Lead ammunition is illegal in California.

LOS ANGELES 

October 29, 2013 (AP)

Officials say a record 21 California condors (click here) have been treated for lead poisoning this hunting season in California.

Veterinarians at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens say three birds were critically sick when they arrived. They were malnourished, had stopped eating and had a disease that causes the stomach to stop moving food.

Dr. Curtis Eng says it's scary to see so many sick birds, but two of the condors are recovering, and one remains in critical condition.

Vets say 18 of the condors were mildly ill.

The birds are trapped twice a year to check for lead poisoning. The condors are getting the lead in carcasses of animals shot by hunters.

California has a new law that will ban lead ammunition, but it won't be phased in until 2019. 

California outlaws lead ammo to safeguard an iconic bird.(click here)

 

By Geoffrey Giller

Published: 09/03/2013

UPDATE: California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 711 into law on October 11. The California State Senate approved it on Monday, September 9, by a vote of 23 to 15. On September 10, the amended bill was confirmed by the State Assembly.

The toxicity of lead and the dangers it poses to humans and wildlife alike are a given. After all, it was banned from house paints and phased out of gasoline in the 1970s after the long-term neurological damage it could cause in young children became clear. And birds, especially waterfowl, were known to suffer from lead poisoning as far back as the 1890s. George Bird Grinnell, who founded the first iteration of the National Audubon Society, wrote in 1894 about "the destruction of ducks, geese, and swans by lead-poisoning." Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned the use of lead shot for waterfowl hunting in 1991, lead-based ammunition is still widely used by hunters for other types of birds and game animals.
A bill signed into law on October 11 by Governor Jerry Brown aims to stop that. But it has sparked a fiery debate among environmentalists, hunters, and legislators across the state and the country. The bill, AB 711, bans the use of lead from all hunting ammunition in California; non-lead ammo is to be phased in by 2019. The bill was passed in the State Assembly in May, and the California Senate approved it on September 9....

Exactly. These policies cost the taxpayer money.

By Alex Nussbaum 
Oct 29, 2013 12:40 PM ET

...The cancellations (click here) come as a result of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which says that health insurance policies that fail to offer added benefits, such as prescription drug coverage and free preventive care, can’t be sold after this year even if they’re cheaper. With the online site expected to face difficulties through November, Americans may have only weeks to find replacement coverage, and many may end up paying higher premiums....

The inadequate offerings have to go. Just that simple. The insufficient policies will drive health care costs up around the country. It should never be tolerated and I blame Secretary Sebelius for allowing the waivers. She should not have issued them. It only postpones the inevitable, puts Americans at risk and delays the best premium options for all those enrolling in the State Exchanges today. The law should have applied to all Americans equally. She is wrong about issues waivers.

Representative Gardner is inappropriate in attempting to defame Secretary Sebilius.

The exchanges are open to people needing coverage, not all people with existing health care meet the law. A person(s) can't go out and purchase many insurance policies through the exchanges in order to have their care paid without reasonable deductibles and co-pays. Such a practice would effect the cost to others in the exchange. 

It is discriminatory to ask a person in the government to give up their healthcare for political dogma. They no different than any other employee in the government are entitled to benefit packages offered in order to keep them working for the government. If such a demand was made by the federal government, it would be overturned in court.

No Congressional District should receive a general waiver to The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Representative Gardner is too hostile to be a valid authority in office. He should be seeking to make the transition easier rather than fighting the outcome.

The map are the districts of Colorado. (click here) The 4th District in the lower right corner of this map.The map to lower right is the income distribution of Colorado. Again, the 4th District is in the lower right corner. Nearly every measure of the 4th District of Colorado has incomes of $60,000 or above. There is absolutely no reason for belly aching to Congress except to cause an opportunity for political grandstanding. 

Mr. Gardner's constituents will have no problem affording the health care insurance they want. On rare occasion would I expect his district to need the subsidized Medicaid.

By Michael Booth
The Denver Post

Posted:   10/22/2013 05:23:18 PM MDT

Updated:   10/23/2013 10:58:44 AM MDT

...The Denver Post reported (click here) Tuesday that in addition to numerous consumer complaints about being frozen out of signups, other states are enrolling people faster. Maryland, Washington and Oregon, all of similar size to Colorado, have thousands more enrollees by now. Other states may be reporting new Medicaid enrollees under that expanded program, while Colorado's exchange does not....

