Wisconsin veterans groups are sharply criticizing a move by lawmakers to curtail and strip disabled veterans of property tax credit benefits.
The state provides a refundable income tax credit for the property taxes paid on principal dwellings by veterans who are 100% disabled and their surviving spouses. Spouses of veterans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan also receive the credit if they don’t remarry.
Last week the Joint Finance Committee voted to limit the amount of property taxes to be reimbursed to $2,500 a year. The committee also created a means test phase-out, so that if the income of 100% disabled veterans exceeds a certain amount, they will be dropped from the property tax credit program. This also would apply to their surviving spouses and spouses of Wisconsin service members killed in action.
Disabled American Veterans state legislative director Al Labelle called the committee’s action appalling.
“Apparently some committee members feel the sacrifices made by severely wounded, injured and ill veterans are just another budget item,” Labelle said.
Mike “Gunner” Furgal, a Marine who served in Vietnam, doesn’t qualify for the benefit, but he knows veterans who do, including an Afghan veteran suffering from a traumatic brain injury. The committee’s action will be a big topic at this week’s state VFW convention in Green Bay.
“I think it’s a shame when we have a budget surplus that they’re balancing the budget on the back of veterans,” said Furgal, legislative chairman for the Wisconsin VFW. “That’s really a slap in the face of veterans.”
In the fiscal year that ends June 30, the cost to the state for the property tax credit is $17.7 million. The program began as part of the 2005-’07 state budget.
Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) pointed out that there are plenty of veterans programs, ranging from job training to education benefits, in the next biennial state budget. Lawmakers decided to put a $2,500 cap on the disabled veteran property tax credit and limit eligibility based on income, Kooyenga said, to make it more fair.
“Does it make sense to have a credit that could apply to a millionaire? You could have a million-dollar house but 100% of your property taxes would be paid by the state,” said Kooyenga, a CPA and Army Reservist who served in Iraq.
Things are heating up in Baraboo, Wisconsin as a long awaited food rights trial approaches.
Raw milk drinkers are outraged that Wisconsin DATCP is bringing criminal charges against a farmer who serves a private buying club. Do citizens have a right to contract with a producer and grow food to their own standards? That is what is at stake in this case. – Kimberly Hartke, Publicist Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
Customers and Other Supporters to Attend Court with Farmer
Food rights activists from around North America will meet at the Sauk County Courthouse in this tiny town on May 20 to support Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger and food sovereignty. Hershberger, whose trial begins that day, is charged with four criminal misdemeanors that could land this husband and father in county jail for up to 30 months with fines of over $10,000…
The Wisconsin Department of Agricultural Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) targeted Hershberger for supplying a private buying club with fresh milk and other farm products.
DATCP has charged Hershberger with, among other things, operating a retail food establishment without a license. Hershberger repeatedly rejects this, citing that he provides foods only to paid members in a private buying club and is not subject to state food regulations.
Hershberger says:
There is more at stake here than just a farmer and his few customers — this is about the fundamental right of farmers and consumers to engage in peaceful, private, mutually consenting agreements for food, without additional oversight.
An explosion created a 15-foot hole around a manhole cover that exploded Sunday night near the Pfister Hotel. Officials from We Energies were trying to figure out the cause of the explosion. About 550 customers were still without power late Sunday night. Deputy Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said firefighters were dispatched to a manhole near the intersection of Mason and Milwaukee streets around 5:25 p.m. because smoke was seeping from the cover. Firefighters discovered thick black smoke and flames inside the manhole. As firefighters began moving pedestrians from the scene, another manhole about 175 feet away, near the intersection of Jefferson and Mason streets, blew up. “It obliterated the asphalt,” Lipski said in an interview at the scene at 7:30 p.m. Asphalt chunks littered the street where pavement was heaved up like it had been punched from underneath. There have been no evacuations but diners at a restaurant were moved to the back of the facility. We Energies spokeswoman Cathy Schulze said steam, electrical and gas lines run underground throughout downtown. “We’re looking at an underground electrical cable that experienced a fault. As to what caused the fault I can’t speculate,” Schulze said.
Luke McHenry, left, his son, Sebastian Wells, dig out their snow-buried vehicle as residents in Madison, Wis. contend with a severe winter storm that moved through the upper Midwest Thursday, December 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Wisconsin State Journal, John Hart) Photo: (AP Photo/Wisconsin State Journal, John Hart)
The first widespread snowstorm of the season crawled across the Midwest on Thursday, with whiteout conditions stranding holiday travelers and sending drivers sliding over slick roads – including into a fatal 25-vehicle pileup in Iowa. The storm, which dumped a foot of snow in parts of Iowa and Wisconsin, was part of a system that began in the Rockies earlier in the week before trekking into the Midwest. It was expected to move across the Great Lakes overnight before moving into Canada. The storm led airlines to cancel about 1,000 flights ahead of the Christmas holiday – relatively few compared to past big storms, though the number was climbing. In Iowa, drivers were blinded by blowing snow and didn’t see vehicles that had slowed or stopped on Interstate 35 about 60 miles north of Des Moines, state police said. A chain reaction of crashes involving semitrailers and passenger cars closed down a section of the highway. Officials said two people were killed and seven injured.
