Nigeria's outbreak was contained as quickly as it erupted.

August 23, 2014
Lagos

...Nigeria’s (click here) promise has made it a test-bed for the Africa strategies of consumer-goods firms. This is not only because of its size. It is also because of the spread of Nigerian culture—its music and movies—around Africa, says Yaw Nsarkoh of Unilever. The Anglo-Dutch company has been trading in Nigeria for nearly a century and is expanding its operations. Nestlé, a Swiss rival, plans to triple sales over the next decade. Procter & Gamble, another global consumer giant, has just completed a factory near Lagos, its second in Nigeria. SABMiller, the world’s second-largest beermaker, built a state-of-the-art brewery in Onitsha, in the Niger Delta, in 2012 and is already adding capacity....

April 13, 2014
Abuja and Lagos
Yet, since its 167m people (click here) make it twice as populous as any other Africancountry, Nigeria is plainly the giant of a fast-growing continent. The GDP of Lagos alone exceeds that of Kenya, east Africa’s beefiest economy. When Nigeria’s GDP is reassessed (“rebased”, in IMF jargon) by new criteria that include earnings not on the official balance-sheet, its gap with South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, will narrow. Nigeria’s GDP may rise, according to its own bureau of statistics, by 40% to around $350 billion, not far off South Africa’s $400-plus billion. If Nigeria goes on growing by 7% a year (as it is expected to in 2013) against South Africa’s present 3%, it will become Africa’s biggest economy within a decade. Together, the two economies already account for a good half of the GDP of sub-Saharan Africa’s 49 countries.

President Goodluck Jonathan takes as much credit as he can. “A new political culture has emerged,” he says, along with “a clear electoral process”, a reference to his victory in 2011. “Corruption and issues of governance are being vigorously tackled on all fronts.” He hails Nigeria as “the largest destination of FDI [foreign direct investment] in Africa”. Calling for a revival of the moribund farm sector, he promises that Nigeria will have “no imports of rice by 2015-2016”, whereas it is now the world’s largest buyer of it....

We may be looking at mandatory quarantine of anyone returning from West Africa.

It was found. This is by far the highest priority the USA has. It has to be contained. It isn't going to matter if the borders are closed, it will still get through. The country would still be going through these exercises anyway.

The USA needs to warn those traveling from the USA to West Africa, they may have to be maintained in quarantine before and/or after they return. It is the way it was always done before.

A man is isolated in the back of an ambulance at Harvard Vanguard Medical Center in Braintree Sunday afternoon for precautionary measures, officials said the man complained of medical issues and had recently traveled to West Africa. After more than an hour the victim was transported to an area hospital.

October 12, 2014

By Jack Encarnacao and Laural J. Sweet

A man claiming (click here) to have recently traveled to Liberia in West Africa who turned up at the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates urgent-care offices in Braintree this afternoon complaining of a headache, muscle aches and other Ebola-like symptoms was quarantined and has been brought to one of Boston’s top hospitals under police escort, according to multiple authorities.

“Out of an abundance of caution we immediately notified authorities and the patient was securely removed from the building and put into an ambulance now headed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The building was closed briefly but has now re-opened. We are working closely with the Department of Public Health who will determine next steps,” said Dr. Ben Kruskal, chief of infectious disease for Harvard Vanguard.

The driver of the Brewster Ambulance transporting the patient shortly before 4 p.m. was seen wearing a hazmat suit and face mask. Beth Israel is planning to hold a press conference shortly.

A second person was later brought out on a stretcher in a hazmat suit and placed in a second ambulance...

The question has to be asked, why are Americans coming and going from West Africa?

October 12, 2014

(Reuters) - A medical clinic outside of Boston (click here) was quarantined and a patient has been isolated outside the hospital with a possible case of Ebola, the Boston Globe reported on Sunday.

Police, fire officials and emergency medical services have arrived at the Harvard Vanguard Medical Center in Braintree, Massachusetts, Joe Zanca, with the Braintree Fire Department, told the Globe.

