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US military confirms its first case of monkeypox

The Pentagon on Friday confirmed its first known case of monkeypox in the U.S. military. 

An active-duty service member based in Germany recently tested positive for the virus, a spokesperson for the Defense Department confirmed to The Hill.  

NBC News, which first reported the case, was told that the unidentified individual was seen and treated at the Stuttgart Army Health clinic and is now in isolation in their quarters on-base. 

U.S. European Command spokesman Navy Capt. William Speaks told NBC that public health officials have found that the risk to the overall population is “very low,” as the case is part of the West African strain, a generally mild version with limited human-to-human transmission. 

He added that contact tracing is being done for clinic staff who saw the patient “as a precautionary measure.” 

As of this week, monkeypox has been found in 15 states and Washington, D.C., just weeks after it was first detected in the U.S., though the total number of cases has so far been less than 50, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

The CDC has stressed that the virus — spread through prolonged skin to skin contact or through contaminated fabric like clothing or bed sheets — is not a high risk to the public.  

Belonging to the family of viruses that includes smallpox, monkeypox lasts from two to four weeks, and an infected person can see painful rashes and lesions. The person is no longer contagious once the lesions heal.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Labor board denies Amazon request to make hearings over union private

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has denied a request by Amazon to close off public access to a hearing on the validity of a union’s historic win at a Staten Island warehouse.

The e-commerce giant, which is petitioning to overturn the Amazon Labor Union’s win, was seeking to restrict who could view the hearing, which is starting Monday and is being held on Zoom.

An NLRB officer denied the request in a filing Thursday, noting that the agency’s “hearings are not secret.”

“Accordingly, preventing the public from viewing its important processes is not an option,” Cornele Overstreet, the regional director overseeing the hearing, wrote. 

“That this case has garnered national and international attention from outside parties only further solidifies the importance of allowing public observation, as employees and members of the public can be better informed of the purposes and policies of the Act,” he added.

The Washington Post first reported on the board’s decision in this case.

Amazon had argued in a filing Tuesday that allowing the public to view the hearing could interfere with witness testimony.

Because of the interest in the case, it will be “virtually impossible to ensure the proper sequestration of witnesses … unless access is limited,” Amazon claimed.

Overstreet’s decision Thursday noted that third party observers will have to have their audio and video turned off during the hearing, diminishing the risk of interference. Anyone who does disrupt the hearing will be removed or sanctioned.

Source: TEST FEED1

Preserving Medicare and Social Security will require bipartisan effort

Last week, the Biden administration finally released the 2022 Trustees Reports for Social Security and Medicare. These annual reports to Congress — which detail the fiscal status of the Social Security Old-Age and Disability Insurance programs and Medicare Parts A, B, and D — highlighted the trusts funds for Social Security retirees and Medicare Part A are running out of money. While this year’s reports moved back insolvency dates for Medicare’s hospital fund and Social Security’s retirement fund to 2028 and 2035, respectively, we shouldn’t use an additional year or two of solvency as an excuse to delay action. Medicare and Social Security are complex, trillion-dollar programs that require bipartisan action to ensure they continue providing benefits to America’s seniors.

There are roughly 69.1 million Social Security beneficiaries in the United States and roughly 64.4 million enrollees in Medicare. These Americans — many of them our most vulnerable neighbors — rely on these programs, and it’s important we do everything we can to ensure the federal government makes good on its promise to provide these benefits.

The federal government spends money in two ways: mandatory spending happens automatically, and discretionary spending must be approved by Congress and the president — requiring debate about how much and where money is spent by government agencies. Social Security and Medicare are both mandatory programs, meaning these programs can spend their trust funds down to zero. Currently certain Social Security and Medicare programs are on track to do so. Failure to address each program in a bipartisan fashion will have real consequences for seniors.

If Congress fails to act before the Social Security Trust Fund reaches zero — meaning the Treasury must rely only on income payroll taxes to pay benefits — seniors will see their benefits automatically cut by nearly 25 percent. For a single retiree who receives a $1,600 monthly check, the national average, a 25 percent cut would reduce their payment to $1,200. For many who rely only on Social Security, this reduction of benefits would drag them dangerously close to the poverty line, even before factoring in inflation. While the benefits paid by Social Security are based on a beneficiary’s lifetime earnings, both programs pay current benefits from the incoming payroll taxes of current workers, meaning a 50-year-old who retires at age 67 in 2037 will have paid their full share of payroll taxes their entire working career, but will only receive partial benefits from Day One.