‘He saved MY life… I just want to help him in return’: Owner of sick dog whose picture touched the nation’s hearts reveals how loyal companion stopped him from suicide
John Unger adopted Schoep from a Wisconsin animal shelter 19 years ago with ex-fiancée
After their break-up, Mr Unger contemplated suicide but Schoep brought him back from the brink
‘I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have Schoep with me,’ Mr Unger said
Two weeks ago, Schoep’s arthritis got so bad the veterinarian said it might be the end
Friend Hannah Stonehouse Hudson snapped what might have been a final portrait of the pair
Thanks to the donations of strangers, Schoep has more time with his best friend
PUBLISHED: 20:06 GMT, 10 August 2012 | UPDATED: 18:17 GMT, 11 August 2012
The man pictured lulling his arthritic dog to sleep in Lake Superior has revealed that his dog Schoep saved him from the brink of suicide.
John Unger, 49, adopted the dog with his ex-fiancée 19 years ago, but after the relationship ended, Mr Unger fought a desperate despair.
The companionship of his trusty rescue dog gave Mr Unger the courage to go on, saying : ‘I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have Schoep with me. I just want to do whatever I can for this dog.’
The water soothes the animal’s pain, Mr Unger said, allowing him to sleep.
Mr Unger’s good friend Hannah Stonehouse Hudson, who is a professional photographer, captured the heartbreaking moment between the man and his aging rescue dog in Wisconsin when Mr Unger thought his best friend was at the end of his life.
But thanks to the generosity of strangers, the MailOnline can reveal that thousands of dollars have been donated to Schoep’s medical care, allowing the pair more time together than they ever imagined.
True love: John Unger, 49, lulls his 19-year-old dog Schoep to sleep because it helps ease the dog’s arthritis
‘Schoep falls asleep every night when he is carried into the lake. The buoyancy of the water soothes his arthritic bones. Lake Superior is very warm right now, so the temp of the water is perfect,’ the photographer explained.
The story behind the special relationship behind this man, who works as a caretaker on a farm outside of Bayfield, and his dog is just as touching as the moment on the Lake.
Mr Unger, 49, adopted Schoep, who is named after a famous brand of Wisconsin ice cream, when he was just a puppy and it was love at first sight.
He and his ex-fiancée had been searching for a rescue dog for a year, going to dozens of humane societies.
‘We wanted every single dog,’ Mr Unger said to the MailOnline. ‘We just hadn’t found the right one.’
His then-fiancée they spotted the pup at the Ozaukee Animal Shelter 19 years ago.
‘We fell in love with her immediately,’ Mr Unger told the MailOnline.
Schoep was in a cage with another dog, possibly his mother, crouched in the back quietly staring at the corner with his back to Mr Unger.
‘I knew – that’s him,’ Mr Unger said.
Couple: John Unger, 49, adopted the dog with his ex-fiancée 19 years ago, but after the relationship ended, Mr Unger fought a desperate despair
Saved: The companionship of his trusty rescue dog gave Mr Unger the courage to go on, saying : ‘I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have Schoep with me. I just want to do whatever I can for this dog’
Together: Thanks to the generosity of strangers, the MailOnline can reveal that thousands of dollars have been donated to Schoep’s medical care, allowing the pair more time together than they ever imagined
At the time Schoep was named Tramp by the shelter staff and showed signs of abuse.
‘He didn’t even know what toys were,’ Mr Unger said. ‘I really wanted this dog because I wanted him to enjoy life.’
The couple worked hard to establish the trust of the dog and eventually brought out its ‘full potential’.
Though Mr Unger’s relationship with Schoep has clearly stood the test of time, the relationship with his fiancée did not, and when the woman moved to Colorado over a decade ago, he retained custody of the dog.
Capturing the moment: Hannah Stonehouse Hudson is friends with Mr Unger and spent hours capturing the perfect shot though she says it came naturally and was not posed
Lucky that he did, considering he told the Deluth News Tribune that one night, while in the depths of depression in the wake of the breakup, Mr Unger contemplated suicide.
‘To be honest with you, I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have Schoep with me (that night). He just snapped me out of it. I don’t know how to explain it. He just snapped me out of it. … I just want to do whatever I can for this dog because he basically saved my ass,’ he said.
Now that Schoep is in pain with his arthritis, it is Mr Unger’s time to return the favor.
‘In this photo, people have said they see everything from pure love to hope for the world. They see peace, kindness, the relationship between man and dog,’ Ms Stonehouse Hudson told The Pioneer Press.
‘Two women, both whose husbands died from cancer, said they never thought they’d see love again, but this photo showed them love.
‘People are leaving me messages, crying and opening up about dogs they’ve lost, spouses they’ve lost.’
Mr Unger told the MailOnline that the photograph was four years in the making, as Ms Hudson and Mr Unger couldn’t find the time for a portrait session.
But recently, Mr Unger got some devastating news.
‘To be honest with you, I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have Schoep with me.’
John Unger
‘About two weeks ago I took Schoep in for a check up because he was limping,’ Mr Unger said.
The doctor recommend pain medication, but said that it may be temporary or not help at all.
Then, Mr Unger said, the doctor told him, ‘ “If there isn’t any improvement, we should probably…” a good vet wont say “put him down,” but he said at that point I may start to want to think about it.’
Faced with the possibility of losing his best friend, he called up Ms Hudson for an impromptu session.
She met the pair at sunset on Lake Superior, because Schoep’s cataracts prevent him from seeing in sunlight.
Compassion: Mr Unger adopted Schoep, who is named after a famous brand of Wisconsin ice cream, when he was just a puppy, and now that the dog has developed arthritis, he has trouble getting to sleep
‘She couldn’t believe he fell asleep in my arms,’ Mr Unger said.
