Senator Kay Hagan's sole focus is the people of North Carolina.

Of the nearly 300 votes (click here) by the US Senate, US Senator Kay Hagan chose to not vote four times.

In addition (click here) to her dedicated voting record, Senator Kay Hagan held 100 conversations with constituents. 

When Senator Hagan was elected, she pledged to visit all of North Carolina's one hundred counties. In 2012, Senator Hagan reached her goal of holding her 100th "Conversations with Kay," one-on-one meetings with North Carolinians, in every county in the state. Her "Conversations with Kay" series took her to each and every corner of the state to meet personally with residents, listen to their concerns and help them navigate issues with federal agencies.

Kay Hagan (click here) introduced her bill S 2569 "Bring Jobs Home Act" on July 8, 2014.

With North Carolina being the center of many landfall hurricanes and the recipient of multiple flooding storms Kay Hagan voted yes for HR 3370, "Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act or 2014 - Key Vote." 

Senator Kay Hagan is a life long North Carolina resident. She is North Carolina Blue through and through.

Senator Kay Hagan is the co-sponsor of SB 2223 "Minimum Wage Fairness Act," "Paycheck Fairness Act," "Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013, and the  "Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013." And that is only the beginning.

This is a statement Senator Hagan made in regard to the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013."

Mrs. HAGAN. Madam President, (click here) as we conclude our work on S. 3254, the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, I would like to draw attention to yet another important role my State is playing in our national defense.

North Carolina is home to the two major lithium suppliers in the United States. Not only are these important employers in my State, but they are serving our defense industry with critical materials that are vital to our Nation's defense capabilities both now and in the future....

Children of the world have received the Nobel Peace Prize.

October 10, 2014
By Alan Cowell

Reaching across gulfs of age, (click here) gender, faith, nationality and even international celebrity, the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the 2014 peace prize to Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India, joining a teenage Pakistani known around the world with a 60-year-old Indian veteran of campaigns on behalf of children....

Rick Perry's poll tax found to violate constitution.

October 10, 2014
By Will Weissert and Todd Richmond

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge (click here) likened Texas' strict voter ID requirement to a poll tax deliberately meant to suppress minority voter turnout and struck it down less than a month before Election Day — and mere hours after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a similar measure in Wisconsin.

The twin rulings released Thursday evening represent major and somewhat surprising blows to largely Republican-backed voter identification rules sweeping the nation that have generally been upheld in previous rulings.

Approved in 2011, Texas' law is considered among the nation's harshest and had even been derided in court by the Justice Department as blatant discrimination. Wisconsin's law was passed the same year and has remained a similar political flashpoint....

I hear the next strategy Perry will carry out to block the vote is call out  the National Guard.

The Coalition campaign has been effective.

October 9, 2014
By Andrew Kinney

RALEIGH — Chad Biggs, (click here) a Wake County sheriff’s deputy, and his partner, Chris Creech, also a sheriff’s office employee, are set to receive Wake County’s first same-sex marriage license, according to Laura Riddick, register of deeds for the county.

That marriage must wait for the legal maneuvering to settle, but experts say federal court decisions have set North Carolina on a path to legal gay marriage soon.

On Thursday morning, preparations were underway at the Wake County Justice Center. Riddick’s office was working with software vendors to prepare the county’s databases for changes to the marriage application.

There were no lines of couples in the morning, but court employees were casing the lobby, planning for potentially large crowds and trying to keep TV camera crews out of the way.

Biggs, who has been engaged for more than two years, was on duty at the courthouse in full uniform on Thursday morning. Riddick, the register of deeds, had his number on a sticky note attached to her identification badge, ready to call him as soon as word of a decision in the continuing court matters arrived. She had been brushing up on her clerical skills so she could issue the license herself, she said....

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/09/4219734/wake-courthouse-abuzz-ahead-of.html#storylink=cpy

GOP will attempt to rewrite Prop 8.