Although less tangible initially, allowing Medicare’s Part A Trust Fund to run out of money could also endanger seniors’ access to care by reducing payments to hospitals. These reduced payments would likely happen in one of two forms — either Medicare would only pay the percentage of each bill it had enough money to fund, forcing providers and hospitals to write off the rest, or it would only pay bills as funds became available — meaning a pile of unpaid bills would continue stacking up for Medicare, further endangering the program. Hospitals and doctors are not required to see Medicare patients, and many would be forced to stop accepting patients with health plans that don’t pay their bills.

Unfortunately, Democrats and the Biden administration are unwilling to take the impending threat to seniors seriously. The Biden administration continues to ignore a statutory requirement for the president to submit Medicare reform legislation to Congress when more than 45 percent of Medicare hospital spending is projected to come from general revenue, not its trust fund, within seven years. In a recent Ways and Means Committee hearing, I asked Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra if the Biden administration planned to meet this requirement — he said no.

Let me be clear: we must address Social Security and Medicare solvency in a bipartisan way. Both programs were created with bipartisan support, and no serious reform of the program has been enacted without both parties working together. No one is talking about eliminating Social Security or Medicare. We must, however, come to the table with serious solutions to ensure the federal government keeps its commitment to current and future beneficiaries. If we put partisanship aside and do the hard work now, we have options. The longer we wait, the fewer options we will have.

Smith represents Nebraska’s 3rd District and is a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Source: TEST FEED1

Combination of common chemicals may be curbing sperm count: study

A combination of everyday chemicals found in people’s bodies may be associated with a worldwide plunge in male fertility, a new study has found.

Sperm counts have dropped by more than a half in the past 40 years — a circumstance that the study’s authors attributed to “daily exposure to a mix of hormone-disrupting chemicals,” meaning those that increase or decrease the body’s hormonal activity.

This blend of common chemicals — found in items such as milk cartons, canned tuna, receipts and acetaminophen — have a “cocktail effect way more dangerous than any single substances,” according to the scientists, who published their findings in Environment International on Friday.

The toxicologists involved in the study, based at British and Danish institutions, analyzed levels of mixtures of chemicals such as bisphenols, dioxins, phthalates and paracetamol in the urine of 98 Danish men ages 18 to 30, according to the study.

They found that every single man tested had concentrations that were higher than those considered safe, with some up to 100 times higher than safe levels.

And because important steps in male sexual development begins during the mother’s pregnancy, the authors warned in a statement that “developing babies are most at risk.”

Studies exploring the connection between male infertility and chemical exposures have up until now focused predominantly on phthalates — compounds added to plastics to increase their flexibility.

But the authors behind this latest research concluded that bisphenols, polychlorinated dioxins and acetaminophen have a greater impact on infertility.

Bisphenols are compounds also used in the manufacturing of plastics, with bisphenol A (BPA) the most common in the group.

“Most of the chemicals we considered together reach us via food,” Andreas Kortenkamp, a professor at Brunel University London, said in a statement.

“A lot of bisphenol A intake is via milk,” he added. “The linings of milk cartons and canned food, for example the tomato tins, leach BPA into the product.”

Polychlorinated dioxins, often referred to simply as dioxins, can occur naturally but are predominantly found in waste incineration, metal smelting and other industrial processes.

Acetaminophen, called paracetamol in Europe, is an over-the-counter analgesic used to treat pain and fever, known by common brand names such as Tylenol and Panadol.

“Some of the chemicals we looked at only stay in the body for a few hours, but because exposure is continuous, the internal concentrations are always topped up,” Kortenkamp said.

This process, he explained, applies to several different bisphenols, phthalates and acetaminophen.

“When they meet in the body, they each exert their toxicity, so the effect adds up,” Kortenkamp added.

While France specifically bans BPA from coming into contact with food, the researchers stressed the importance of extending this ban to apply to all bisphenols in all countries.

Aside from government action and individual efforts to be “careful with paracetamol,” Kortemkamp warned that “people can do relatively little to reduce exposures.”

“The problem can only be tackled through better policy,” he added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Ohio bill would require genital exams for student athletes if sex is questioned

CLEVELAND (WJW) — An Ohio bill would require high school students whose birth-assigned sex is disputed or questioned to undergo a physician’s examination of their genitals in order to play sports.

