Stephan: As a result of the ongoing drought, there is going to be a major shake-out in California's agriculture. I don't think almonds for instance are going to be sustainable. And one thing is sure: as this report describes there is going to be an enormous financial impact.
TRANQUILLITY, CA – APRIL 19: A no trespassing sign stands over cracked ground in an unplanted field on April 19, 2009 near Tranquility, California. Central Valley farmers and farm workers are suffering through the third year of the worsening California drought with extreme water shortages and job losses.
Credit: The Huffington Post
California’s drought isn’t just turning green lawns brown or #droughtshaming into a trending topic. It’s taking a multi-billion dollar toll on the state’s agricultural industry as well.
The University of California, Davis is out with a new report, and some of the numbers are steep. The study found that in 2015 alone, the drought will cost the state’s farmers industry $2.7 billion dollars and more than 18,000 jobs, with 564,000 […]
1 Comment
Robert Langreth and Cynthia Koons, - The Durango Herald
Stephan: Remember the story I ran a few days ago about the Cuban cancer drug they give away it is so cheap, which now may become available in the U.S.? I speculated on what it might cost, and exaggerated for effect. In truth though I underestimated.
Anyone who has ever filled a prescription outside of the U.S. knows that pharmaceuticals in the U.S. cost many times what they cost elsewhere in the world. It is just one of the ways the Illness Profit System strips unreasonable amounts of money out of the pockets of sick people. But I doubt any of us, who have not actually dealt with these drug costs really comprehends
Now a leading physician at one of the most prestigious medical centers in the country has had enough. This is what Leonard Saltz of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has to say. It is not a pretty picture and the sums involved are jaw-dropping.
This is why Obamacare while helpful really did little or nothing to address the fundamental issue: Why doesn't America have a universal healthcare system whose principle focus is wellness as a national priority?
Leonard Slatz, MD — Chief, Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Credit: www.mskcc.org
As the one-year cost of cancer drugs edges up to $200,000 per patient, (emphasis added) a top doctor from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center used his speech before a massive gathering of colleagues to call for limits on the cost of cancer therapies.
“These drugs cost too much,” gastrointestinal oncologist Leonard Saltz said in an unusual speech Sunday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.
“We need to first accept that there has to be some upper limit as to what we as a society are going to be willing to spend on a patient, and we have to be willing to engage in that discussion,” Saltz told Bloomberg in an interview from the meeting in Chicago. “It’s a very uncomfortable discussion. We should be willing to have it. Because we’re not having the conversation, only the people selling the drugs are weighing in on what they should cost.”
1 Comment
Travis Gettys, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Here is what looks like some very good news. I took care of a severely handicapped brother who had many afflictions, several of which would be addressed by this research, so I know very personally would this research breakthrough would mean.
Brain and central nervous system
Credit: Shutterstock
Researchers have discovered tiny vessels connecting the brain to the immune system – which could profoundly alter the treatment of autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.
The team at the University of Virginia School of Medicine found the brain – like every other tissue – is connected to the immune system through lymphatic vessels, although these had never been detected despite a thorough mapping of the body.
“I really did not believe there are structures in the body that we are not aware of. I thought the body was mapped,” said Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroscience professor and director of the university’s Center for Brain Immunology and Glia. “I thought that these discoveries ended somewhere around the middle of the last century — but apparently they have not.”
The vessels are “well hidden” along a major blood vessel that travels down into the sinuses, the researchers said, and were discovered only after devising a new way to examine the membrane covering […]
No Comments
Angelique Chrisafis, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: I have done several stories on the astonishing waste and destruction of useable food in the U.S., and there have been at least three television documentaries on the subject. The response has been pretty pathetic, indeed the Congress has cut the food stamp program. The problem seems to be that well, giving away free food reduces profits, and everyone knows profit is the only priority.
In France they have now taken a different tack. It will be very interesting to see the social outcome changes that result from this new policy. We know what happens the way we do it. Elderly people eat dog food, and 17 million children experience food stress and insecurity as to whether they will get to eat or not.
According to official estimates, the average French person throws out 20kg-30kg of food a year – 7kg of which is still in its wrapping.
Credit: Christopher Thomond/the Guardian
PARIS — French supermarkets will be banned from throwing away or destroying unsold food and must instead donate it to charities or for animal feed, under a law set to crack down on food waste.
The French national assembly voted unanimously to pass the legislation as France battles an epidemic of wasted food that has highlighted the divide between giant food firms and people who are struggling to eat.
World leaders urged to tackle food waste to save billions and cut emissions
As MPs united in a rare cross-party consensus, the centre-right deputy Yves Jégo told parliament: “There’s an absolute urgency – charities are desperate for food. The most moving part of this law is that it opens us up to others […]
No Comments
Judd Legum, Editor - Think Progress
Stephan: The impeachment of Bill Clinton is now far enough in the past that we can see it with the clarity rendered by historical perspective. Many of us lived through these events but, if you are like me, as you read them now you will find the cynicism, the moral and ethical bankruptcy of the leaders of the Republican Congress almost breathtakingly corrupt. It is clear now that for these Republican leaders this exercise was nothing but a political lynching, carried out by men who cared nothing for governing responsibly.
On December 19, 1998, the House of Representatives impeached Bill Clinton on two charges related to his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky. (The charges were for perjury and obstruction of justice.) The historic vote, and subsequent trial in the Senate, involved the work of three men who were elected Speaker of the House Of Representatives by the Republican majority, Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston and Dennis Hastert.
Almost 17 years later, with the federal indictment of Hastert for illegally concealing up to $3.5 million in hush-money, we finally have a more complete understanding of the men who led this effort.
Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich in 1998
Credit: AP
Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) led the push for Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Following a disappointing election in November 1998, he announced he was stepping down as Speaker and resigning from Congress.
Gingrich later admitted that, while he was pushing for Clinton’s impeachment, he was
engaged in an affair with a Congressional aide. “There were times when I was praying and when I […]
No Comments