This will go on forever until there is a marriage equality amendment. Please get this done. North Carolina passed the most heinous marriage amendment to their state constitution which victimized the LGBT community as well as those unmarried heterosexual couples and their children. People in this state were frantic about the continued integrity of their families. These people are not only hateful they are among the worst nightmares in the country. They don't care about a family unless it meets their theocratic definition. 

October 9, 2014

Republican leaders (click here) in the North Carolina legislature apparently will make good Thursday on their pledge to fight the expected go-ahead for same-sex marriages in the state.

House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Phil Berger reportedly have hired a conservative California legal expert to lead the effort.

John Eastman, a former Republican candidate for attorney general in California, is the former dean of the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif. He is also chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, a group involved in the legal defense of traditional unions between a man and a woman....

October 9, 2014

By Zaid Jilani

...But sure enough, (click here) as America finally inches towards joining numerous other countries where same-sex marriage is legal, the right-wing is freaking out, predicting all manner of doom. Here’s ten of the craziest reactions:

1. Gay Marriage Is Like The Pro-Slavery Dred Scott Decision: At The National Review, Matthew J. Franck, said that the expansion of marriage equality is like “a slow-motion Dred Scott for the twenty-first century.”

2. Gay Marriage Will Spread Disease: Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver warned that marriage equality would be “harmful to individuals” and lead to all “kinds of serious and deadly disease.”

3. Gay Marriage Will Of Course Lead To Polygamy: Right-wing radio host and activist Erick Erickson predicted that “all the people now saying polygamy is different from gay marriage will be polygamy’s chief advocates within the decade.”

4. We Need To Amend The Constitution To Stop Gay Marriage: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) went as far as to say he will introduce an amendment to the Constitution to stop the national recognition of marriage equality....

N.C. Rep. Henry M. Michaux Jr., left, and House Speaker Thom Tillis meet at the State Capitol in Raleigh in May. Tillis and Senate President Phil Berger reportedly have hired a conservative California legal expert to lead the effort against same-sex marriage in North Carolina.

COREY LOWENSTEIN — clowenst@newsobserver.com

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/09/4219288_gop-will-attempt-thursday-to-stop.html?sp=/99/100/&rh=1#storylink=cpy

Washington - Today (click here) the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), on behalf of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee (RLCC), announced Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger as a 2014 RLCC Executive Committee Member. Senator Berger will serve as Immediate Past Chairman and will continue to serve the RLCC’s mission to support and build Republican representation in all fifty state legislatures....

"All around nice guy," except, when it comes to politics. He'll be sure you have your say and then stick a knife in your back. Others views and lives mean nothing unless it lines up with his agenda.

May 10, 2014

By Jay Price

...As Berger, (click here) a 61-year-old lawyer from Eden, prepares for his fourth session at the helm of the Senate, many believe he is now the most powerful politician in North Carolina.

He became that through meticulous, long-range planning to craft a majority, a laserlike focus on major goals, a blue-collar work ethic that he honed with actual manual labor, and a natural geniality that he has used as a glue to bind his caucus. That caucus now holds a veto-proof 33-17 majority, thanks in part to his savvy candidate recruiting and ceaseless fundraising.

Since his elevation in 2011 to Senate president pro tem, Berger has been cast as villain and hero. Liberals believe changes like the tax cuts, changes to the education system and the voter ID law have placed the state on a path to ruin....

Honshu at 7:16 pm EDT Sunday, October 5, 2014 was hit by Typhoon Phanfone.

October 7, 2014

Super Typhoon Vongfong, (click here) currently tracking towards Japan, is being called the most powerful storm on earth this year. It underwent rapid intensification last night and is now packing maximum sustained winds of 155 mph. The storm comes just after the deadly Typhoon Phanfone made landfall in Japan earlier this week.

Vongfong is forecast to take a similar path to that of Phanfone. Although it may strengthen a bit over the next 24 hours, the long-term track shows it weakening while moving North. Officials in Japan will be monitoring the typhoon closely over the next few days. Heavy rain, strong winds and mudslides are possible as this storm tracks closer to the island.

This will be the second storm to hit Japan in one week. Sediment plumes, like the ones that appears below  are good markers for estimating the amount of water leaving the land.