“Ebola protocol is in place,” Zanca said, noting that the patient in isolation recently traveled to West Africa.

Representatives of the hospital and Braintree fire and police departments could not immediately be reached for further comment.

This is exactly what the USA doesn't want and due to extreme control measures Ebola spread like wildfire in Guinea.

...“Coercive measures, (click here) such as laws criminalizing the failure to report suspected cases and forced quarantines, are driving people underground, pushing the sick away from health systems,” Joanne Liu, the international president of Doctors Without Borders, said recently at a United Nations special briefing on Ebola. “These measures have served only to breed fear and unrest rather than contain the virus.”...

The difference between the USA and Guinea is the USA doesn't simply quarantine and allow people to die. People are treated. The USA doesn't have the problems West Africa inherently has. 

...Beth Bell, director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told Congress in September, “The best way to protect the U.S. is to stop the outbreak in West Africa.”

I was waiting for this. Jihadies don't make good lifestyles.

Sebina Selimovic and Smara Kesinovic, both 17, left their homes in Austria to become Jihady Brides to ISIS. Ain't social media great, huh?

October 12, 2014
By Adam Withnall

Two teenage girls (click here) who left Austria to travel to Syria and become “jihadi brides” have reportedly grown disillusioned by life with Isis and told their families they want to return home....

"Mommy, I hate camp. You were right I shouldn't have gone in the first place."

A Jihadist's wife can be studied by 'episodes' with the Taliban. The Taliban ruled in Afghanistan for a long time before the USA invaded to kill bin Laden and his band of merry men. The women weren't so merry. As a rule anthropologists' studies of the Taliban found each woman had an average of eight children. 

Basically, it is a complete loss of self and complete devotion to the husband and the children. Then it is shared with other women within the same marriage as well. The Taliban and ISIS are not Sheiks with lots of money to make a woman's life opulent and carefree. It is poverty with all the trappings of hardship and denial of self and identity. Let's face it, women are required to wear veils in public, where do you think Fifth Avenue comes in? Weaving sheep's wool, maybe.

Am I surprised the ladies are now some of the most unhappy women on the planet? No. There are issues. If a husband becomes unhappy with a wife she can be divorced or worse. The Taliban had no court system. They let the public square take over where there are jails and divorce courts for both men and women in most First World nations. Break the law in Jihad Land and face death.

There are problems even in Europe when a bride becomes unhappy and wants to leave. The children. I have a friend who lived in Germany and gave birth to two children. Her life was not fun. She had servants to care for her every whim, but, she was limited in her social contact and even was limited to venturing out of the house. It became obvious to her she was trapped in being a sexual animal to her husband.

She eventually was able to leave to return to the USA because her husband was interested in having connections with the USA. He was a businessman and believed she could spark interest for him. The children, two boys, remained in Germany with the father being cared for by servants when she returned to her family in the USA. The bottom line is she lied about her ability to make business connections for him. She only wanted to get away. She filed for divorce and ultimately lost control of her two sons. It would be ten years before she was allowed to visit with them in Europe for a few days. She is waiting for them to come of age to be able to determine their own paths in life.

The lifestyle of women within the Muslim faith can vary a great deal. It literally depends on the man and his methods of making a living. There was a time in Afghanistan when women had a great deal of freedom. They attended school and became worldly. In the USA I have not met a Muslim woman, even those that where their traditional clothing, that are not powerful women. They are endeared differently. The laws in the USA empower the women differently than traditionally Muslim countries. I have enjoyed their conversations on many occasions. They have money and frequently their own money from their own education and/or professions. 

So, for a young and wonderful European woman to simply pick up and go to Syria with the idea the rest of her life will be wonderful is bizarre. I don't know what they were thinking. People are dying in Syria. What is there to know?