During a remote press call Thursday, Democratic state representatives and several health experts expressed their opposition to House Bill 151, saying it targets transgender youth specifically but could also impact all high school athletes.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled Ohio House last week.

“We stand to protect all children from child sexual abuse … as state-sanctioned child sexual abuse, which we believe this particular piece of legislation is,” said Democrat Representative Jessica Miranda.

Eliana Turan, a board member at the LGBTQ Community Center of Greater Cleveland, said the bill was not based on any data and called it dangerous and scary for all Ohio youth.

“Unfortunately, Ohio has elected officials who are fomenting and recycling a lot of harmful narratives that are coming from hate groups and other anti-LGBTQ lobbies,” said Turan.

Under the bill, if an athlete’s birth-assigned sex is disputed, they would be required to establish their sex by presenting a signed doctor’s statement indicating sex based on an internal and external reproductive anatomy exam, testosterone levels, and analysis of the child’s “genetic makeup.”

State Representative Beth Liston called the bill part of an extremist agenda.

“According to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, there is one child who is playing high school sports in Ohio that is a transgender student,” said Rep. Liston. “However, this bill is harming every child in Ohio, and I want to make sure everyone is aware of that.”

The bill states participants deprived of athletic opportunity or “suffers direct or indirect harm” as a result of a violation can sue for damages against the school, school district or interscholastic conference or organization.

“These are not normal exams,” said OhioHealth OB/GYN Dr. Anita Somani. “You don’t prove gender by doing a blood test or by doing a physical exam.”

Akron-based CANAPI, an LGBTQ resources organization, called the bill a “tragic example of both a denial and loss of human rights” in a statement.

“This bill is not based on any scientific or empirical evidence, it is based on bigotry and hatred,” said Rebecca Callahan, the organization’s executive director.

“With social media and everything else, now you’re putting institutional bullying on top of it,” said Turan. “I think that if this bill were to come to fruition, and I pray it won’t, I fear that we’re going to have a lot of young people who are going to carry the trauma of this for generations.”

Nationally, at least 18 states have enacted laws banning or limiting transgender athlete participation in sports, The New York Times reports. Earlier this week, Louisiana’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act became law, despite opposition and lack of signature by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards. The act requires K-12 schools to assign sports teams based on biological sex assigned at birth.

States that ban transgender athletes from playing on teams corresponding with their gender identities are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

Several other actions unrelated to sports are also happening nationwide. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott previously directed the state’s Department of Family and Protect Services to investigate parents who help their kids get gender-affirming care. In March, Florida passed its House Bill 1557, referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which not only prevents teachers from discussing LGBTQ+ issues in classrooms, but allows parents/guardians to sue teachers and/or schools who discuss these topics.

It’s important to note the difference between “sex” and “gender,” which are generally not intended to be used interchangeably. As the research-based nonprofit The Conversation explains, “sex” typically refers to bodily organs or attributes assigned at birth that are used to “refer to a binary of being either female or male.” On the other hand, “gender” is how sexes are typically thought of (social roles and behaviors) — gender is ideas, rather than something physical. A person’s “gender identity,” meanwhile, refers to how an individual expresses (pronouns, style of dress, etc.) their own gender, regardless of societal ideas of how they should express it.

A trans person also does not need to undergo surgery to consider themselves transgender, Johns Hopkins Medicine explains. Many transgender people either can’t afford expensive affirming surgeries, or else, don’t feel it’s something they need.

Source: TEST FEED1

Starbucks might restrict public access to bathrooms, CEO suggests

(NEXSTAR) – Starbucks might be taking its bathrooms private again.

The coffee chain, which opened its café bathrooms to the non-purchasing public after a high-profile incident in 2018, could soon be walking back its restroom policy in order to maintain a “safe environment” for patrons and staff, CEO Howard Schultz said.

Schultz hinted at the policy change Thursday, in an interview at The New York Times’ DealBook D.C. policy forum.

“There is an issue of just safety in our stores, in terms of people coming in, who use our stores as a public bathroom, and we have to provide a … safe environment for our people and our customers,” Schultz said during a conversation with The Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Schultz broached the topic during a discussion regarding mental health, which he claimed to be the “No. 1 issues” that Starbucks is dealing with “as a company.”

“[The] mental health crisis in this country is severe, acute and getting worse,” Schultz said.