Ms Hudson watched the man and his dog float around the lake for maybe five minutes before Schoep began to get cold and shake.
Mr Unger said he had to take him out of the water to let him warm up and was worried she hadn’t had the chance to snap an image.
AT FIRST SIGHT: JOHN AND SCHOEP
John Unger, 49, adopted Schoep, who is named after a famous brand of Wisconsin ice cream, when he was just a puppy and it was love at first sight.
He and his ex-fiancée had been searching for a rescue dog for a year, going to dozens of humane societies.
‘We wanted every single dog,’ Mr Unger said to the MailOnline. ‘We just hadn’t found the right one.’
His then-fiancée they spotted the pup at the Ozaukee Animal Shelter 19 years ago.
‘We fell in love with her immediately,’ Mr Unger told the MailOnline.
Schoep was in a cage with another dog, possibly his mother, crouched in the back quietly staring at the corner with his back to Mr Unger.
‘I knew – that’s him,’ Mr Unger said.
At the time Schoep was named Tramp by the shelter staff and showed signs of abuse.
‘He didn’t even know what toys were,’ Mr Unger said. ‘I really wanted this dog because I wanted him to enjoy life.’
The couple worked hard to establish the trust of the dog and eventually brought out its ‘full potential’.
‘I didn’t think she even took one picture,’ he said. ‘But then she told me she got what she wanted.’
Mr Unger doesn’t know how his ex-fiancée feels about the image going viral, or that it might be time to say goodbye to Schoep, but he is hoping that his love for Schoep might open the door to more romance.
‘Women are also asking me if John is single!’ Ms Hudson said.
The ladies are in luck because not only is Mr Unger single, but he is looking for a relationship.
‘Boy, is it tough to meet women up here,’ he told The Deluth News Tribune.
‘So this might open up a new road.’
Mr Unger, who does not have a cell phone, said that while he got his first computer in February and is still confused by the internet, he has begun to explore online dating.
The most exciting thing to come out of the photograph, however, is the generous donations that people who have been touched by the photograph have been offering.
‘A woman from Virginia basically paid for the latest laser therapy on his joints,’ he said to MSNBC. ‘She paid for a full treatment, and I don’t know how much it is, but I know I couldn’t have done that.’
He wept as he described how much strangers’ kindness has helped him and his best friend.
‘People from all over are doing this. I can’t believe it. So much has come in already in donations that I don’t have to worry about anything at the vet anymore.’
He said that Schoep has already had two treatments and will get his third this afternoon.
‘I have seen improvements in Schoep’s ability to walk,’ he told the MailOnline. ‘He’s walking faster. He’s holding his head higher.’
Healing: Since the funds came gushing in, the clinic was able to treat Schoep with joint laser treatments, which reduce pain and swelling while healing the animal’s limbs
All Better: Schoep will need these treatments every few weeks ‘forever,’ the vet said, but he should be able to spend his golden years pain-free
A spokeswoman from the clinic told the MailOnline that 19 people have made considerable donations to Schoep, amounting to nearly two thousand dollars in funds to help pay for his treatment.
Schoep’s veterinarian, Erik Haukaas, said he was ‘overwhelmed’ by the generosity of strangers.
‘John is a great guy but he doesn’t have a whole lot of money. He does the best can to care for the dog,’ Dr Haukass told the MailOnline.
He said that before the donations, all Mr Unger could afford was basic pain medication for his dog.
‘He’s failing. He’s slowing down. Most dogs don’t live near this long,’ he said.
‘And then the picture came out and everyone wants to help.’
‘Schoep is doing very well. I don’t think John has to worry about Schoep for quite a while.’
Veterinarian Erik Haukass
Since the funds came gushing in, the clinic was able to treat Schoep with joint laser treatments, which reduce pain and swelling while healing the animal’s limbs.
Each session costs $200.
‘It’s like putting oil on a rusty joint,’ he explained.
Schoep will need these treatments every few weeks ‘forever,’ the vet said, but he should be able to spend his golden years pain-free.
‘Schoep is doing very well. I don’t think John has to worry about Schoep for quite a while,’ he said.
People interested in helping can call the Bay Area Animal Hospital at 715-682-8865 with a credit card number or mail a check to 3601 E Hwy 2 Ashland, WI 54806.
All donations go right into Schoep’s account at the clinic.
As we wait for more information about the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak linked to cantaloupes grown in Indiana, let’s look back at the outbreaks caused by this fruit in the 19 months. In 2011 and 2012, there have been three outbreaks of foodborne illness linked to cantaloupe.
This fruit is more likely to be contaminated because the thick webbed skin provides lots of places for bacteria to hide, and because the fruit lies directly on the ground while it is growing. Animals, contaminated irrigation water, improper handling, and unsanitary conditions on the farm and in packing sheds can contaminate the fruit. In fact, according to the FDA, from 1996 to 2008, there were 10 nationwide outbreaks linked to melons that caused 507 illnesses and two deaths.
In the spring of 2011, 20 people were infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Panama. Three people were hospitalized; no deaths were reported. The patients lived in Arizona (1), California (2), Colorado (1), Maryland (1), Montana (1), Nevada (1), Oregon (6), Pennsylvania (1), Utah (1) and Washington (5). Product traceback information found that the cantaloupes came from a single farm in Guatemala.