October 12, 2014
By Habib Toumi

...“I am a divorced woman, (click here) but I have no children. I am looking for a man who would love only me. I have SR100 million and much more that I have inherited from my late father, God bless his soul. I also own a company that I am managing. I want a husband who loves me and I will be devoted to him. I am 39 years old. I just want a baby,” the woman who called herself “Noora, a Divorcee Unfortunately”, said....

Nursing Research

Nurses are very rarely studied to improve their safety. They are expected to carry a lot of information in their practices. It is an extremely stressful job.

I would think with such a dangerous disease as Ebola there has to be a maximum safety level that can be maintained for health care workers. In particular working hours and conditions. I would expect nursing unions to consider a study whereby there is an understanding to the optimal hours worked by anyone in such an intensive setting. It might be 12 hours is far too long, 8 hours might be better or 6 hours optimal. There may be a maximum stress level of four hours that need to be maintained to protect the worker as well as the patient and ultimately the social environment health care workers live in.

Are there showers and gowning rooms immediately available to use before and after a shift? Is the pay rate for such work sufficient to permit a valuable nurse to work only four hours per day or six hours per eighteen hour period. Is there a log book to maintain tract of nurses hours to know if they are approaching the optimal care level and then are they receiving rest enough before returning to that patient care?

I think there is a lot we can do to find the most optimal environment for patient care and health care safety. 

I can't help believe we need to rethink of the technology as Pre vs Post Ebola.

This is a suction container used in patient rooms and intensive care rooms to remove secretions from patients to maintain an open airway. It is necessary. Intubated patients especially have higher amounts of secretions as a rule. They are usually better hydrated through IV infusion.

But, this product is interesting. (click here) It is added to the secretions and normal saline to solidify the liquid and make it less likely to spill if a container is mishandled or the integrity fails along the way. It is called Safe Sorb. I am wondering if there can be such a product that also has a disinfectant that will kill the virus on contact. In other words, reduce any possibility a health care worker could be exposed to contamination while handling the virus intensive fluids.

I am sure there are decontaminates used and one of the most popular ones is a bleach solution. Can something like Safe Sorb be also an agent for decontamination? Can a health care worker add something to a full container to not only contain the body fluids but kill the virus at the same time.

In the case of Ebola I have to wonder if there isn't something that can be adapted to be added from hour to hour or procedure to procedure that would better kill the virus in a rapid fashion so things like droplet and/or blood spots could be decontaminated quicker. Of course, the best possible decontamination is at the point where secretions meet a disposable suction catheter, but, that may be too dangerously close to the patients body tissues to be effective or safe. If the patients own body tissues are compromised there is a great chance of death than if the body's membranes are intact.

I think it is best to realize the procedures and equipment being utilized by health care workers were developed Pre-Ebola. We might not be able to do any better than that, but, I think we can. I think we can help reduce health care worker exposure if we realize how the equipment they are working with becomes contaminated and later decontaminated and disposed. I would hope infectious disease MDs would be accessed by medical and pharmaceutical companies to make this an ongoing consulting dynamic for national emergencies that could occur. 

Infectious disease MDs are amazing. The CDC and FDA are magic if they are given the possibility of better opportunities to thwart disease.

This is what I believe I heard from the CDC.

What I heard from the CDC was extubation and dialysis were the culprits and both are highly invasive procedures. This contamination did not occur in a casual setting.

Every intensive care room has the capacity to provide ventilator assistance and dialysis to any patient. That means the equipment is in direct contact with bodily fluids with high concentrations of virus and especially the case with Mr. Duncan.

Mr. Duncan succumbed to Ebola infection with high levels of the microbe in his blood, therefore, the equipment he was sustained on was also highly contaminated. The equipment involved have two components, the disposable equipment that are in contact with the patient (primarily plastic) and the hardware that is expensive and decontaminated and reused.

The contaminated disposable equipment would have been properly contained in medical waste containers and the hardware might not have been and was most probably contaminated both outside the equipment as well as within. 