...Phanfone (click here) dumped 48 centimeters (19 inches) of rain in the mountainous region of Shizuoka Prefecture. At one point during the storm, rain fell in Shizuoka—the capital city of the prefecture—at a record-rate of 8.7 centimeters (3.4 inches) per hour. The 667,000 people living in the prefecture were urged to evacuate to safer ground.

The intense rain and resulting runoff led to sediment plumes in Suruga Bay, visible in the natural-color image (top) acquired October 6, 2014, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite. Such plumes were not apparent on September 29 (bottom image).

Phanfone later turned northeast and headed for Tokyo, bringing torrential rain and strong winds to the city before moving out to sea....

US Naval vessels should be in port for this storm. I don't care if this is a low category typhoon or the captain thinks the ship can weather this storm at sea better than in port. That was proven differently.

President Obama's strategy to date is exactly correct.

October 8, 2014
By Mark Lowen

Could Turkey be about to return to the bad old days of armed conflict with the Kurds? (click here)

Troops on the streets, curfews for the first time in 22 years, protests in almost 30 cities and state buildings attacked - the situation is dangerous and escalating fast.

Some of the fighting is among Kurds, between Turkey's Islamist Hezbollah group - which backs Islamic State (IS) - and supporters of the PKK, the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is vehemently opposed to IS militants.

But the main protests - and the fiercest anger - are directed at the Turkish government.

Kurds feel Turkey sees them, rather than IS, as the real enemy.

They are furious at Turkish troops blocking them from crossing over into Syria to fight with the Kurdish militia there, the YPG....

American Armed Forces, such as the Marines and Army, are not lackeys for a Middle East coalition with divided priorities.

Turkey isn't interested in participating in the Syrian civil war. The Kurds maybe angry over Kobane, but, this is the paradox created by the Islamic State. The Islamic State is fighting Assad and his forces and the Kurds. It is the best of all worlds for Turkey.

Americans are in a political season. It is time they come to terms with the war mongering and crying about the southern border. 

Picture USA troops deployed into Iraq fighting at the side of the Kurds while destroying ISIS. Now, enter Turkey. Who is fighting who? 

This is all nonsense. The USA southern border is faced with some of the most violent organizations in the world, namely the Latin America drug cartels and yet for the most part the USA is only annoyed by undocumented WORKERS coming over the border. There is little in the way of drug cartel wars coming to the USA, spilling over it's border, while at the same time Mexico has an active war with these same cartels.

Now, since "W"'s illegal war has resulted in the sectarian division of Iraq and wars within Iraq to maintain the lives of Kurds and villages along the Euphrates River the USA is suppose to return to do what exactly? The USA is suppose to enter into an ENDLESS POLICING of the Middle East. I don't think so.

Turkey is NATO. Turkey is our first priority, not Iraq or Syria. The very best that can happen here is for the coalition to continue to degrade the infrastructure the Islamic State relies on to advance their violent society. The people within these countries have to ultimately decide to defend their people and their land. We can't do that for them. We can support their efforts, but, we can't forever fight a war with so many oppositional priorities. It is ridiculous to consider.

The air strikes are working. While the Islamic State is already degraded of sophisticated weapons thanks to "W" it is also scattered to hide away from the efforts of the coalition. 

In the video released by the FBI, the Islamic State assassin proudly pointed to a building once considered the Syrian Guard's quarters. It was full of holes in walls due to the attacks of the Islamic State. Those holes in walls were made with USA tanks and mortars. Really terrible from most view points. But, how is the Islamic State going to rebuild that structure to use for their own guards? It can't. It can only fight a war without end. Any structure the Islamic State attempts to build will be knocked down again and again until it's fiscal resources are depleted. 

The Islamic State is already defeated, they just don't want to admit it so they continue to produce films that are somewhat identical to Latin American Drug Lord videos.

Enough. The coalition currently at work to degrade the Islamic State are doing exactly what they are suppose to be doing. On the other hand, the USA Republicans are pretending they know better than the President. 