In the summer of 2011, 146 people were sickened by the outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes after eating cantaloupes grown and processed at Jensen Farms in Colorado. At least 30 people died in this outbreak, and one woman suffered a miscarriage. The case patients lived in these states: Alabama (1), Arkansas (1), California (4), Colorado (40), Idaho (2), Illinois (4), Indiana (3), Iowa (1), Kansas (11), Louisiana (2), Maryland (1), Missouri (7), Montana (1), Nebraska (6), Nevada (1), New Mexico (15), New York (2), North Dakota (2), Oklahoma (12), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (1), South Dakota (1), Texas (18), Utah (1), Virginia (1), West Virginia (1), Wisconsin (2), and Wyoming (4). The people who died lived in these states: Colorado (8), Indiana (1), Kansas (3), Louisiana (2), Maryland (1), Missouri (3), Nebraska (1), New Mexico (5), New York (2), Oklahoma (1), Texas (2), and Wyoming (1).
Even though Jensen Farms passed the audit conducted by a third-party auditor, the facility had ”several major deficiencies”. The melons were not pre-cooled, the water used to wash the melons was not chlorinated, and processing equipment was designed to wash potatoes, which are cooked before eating. Anyone who intends to assert a claim against Jensen farms must file by September 14, 2012, according to the United States Bankruptcy Court.
The current outbreak is caused by Salmonella Typhimurium, and is linked to cantaloupes grown in southwestern Indiana. The CDC has formally announced the outbreak, which has sickened at least 141 people in 20 states. At least 31 people are hospitalized; 2 people in Kentucky have died.
The government has not yet named the farm that grew and processed and melons, and has not named grocery stores and other facilities which have sold the fruit. The case patients live in these states: Alabama (7), Arkansas (3), California (2), Georgia (1), Illinois (17), Indiana (13), Iowa (7), Kentucky (50), Michigan (6), Minnesota (3), Missouri (9), Mississippi (2), New Jersey (1), North Carolina (3), Ohio (3), Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina (3), Tennessee (6), Texas (1), and Wisconsin (2).
Fred Pritzker, national food safety attorney, has called on the FDA to issue mandatory industry guidelines for melon growers and to enforce them with audits. ”How many more people have to get sick and die before this hazard is addressed?” he asks. “We need more than non-binding safety recommendations for cantaloupe growing, handling, processing, and distribution.” We’ll keep you informed as more information becomes available.
Six elderly women and a 4-year-old girl were killed earlier this month when a cabbage they consumed was contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. More than 100 were sickened in the Hokkaido area outbreak.
The Japan Times said it was the worst food poisoning outbreak to be experienced on island nation in a decade.
The women who died were residents of nursing homes in Sapporo and Ebetsu that served the bad cabbages. The girl died Aug 11, also in Sapporo. All who were sickened and died apparently ate a lightly pickled Chinese cabbage produced by a local company.
One of the elderly women ate the pickled product at her nursing home on Aug. 1 and died Aug. 18 from multiple organ failure after nine days in the hospital.
The young girl from Sapporo died five days after developing E. coli symptoms. Her family bought the pickled cabbage at a local supermarket.
Health officials told the newspaper they do not know how the bacteria got mixed with the pickled cabbage.
In 2002, Japan saw the deaths of nine people with E. coli infections from eating marinade chicken at a hospital and its nursing home annex at Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is continuing to investigate Central Valley Meat in Hanford, California after undercover video showed culled dairy cows being abused at the plant, but the agency said late Tuesday that there is no evidence that sick or lame cows were slaughtered for human consumption.
Late last week, animal rights group Compassion Over Killing gave USDA an extended version of a video they say was shot by one of their investigators who worked at the plant. After reviewing the footage, USDA determined that, while there is evidence of “egregious” humane handling violations, there is no evidence that lame animals were entering the food supply.
So-called “downer” cattle, those unable to stand or walk, are not legally allowed to be slaughtered for human consumption, in part because of the risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection service said it was conducting a “thorough investigation that encompasses food safety and will respond appropriately to its results.”
In April, the USDA confirmed that a downer dairy cow sent to a rendering plant, not a slaughter facility, tested positive for BSE. Downer cattle can be rendered into pet food or poultry feed, but are not allowed to be used in ruminant feed or human food to reduce the risk of BSE transmission.
“Our top priority is to ensure the safety of the food Americans feed their families,” said Al Almanza, Administrator of FSIS. “We have reviewed the video and determined that, while some of the footage provided shows unacceptable treatment of cattle, it does not show anything that would compromise food safety. Therefore, we have not substantiated a food safety violation at this time. We are aggressively continuing to investigate the allegations.”
As recently as 2009, Central Valley Meat was one of the top three suppliers of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program, but USDA did not respond to questions Tuesday about whether Central Valley Meat is still supplying the National School Lunch Program or about how much meat the company may be selling to federal nutrition programs annually.
ABC News reported that the company currently holds a $3.8 million, two-month contract with the government.
The graphic excerpt of the undercover video posted online, which was reviewed by Food Safety News, shows cows before slaughter covered in dirt and feces, some of them writhing on the ground and bleeding on themselves after being bolted repeatedly, but not rendered senseless. Several cows are shown projectile vomiting, presumably from stress, while being hit repeatedly with the bolt gun.