Secretary Sebelius is being harassed by desperate Republicans. It is outrageous for Republicans to pass PUNITIVE laws and then ask others to be a part of it. The punitive laws requiring Congressional staff to be in the exchanges will be defeated in court. It is completely hideous for a government employee to be asked to throw out their benefit package. It is part of what is an incentive to be in the employment of the government.

A single male of 32 may not need maternity coverage for a woman not his wife, but, pregnant; but he is part of a health exchange and NOT a designer insurance policy. The complaints are getting to be more and more bizarre with uneducated Congresspersons unable to discern the  best interests of their constituents.

The "Live Chat" at Healthcare.gov is operating just fine!

Plaintiffs say now is the time to address same-sex marriage (click here)
 

Posted: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 9:44 pm 
BY DAVID HARPER World Staff Writer 

The plaintiffs in a Tulsa federal court lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban argued in a pleading filed Tuesday that the issues they have presented address claims of “ongoing unequal protection and treatment” and that their resolution “should not be postponed indefinitely.” 
The document filed on Tuesday says that the case is one of several pending in state and federal courts throughout the country addressing same-sex marriage in the aftermath of a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in June.
The high court’s majority opinion in United States v. Windsor found that the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s section defining marriage as being between one man and one woman was unconstitutional.
The Tulsa case, challenging both DOMA and Oklahoma’s 2004 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and the recognition of such marriages, was stayed while the Windsor case was pending....

There is no reason for this review by the Supreme Court of the same sex marriage case or the abortion laws.

These so called abortions all happen within the First Trimester. Women are legally allowed to carry out abandonment of an unwanted pregnancy in the First Trimester.

Posted: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 12:00 am 
Updated: 3:06 am, Wed Oct 30, 2013 
By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau

OKLAHOMA CITY —- The Oklahoma Supreme Court (click here) on Tuesday further explained its recent ruling that a 2011 law putting restrictions on medical abortions is unconstitutional. 
The response came following a request from the U.S. Supreme Court, which indicated it would take a look at the case following Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt's appeal to the nation's high court. 
The U.S. Supreme Court asked the lower court to answer two specific questions about the law.
The justices wanted to know whether the measure prohibited the use of misoprostol to induce abortions, including its use with mifepristone, also called RU486, according to a protocol approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The nation's high court also wanted to know whether Oklahoma law prohibited the use of methotrextate to treat ectopic pregnancies. 
The state's high court said it did both.... 

I would like to bring to the debate The Robert's Court is corrupting the practice of physicians.

Contraception 1997 Dec;56(6):367-71 

Medical abortion with methotrexate 75 mg intramuscularly and vaginal misoprostol. (click here)

Creinin MD.

Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Magee-Womens Hospital, PA 15213-3180, USA. mcreinin@mail.magee.edu

Abstract

Methotrexate (50 mg/m2 intramuscularly and 50 mg orally) followed by vaginal misoprostol have proven to be > 90% effective at causing abortion in women at less than 49 days' gestation. Although the effectiveness of the oral dose (which has a lower serum bioavailability) demonstrates that a methotrexate dose of 50 mg/m2 may be more than necessary, an intramuscular regimen is more advantageous because it is less costly....

Mifepristone (click here)

...Early vacuum aspiration using a rigorous protocol (which includes magnification of aspirated material and indications for serum βhCG follow-up) may be used at gestations below 7 weeks, although data suggest that the failure rate is higher than for medical abortion....  

Misoprostol and Pregnancy (click here) 

Alisa B. Goldberg, M.D., Mara B. Greenberg, B.S., and Philip D. Darney, M.D.

N Engl J Med 2001; 344:38-47

January 4, 2001DOI: 10.1056/NEJM200101043440107

Misoprostol is a prostaglandin E₁ analogue that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be taken orally for the prevention and treatment of gastric ulcers associated with the use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. It has also become an important drug in obstetrical and gynecologic practice because of its uterotonic and cervical-ripening actions. Misoprostol is useful for elective medical abortion, cervical ripening before surgical abortion, evacuation of the uterus in cases of embryonic or fetal death, and induction of labor. The drug may also be used to treat and even prevent postpartum hemorrhage. However, misoprostol is . . .

It is discriminatory for any health insurance company to provide a SPECIAL designation regarding abortion coverage.

To begin, health insurers do not carry abortion coverage. Those words will not appear in any description of the procedure. The medical terms involved are as silly as abortion.

Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS)

Current Procedural Terminology (CPT)

Codes for Surgery: 10021-69990

• (10021 - 10022) general
• (10040 - 19499) integumentary system
• (20000 - 29999) musculoskeletal system
• (30000 - 32999) respiratory system
• (33010 - 37799) cardiovascular system
• (38100 - 38999) hemic & lymphatic systems
• (39000 - 39599) mediastinum & diaphragm
• (40490 - 49999) digestive system
• (50010 - 53899) urinary system
• (54000 - 55899) male genital system
• (55920 - 55980) reproductive system & intersex
• (56405 - 58999) female genital system
• (59000 - 59899) maternity care & delivery
• (60000 - 60699) endocrine system
• (61000 - 64999) nervous system
• (65091 - 68899) eye & ocular adnexa
• (69000 - 69979) auditory system

People need to read their policies and decide if they want it or not. The idea a policy is suppose to designate 'abortion' is a deceptive and victimizing practice. There is an involuntary abortion commonly known as a 'miscarriage.' There needs to be language in ANY health care policy that provides for those health problems. 

The other reason this is a discriminatory demand is that employers can look into the health care provided and know whether the woman has abortion coverage or not. That would impact her desirability as an employee in some instances. 

In addition, any religious organization has already been given an opportunity to object to such inclusions in their policies. The demand is discriminatory and out of the question. No one person knows what the future holds and quite frankly why would any person, religious or not rule out the genetic mistakes of DNA?

Not every genetic disorder of a fetus is Trisomy 21 with a hope of leading a reasonably normal life within the understanding the USA provides for disabilities. 

There are some very terrible genetic disorders in utero that should never see the light of day. There is a malformation within the genetic content of some discovered upon testing that shows the fetus to have O shaped disorders. The gene itself has taken on the shape of an O. These fetus need to be aborted by a surgeon. Those fetus will suffer mercilessly if they were to be born outside the uterus. Why do that? It is not necessarily the genetic content of the parents that cause these issues. 

While it is a good idea that potential parents with known genetic disorders within their family history should receive genetic counseling, it does not solve the problem. Pregnant women are exposed to the environment and where toxins exist in the air and water it effects the fetus. Additionally, virus and bacteria can become an issue should the mother be exposed. Virus can't be given a magic pill to make them disappear and why should a fetus have to carry this level of grievance because a radical extremism within the society wants to punish it's existence forever.

The decision to terminate a pregnancy has very valid reasons. No one uses abortion as a way of reproductive contraception. The decision lies with the woman with or without her partner/spouse. 

The idea a health care insurance company has to add to it's cost by instituting special designations due to hideous ideas of a society is outrageous! If a company wants to be SPECIALIST insurances to these nut cases they can pursue that venue, but, no doubt IT WILL COST!

W.Va. DEP investigates well site fire, 2 injured (click here)

Posted: Oct 29, 2013 6:36 AM EST  
Updated: Oct 29, 2013 7:44 AM EST

WEST UNION, W.Va. (AP) - State regulators are investigating a flash fire that injured two workers at an Antero Resources gas-drilling site in Doddridge County.
Media outlets report that the fire occurred Sunday morning at a well pad near West Union.
Antero Resources chief administrative officer Alvyn Schopp says there was a condensate leak as the workers were installing a new separator.
Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Tom Aluise says the vapors ignited, causing the flash fire.
Both workers suffered burns. Schopp says one worker remains hospitalized at West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh. The other was treated at a Clarksburg hospital and released.
The DEP is investigating the incident.
In July, two workers were killed and three others were injured in a fire at another Antero drilling site near New Milton in Doddridge County.

October 28, 2013 11:45 pm

By Lauren Donovan

It appears a tiny hole the size of the point of a pen (click here) in an underground saltwater disposal line caused some 150 barrels of the water to leach into the Blacktail Creek drainage on U.S. Forest Service and private land north of Belfield.
The well company Encore Energy is working round the clock, setting pumps into a deep, nearly inaccessible ravine to pump water from a beaver dam on the creek, said the company’s environmental coordinator, Bart Brinkerhoff.
It appears from early water samples that the salt infusion is relatively low. The state Health Department’s water quality director, Dennis Fewless, said that may be because less water reached the creek than initially thought.
The pipe leak was discovered Oct. 22 at a remote saltwater injection well site on the Little Missouri National Grasslands....