The extubation of any patient is fairly straight forward after a person expires, but, dialysis maintains a catheter in the patient to carry out the procedure which serves as a connection between the patient and the machine. Dialysis is more heavily a blood intensive procedure than extubation, however, there are secretions that are involved in extubation that can be droplet and miniscule. Both procedures can offer an opportunity to contaminate a room if not handled meticulously. YES. Meticulously is possible.

I don't know what the nurse may or may not have done to allow exposure of her skin or otherwise to the extubation procedure or dialysis procedure, but, I am curious to the extent these life support systems are used in West Africa. These are First World treatments for patients, however, they are found in a variety of places in the world. These are not exclusively First World treatments.

If this is the first time or at the very least the first time in the USA that Ebola has come in contact with these invasive and life sustaining procedures this may be the initial experience with Ebola in this setting. 

Again, I want to commend Dallas for all it's involvement in providing as intensive information and scrutiny this virus is receiving. I do not believe this is a breach in INITIAL diagnosis. The CDC stated the nurse reported her symptoms very early on and with a low population of virus in her blood test. I still believe we are carrying out good initial evaluation. This is a breach in protocol and/or an unknown source of contamination for the extensive amount of virus involved in Mr. Duncan's case.

There MAY be other exposures, but, we don't know that and can only be patient to maintain a vigilance. I do believe the USA is way ahead of any extensive exposure or outbreak. I have confidence in the CDC and it's vigilance. This has nothing to do with ports of entry into the country. This was a contamination of the internal room environment with the patient.

If I believed there was something questionable, I'd say so. I am in the USA along with everyone else.

Where do many of the killer diseases come from?

It is believed that the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus (called simian immunodeficiency virus or SIV) most likely was transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV when humans hunted these chimpanzees for meat and came into contact with their infected blood.

It is called quality of life. If the people of Africa had quality of life and received the same chance of living as Americans there is a better than good chance HIV and Ebola would not exist.

The World Bank (click here) measures poverty globally. In the USA what we define as poverty is wealth elsewhere. Poverty in the USA exists and it should not and is should not be growing. But, then abject poverty as witnessed around the world should not exist either.

Good night.

How many vaccines does an American receive in a lifetime?

Enough to keep them disease free for nearly fifty years.

How many vaccines do Liberians receive in a lifetime?

I don't think it is really known how protected Liberians are from disease or how engaged their immune systems truly are. But, I do know if an American is to travel to Liberia, they are required to receive a vaccine for Yellow Fever as it is still widely transmitted in most countries of Africa.

Vaccines (click here) keep children alive and healthy by protecting them against disease. Immunization is especially important for the hardest to reach families as it can also be a bridge to other life-saving care for mothers and children in isolated communities – such as child nutritional screening, anti-malarial mosquito nets, vitamin A supplements and de-worming tablets. Immunization is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health investments we can make for future generations.

Vaccines are protecting more children than ever before. But, in 2012, nearly one in five infants –22.6 million children – missed out on the basic vaccines they need to stay healthy. Low immunization levels compromise gains in all other areas of health for mothers and children. The poorest, most vulnerable children who need immunization the most continue to be the least likely to get it.

Almost one third of deaths among children under 5 are preventable by vaccine. UNICEF and its partners are working to change these numbers and ensure that the lives of all children are successfully protected with vaccines. But, if immunization is not prioritized, the most marginalized children will not get vaccines, which could mean the difference between life and death....

Surprise, Ebola!

I believe Dallas did the absolute level best it could. I am grateful they had a dry run through the day before they had a definitive diagnosis of Ebola. I am sorry for the death, if anyone could have prevented it he would be here now. I find it interesting Americans, who tend to be healthier on a global basis, are finding they can live through the viral's course.

I congratulate Dallas for being able, willing and dedicated to healing every person that comes to them in need of dire medical treatment. It is very questionable that a city anywhere else in the country could have done better.

(Adds NBC news crew ordered into quarantine; cameraman's condition improves, paragraphs 10-11)

By Sebastien Malo

Oct 11 (Reuters) - 

Medical teams at New York's JFK airport, (click here) armed with Ebola questionnaires and temperature guns, began screening travelers from three West African countries on Saturday as U.S. health authorities stepped up efforts to stop the spread of the virus.

