Friday, September 27th, 2019
Matthew Chapman, - Raw Story
Stephan: You just can't make it up. This is the Republican reality.
This week, Virginia State Police announced that a grand jury has indicted nearly over a dozen public officials in an alleged $21 million embezzlement scheme — including the entire Warren County Board of Supervisors.
The officials charged include Tony Carter, Tom Sayre, Archie Fox, Linda Glavis, and Chairman Daniel Murray. All five officials are Republicans.
Also charged were County Executive Douglas Stanley, former Warren schools Superintendent Luke Drescher, former County Attorney Daniel Whitten, and former County Supervisor Ron Llewellyn.
Prosecutors allege that former economic development authority director Jennifer McDonald, who has also been indicted on 28 counts, stole $21 million from her agency, diverted it into bank accounts controlled by herself, her friends, and her family, and falsified invoices to make the outlays appear legitimate — and that other county government officials were aware of the scheme.
Llewellyn has denied any involvement and insists the county investigated the matter as quickly as it could, but activists contend that McDonald could not have moved the money without inside help from county officials.
Warren County, in the Shenandoah Valley, is part of […]
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Thursday, September 26th, 2019
Martin Makary MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University - MedPageToday
Stephan: The Illness Profit Industry defined. If you are an American you really don't know what good healthcare without economic stress is about.
How did medicine transform from a charitable profession to one that has put one in five Americans into collections for medical debt? How is it that hospitals are scientifically advanced centers of academic genius, but can’t even tell you what anything will cost? And how did the noble profession of healing lose control of its billing processes, allowing some hospitals to sue and garnish the wages of thousands of the people in the small town they serve? (emphasis added)
The growing money games of healthcare today are threatening the public trust in the medical profession. I’m reminded of that public trust every day I walk through the historic front door of my hospital, where all who enter are greeted by a 9-foot statue of Jesus standing with arms wide open, and the words, “Come to me all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” engraved at His feet.
American hospitals were built with a mission to be a safe haven for the sick and injured. Most of these hospitals were sustained by charity and committed to great values of equality. In 1873, […]
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Thursday, September 26th, 2019
Mujib Mashal, - The New York Times
Stephan: We have been in Afghanistan for almost two decades, have spent a trillion dollars on war there rather than rebuilding our aging infrastructure or providing proper childcare or education. And what do we have to show for it? Here's the answer.
Afghan National Army soldiers in a military exercise at a base in Guzara district in Herat province.
Credit: Hoshang Hashimi/Agence France-Presse/Getty
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Afghan security forces and their American-led international allies have killed more civilians so far this year than the Taliban have, the United Nations said in a report on Tuesday, once again raising alarm that ordinary Afghans are bearing the brunt of an increasingly deadly 18-year war.
In the first six months of the year, the conflict killed nearly 1,400 civilians and wounded about 2,400 more. Afghan forces and their allies caused 52 percent of the civilian deaths compared with 39 percent attributable to militants — mostly the Taliban, but also the Islamic State. The figures do not total 100 percent because responsibility for some deaths could not be definitively established.
The higher civilian death toll caused by Afghan and American forces comes from their greater reliance on airstrikes, which are particularly deadly for civilians. The United Nations said airstrikes […]
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Thursday, September 26th, 2019
Gaia Vince, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: A billion and a half people depend on the Himalayan hydrology and it is collapsing. That collapse is going to change the course of human civilization.
The Mingyong glacier at the foot of Khawa Karpo.
Credit: Tao Images Limited/Alamy
Many moons ago in Tibet, the Second Buddha transformed a fierce nyen (a malevolent mountain demon) into a neri (the holiest protective warrior god) called Khawa Karpo, who took up residence in the sacred mountain bearing his name. Khawa Karpo is the tallest of the Meili mountain range, piercing the sky at 6,740 metres (22,112ft) above sea level. Local Tibetan communities believe that conquering Khawa Karpo is an act of sacrilege and would cause the deity to abandon his mountain home. Nevertheless, there have been several failed attempts by outsiders – the best known by an international team of 17, all of whom died in an avalanche during their ascent on 3 January 1991. After much local petitioning, in 2001 Beijing passed a law banning mountaineering there.
However, Khawa Karpo continues to be affronted more insidiously. Over the past two decades, the Mingyong glacier at the foot of the mountain has dramatically receded. Villagers blame disrespectful human […]
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Thursday, September 26th, 2019
Karen Charman, - truthout
Stephan: Nuclear power is, and always has been, a disaster waiting to happen. We are going to be dealing with its lethal waste for generations.
Nuclear reactors are highly vulnerable to radioactive meltdowns in an era of rising climate disasters.
Creedit: Dedmityay/Getty
Imagine this scenario: You are driving home from work one evening, and you notice a strange metallic taste in your mouth. That night on the evening news, you hear there’s been an accident at the nuclear plant in your community, but that everything is under control.
The next day, the metallic taste is stronger, and you see a rust-colored ring around the bathtub when you drain it. Public announcements continue to say everything is OK. Your eight-month-old daughter has been playing outside much of those two days.
The following day, the governor announces that pregnant women and women with preschool children within five miles of the plant should evacuate. You flee in terror with your daughter, husband and a friend, driving more than 250 miles to a town south and east on the coast. Before you go, you notice a strange thick, heavy, slightly glowing orange haze around the nuclear plant and over the area.
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