Governor Asks For Pipeline Safety Review  (click here)

Posted: Oct 29, 2013 10:47 PM EST  
Updated: Oct 29, 2013 10:47 PM EST 
 

Governor Jack Dalrymple has asked the federal government to review its oversight of pipeline safety.

In a phone conference with the administrator of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Dalrymple says he's worried that pipeline regulations fall short in protecting rural areas from spills.

He asked the administrator to look over the requirements for rural pipeline safety.

The governor also requested that the agency keep him abreast of the investigation into the Tesoro pipeline spill near Tioga - the largest pipeline spill in the state.

Dalrymple also contacted a vice president at Tesoro for an update on what the company is doing to improve safety along the pipeline that failed.
The Tesoro exec said the company has monitors along the entire pipeline north of Mandan, as well as shut-off valves on both sides of the Missouri River.

Associated Press in Bismarck 
theguardian.com, Wednesday 16 October 2013 11.08 EDT
 
...Scientists (click here) who helped measure oil spilled from a broken BP well into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 are questioning the methodology used to estimate the amount of crude that recently leaked from a ruptured pipeline into a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota.
Tesoro said it came up with its more than 20,000-barrel spill estimate using ground analysis. But oil spill experts say a more accurate assessment likely would come from calculating how much crude went into the pipeline versus what was supposed to come out at its terminus.
Farmer Steve Jensen discovered the North Dakota oil spill the size of seven football fields while harvesting wheat 29 September. Tesoro first estimated the spill at its underground pipeline near Tioga at 750 barrels. About a week later, the San Antonio, Texas-based company increased the estimate to 20,600 barrels, or some 865,000 gallons, making it one of the largest spills in North Dakota history.
Tesoro said in a statement to the Associated Press that it based its calculations on "data collected during our field investigation work. This investigation included a thorough examination of the site spill characteristics including factors such as surface area and depth of soil impacted, and soil porosity." The company would not elaborate....

Congresswoman Blackburn is completely wrong. Americans should not have the choice of a rock or a hard place when deciding about their healthcare.

Solo Cups are NOT a choice, it is entrapment into fraud and danger to lives. It is out of the question.

Good governance demands the choice Americans have to make insuring their well being, including policies implemented with agencies like OSHA, be wholesome choices. Currently, the healthcare insurance market undercuts the well being of Americans and at times even deceived them as to the coverage they could expect. There is no choice between Solo Cups and Crystal Stemware when it comes to keeping Americans healthy and alive. Every human being has the same physiology and there is no difference in protecting them from death and disease. We have Public Health Departments because a single policy can carry forward an important protection for all those within it's jurisdiction.

The opinion of Republicans such as Ms. Blackburn brings danger into the lives of Americans, including children. She is negligent of the public trust and the important work every elected representative is suppose to do. She is unworthy of the office she holds.

Why Ms. Tavernner you mean to tell me you don't have the accounting of the 313.9 million Americans yet?

It has been thirty days, you mean to tell me the 313.9 million Americans haven't jumped to attention and filed their health insurance needs? "Heil."

Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, apologized to Americans who had trouble using HealthCare.gov during her testimony at a hearing of the House Ways and Means committee Tuesday.

By Sarah Kliff and William Branigin,  
Published: October 29

The federal official (click here) who oversees new health-insurance exchanges apologized publicly Tuesday for the troubled launch of a Web site that is supposed to allow millions of uninsured Americans to buy coverage, but she said the problems are “fixable” and pledged that the site would soon work as promised.

Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said: “To the millions of Americans who’ve attempted to use HealthCare.gov to shop and enroll in health-care coverage, I want to apologize to you that the Web site has not worked as well as it should. We know how desperately you need affordable coverage.”...

Fine, don't do it again.

I'll tell you what the real problem is, Sebelius and her waivers. She is undermining the rollout of the program. By providing waivers for LOSER HEALTH CARE INSURANCE, she is postponing millions of Americans from joining the exchanges and effecting the outcome.

She should not have done it. She has postponed their free physical exams and preventive care for another year making the USA less healthy. She has prolonged the entire population within the exchanges to bring market pressures to determine premiums.

She has made a huge mess and it should have not occurred in the first place. There was plenty of time to tell all these LOSER HEALTH CARE INSURERS to get out of the way so people's lives can be protected. If one American is denied coverage next year for treatment that will save their lives, she needs to be held accountable.  