One cow is shown being suffocated by a worker who stands on the animal’s snout. Some cows seem to survive the bolt gun and get sent down the assembly line still thrashing as they are strung upside down before being bled out. Another clip shows cows being sprayed with hot water and electrically prodded to move them.
Generally speaking, public health veterinarians are charged with observing all animals headed to slaughter — both in motion and at rest — to declare them fit for human consumption. But, as former undersecretary for food safety Richard Raymond explained to Food Safety News, “That does not mean they are out in the pens 24/7.”
While many have questioned whether the FSIS inspectors on site were doing their jobs appropriately, Raymond said it’s likely that the inspectors and the public health veterinarian on hand were doing their jobs, but perhaps were not monitoring the pens where the alleged abuse took place.
Some companies, including Cargill, are now employing around-the-clock video monitoring to ensure that there is no mistreatment of animals, especially after the 2008 scandal involving Hallmark/Westland, which was also a major supplier of the National School Lunch Program. Undercover footage shot by the Humane Society of the United States showed non-ambulatory cows being grossly mistreated, sparking outrage among consumers and animal welfare advocates. The footage prompted the largest ever meat recall in history — 143 million pounds of ground beef — after most of it was eaten.
“It’s unfortunate when something like this happens,” said Raymond, who was undersecretary during the Hallmark/Westland incident. “You would think that this particular segment of the industry would have learned their lesson from Hallmark/Westland, but they apparently haven’t. It’s bad for industry, it’s bad for agriculture, and I don’t feel bad for Central Valley Meat. I didn’t feel bad for Hallmark/Westland. It’s their responsibility to ensure these violations do not happen.”
Like Hallmark/Westland, Central Valley Meat primarily slaughters dairy cows that are no longer productive. According to Raymond, these cows have a tendency to go down because they are 10 to 12 years old, quite old compared to the 30 month old steers raised for beef production.
“They’re not in the best of the health.. and sometimes they have some mastitis,” said Raymond.
Central Valley Meat Co. responded Monday by saying that it was cooperating fully with the USDA investigation.
“At Central Valley Meat Co., ensuring that the livestock we process are treated humanely is critically important,” said Brian Coelho, president of the company, in a statement. “Our company seeks not just to meet federal humane handling regulations, but to exceed them.”
Coelho said he was “extremely disturbed” to be told by USDA of the allegations, but could not comment directly on what was in the video because it had not yet been shared with his company.
James Andrews contributed reporting to this piece.
The California Department of Public Health is warning the public to not eat some 7th Heaven Gourmet spreads because they may have been improperly produced. That means that, as canned products, they may be susceptible to Clostridium botulinum bacteria. No illnesses are linked to these products at this time.
7th Heaven Gourmet of Hesperia, California is recalling Pate Meditteraneo and Eggplant & Shitake Tapenade. The products were packaged in 7 ounce glass jars with screw-on metal lids. There are no production or date codes.
The spreads were sold between September 2011 and July 2012 at these Farmer’s Markets: Victorville Farmers Market (Victor Valley College) at 18422 Bear Valley Road in Victorville, California. Victoria Garden Farmers Market, 12505 North Mainstreet in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Palm Springs Village Fest, North Palm Canyon between Amato and Ramon in Palm Springs, CA. And The Inland Certified Farmers Market at 5261 Arlington Avenue in Riverside, California.
If you have purchased these products, discard them in the trash. Since botulism toxin is colorless, tasteless, and odorless, you can’t tell if an item contains the toxin. And further cooking is not going to inactive any toxin present.
The symptoms of botulism poisoning include double or blurred vision, drooping eyelids, and sore throat. Symmetrical progressive descending paralysis may follow. Additional symptoms include slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, and paralysis of respiratory muscles. If you have any of these symptoms, contact your health care provider immediately. For questions, call 916-440-7259.
A new study has found that older adults, along with their caregivers and health care providers, are not receiving food safety education needed to protect this vulnerable group. The elderly are part of the high risk group of people who are at most risk of developing complications after a food borne illness.
Scientists at Tennessee State University and RTI International held focus groups to study this issue. They contacted 55 people who work with the elderly, such as nurses, home health care providers, doctors, and relatives, and discovered that most do not have thorough knowledge of food safety rules. Adults over the age of 60 are more likely to suffer severe complications from foodborne illness, which can lead to hospitalization and death.
In the 2011 Listeria outbreak linked to Jensen Farms cantaloupe, most of the ill persons were over the age of 60. The median age in that outbreak was 77. And the outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 at the Neff’s Lawn Care picnic in Ohio this summer killed a 73-year-old man.
According to the FDA, as we age, our immune systems slow down and reduce the body’s ability to fight infection. This is especially true for anyone over the age of 75. In addition, many elderly people have chronic health conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, cancer, or heart disease, which can further weaken the immune system.
The study found that health care providers do not have the “training, knowledge, and willingness to provide food safety information to older adults.” For instance, the caregivers did not know that in order to prevent Listeria infections in the elderly, deli meats should be reheated to 165 degrees F, and that deli salads and other ready-to-eat processed foods such as soft cheeses and smoked seafood should be avoided. Caregivers who were relatives of the elderly patients were most likely to be well informed in matters of food safety.
Unfortunately, professional health care providers stated they do not talk to their elderly patients about food safety because there isn’t enough time during medical appointments. They were willing to provide brochures and other educational materials. The FDA has specific food safety information for the elderly that is available at the FDA site.