John F. Kennedy Airport is the first of five U.S. airports to start enhanced screening of U.S.-bound travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Those countries have seen most of the deaths from the outbreak, which has claimed more than 4,000 lives.

Nearly all passengers traveling to the United States from those countries arrive at JFK, Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. The new procedures will begin at the other four airports on Thursday....

I think the Sayreville administration is wrong and have enforced the punishment of those that raped other students.

October 10, 2014

The field stood empty, (click here) framed by barren stands and an open parking lot at Sayreville War Memorial High School on Friday, the first night since the season was canceled amid allegations of a hazing ritual that involved digital penetration.

It was supposed to be the night of the homecoming game, but instead the people of Sayreville settled into the lonely quiet of a fall without football.

“Football is big in this town,” Tommy Nagle, owner of a hot dog stand on Main Street and caretaker of a blue-and-white Sayreville Football billboard on the same lot, said earlier Friday before the arrests of six juveniles accused of taking part in the hazing. “Even now I feel lousy because there’s no game tonight.”...

The majority of the team is not at fault. While the police and detectives have to get to the bottom of this, the team should not suffer the punishment of the rapists. The rapists promised to ruin the season and careers of the team if they were exposed. Well, guess what, they were rights. As soon as they are exposed everyone is made to suffer. This is not the way it should be. The team members, coaches and administrators completely innocent of participation, cover up or negligence should be out on the field while those most guilty are expelled.

There are going to be legal consequences as well, but, the young men that truly had no part or would not have any part in this should be playing and attempting to win their division.

The dream should still be theirs.

October 11, 2014
The Front Seven salutes the blood moon.
1. New: No. 6 Mississippi State (click here) doesn't get long to enjoy yet another historic victory. The program so often overshadowed by its more accomplished SEC opponents has to prove itself yet again as No. 2 Auburn comes to Starkville (3:30 ET Saturday, CBS). The Tigers looked the part of a national championship contender while dismantling LSU last week, but the Bulldogs' more polished offense under the direction of QB Dak Prescott, a breakout Heisman candidate, should prove harder to shut down....

Children are safer today in North Carolina.

October 10, 2014

Wake County Deputy sheriff Chad Biggs and his partner Chris Creech exchanged vows as they are married at the Wake County Courthouse in Raleigh, N.C. Friday, October 10, 2014. Read the story here: (The News & Observer)

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/10/4223085_north-carolinas-first-same-sex.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

MICHAEL MOORE  World premier of Edward Snowden doc, CITIZEN FOUR, just ended to a long and rousing standing ovation at Lincoln Center. Brilliant, damning.

I happen to think balloting is private and that is especially true in the South where a job can hang in the balance.

I don't know why privacy is controversial for this candidate for Senate. I don't get it. I also don't routinely ask people who they vote for so much as discuss differences in principles and policy. It is silly. I am trying to remember the last time I asked anyone who they voted for and I can't. I expect the same respect from others.

October 10, 2014

LOUISVILLE, KY. — U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes (click here) has already shared a stage with President Bill Clinton, and now she will be in the spotlight with another member of the family when the former secretary of state joins her on the campaign trail.

Former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will try to boost Democrat Grimes' campaign to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is seeking a sixth term. Clinton's appearance is set for Wednesday night at the Kentucky International Convention in Louisville, Grimes' campaign said Friday.

"Alison has been a long-time supporter and admirer of Clinton's leadership and independence, and is humbled that she will be in Kentucky to endorse her campaign and her plan to get Washington working for Kentucky," Grimes campaign manager Jonathan Hurst said....

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/10/10/3905174/hillary-rodham-clinton-to-campaign.html#storylink=cpy

How contaminated are the crops? Don't do this half way. If the land is contaminated due to irrigation the people have a right to know.