Tell it to the Supreme Court.

By Kathleen Hennessey and Christi Parsons

October 29, 2013, 5:46 p.m.

WASHINGTON — As the pitchman for his landmark healthcare law, (click here) President Obama promised to make buying insurance as easy as buying a plane ticket online or a "TV on Amazon." It would be simple, he said.
If there were problems, the president predicted, they would be "glitches."
And he said, "If you like the plan you have, you can keep it."

Such claims have come back to haunt the president and his allies less than a month into the launch of the online insurance marketplaces at the heart of his healthcare legislation. With the federal website hobbled by bad design and thousands of policyholders receiving cancellation notices, Obama's promises are not being met — prompting charges of deception from some Republicans and concessions from some allies that elements of the law were oversold....

This is NOT President Obama's Landmark legislation. The legislation was written in the House long before it finally made it to the floor. As much as President Obama would like to claim his fame to historic legislation to insure every American has healthcare, but, it is not his to claim. Quite frankly.

Haunt? Very cute. Happy Halloween to you, too.

The health insurance policies stated to be cancelled should have never existed in the first place, but, leave to Wall Street to read between the lines of any national and/or state law and write Non-Health health insurance. Basically, take people's money without providing services to the subscriber. Those policies are fraudulent. Insufficient health insurance is NOT insurance at all. "The Emperor's New Clothes."

President Obama in his willingness to believe the best of every American and every company in the USA paints broad statements about the ability to keep healthcare insurance if an American has it now. It is a statement about contracts that exist that people have that are actually real health insurance contracts. That is about 85% of the nation. The other 15% will have to give up the JUNK they have now and enter into contracts that are not fraudulent to their purpose.

The national media is sickening, they ride any band wagon the Republicans dream up which confuses the people, brings forth empathy for those complaining and demand change when it is inappropriate to satisfy their readership or viewership ratings to sell advertisement. I have a suggestion, why not sell health care insurance ads and finally tell the people the truth. That might work.

Nebraska scientists need to go forward with the study.

By JoANNE YOUNG 
Lincoln Journal Star

...But the request (click here) for information sent out by the Department of Agriculture on Monday defined cyclical climate change to mean "a change in the state of climate due to natural internal processes and only natural external forcings such as volcanic eruptions and solar variations."... 

I realize the study as written by the Department of Agriculture sounds meaningless, but, I never consider any study meaningless. The map to the left is the current drought map for Nebraska.

Basically, the study as set forth is a standard study, it puts forward a PREMISE. There is either enough information to validate the study or deny it, either way the study has to contain facts. I realize the hideous nature of the politics dictating an employee of the state to write the study in the words it has in order to keep their job, but, the study is a valid statement.

There is an element within the community of men and women that believe this is a cyclical event. It is not. Any self-respecting scientist knows this is a unique event on Earth. Every extinction event on Earth is unique. The timeline of the planet and the development of life on Earth puts forward a different dynamic with every extinction event. So, we know we are entering the six extinction and it is a unique event. So, unique that there was only one other warming event causing an extinction which wiped out 96 percent of all marine life.

But, to the study dictated by the Department of Agriculture in Nebraska, it REQUIRES competent and proven competent scientists with peer reviewed material to take hold of it and find the facts to either validate the premise or deny it. 

We already know the evidence to support this as a cyclical event, as if this will go away within a reasonable period of time, doesn't exist. There is nothing that points to the climate of Earth in the condition it is today. The climate events on a daily basis have never occurred all at once, but, usually only as an occasion as a phenomena we recognize. There is nothing recognizable to this climate. We can find names and characteristics for every diagnostic method and we relate to the events as phenomena, but, the occurrence and frequency is not at all what might be called normal. 

There are high levels of greenhouse gases in the troposphere, the water vapor is moving up in altitude, the storms more intense and the droughts profound. There is a lot of information across the state of Nebraska that are pieces to a global puzzle. It is there, but, scientists have to look for it. When looking for cyclical events the facts will disprove the premise and in that the reality of Nebraska's future. When the NULL HYPOTHESIS finds the premise wrong an alarm can go out to the people as to what everyone found and how important it is to act on the facts available. 