A few days ago we told you about the “No on 37″ response to California ballot initiative Prop 37. Proposition 37 will make it illegal to sell foods that contain genetically modified organisms (GMO) or genetically engineered ingredients (GE) unless the label lists those foods on the package.
No on 37 said that “Proposition 37 would ban the sale of tens of thousands of … grocery products.” Stacy Malkan of CARighttoKnow.org told Food Poisoning Bulletin, ”Prop 37 does not ‘ban the sale’ of food unless it is specifically repackaged. It requires companies to add a few words to their labels. How is this going to increase the cost of food by billions of dollars? Remember, these are the same companies that told us DDT and Agent Orange were safe. Personally I don’t trust them to have our best interests at heart and I would rather make my own choices about what I eat and feed my family.”
It is true that there have been no long-term studies of the potential risks of genetically modified food. The food is changed because its DNA has been altered with the addition of genes from plants, animals, viruses, and bacteria. For instance, GMO corn produces its own pesticides. The corn is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an insecticide, but it is sold for human consumption unlabeled.
At the same time, Plant Incorporated Protectants, as plants that produce their own pesticides are called, are “tested against human safety standards for toxicity, allergenicity, and skin and eye irritation, as well as long-term effects including cancer, birth defects, and reproductive and neurological system disorders,” according to the EPA. Scientists evaluate the exposure to pestsicides from food, drinking water, and direct exposure to determine the likelihood that the pesticides in that food would produce a health risk.
The EPA states that “based on our reviews of the scientific studies … EPA determined that these genetically engineered PIP products … would not pose unreasonable risk to human health and the environment during their time-limited registration.” But as we told you in May, Dr. Ted Labuza, food science professor at the University of Minnesota, says “if people are concerned about something it’s logical to label it. The principle of informed consent applies here. People have the right to avoid something if they don’t want to eat it.” And the American Medical Association, while it would not endorse labeling, has recommended that the FDA test GMO foods to ensure the health of the public.
The number of people sickened by Salmonella traced to chicks and ducklings from an Ohio mail order hatchery has risen from 123 to 163, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The illnesses – linked to contact with live baby poultry sold by Mt. Hatchery of Cincinnati, OH – began in March of this year. Three strains of Salmonella – Salmonella Infantis, Salmonella Lille and Salmonella Newport – have been associated with animals from the hatchery.
The 20 new cases reported since CDC’s last update on July 12 occurred in 10 states, including Illinois (2), Massachusetts (1), Maryland (2), New York (5), North Carolina (1), Ohio (2), Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina (1), Vermont (1) and West Virginia (3).
Case totals in the 26 states affected by the outbreak are as follows:
Alabama (4), Arizona (1), Delaware (1), Georgia (5), Illinois (3), Indiana (3), Kansas (1), Kentucky (5), Louisiana (1), Maine (4), Maryland (3), Massachusetts (3), Michigan (2), Nebraska (1), New Jersey (1), New York (21), North Carolina (15), Ohio (39), Pennsylvania (13), Rhode Island (1), South Carolina (2), Tennessee (11), Texas (2), Vermont (2), Virginia (9), and West Virginia (10).
Of the 163 people sickened in these outbreaks, 33 percent have been hospitalized. Two outbreak victims – one in Maryland and one in New York – have died, but it is unclear whether their deaths were a result of Salmonella infection or due to other causes.
Over one third (34 percent) of those sickened are children aged 10 or younger.
Mt. Healthy Hatchery is the same company that was linked to illnesses from Salmonella Altona and Salmonella Johannesburg in 2011. Those joint outbreaks sickened at least 96 people.
Veterinarians from the Ohio Department of Health visited the hatchery in May of 2012 and made recommendations for safety improvement.
The 3 outbreaks currently linked to the hatchery were still causing illnesses as of July 31, 2012. Illnesses that began after July 21, 2012 may not have been counted yet due to the time delay between an illnesses’ onset and the time it is reported, notes CDC.
The agency offers the following recommendations to consumers to help avoid Salmonella infection when handling live baby poultry:
- Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water right after touching live poultry or anything in the area where they live and roam. Adults should supervise hand washing for young children.
- If soap and water are not readily available, use hand sanitizer until you are able to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.
- Clean any equipment or materials associated with raising or caring for live poultry outside the house, such as cages or feed or water containers.
- Do not let children younger than 5 years of age, elderly persons, or people with weak immune systems handle or touch chicks, ducklings, or other live poultry.
- Do not let live poultry inside the house, in bathrooms, or especially in areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored, such as kitchens, or outdoor patios.
- Do not snuggle or kiss the birds, touch your mouth, or eat or drink around live poultry.
Symptoms of Salmonella infection can appear anywhere from 6 hours to several days after exposure, and include fever, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, headache and body aches.
If you think you may have contracted a Salmonella infection, contact your healthcare provider.
Next month’s promised release of a new “full re-evaluation” of the sweetener aspartame is not going to happen until at least May 2013.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) asked for the extra time, and the European Commission (EC) — the governing body for the 27-country European Union (EU) — granted its request.
EFSA originally planned to do a re-evaluation of aspartame in time for a 2020 release date. The EC asked that the work be advanced by eight years and released in September 2012.
In a statement on the requested delay, EFSA said the additional time will allow for scientific experts to consider new data and compete a comprehensive risk assessment in addition to allowing time for a draft version to be circulated for comments before the new re-evaluation becomes final.
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that’s been involved in one of the longest running food safety controversies in history.
