The poor economy is taking a toll even on the dead, with an increasing number of bodies in Los Angeles County going unclaimed by families who cannot afford to bury or cremate their loved ones. At the county coroner’s office — which handles homicides and other suspicious deaths — 36% more cremations were done at taxpayers’ expense in the last fiscal year over the previous year, from 525 to 712. The county morgue, which is responsible for the indigent and others who go unclaimed, saw a 25% increase in cremations in the first half of this year over the same period a year ago, rising to 680 from 545. The demands on the county crematorium have been so high that earlier this year, officials there stopped accepting bodies from the coroner. The coroner’s office since has contracted with two private crematories for $135,000 to handle the overflow. ‘It’s a pretty dramatic increase,’ said Lt. David Smith, a coroner’s investigator. ‘The families just tell us flat-out they don’t have the money to do a funeral.’ FOR THE RECORD: An article in Tuesday’s Section A about the increasing number of unclaimed bodies in Los Angeles County, as more […]
WASHINGTON — Massive crop devastation, melting glaciers, water shortages, millions of displaced people — all of these will drag the US military into conflict if global climate change goes unchecked, a Senate panel was warned today. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, convened by Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, focused on what so far has received only modest attention in the climate change debate: the effect it is bound to have on national defense. ‘Addressing the consequences of changes in the Earth’s climate is not simply about saving polar bears or preserving the beauty of mountain glaciers,’ retired Navy Vice Adm. Lee F. Gunn, president of the American Security Project, told the panel. ‘Climate change is a threat to our national security.’ Gunn and other military specialists said that climate change could have broad effects on how the US military operates. It will likely expand the number of humanitarian missions the Pentagon will have to undertake, they said, and even change how it deploys its fighting forces. For example, they warned that rising sea levels could swamp critical US military bases in the Indian Ocean and even the headquarters of the Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, […]
The flow of immigrants from Mexico to the United States has declined sharply since mid-decade, but there is no evidence of an increase during this period in the number of Mexican-born migrants returning home from the U.S., according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of government data from both countries. The Mexican-born population in the U.S., which had been growing earlier in the decade, was 11.5 million in early 2009. That figure is not significantly different from the 11.6 million Mexican immigrants in 2008 or the 11.2 million in 2007. The current recession has had a harsh impact on employment of Latino immigrants, raising the question of whether an increased number of Mexican-born residents are choosing to return home. This new Hispanic Center analysis finds no support for that hypothesis in government data from the United States or Mexico. Mexico is by far the leading country of origin for U.S. immigrants, accounting for a third (32%) of all foreign-born residents and two-thirds (66%) of Hispanic immigrants. The U.S. is the destination for nearly all people who leave Mexico, and about one-in-ten people born there currently lives in the U.S. Patterns of migration between […]
The Times’ June 12 expose about the California Board of Registered Nursing oversimplifies the issue. The so-called problem with nurses is really just another aspect of the shortcomings in the overall healthcare system. I have been a nurse for more than 30 years. Although I don’t work in clinical settings now, I’m in them regularly — at nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and acute-care hospitals. I am not excusing the horrible mistakes made by nurses who gave multiple doses of the same medications or did not properly inform physicians of the medications they were providing, per the physicians’ orders. There are standards of practice for dealing with the administration of medications, which all nurses and physicians should follow to the letter. But the problem is far more complex. First, the Board of Registered Nursing had staffing problems. Until last week, three of its nine positions were vacant (the governor filled two of those vacancies). In addition, prior to last week, three of the board’s members were not practicing nurses. I am glad to see that since The Times published its story on July 12, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed to the board nurses from several fields. I hope the […]
LONDON — Some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies are reaping billions of dollars in extra revenue amid global concern about the spread of swine flu. Analysts expect to see a boost in sales from GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Sanofi-Aventis when the companies report first-half earnings lifted by government contracts for flu vaccines and antiviral medicines. The fresh sales – on top of strong results from Novartis of Switzerland and Baxter of the US, which both also produce vaccines – come as the latest tallies show that more than 740 people have died from the H1N1 virus, and millions have been affected around the world. GlaxoSmithKline of the UK confirmed it had sold 150m doses of a pandemic flu vaccine – equivalent to its normal sales of seasonal flu vaccine – to countries including the UK, the US, France and Belgium, and was gearing up to boost production. GSK also produces Relenza, an antiviral medicine that reduces the length and severity of the infection, and is preparing to increase manufacturing towards 60m annual doses. The UK placed an order for 10m treatments this year. One beneficiary of the fears about the pandemic has been Roche of […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