Nebraska scientists are important people, we all want to hear from you. Nebraska is an important state and we all worry about the future of the people and economy there. Nebraska scientists should go forward bravely with their studies and fear no one in what they find. The facts will prove the truth and that is what science is based in. Science is trustworthy and it's conclusions can be damning. I suggest the study proceed and let the truth to the null hypothesis go forward. Peers will not think less of any Nebraska scientist as long as the facts are true, the methods sound and the conclusions based in scientific assessment. We all trust them to do the job asked of them and report the findings in a peer reviewed journal. The study can't go wrong, it can only reflect truthful findings and I am confident the people of Nebraska would find disdain if the study was anything less than the truth. 

I'll write to peers tomorrow and reflect the distress the Nebraska scientists face and ask to advocate for a different and more open study, but, I wouldn't worry about conducting it. It will reveal the facts and a truthful conclusion. Cherry picking the facts is not allowed. That is not truthful methodology.

David Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, speaks at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. Rubenstein recently told the Associated Press that D.C is getting in the way of economic growth.

KEN SWEET

Oct. 28, 2013 2:41 PM EDT

...Q: What was your reaction (click here) to the 16-day government shutdown and the near breach of the nation's debt ceiling?

A: I am relieved that the shutdown and debt ceiling crisis are behind us. Hopefully something like this will not occur again. But I am disappointed, saddened and embarrassed for our country that our democracy did not work as the founding fathers had hoped.

Q: What should Congress tackle first — now that the debt ceiling and shutdown is resolved?

A: They should try to reassure the country — and the world — that the last few weeks were an aberration and not likely to be repeated early next year. Once that re-assurance occurs, focus on how to spur economic growth — while reducing economic disparity — (which) would be a great plus for everyone....

These are the political 
donations from Carlyle. 
(click here) 

I would fully expect Carlyle and other large firms to curtail their donations to those that have actively participated in the government shutdown. These firms are just as responsible for the shutdown and the brinkmanship over the debt ceiling as the Congresspersons were if they are going to continue to back those responsible. It is pure foolishness. These firms know the shutdown and brinkmanship has done damage to this economy. Why would they actively continue to back members of Congress acting this foolish for political pandering to extremist constituents. The country doesn't need it.

This drug combination is not going to work.

By Kim Palmer
20 hours ago

...She said the state will turn to a combination of the drugs midazolam and hydromorphone, for the November execution....

Versed (midazolam) is very short acting.

...Florida used midazolam along with two other drugs in an execution on October 15, but not with hydromorphone, he said.

According to the Food and Drug Administration database of drugs, Midazolam injections are marketed by a number of companies including Fresenius Kabi USA, a unit of the German drugmaker, and hydromorphone and midazolam are both marketed by Hospira Inc and Akorn....

How is it that Florida is getting away with this?

Hydromorphone is a synthetic morphine. None of these drugs even closely resembles or mimics pentobarbital. One of the uses of pentobarbital is to control seizures which would be important during an execution. 

Pentobarbital is in a group of drugs called barbiturates(click here) (bar-BIT-chur-ates). Pentobarbital slows the activity of your brain and nervous system.

Pentobarbital is used short-term to treat insomnia. Pentobarbital is also used as an emergency treatment for seizures, and to cause you to fall asleep for surgery.

Pentobarbital may also be used for other purposes not listed in this medication guide.

Neither midazolam or hydromorphone even come close to pentobarbital in chemical structure or effectiveness in sedation.

It is the long chain of hydrogen-carbon bonds which make pentobarbital effective. It avails more hydrogens for interaction with the body and there for highly effective in sedation and control of seizures and breathing. The other drugs do not have this capacity.

Hydromorphone has less availability of hydrogen atoms to accommodate body chemistry. The hydromorphone molecule only has eight hydrogen bonding sites while pentobarbital has seventeen. Structurally the hydrogen bonds cause bonding in many organic compounds which these drugs are, but, the less available hydrogen bonds the less reactive the chemical is. At this point I'd have to say there is not a known effectiveness in the sedation of hydromorphone in combination with midazolam to state this is not cruel and humane.

What the state of Ohio is trying to do is to sedate with midazolam quickly knowing it will wear off quickly (within minutes of administration) while they load enough hydromorphone to cause deep sedation. The real problem with hydromorphone with folks that are on death row is it a synthetic morphine which inmates may have a high tolerance.

In my opinion this is a failed strategy and desperate strategy that will be inconsistent with varied results in any death row population.

Midazolam has only four hydrogen binding sites which it is why it is so short acting. There simply isn't enough potency to cause death in a short period of time.