October 8, 2014

By Joshua Brunstein

AT&T (T) has agreed (click here) to a $105 million settlement with federal agencies and state attorneys general for allowing companies to add fraudulent charges to its customers phone bills—and taking at least a 35 percent cut of what they made.

This process, known as cramming, has been around in various forms since the 1990s, and carriers have sworn numerous times to put an end to it. In total, customers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on charges they never asked for, officials said in a press conference Wednesday. The Federal Communications Commission has taken 14 enforcement actions on cramming since 2010, covering $122 million in activity. The AT&T case is the largest such settlement in the agency’s history, according to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler....

October 2, 2014
By Erica Adams

...North Korea's Kim Jong-un (click here) has been absent from official duties throughout the month of September, reportedly due to ankle injuries caused by wearing Cuban heels to his public events. (Cuban heels are basically high-heeled shoes designed for men.) Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo reported that Kim Jong-un is being treated for fractured ankles due to the stress caused by the shoes, coupled with his noticeable cheese-induced weight gain....

October 7, 2014
By Geoffrey Cain

...So it’s been a month of oddities (click here) alongside an enormous North Korean charm offensive.

The peculiarities have led analysts to look at the appearance of another player in the North Korea elite: Kim Jong Un’s little sister, Kim Yo Jong.

She may be managing the country in her brother’s absence, claims the North Korean Intellectuals’ Solidarity, a Seoul-based advocacy organization started by former North Korean professors. The group hasn’t revealed its source, and the claim has not been confirmed. But it follows Kim Yo Jong’s apparent emergence within regime circles, probably as a key ally of her brother....

August 21, 2014

By Joe Conason

For decades the state has been a hot bed for the country's most virulent racists, from neo-Nazis to the KKK (click here)

...The Council of Conservative Citizens, headquartered in St. Louis, is a living legacy of Southern “white resistance” to desegregation, with historical roots in the so-called citizens councils that sprang up during the 1950s as a “respectable” adjunct to the Klan. Its website currently proclaims that the CCC is “the only serious nationwide activist group that sticks up for white rights!” What that means, more specifically, is promoting hatred of blacks, Jews, gays and lesbians, and Latino immigrants while extolling the virtues of the “Southern way of life,” the Confederacy and even slavery.

The group’s website goes on to brag that the CCC is the only group promoting “white rights” whose meetings regularly feature “numerous elected officials, important authors, talk-show hosts, active pastors, and other important people” as speakers....

An off-duty Caucasian police officer. What the heck was an off-duty police officer doing patrolling the streets?

October 9, 2014

Young black man (click here) was shot to death by an off-duty white police officer in St. Louis on Wednesday night, and a tense crowd gathered at the scene nearly two months to the day after a white policeman shot an unarmed black man to death in the nearby suburb of Ferguson.

This time, police say, the man was armed and shot at the officer, who returned fire. But a woman who identified herself as the dead man's cousin said he was holding a sandwich, not a weapon....

October 9. 2014

...St. Louis Police Lt. Col. Alfred Adkins (click here) said the 32-year-old officer was working a secondary security job late Wednesday when the shooting happened. Lt. Col. Adkins said the officer, a six-year veteran of the St. Louis Police Department, approached four men on the street.

“As he exited the car, the gentlemen took off running. He was able to follow one of them before he lost him and then found him again as the guy jumped out of some bushes across the street,” Lt. Col. Adkins said. “The officer approached, they got into a struggle, they ended up into a gangway, at which time the young man pulled a weapon and shots were fired. The officer returned fire and unfortunately the young man was killed.”...

...Police said a gun was retrieved from the scene in the Shaw neighborhood, near Missouri Botanical Gardens....

...People who described themselves as relatives of the man who was shot later told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he wasn’t armed.

Lt. Col. Adkins didn’t describe any conversation between the officer and the four pedestrians, and didn’t explain why the officer gave chase.

 ...when the officer attempted a "pedestrian check," St. Louis police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said in an email. Police did not elaborate on what a pedestrian check is or why it is done. 