When asked by Ross Sorkin how the company plans to “deal” with the issue, Schultz responded by saying Starbucks needs to train its employees and “harden” its stores.

“I don’t know if we can keep our bathrooms open,” he said.

Starbucks had previously announced its open-bathroom policy in the wake of a 2018 incident at a Philadelphia location, where two Black men were arrested while waiting to meet with a business acquaintance in the store. One of the men had previously asked to use the restroom but was denied, the Associated Press reported at the time.

Starbucks previously had no fixed policy on bathroom access, Schultz said in the wake of the arrests, and decisions were ultimately up to individual stores.

After the incident, Schultz himself said Starbucks bathrooms would be open to all, as would the café areas, regardless of whether someone makes a purchase or not.

“We don’t want to become a public bathroom,” said Schultz, “but we’re going to make the right decision a hundred percent of the time and give people the key.”

Starbucks also included the directive in its “third place” policy, which aimed to position its cafes as welcoming spaces for the public, so long as visitors use the spaces lawfully and respectfully.

On Thursday, however, Schultz appeared to express uncertainty that Starbucks would be able to provide safe spaces for the public, especially during what he feels is a worsening mental-health crisis in the country.

“Again, Starbucks is trying to solve a problem and face a problem that is the government’s responsibility,” Schultz said. “And when I think about the issues that we, our business is facing and the challenge that our people are facing, almost every, every question you ask is a question about what the government’s responsibility is, and what I realize more and more, the government is no longer gonna solve any of these problems.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Military-style weapons get the star treatment in Hollywood

Now that serious discussions are underway in Congress about how to reduce gun violence, it is time to consider a factor that is often ignored: Hollywood’s glorification of military-style firearms.

Our team of researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania has documented the increasing use of firearms since the late 1980s — including military-style weapons — in movies and television shows available without restriction to children, namely, those with PG-13 and TV-14 ratings. These shows particularly glorify the use of firearms for virtuous purposes, like defending one’s friends and family. Think, for example, of Liam Neeson in the Taken franchise, protecting his wife and daughter.

Our research has also shown that when parents see these movies and shows depicting firearms this way, they are more willing to allow their children to watch them. By implication, children and adolescents are likely to learn that using these high-powered weapons is both acceptable and expected if one feels threatened.

The role of entertainment media in promoting harmful behavior in adolescents has been demonstrated previously — notably with cigarettes. Concerns about the potential promotion of cigarettes in movies led the states to develop a strategy to prohibit the use of product placements for cigarettes in entertainment media. Known as the Master Settlement Agreement, this 1998 agreement between the states and the tobacco industry, along with public pressure, curtailed the display of cigarettes in movies and on television.

Nothing like this has occurred with firearms. On the contrary, the use of guns in popular entertainment keeps increasing. While the industry’s ability to promote its products in ads in mainstream media is limited — you won’t see ads for firearms on broadcast television — that has not stopped the industry from using other types of promotion. 

The gun industry has long used its marketing power to place its weapons, especially military-style weapons, in movies.

And while the use of guns in movies doesn’t explicitly tell viewers to buy guns, the use of dramas to promote products is a well-known strategy that can be as successful as regular advertisements.

A 2016 analysis by the Economist magazine showed that commercially identifiable firearms are heavily displayed in movies. And the company that manufactures the Glock handgun, which is a military-style weapon, won a lifetime achievement award for product placement in 2010 from a brand-marketing organization. It is no surprise therefore that handguns are the most frequent firearm used for violence in the United States.

Critics argue that this evidence is not persuasive because homicide rates have declined since peaking in the 1990s. What this critique ignores is that the use of firearms as means of harming others has steadily increased since that time, especially among young people, who are more likely to die from firearms assaults than older people. Injuries from firearms are now the leading cause of death among the young from ages 1 to 24, even more than vehicle crashes.

The symbolic power of military-style firearms has now migrated to the political world. It is now common to see political candidates showing off their love of AR-15 rifles in campaign ads. They even have their children proudly holding these weapons — as Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) did with her family last year at Christmastime. 

The ability of screen media to influence behavior has a long history, starting with the studies done by psychologist Albert Bandura in the 1960s. His work showed that children will imitate violent behavior when it is seen on screen as much as when it is seen in person, a form of imitation called social learning. More recent research co-authored by Brad Bushman of the Ohio State University has shown that children ages 8 to 12 will be more likely to pick up and shoot a real (but disabled) gun after they have watched a movie or played a video game that involved guns than if they watched a movie or played a game without guns.