Pentobarbital is not a choice drug for any addiction due to it's lack of availability in any street drug market. The chances of an inmate having been exposed to enough of pentobarbital to become resistant to it's effects is very minimal if not impossible. It is not the kind of drug prescribed for average folks. It is used in some instance of seizure disorders in children, but, rarely in adults. Primarily because drugs such as dilantin are non-narcotic for this purpose.

The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy (TWCP) (click here) opened in September, 2008, offering compounded medications to patients in The Woodlands, Texas area.  We specialize in preparing customized medications based on your doctor's prescription to meet all patient specific needs.

This is the compounding pharmacy in Texas preparing ? a drug ? that is used for executions. I would demand knowing the process and the final chemical structure of the product used. I don't buy it that they should be operating in secrecy. If they have a special process then there is the US Patent Office protecting their rights to it. There is something odd about all this.

It appears to me there is a real efficacy issue in regard to executions using these drugs. Where is the guarantee they will work in the way intended and consistently. Besides that where is the LD50 testing and the FDA approval of these designer drugs?

No, this is not pictures from Superstorm Sandy, this is Great Britain now.

People watch as large waves crash against the walls of Brighton seafront, in southern England on October 27, 2013 as a predicted storm starts to build.

Britain was braced on October 27 for its worst storm in a decade, with heavy rain and winds of more than 80 miles (130 kilometres) an hour set to batter the south of the country.

A car bomb in China?

October 29, 2013 - 6:32PM
Philip Wen
China correspondent from Fairfax Media

Chinese police (click here) are investigating whether a fiery car crash which killed five people and injured dozens was linked with suspects from the country’s restive Xinjiang region, with mounting evidence pointing to a deliberate suicide attack.

Police issued a notice late on Monday ordering Beijing hotels to check their records for a 42-year-old and 25-year-old from Pishan and Shanshan counties in the far western province, in connection with an unspecified ‘‘major incident’’....

People watch from nearby Chang'an Avenue as smoke rises in front of the Tiananmen Gate on Monday. Photo: Reuters

An autonomous region of the Turkic people that extends into Europe.

In China there are 11,647,000 (0.8% of the total country pop.) Turkic people. Evidently, they don't identify themselves as Chinese.

There is this from the University of Michigan. (click here) In a generalized sense these people consider themselves "Turkistan." It is huge ethnic area.

The Question of Religious Fundamentalism in Asia (click here)

Really? 

These figures do not include resources devoted to overseas evangelical and missionary activities. I can't help but wonder what missionaries are involved here and why the disruption of their society in a hatred enough to spawn a car bomb attack.

 
It is a tribal area with many Muslim groups. Someone has them stirred up about something. If Christian Fundamentalists are involved they need them alone. But, there is a chance the Climate Crisis might be a challenge to them, too.

This is the danger when NGOs are based in religious fundamentalism. Rather than being a "Peace Corp" organization that upholds the culture of the people while teaching things like sanitary conditions and safe food handling and cooking, preserving, etc.; the NGOs exonerate themselves in bringing 'the word' along with the teaching. 

I would think there was an extremist Islamic influence, but, not this far east in China. I would expect the western region of this tribal area before the eastern region.

The academic writing focuses on Russian control, but, China has grown into a more military power in the region, so it makes sense. Something routed them out of their posture. It is some kind of fundamentalism, otherwise they would not be conducting suicide attacks. 

Madeline Albright is in China. That may have something to do with it, but, I'm not convinced of that.

2013-10-29
By Amy He in New York (China Daily USA)

...In her speech, (click here) Albright said that as in any other relationship, there have been and will continue to be "stress and challenges". She said that the economic imbalances between the countries and "tightening on the freedoms" of journalists and public advocates will impact the health of the two countries' relationship.

But, Albright said, "which ever way our leaders choose to respond to these concerns, their policy should be based not on emotions but reason, not on myth, but fact".

Albright stressed how important it is that the two countries overlook their differences to work together because China will need the US' help in order to grow: "I suspect that [Chinese leaders] realize that for the Chinese dream to materialize, they have no choice but to work closely with the United States," she said, "for our two societies are increasingly bound together."

Stephen Orlins, NCUSCR president and moderator of the discussion, asked Albright how Beijing can assume a role in global leadership without usurping America's role and creating any tension between the two countries....

It was multiple explosions in May.