Jackson said the officer was working a department-approved security job and wearing his uniform when he confronted the pedestrian....

A police officer does not need probable cause (click here) to stop a car or a pedestrian and investigate potential crime. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, a police officer may initiate a temporary stop, a level of intrusion short of an arrest, if the officer can articulate a reasonable suspicion that the suspect has committed a crime or is about to commit a crime.¹ This is commonly known as a Terry stop. Further, if the officer can articulate a reasonable basis for suspecting that the subject might be armed, he can pat down the outer clothing of the suspect in a limited search for weapons. This is commonly referred to as a Terry frisk....

...Officers conducting a lawful Terry stop may take steps reasonably necessary to protect their personal safety, check for identification, and maintain the status quo. Occasionally a suspect will refuse to identify himself. Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s opinion in Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Ct. of Nev., a state law requiring a subject to disclose his name during a Terry stop is consistent with the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable search and seizure: 

Obtaining a suspect’s name in the course of a Terry stop serves important government interests. Knowledge of identity may inform an officer that a suspect is wanted for another offense, or has a record of violence or mental disorder. On the other hand, knowing identity may help clear a suspect and allow the police to concentrate their efforts elsewhere.

Such a statute does not implicate the subject’s Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination, as simple disclosure of one’s name presents no reasonable danger of incrimination. But the Court clearly limited the application of this new rule by also noting that an officer may not arrest a suspect for failing to identify himself if the identification request is not reasonably related to the circumstances justifying the stop. The question is, is the request for identity a commonsense inquiry or an effort to obtain an arrest for failure to identify after a Terry stop yielded insufficient evidence?...

This type of statue is basically a police state. When a citizen can't stand alone or with others without being harassed by police for absolutely no reason, that is a police state.

This is going from bad to worse.

...What Does It Mean to Criminalize the Conduct?

It is up to each state or municipality to criminalize a suspect’s failure to reveal his or her identity. Such laws may not make it a crime to fail to reveal one’s name during a consensual encounter; to avoid violating the Fourth Amendment there must, at a minimum, be reasonable suspicion of crime afoot by the subject.

Further, the stop-and-identify law must not be “vague,” according to the Supreme Court. In Kolender it found a California statute unconstitutionally vague because it required the subject to produce “credible and reliable” identification that carried a “reasonable assurance” of reliability, and left it up to the officer to determine what “credible and reliable” and “reasonable assurance” are. Acceptable statutes simply require disclosure and leave it to the subject to decide how to comply....

And if a person doesn't have their wallet with them to produce ID they are a criminal with or without a rape sheet. This is outrageous.

October 7, 2014
By William M. Welch and Yamiche Alcindor

A federal judge (click here) ruled Monday that a tactic police used to control protesters in Ferguson, Mo., is unconstitutional and issued a preliminary injunction halting the practice.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry in St. Louis ordered law enforcement agencies to stop enforcing a requirement that protesters keep moving rather than stand still....

Law enforcement officers, seeking to control angry crowds, had ordered people to walk and not stand still while demonstrating over the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to halt the practice...

...Perry's order stops police "from enforcing or threatening to enforce any rule, policy or practice that grants law enforcement officers the authority or discretion to arrest, threaten to arrest or order to move individuals who are violating no statute or regulation and who are peaceably standing, marching or assembling on public sidewalks in Ferguson, Missouri.''

What is so different between St. Louis and Ferguson? Geography?

Jesus Christ, the Mexican Drug Cartels are becoming Muslim according to Tom Cotton!

After the alleged death of Nazario Moreno González on December 9, 2010, a split between the cartel leaders José de Jesús Méndez Vargas, Enrique Plancarte Solís and Servando Gómez Martínez started, a large part of "La Familia Michoacana" left with Plancarte and Gomez to form the Knights Templar cartel, while Jesús Méndez kept the leadership of the now disbanded "Familia Michoacana".

Oh, Mary, Mother of God we'll never stop them now! They have both Mohammad and Jesus on their side!

March 19, 2014
...Today the Knights Templar cartel (click here) that once dominated the region is a shadow of its former self, but concern is growing that the heavily armed militias who helped break the cartel's dominance could themselves trigger more violence and prove as difficult to control.

