Experts explain that the administration appears to have overlooked several crucial details
Stephan: Here is some important health news for women of child bearing years linking autism and genital herpes.
Citation: Milada Mahic, Siri Mjaaland, Hege Marie Bøvelstad, Nina Gunnes, Ezra Susser, Michaeline Bresnahan, Anne-Siri Øyen, Bruce Levin, Xiaoyu Che, Deborah Hirtz, Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud, Synnve Schjølberg, Christine Roth, Per Magnus, Camilla Stoltenberg, Pål Surén, Mady Hornig, W. Ian Lipkin. Maternal Immunoreactivity to Herpes Simplex Virus 2 and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Male Offspring. Nature, February 2017 DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00016-17
Women actively infected with genital herpes during early pregnancy had twice the odds of giving birth to a child later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a study by scientists at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
The study is the first to provide immunological evidence on the role of gestational infection in autism, reporting an association between maternal anti-herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) antibodies and risk for ASD in offspring. Results appear in mSphere, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
“We believe the mother’s immune response to HSV-2 could be disrupting fetal central nervous system development, raising risk for autism,” says lead author Milada Mahic, a post-doctoral research scientist with the Center for Infection and Immunity and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
The authors do not believe that the risk is due to direct infection of the fetus because such infections are typically fatal. Instead, they suggest that neurodevelopmental outcomes are due to primary or reactivation of infection in […]
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Stephan: In the miasma of lies and general weirdness that attends and suffuses the Trump administration it is difficult to discern the important tropes and not be distracted from the metaphorical shiny objects. Here is an example.
The Koch brothers have been trying to change the substance of university education by bankrolling professors who are willing to prostitute themselves for funding. Now we are seeing a next step on the part of Republicans: pass laws that only allow certain individuals who espouse the Fascist worldview of the Republican party to be hired at state universities. Wake up America.
Republican State Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa
Credit: AP/Charlie Neibergall
A Republican state senator in Iowa has proposed legislation that would impose an ideological litmus test on hires at state universities to bring “partisan balance” to higher education. Professors and others seeking employment at Iowa state universities would have their party affiliation disclosed on a job application.
Authored by Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa, the bill would prevent a university from hiring a person whose political party affiliation “on the date of hire” would cause “the percentage of faculty belonging to one political party exceed by 10 percent of the percentage of faculty belonging to the other political party.” Iowa’s secretary of state would be required to provide voter registration lists to the colleges so that administrations could identify and tally the number of Democratic and Republican voters on staff. Those who do not identify with a party can avoid the litmus test.
“I’m under the understanding that right now they can hire people because of diversity,” Chelgren said. “They want to have people of different thinking, different processes, different […]
Stephan: Welcome to Fascism, America. Before you disembark may I see your papers, please.
My flight from SFO to JFK. We were told we couldn’t disembark without showing our “documents.
Credit: Anne Garrett
Passengers of a domestic Delta flight from San Francisco to New York were told to show their identity documents to uniformed agents of the Customs and Border Protection agency upon their arrival at John F. Kennedy airport on Wednesday evening.
CBP officers are border agents, whose statutory authority is generally limited to international arrivals.
CBP agents inspected passenger identifications on the jetbridge by the door of the aircraft. A CBP spokesman insisted to Rolling Stone that this action is “nothing new” and that there is “no new policy.” But the unusual – and legally questionable – search of domestic travelers comes days after the Department of Homeland Security outlined its plans to implement President Trump’s sweeping executive order targeting millions of “removable aliens” for deportation.
Stephan: One of the secondary effects of Trump's ascendancy has been the perceived permission it has given for Fascists at the state level to act out. Voter suppression and gerrymandering being well-known examples. To that I want to add this one.
Claiming people are being paid to riot, Republican state senators voted Wednesday to give police new power to arrest anyone who is involved in a peaceful demonstration that may turn bad — even before anything actually happened.
SB1142 expands the state’s racketeering laws, now aimed at organized crime, to also include rioting. And it redefines what constitutes rioting to include actions that result in damage to the property of others.
But the real heart of the legislation is what Democrats say is the guilt by association — and giving the government the right to criminally prosecute and seize the assets of everyone who planned a protest and everyone who participated. And what’s worse, said Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, is that the person who may have broken a window, triggering the claim there was a riot, might actually not be a member of the group but someone from the other side.
Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Phoenix, acknowledged that sometimes what’s planned as a peaceful demonstration can go south.
“When people want to express themselves as a group during a time […]
Stephan: I haven't visited Alabama in several years now but I follow its social outcome data and it seems to be becoming a kind of plantation society again. The corruption is so vast, and nowhere made clearer than the saga of Republican Governor Robert -- I love to hold your breasts -- Bentley. To remind: When Sessions was appointed Attorney General, his senate seat came open and within Bentley's gift. Who did he appoint?
According to CNN: "
Strange's appointment could serve as a reset button for Bentley, who has been under an impeachment investigation by lawmakers in relation to an alleged affair with former aide Rebekah Mason. Some legislators have called on the governor to resign; he has refused.
The affair came to light after Bentley's wife of 50 years filed for divorce in September 2015.
The impeachment probe by the Alabama House Judiciary Committee came to a halt in November, after Strange asked that his office be able to take over "related work." State Auditor Jim Zeigler, a Republican, said Bentley's appointment of Strange under these circumstances "stinks."
This is corruption taken to the level of farce. Here is the latest. 
Republican Governor Robert Bentley
Gov. Robert Bentley thought he had solved his problems. But he may have made them worse.
At least two state representatives – who throughout the whole Bentley scandal over the last year have been judicious and slow to cast stones- have had enough and are ready to act.
Reps. Corey Harbison and Randall Shedd, both Republicans from Cullman County, say the time for tolerance is gone. They will begin today to try to introduce an impeachment resolution on the House floor, a move – difficult though it may be — to bypass the inactive impeachment committee and send the issue directly to the Senate for trial of the governor.
“Something has to give,” Harbison said. “Public trust toward all of us is at an all-time low. We have to get some answers.”
“I just don’t believe the state can stand another two years of this,” Shedd said. “It’s very disturbing.”
The resolution, similar but expanded from one introduced last year, cites ethics charges against the governor. It says he misused state […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