Officials standing beside damaged cars at a government office after an explosion in Fuzhou city, in eastern China's Jiangxi province, on May 26. Three explosions including two car blasts struck government buildings, an official said, with state media reporting at least five people were injured. 

The AP reports from BEIJING: Explosions, some from car bombs, occurred within a half-hour outside three government buildings in a south China city Thursday, killing two people and wounding at least six others, officials said.

The attacks in May were first attributed to an unhappy peasant. I don't know if a peasant would have enough skill and/or monies to carry out such a plot, but, the accusations were later withdrawn.

...Extremely rare
Xinhua and several other news agencies said a local peasant unhappy about the handling of a legal dispute was thought to be responsible for the attacks, but such reports were later withdrawn by most state media. 

Local government officials were scheduled to hold a news conference but this was cancelled at the last-minute. 

Multiple bomb attacks in China are extremely rare, especially against government targets.

Analysts say the government will be alarmed by such an apparently well co-ordinated attack as it struggles with large numbers of disputes over land and living standards. 

Earlier this month, more than 40 people were injured in a petrol bomb attack on a bank, carried out by a disgruntled former employee, in north-west Gansu province....

Bomb attacks USED TO BE rare. 

The day after a Chinese man set off bombs (click here) in local government buildings and killed himself, Chinese internet users said they understand his frustration – and his actions. 

By Peter Ford, Staff writer / May 27, 2011 

...The flood of supportive comments online since his death is a sign of widespread public frustration at the government's disdain for ordinary citizens. Most of the comments have treated his action as righteous vengeance, rather than a terrorist attack.

“Qian was no Bin Laden, he was one of the weak,” said Li Chengpeng, one of China’s most popular and influential bloggers, in an interview. “He had no way to express himself nor defend his rights.”...

It could be a social revolution. The response to the May attacks was that of sympathy for the dead and their families along with a call for understanding of the people effected by urbanization. The "Square." The place people are finding as a place for demonstration and to demand change. 

It is my opinion the Chinese government has been mostly bureaucratic with state control of every aspect of it's economic growth. I am not convinced these bombings are related in social unrest, however, there are news reports of a growing social movement of unrest and unhappiness in China. That may or may not indicate the growth of violence so much as demand for change.

The West likes to tie the troubles into a neatly wrapped package, I don't believe it is that simple. The government structure is very loose. The national government is somewhat divorced from the local authorities. There is a law as of 1987 called, "The Organic Law on the Villagers Committees" (click here) that recognizes local authority of the people and does not assign a hierarchyy of authority answering to the national government. So, these actions by unhappy Chinese are profoundly worrisome. I believe they are. The national government sincerely doesn't have keep seated control and in fact may be more of a minority presence within the nation then they would like to admit.

One of the problems with large tribal regions within a country is the domination of that reality over a central government. It is most frequently noted in Pakistan. There is no sense of order at the local level except for the tribal councils or in the case of China, chairman. The local tribal authority views the national/central government as if another tribal authority rather than a 'federal' authority with more power than they. So, when car bombs occur it is most likely a local disagreement rather than that of an organized effort. 

That said, it doesn't mean it is a local power to be dismissed as a nuisance. A car bomb is a serious issue. That is planning with a lot of time to reflect before the incident occurs. There is something here and I am not sure China's national government has a handle on what is occurring in it's tribal areas or with the people displaced by urbanization. The one sure way of ending these hostilities before they become a larger problem both for the people and the government is to include citizens in the expansion of a civilized society. In other words, "Do people live more comfortable and healthy lives when urbanization occurs?" The citizens at the local level have to be included in the massive change occurring in China. 

China has been an established nation for millennia not just centuries. The people of China have very long 'life stories' to their ancestors rather than a history of growth and change. They lean to the side of tradition rather than newness. The young people of China can embrace a newness to the nation before the elderly. It is the young that will be the movers and shakers to the local people. They can excite the elders and their parents to a movement within China to take on new achievements. The young Chinese might be the bridge to change the national government is looking for to diminish hostilities harbored by peasants unwilling to see things differently.

I wish them all the best. I simply hate violence and this level of violence is painful to people. Mass killing is profound anger and hatred and that simply isn't good for a country attempting to become a world class government and global power. The ambitions of the national government have to be shared with the local citizens otherwise this could very well be the result, but, on a larger scale. Destruction of a country's infrastructure sets it back and causes more problems than it is worth. But, those unwilling to accept the future may want exactly that.