"The basic problem with the self-defence groups is that the government cannot disarm them without handing control back to the Knights Templars, but it can't tolerate them either," says Alejandro Hope, a leading expert on Mexico's drug wars....

All humor aside, the Mexican Drug Cartels would destroy the Islamic State in a heart beat. They don't need any help or an education on causing death. The Islamic State would be shaking in their boots at the thought.

February 10, 2014

Tens of thousands of people (click here) have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico over the past seven years.

Most of the violence is attributed to fighting between rival drug gangs for control of territory and drug shipment routes. Who are these groups and who are they fighting against?

Who are the main players?...Look what happened this year at the USA border. Children were placed on 'death trains' to try to save their lives by their parents. The entire area where North and South American come down to a land mass about 500 miles across is controlled by a drug cartel war whereby children are used for soldiers and errand boys. The Islamic State is no match for the drug cartels of Mexico. They have more experience and a far longer longevity spanning several generations to prove it.The Islamic State would meet it's maker before they set a foot on dry land.Beheadings happen or hopefully use to happen all the time in Mexico, of innocent people as well as any cartel member. The Mexican drug cartels are far worse than the Islamic State and the USA has been assisting Mexico in their defeat for a very long time.

The bodies of seven men arranged in chairs are pictured in Uruapan in the Mexican state of Michoacan, on Saturday. The men were shot in the head with threat messages nailed to some of their chests using ice picks.March 24, 2013MORELIA, Mexico — Authorities (click here) say the bodies of seven men were found in plastic chairs placed along the side of a street in the drug-plagued Mexican state of Michoacan, while another seven people, including three federal agents, were killed in neighboring Guerrero.Michoacan's Attorney General's Office said in a statement Saturday that the seven bodies had bullet wounds and had been placed individually in the sitting position in chairs near a traffic circle in the city of Uruapan. The office did not provide a motive for killings.

In Guerrero state, authorities said armed men opened fire in a bar in Ciudad Altamirano late Friday. Four civilians and three off-duty federal agents were killed....An armed soldier stands guard next to communication radios displayed  at a military base in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Friday. The army seized rifles, two grenade launchers, 345 cases of ammunitions of different calibres and 352 communication radios raiding a drug hitmen training camp.
For the Republicans the difference between the Mexican drug cartels and the Islamic State is that the Islamic State makes for better fear mongering and conspiracy theories, AKA Republican Electorate. Just look how low a Republican goes to attempt to win an election and this is the USA, huh? Republicans have no morals, they care little about the truth and only understand power. The power of lies and fear is their prime directive after which winning the election they take care of their cronies that made it possible.

Evidently, greed is greed. Oil simply seems to bring it out in everyone, everywhere.

October 8, 2014

By Marty Klinkenberg, 

EDMONTON – Just like everyone else, (click here) sex-trade workers are travelling across the country to earn big money in Alberta.

All but one of 16 prostitutes interviewed by Edmonton police recently as part of a human-trafficking investigation had arrived from outside Alberta, mostly from Toronto and Montreal.

“There is a pattern where women are coming to an oil-rich province chasing the money, and we are seeing more and more of that,” Det. David Schening, with the Edmonton police’s vice unit, said Tuesday.

Participating in a nationwide undercover probe called Operation Northern Spotlight, Edmonton detectives contacted sex-trade workers by responding to advertisements on the Internet and then offered intervention and exit strategies instead of arresting them. A secondary goal was determining if they were being forced to work for somebody else....

I think Professor Michael Eric Dyson has the best perspective on this charge.

How do African American parents discipline their children to avoid ANY confrontation with police that might cause their death and how does that transcend their childhood? Is the culture of any African American home conducting discipline in contradiction to social/legal standards today for that reason?

October 8, 2014
By Rochelle Olson and Mike Kaszuba

A Texas judge on Wednesday (click here) discussed the possibility of a Dec. 1 trial date for Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who, according to his lawyer, wants his child abuse case resolved so he can get back to work.