Although critics might say that the effects of violent media are weak or nonexistent, the media can be an enormously influential teacher of behavior, even if acting on that learning only becomes apparent under the right circumstances. For young people, those circumstances are all too prevalent as we see in the high rates of homicide and even suicide committed with firearms in youth.  

It is high time we looked to Hollywood’s love of guns and insist that it take more responsibility for its promotion of military-style firearms.

Dan Romer is research director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Source: TEST FEED1

Worms hungry for plastic may transform recycling

As more countries and corporations launch campaigns to tackle plastic waste in the natural environment, researchers remain in lockstep aiming to address the problem on both a macro and micro scale. 

Now, after conducting experiments with so-called “superworms,” a team of investigators at the University of Queensland in Australia discovered the common Zophobas morio have a unique appetite for plastic, and may even transform recycling. 

This is thanks to a bacterial enzyme in the worms’ gut capable of digesting polystyrene and styrene. 

Based on the findings, researchers hope to one day engineer the enzyme for large-scale production and degrade waste in recycling plants. 

Polystyrene, a form of plastic used to create everything from styrofoam to appliances, is one of the main contributors to microplastic waste, as it does not biodegrade and merely breaks into smaller pieces (microplastics) when discarded.

Microplastics are a main target for environmental and conservation groups because of their detrimental effects on the natural world and human health. 

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Researchers discovered the worms’ capabilities after feeding them different diets of polystyrene foam or bran over the course of 3 weeks. Other worms were put on a fasting diet. 

Those put on a diet solely consisting of polystyrene had marginal weight gains compared with the fasting worms, suggesting “the worms can derive energy from the polystyrene, most likely with the help of their gut microbes,” said Dr Chris Rinke of the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland in a statement.

Likening the worms to “mini recycling plants,” Dr Rinke explained how the organisms shred the polystyrene with their mouths, then feed it to their gut bacteria. 

“The breakdown products from this reaction can then be used by other microbes to create high-value compounds such as bioplastics,” he added.

The team is working to grow the bacteria in a lab environment to identify which enzyme is most effective at degrading polystyrene and better understand how the process can be upscaled. 
Past research has explored the role of fungi and bacteria in breaking down plastic waste but innovations like these may be difficult to implement on a wide scale due to the cheap production costs of new plastic, experts warned.

Source: TEST FEED1

Uvalde school police chief says he didn't think he was officer in charge during shooting

Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo said in an interview on Thursday that he did not consider himself to be the on-scene incident commander during the shooting at Robb Elementary School.

In an interview with the Texas Tribune — his first since 19 students and two teachers were killed in the shooting — Arredondo said he did not give any commands that police should not attempt to breach the building.

“I didn’t issue any orders,” Arredondo said. “I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door.”

Texas Department of Public Safety officials, however, have said that Arredondo made the “wrong decision” to wait to confront the gunman, contradicting his claims.

Police have since come under intense criticism for waiting to engage the shooter and enter the classroom where he barricaded himself.

Officials have also changed the timeline of events from the incident multiple times in the following weeks, contributing to mounting anger.

“From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision,” Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety said. “It was the wrong decision. Period. There’s no excuse for that.”

Arredondo, who is at the center of the controversy, said that he knowingly left his radio behind when he arrived at the shooting. Experts have said that a communications breakdown complicated the police response to the shooting.

The Texas Tribune report added that Arredondo believed that the radios would slow him down at a time in which he believed he was the first officer at the scene to respond.

The police chief was also oblivious to the 911 calls and the ongoing response via officials and agencies at the site as a result of his lack of radio equipment.

Arredondo told the Tribune that he tried to open the door using keys and later used his cellphone to call for tactical gear, a sniper and keys to get inside the classroom from the hallway of the school.

He added that he kept trying to gain entry to the school using the dozens of keys brought to him, but was unsuccessful.

“Each time I tried a key I was just praying,” he told the Tribune.

The New York Times reported Thursday that an investigation is ongoing in order to ascertain if those who died could have been saved if they had received medical attention sooner.

Since the May 24 shootings, videos have surfaced of parents urging police officers to go to the school and police stopping parents from charging in themselves. 

“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” said Javier Cazares, the father of a fourth-grader who died during the shooting.

Source: TEST FEED1