The low-calorie sweetener is a popular table top sugar substitute and is used in beverages, desserts, dairy products, chewing gums, energy control and weight control products.
EFSA last certified the safety of aspartame in 2009 in Regulation EU 257/2010.
Since agreeing to move up its scheduled 2020 review, EFSA has issued a public call for scientific data as part of its “thorough literature review, ” and is now doing so again.
EFSA’s Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources Added to Food (ANS) is well into the risk assessment.
In the course of its scientific deliberations, the Panel has found that there was too little data available on 5-benzyl-3,6-dioxo-2-piperazine acetic acid (DKP) and other potential degradation products that can be formed from aspartame in food and beverages when stored under certain conditions.
For that reason, EFSA is launching an additional call for data on DKP and other degradation products of aspartame.
In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved aspartame in 1974 and then rescinded its approval until 1981. More than 100 other national regulatory agencies followed FDA’s approval, permitting aspartame for human use country by country. The first approvals for European countries also came in the 1980s.
Yet controversy has dogged the product for the past 40 years. Unless the date is moved again, the review EFSA comes out with in 2013 will be its fifth. All previous works have attested to the aspartame’s safety.
The aspartame product known as NutraSweet was ready to go in 1965. But it would be a long haul for Searle, the pharmaceutical company that did the research and development on aspartame before its own name disappeared through mergers and acquisitions.
Aspartame conspiracies would drag Searle through grand juries and 60 Minutes with most making never proven claims about the sweetener causing cancer.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
In the US, tens of thousands of trade unionists and their supporters are set to hold a demonstration in Philadelphia. But many within the labour movement admit that it is in trouble in some states. The unions suffered a massive political blow last year when public sector workers were stripped of their collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin. They are also criticised for being slow to embrace the Occupy Wall Street movement. Now some say that to be successful, unions need to alter their relationship with power and big business. Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler reports from Philadelphia.
(Reuters) – A gunman killed six people and critically wounded three at a Sikh temple during Sunday services before police shot him dead, and the attack is being treated as domestic terrorism, police said.
The gunman opened fire when he entered the kitchen at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in suburban Milwaukee at about 10:30 a.m. CDT (11.30 a.m. EDT) as women were preparing a Sunday meal, witnesses said. They described the shooter as a white man.
Turban-wearing Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is overseeing the probe into shootings, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said.
“We’re treating this as a domestic terrorist incident,” he told reporters.
Four people were shot dead inside the sprawling temple. Three, including the gunman, were killed outside.
The gunman ambushed and shot a police officer several times when he responded to a 911 call and was helping a shooting victim, Edwards said.
A second officer shot the gunman dead. Edwards had no identification of the shooter or what kind of weapon or weapons he had.
The wounded officer, a 20-year veteran, was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive, he said.
The Oak Creek shooting is the latest in a series of gun rampages in the suburban United States.
The shooting came little more than two weeks after a gunman opened fire at a theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and wounding 58. In January 2011, then-congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords was the target of an assassination attempt in which six people were killed and 13 were wounded.
“The gunman is worse than the one at the theater a couple of weeks ago because he targeted an entire community,” said temple member Jagatjit Sidhu.
He was among dozens of temple members and onlookers who gathered in a parking lot near the temple after police sealed the building off.
LONE GUNMAN
Witnesses at the temple had said there was more than one gunman, but Edwards said reports of multiple gunmen were common in incidents that involved only one shooter.
“We believe there was one but we can’t be sure,” he said. Officers finished sweeping the temple only after hours of searching, and Edwards said the investigation was just starting.
President Barack Obama said he was “deeply saddened” and pledged his administration’s commitment to fully investigate the shooting.
Obama was briefed by counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and FBI director Bob Mueller and told the situation at the temple was “under control.”
“The president said that he wanted to make sure that as we denounce this senseless act of violence we also underscore how much our country has been enriched by our Sikh community,” the White House said in a statement.
The Indian embassy in Washington said it was in touch with the National Security Council about the shooting and an Indian diplomat had been sent to the Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
Milwaukee’s Froedtert Hospital said three men had been brought in wounded and were in critical condition. One had been shot in the abdomen, one in the extremities and face, and a third was hit in the neck.
SIKHS IN U.S.
The Sikh faith is the fifth-largest in the world, with more than 30 million followers. It includes belief in one God and that the goal of life is to lead an exemplary existence.
The temple in Oak Creek was founded in October 1997 and has a congregation of 350 to 400 people. There are an estimated 500,000 or more Sikhs in the United States.
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 by Islamist militants, Sikhs have sometimes been confused publicly with Muslims because of their turban headdress and beards.
In September 2001, a Sikh gas station owner in Mesa, Arizona, was shot dead by a man who was said to be seeking revenge on Muslims for the hijacked plane attacks on the United States.
Members of the Milwaukee Sikh community complained to police and a state representative last year about an upturn in robberies and vandalism at Sikh-owned gas stations and stores.
New York police said they were increasing security at Sikh temples as a precaution. There are no known threats against temples in the city, they said in a statement.
Sapreet Kaur, executive director of the Sikh Coalition civil rights organization, said Sikhs had been the target of several hate-crime shootings in the United States in recent years.
“The natural impulse of our community is to unfortunately assume the same in this case,” he said in a statement.
As our colleague Marc Szlegat reported on Vulkane.Net, the alert level of the Japanese Kirishima volcano (Kirishimayama) was raised last month”orange”. This is the third out of 4 warning levels and means that an eruption could occur any time.