Peterson sat in the audience with his wife and mother during the brief court hearing in Conroe, Texas, north of Houston. He wasn’t asked to enter a plea and did not speak during the hearing, during which lawyers for both sides huddled in front of Montgomery County Judge Kelly Case. Peterson’s next hearing date is set for Nov. 14.

After the hearing, Rusty Hardin, Peterson’s attorney, told reporters outside the courthouse that his client is “champing at the bit” to respond to the allegations. He called Peterson a “good man,” adding, “This is a case about a parenting decision.”

Asked how he was feeling, Peterson, swarmed by cameras crews and reporters as he entered a dark Mercedes SUV, responded, “I’m good.”...

The USA did the right thing for West Africa to end this disease by building infrastructure for that goal.

October 8, 2014
CBS/AP

WASHINGTON - The economic impact (click here) of the Ebola epidemic could reach $32.6 billion by the end of next year if the disease ravaging Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone spreads to neighboring countries in West Africa, the World Bank Group said Wednesday.

The World Bank's assessment said the economic impact of Ebola is already serious in the three countries and could be catastrophic if it becomes a more regional health crisis. The CDC said last month that unless efforts to curb the outbreak are ramped up significantly and quickly, the disease could infect up to 1.4 million people by mid-January in two nations, Sierra Leone and Liberia, alone....

Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia are basically the same thing.

I have two sisters. I am the oldest of the three. This is about the middle sister.

She was diagnosed with an astrocytoma in 1986. She was given six months to live. That was 28 years ago. Her spouse took her to a different physician at a world renowned teaching hospital after receiving her prognosis. The neurosurgeon there stated 20 years. According to that diagnosis/prognosis she should have died eight years ago.

Two years ago she underwent 5 gamma knife (gamma radiation) treatments for five separate tumors in her head. Today and since her initial diagnosis, she lives on her own terms and conducts all her own activities except her financial life which she lost control over seven years ago.

She still carries a conversation, ambulates with a walker due to balance issues, is still a fashion bug, attends church and smiles. Now, you tell me.

The United States of America is cutting edge for many medical achievements. This path of patient determined suicide is a very slippery slope. If patients decide the burden of living is too great or become entrenched in self-pity then what happens to the achievement gap that drives medical discoveries. I think this is a very dangerous slippery slope in the USA. 

Mr. Brantley cannot continue to be the sole source of antibodies to this virus.

Dallas did a magnificent job, this death was not their failure. They weren't expecting anyone walking in off the street to be carrying this virus.

There was an indication when the family went to the hospital to visit with or at least see Mr. Duncan. Frequently, it is the practice of any hospital staff to alert the family a patient's condition is deteriorating. I had feeling he might pass. Sympathies to his family and friends.

There has been a lot of fear in the USA over this incident. 

October 8, 2014
By Dan Diamond

...A passenger had Ebola-like symptoms (click here) aboard a jet from Texas to Florida — nevermind, not Ebola after all.
As predicted, the number of Ebola false alarms in the United States has skyrocketed since Thomas E. Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola in Dallas on Sept. 30. In a briefing this weekend, the CDC said it’s been getting more than 800 calls a day from hospitals and other concerned parties, up from about 50 a day before Duncan’s diagnosis.
None of those thousands of calls have turned out to be Ebola....

The new protocol for arriving passengers from overseas travel (one might want to consider all ports of entry at some point) will help close the 'window of opportunity' for the virus.

Replicating the antibodies. One living source can't be the only answer. We have to do better. Is there any chance survivors in West Africa can donate to begin to end the suffering in there?

October 8, 2014
By Abby Ohlheiser
For the second time, (click here) Ebola survivor Kent Brantly has donated his blood to a patient fighting the virus. NBC News announced Wednesday that Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who was diagnosed with Ebola while working for the network in Liberia, will receive some of Brantly's blood as part of his treatment against the virus at the Nebraska Medical Center.

In September, Brantly, an American doctor, donated some of his plasma to Rick Sacra, who was also treated at the Nebraska Medical Center....