Energy Zealots were more important than California's precious water supply. 

October 7, 2014

After California (click here) state regulators shut down 11 fracking wastewater injection wells last July over concerns that the wastewater might have contaminated aquifers used for drinking water and farm irrigation, the EPA ordered a report within 60 days.

It was revealed yesterday that the California State Water Resources Board has sent a letter to the EPA confirming that at least nine of those sites were in fact dumping wastewater contaminated with fracking fluids and other pollutants into aquifers protected by state law and the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity, reveals that nearly 3 billion gallons of wastewater were illegally injected into central California aquifers and that half of the water samples collected at the 8 water supply wells tested near the injection sites have high levels of dangerous chemicals such as arsenic, a known carcinogen that can also weaken the human immune system, and thallium, a toxin used in rat poison....

October 11, 2014

MINSK, Belarus (AP) (click here) Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country does not oppose ex-Soviet states seeking closer ties with Western countries, but has criticized them for not taking Moscow's interests into account.

Leaders from the 11-member Commonwealth of Independent States met Friday in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, to discuss closer ties. The president of Ukraine which is facing the most violent conflict in post-Soviet history, between government troops and pro-Russian insurgents did not attend.

Putin lashed out at the European Union for "not considering it necessary ... to discuss the risks" of political and economic integration with post-Soviet countries. Ukraine's decision to sign an association agreement with the EU in September provoked complaints from the Kremlin that it would hurt Russia's economy.                        

The last time the USA took Fallujah it was fully engaged and it was a chronic battle with the Ba'athists. Fallujah was the place where four contractors were burned and hung on the bridge. I have no doubt the Ba'athists are back in An Albar. If there are Ba'athists within the Islamic State there probably won't be any resistance when they come through the region. It could be when the Islamic State joins the Ba'athists in An Albar they will rearm with USA military equipment.

After the death of the four contractors the USA military organized an operation into Fallujah. On the morning of the action against the Ba'athists the Iraqi National Guard removed their uniforms and abandoned the USA military.

Now mind you, there were absolutely NO Iraqis fighting for the town but the IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL insisted the USA military carry out their attack. 40 Marines died that day and approximately 500-750 civilians and insurgents.
There was a pause in the attacks to allow 70,000 women and children to leave. The USA military then violated the Geneva Convention by taking Fallujah hospital, closing it and placing an assassin/sniper on the roof to kill anyone in sight.

While the USA was destroying Falljah, Muslims around the world were demonstrating against the invasion.

Fallujah continued to be the center of insurgent and USA fighting. Addition to the first 40 dead Marines there were 95 more dead and 560 wounded by December of 2004. During the same time frame an estimated 1500 dead and 1500 captured from the insurgency.

"...the amount of drug use (by USA soldiers) was very, very high..."

Analysis (click here)

In many respects, the U.S. approach in Fallujah resembled Israeli tactics in the West Bank and Gaza. This is not surprising because numerous sources indicate that Marine and Army officers studied Israeli tactics prior to OIF. Israeli urban warfare tactics are sophisticated, effective, and well practiced. In many respects, however, the IDF has different operational and strategic objectives from U.S. forces. In addition, the IDF historically—for example, in Jerusalem in 1967, Beirut in 1982, and Jenin in 2002—has proved willing to take high casualties in urban warfare....

Reliving it should be better than GOING THROUGH IT AGAIN. Why violate the Geneva Convention Twice?

Iraqi forces should take the keys out of the ignition when they take a break from war.

Iraqi security forces rest on a sidewalk following clashes with jihadists on Sept. 19 in Ramadi, the provincial capital of the western province of Anbar and the birthplace of al-Qaeda in Iraq. (Azhar Shallal/AFP/Getty Images)

Five vehicles, five drivers; where is everyone else?

Oh, wait, I forgot they are awaiting for American "Boots on the Ground," right? I don't think so.

I just checked my ballot and there was nothing there about Iraqi statehood.

Besides Congress is on vacation.

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.