexico gets to have some of our dysfunctional climate.

Be sure to keep scarves around the neck to protect the mouth and nose from icey winds. Eye protection needs either a parka or goggles. Goggles become obstructed should their be snow.

See, the way this mess takes place is to realize there are heat transfer systems off the east and west coast of North America taking hot air from the ITCZ over top of the Arctic Ocean. The colder air is displaced down, like it is now over North America and it becomes really, really cold.

Yep. This is the Climate Crisis that no self respecting right wing politico seems to recognize. But, then they aren't good at complicated ideas.

Evacuations in California. There is the ability to register phone numbers to maintain personal monitoring.

December 8, 2017

By Melissa Etehad, Louis Sahagun, Ruben Vives, Joseph Serva and Sonali Kohli

The first fire-related fatality (click here for video) from a series of wildfires that have covered Southern California in smoke and ash was confirmed Friday, authorities said.

Virginia Pesola, 70, of Santa Paula, was found dead in a car that had been involved in a crash along an evacuation route in a burn area of the Thomas fire in Ventura County on Wednesday night. According to the county medical examiner, Pesola's cause of death was blunt force trauma with terminal smoke inhalation and thermal injuries....

The FOX News women have all the luck.

Ms. Huddy can now join her sisters from FOX News in being treated as a sex object rather than journalist.

December 9, 2017
By Avery Anapol

A former syndicated Fox News host (click here) said Friday that President Trump tried to kiss her in an elevator in "2005 or 2006," which she said surprised her but did not make her feel threatened.

It's unclear whether Trump was married at the time since Juliet Huddy does not recall the exact date, Page Six reported. 

“He took me for lunch at Trump Tower, just us two,” Huddy said on Compound Media’s “Mornin’! With Bill Schulz.” “He said goodbye to me in an elevator while his security guy was there; rather than kiss me on the cheek he leaned in to kiss me on the lips. I wasn’t offended, I was kind of like, ‘Oh my god.'”

She added that she “didn’t feel threatened,” but was “surprised” that Trump tried to kiss her.

“It was a weird moment,” she said. “He never tried anything after that, and I was never alone with him.”

Huddy said that while she was not offended at the time, in hindsight she would have resisted his advances....

As an American television news reporter, (click here) Juliet Huddy was the news topic of numerous media outlets in 2016. That was after it emerged that she lodged sexual harassment allegations against two of the network’s big shots – O’Reilly and Fox News Co-President Jack Abernethy.

In September 2016, Juliet left Fox News. It was later revealed that she reached a settlement with the network over the claims of sexual harassment. Fox quietly settled her with a sum in the high six figures in exchange for her silence and not instituting legal proceedings against Fox News....

Puerto Rico is a main supply of a vital intravenous solution, normal saline, and the Baxter production plant is still on life support. Why?

The struggle to restore this production plant has been going on for some time now. This is not a good situation.

The FDA (click here) is taking steps to help with a worsening shortage of saline in the U.S., including asking that Baxter saline plants in Puerto Rico get their power restored ahead of others.

December 6, 2017

Baxter, a major manufacturer of intravenous fluids and bags, (click here) has three factories in Puerto Rico. In an email, a spokesperson at Baxter said 10 weeks after the hurricane hit the island, one of their factories in Puerto Rico is still being powered by a diesel generator. The other two factories are back on the electrical grid, but power is intermittent. Severe damage to roads and bridges is also slowing the recovery.

IV fluids like saline and dextrose are the lifeblood of hospitals. They’re needed to deliver medications and rehydrate patients. Hospital pharmacies use the smaller IV bags to mix medications. But they’ve been in short supply, especially since the hurricane, so pharmacists have relied on the larger bags. Now those larger bags are running out, too....