...Mukpo, like Sacra, also has the same blood type as Brantly, opening up the possibility that the transfusion treatment could work in his case. The medical center reached out to Brantly, who was traveling at the time, after realizing that the pair were a match....

So, the treatment to date is to transfuse whole blood. Curious. What happens to the circulating red blood cells of the victim? Is there something different between the victim's and survivor's red blood cells? Is there any chance the white blood cells of survivors can be separated and even divided to begin the body to produce their own? 

Australian Red Cross Blood Service (click here) 

Immunoglobulins (click here)

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) (click here)

I am not going to even attempt to be up on all the latest in transfusion technology, but, as a rule the plasma and white blood cells don't require blood typing. I don't know that immunoglobulin can be cultured either. Sandoz was the premier Ig producer.

October 8, 2014

CBSDFW.COM

...Under normal circumstances, (click here) the Dallas Medical Examiner’s office would be in charge of moving Duncan’s body from the hospital.  According to the CDC, the virus can be transmitted postmortem through bodily fluids.  Therefore, the CDC has issued guidelines to hospitals and mortuaries for how to safely handle the human remains of any person who has contracted Ebola and died from the disease....

This is going to sound morbid, but, is there any value to the body fluids of the deceased in research?

I think that's it. I already covered Panetta. 
Night.

I heard about this on the radio.

MER ROGUE, La. (KABC) --

A couple (click here) had their cellphone camera rolling when they drove up to a train crossing in Louisiana and noticed there was a big rig stalled on the tracks. What followed was the impact as the train smashed into the 18-wheeler.

Two of the train's engines and 17 train cars derailed in the crash. The driver of the stalled semi abandoned his rig and was not injured. 

Union Pacific Railroad Co. officials said the conductor's injuries weren't considered life-threatening. They say the engineer suffered minor injuries.

The family filming the accident had to make a quick getaway after they were told one of the train cars was leaking a dangerous chemical gas.

I am actually more concerned about the rails going through Mer Rouge, Louisiana. If there are many derailments the entire stretch of track needs to be looked at. People were lucky. The first engine that impacted the truck came up off the track a little bit. But, as soon as the barrier was pushed aside it stayed on the track. It could have been a lot worse.

The Canada explosion just seems to me to be the same phenomena witnessed since North Dakota decided it was okay to douse the entire nation in oil. The cars are full of explosives, they may or may not be properly vented. They are flammable contents and the question arises, what exploded first the inside of the rail car causing the derailment or did the derailment happen first exploding the rail car. 

It has always been my contention that rail cars carrying explosive material are derailed after the explosion. Even derailed a rail car may not explode unless the integrity of the tank is breached. In other words, if another rail car or piece of track pierced the outside wall of the tanker then the spark would ignite the chemical inside. I also believe some if not most can be avoided. Not enough personnel, not enough rail inspections and not tight enough regulations.

October 1, 2014
By James Walsh

...New York state (click here) on Tuesday submitted its concerns about oil trains that traverse the Hudson Valley to a federal agency developing rules for the transport of hazardous materials including volatile Bakken crude oil.

Emergency orders were issued in May by the U.S. Department of Transportation to railroads hauling the Bakken crude to immediately notify state emergency officials of the shipments. Shippers were also asked to stop using old DOT-111 tank cars, which have a history of rupturing and exploding in derailments. The cars were originally designed to carry nonhazardous materials such as corn syrup and fruit juice.

New York's suggestions include enhanced braking systems for oil trains, speed controls for trains hauling hazardous cargo and degasifying crude oil before shipment to reduce its volatility,

"Only with such a comprehensive approach will we reduce the risk involved with shipping high-hazard contents," said the correspondence signed by the state's commissioners of transportation, environmental conservation and homeland security....

New York has this right. Finally a state that recognizes Bakken crude as highly flammable. It was crazy to see the MDSD list this liquid as crude oil. Not even close. 50 - 50 mixture with naptha if it is tar sands.

I am glad it is New York seeking regulation and enforcement. Safety will have it's best outcome in New York.