Americans are valuing life and the idea purity of water and food are important.

March 23, 2023

By Kelly Vaughn

Flint - As water infrastructure across the country grows older, (click here) residents and leaders in Flint say what happened to them should be a lesson to all.

April 25, 2023, marks nine years since the Flint water crisis began. Some residents said they still feel like they are living in a science experiment.

"We run the cold water and it smells like chemicals; run the hot water and it smells like sometimes dirty feet," said Melissa Mays, the operations manager for "Flint Rising," an organization helping those impacted after Flint's water was contaminated with lead in 2014.

The ramifications are still unfolding today. This week, a judge approved the $626 million civil settlement, the largest in Michigan's history.

While money is nice, what residents really want is lasting change....

Clean air, clean water, and a safe climate are all priorities to quality of life. This is not a fad that will go away. These problems for the American consumer are real. Good governance is paying attention and creating measurable improvement in all aspects of life.

PFAS can affect the fertility of Americans. Counting numbers and attributing it to women depressed over oppressive Republican regimes is not the answer. Americans know there are problems and it is time to bring about a higher quality of life concentrated on removing dangers to food and water.

January 22. 2021

By Annie Snead

Requirements (click here) such as labeling of products that contain PFAS in a WARNING is a good beginning.

Many Americans fill up a glass of water (click here) from their faucet without worrying whether it might be dangerous. But the crisis of lead-tainted water in Flint, Mich., showed that safe, potable tap water is not a given in this country. Now a study from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit advocacy organization, reveals a widespread problem: the drinking water of a majority of Americans likely contains “forever chemicals.” These compounds may take hundreds, or even thousands, of years to break down in the environment. They can also persist in the human body, potentially causing health problems.

A handful of states have set about trying to address these contaminants, which are scientifically known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). But no federal limits have been set on the concentration of the chemicals in water, as they have for other pollutants such as benzene, uranium and arsenic. With a new presidential administration coming into office this week, experts say the federal government finally needs to remedy that oversight. “The PFAS pollution crisis is a public health emergency,” wrote Scott Faber, EWG’s senior vice president for government affairs, in a recent public statement....

October 14, 2020

By Monica Amarelo

Washington - A peer-reviewed study by scientists at the Environmental Working Group (click here) estimates that more than 200 million Americans could have the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS in their drinking water at a concentration of 1 part per trillion, or ppt, or higher. Independent scientific studies have recommended a safe level for PFAS in drinking water of 1 ppt, a standard that is endorsed by EWG.

The study, published today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, analyzed publicly accessible drinking water testing results from the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Geological Survey, as well as state testing by Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina and Rhode Island.

“We know drinking water is a major source of exposure of these toxic chemicals,” said Olga Naidenko, Ph.D., vice president for science investigations at EWG and a co-author of the new study. “This new paper shows that PFAS pollution is affecting even more Americans than we previously estimated. PFAS are likely detectable in all major water supplies in the U.S., almost certainly in all that use surface water.”

The analysis also included laboratory tests commissioned by EWG that found PFAS chemicals in the drinking water of dozens of U.S. cities. Some of the highest PFAS levels detected were in samples from major metropolitan areas, including Miami, Philadelphia, New Orleans and the northern New Jersey suburbs of New York City....

July 27, 2022

By Rich Haridy

Researchers at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine (click here) have found strong evidence exposure to a common group of household chemicals can be associated with 13 different health conditions. The related economic costs have been estimated at between US$5 billion and $60 billion annually in the United States alone.

First developed in the 1940s, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) encompass more than 4,700 different chemical molecules. For decades these chemicals were used in a variety of manufacturing contexts, from non-stick cookware and waterproof clothing to carpets and firefighting foams.

Because PFAS chemicals tend to persist in he environment for long periods of time they have anecdotally been dubbed “forever chemicals.” And the sheer pervasiveness of PFAS in 20th century manufacturing led to studies finding traces of the chemicals in the blood of nearly every American.

Leveraging a very large body of pre-existing research, this new study looked to quantify the disease burden of PFAS exposure and estimate the economic cost of this in regards to medical bills and lost worker productivity. The goal of the economic estimate was to offer regulators a way to evaluate the cost-benefit of eliminating PFAS from our environment....

It could be a technique to increase consumption of cartel merchandise, but, it really looks like someone wants to kill Americans.

Xylazine cuts the half-life of fentanyl in half. Something like that. So, it demands a higher intake of the street drugs to obtain the same length of effect.

February 28, 2023

ByKerry Breen

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (click here) announced on Tuesday that it was taking action to restrict unlawful importing of the veterinary drug xylazine, which has been "increasingly found" in the nation's illicit drug supply.

The action, an import alert, allows for the detainment of shipments of xylazine and the ingredients used to make it. The alert "aims to prevent the drug from entering the U.S. market for illicit purposes," the agency said in a news release. An import alert allows the FDA to detain shipments of products that appear to be in violation of the FDA's laws and regulations.

The drug, an animal tranquilizer used by veterinarians to sedate large animals like horses, will still be made available for "legitimate uses."

When used in people, xylazine can cause "serious and life-threatening effects," including severe skin wounds and dead tissue, the FDA says. It can also depress breathing, blood pressure and heart rate to "critical levels."...

The FDA did the right thing in reporting on a growing trend in the drug trade in the USA. It really looks as though the drug cartels are going out of their way to find ways of making their imports deadly. Narcan doesn't work.

...Some people (click here) who use drugs say xylazine knocks them out for six to eight hours, raising concerns about the potential for serious injury during this "profound sedation," said Dr. Laura Kehoe, medical director at Massachusetts General Hospital's Substance Use Disorders Bridge Clinic.

ehoe argues that the surge of xylazine heightens the need for supervised consumption clinics, where people can use drugs under the watch of trained staff. Legislation that would have allowed a pilot program in Massachusetts died in committee at the State House this year....

This level of concern by physicians interested in protecting lives is introducing the idea all illegal drugs on the market should be converted to physician administered and supervised. If pharmaceutical companies were producing Scheduled Drugs there would not be this level of lethality in their use.

There is going to have to be an approach to scheduled drugs that are currently legal now. Companies hiring people that tend to use such drugs, including legalized marijuana, are going to have to write a policy that allows them to test for such indicators as THC. This requires blood tests and otherwise. Currently, police that pull a motorist over for erratic driving can run breathalyzer tests. When that proves negative they have a method of testing for THC in the field. 

Drug Schedules (click here)

Legalized drugs do not mean legalized behavior on drugs. Just because an individual may have a physicians' order for a drug, that doesn't mean anti-social behavior is acceptable in all aspects of life. People still need to be held responsible for unacceptable behavior on the job. A four martini lunch that results in sexual harassment afterwards is no different than a mellow experience in THC vaping that results in naps or outrageous behaviors. All that has to receive intervention and a path to a good life without DEPENDENCY, legal or not.

DeSantis, his legislature and administration is about the Republican nomination for president.

DeSantis is trying to harvest Trump supports in demonstrating he can get the job done.

In the wake of his ambitions Florida is becoming a problem. The latest extremist bid includes a no permit gun ownership. In other words, other than what is brought on by federal laws, there are no regs or concerns from the State of Florida. It shows.

March 24, 2023
By Lorena Inclan

This time, the scene of the crime (click here) was the entrance ramp to the Palmetto southbound near Northwest 36th Street.

Images showed a white BMW SUV riddled with bullets as Florida Highway Patrol investigated the crime that led to a major backup on the highway.

Retired Miami-Dade police major and attorney Ignacio Alvarez said there are two logical reasons that could spark this violence.

“It could be some type of retaliation, or it could be just simple road rage,” Alvarez said

Earlier this month, NBC 6 covered two highway shootings in Broward County on I-95. In one of the shootings, a man suffered life-threatening injuries.

And back in November 2022, Broward County was once again the scene of what deputies called a road rage incident that left a preschool teacher dead....

DeSantis was elected in 2019 and drug arrests have been on the decline ever since across Florida.

2014 there were 624.9 drug arrests per 100,000 persons. 2020 there were 316.8 drug arrests per 100,000 persons. That means there is less trafficking interference and more cartel merchandise making its way into the country. That nigh level of arrests is consistent across that entire space of time 2014 to 2019. There was an enormous drop off as soon as he became Governor of Florida.

Anyone protecting the Rule of Law that receives death threats needs protection as well as their families.

March 24, 2023

By Jonathan Dienst, Dareh Gregorian and Laura Jaffett

The FBI and NYPD (click here) are investigating a letter containing a death threat and white powder that was mailed to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is investigating former President Donald Trump, law-enforcement sources told NBC News.

The letter was addressed to Bragg and said, "ALVIN: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the sources said. It contained a small amount of white powder.

There were no evacuations or injuries, officials said.

It was the latest in what a senior law enforcement source described as "several hundred threats" aimed at Bragg and his office in recent weeks. A couple dozen of the messages were considered to be directly threatening serious harm to Bragg, the source said....