Last year in March, the Shinmoedake crater of the complex volcano Kirishima had a violent eruption that make the headlines. The volcano is located close to the other volcano currently on orange alert in Kyushu, Sakura-jima, which last week had a stronger explosion that caused ashfall in the nearby city of Kagoshima.
TULSA OK
JACKSON MS
SHREVEPORT LA
JACKSON MS
NORMAN OK
MEMPHIS TN
SHREVEPORT LA
SPRINGFIELD MO
WICHITA KS
AMARILLO TX
ST LOUIS MO
FORT WORTH TX
LITTLE ROCK AR
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Triple-digit heat intensified across Arkansas on Monday, setting records in at least two cities and increasing the danger for wildfires.
Temperatures exceeded 100 in some areas, and are expected to stick around for much of the week. Low humidity also is settling in, increasing the threat for wildfires.
The daytime high reached 111 degrees in Little Rock, which not only broke the date’s record but marked the third-highest temperature ever recorded in the state’s capital city. The previous record for July 30 was 108 degrees in 1986.
Little Rock reached 114 degrees last year on Aug. 3, the city’s hottest day in 132 years of records. The city’s second-highest temperature on record occurred July 31, 1986, when it hit 112 degrees.
Also Monday, a record was set in Jonesboro, where the mercury peaked at 104, a degree higher than the record set in 1986.
National Weather Service senior forecaster Joe Goudsward warned that little relief from the high temperatures is expected soon.
“There will be some scattered thunderstorms pop up in the heat of the day but as far as anything organized or widespread, it’s not expected,” Goudsward said.
An upper-level ridge of high pressure is parked over the region. It’s expected to shift a bit to the west, but it may only shave five or six degrees off daytime highs, Goudsward said. After a brief cool-down, the ridge is forecast to rebuild, he said.
Arkansas’ all-time high is 120 degrees, set in Ozark on Aug. 10, 1936.
The mercury rose to over 30 degrees Celsius for the first time this summer in eastern Finland as meteorologists warned of severe thunderstorms later in the day.
Calm before the storm. Image: Eelis Pulkkinen
The temperature exceeded the 30-degree mark in Tohmajärvi, Lieksa and Juuka in North Karelia, close to the Russian border. But the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) says that a cooler weather front has already arrived in western Finland and will start moving eastwards soon, making the current heatwave quite short-lived. More storms thunder in Severe thunderstorms are expected to whip up very strong wind gusts on Monday, warns the FMI. Winds may reach speeds of 25 metres per second in North Ostrobothnia and western Finland, and elsewhere in the country gusts of some 15 m/s are expected. Additionally, heavy rainfall is forecast for various parts of Finland on Monday. Thunderstorms left thousands without electricity in different parts of Finland on Sunday. Most of them had been fixed by Monday afternoon. At 1pm, some 200 Fortum customers were still without power. Elenia (formerly known as Vattenfall) had about 1,200 customers without service at that time.
Italian dairy cattle are producing 10 percent less milk because of a heat wave, even as
farmers take steps to cool the animals including showers and fans, Coldiretti said.
Corn, tomato, beet and sunflower crops have been damaged across the country and some areas
have received no rain for months, the Rome-based agricultural union said in an e-mailed statement today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.ne
The National Weather Forecaster has extended a Code Yellow warning of heat till Monday for southern and eastern Romania, Bucharest included, while downpours and thunderstorms are expected in the country's West, Center and North starting Sunday night.According to a weather warning issued by the Forecaster on Sunday, the high temperatures at between 35 and 37 degrees Celsius will keep on in southern and eastern Romania and will even hit 38 C in some cities.
Russia is currently in the grips of an extremely strong heat wave. City and town residents are suffocating from the sweltering heat. For example, it is about 30 degrees in Moscow with prospects of the thermometer going up in the next few days. The heat wave situation is aggravated by wild fires producing clods of poisonous smoke. The wood rich Siberian taiga near Krasnoyarsk is fighting 83 fires on the territory of 12.130 hectares. As for rural Russia, that only last year was the world’s third-biggest grain producer, it suffers colossal damages. It threats to destroy a significant part of the crops. If last year’s harvest amounted to 94 million tons, this year it is a predicted at 80 to 85 million. Given the situation, earlier in July the Agriculture Ministry had to revise its harvest predictions.
As Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes, the hardest hit are the important grain-producing areas including Kuban, Stavropol, Volgograd, Volga, Rostov-on-Don, Lipetsk, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Kurgan and Altai. Nevertheless, Arkady Zlochevsky, president of the Russian Grain Union thinks that “The risks are there, but then there is a chance to avoid them.” Zlochevksy added that there will be 85 million tons of crops and the size of the harvest would depend on the weather. With the leftover stocks from previous harvests, the export potential will then be about 18-20 million tons. Although this is less than last year, when the country exported more than 26 million tons, it is still better than 2010, when the droughts and wild fires in Russia ruined about a third of all the grain harvested and the country had to impose an embargo on grain exports. The area of Russia’s irrigated fields is about 2.5 million hectares, and Russia has 44 million hectares of land under spring crops this year. “The biggest losses are not caused by the weather, it is rather the failure to comply with production rules in bad weather,” said Zlochevsky.
On the other hand Oleg Sukhanov, head of the market analysis unit at the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, thinks that Russia may gather in only 77 million tons of grain. And, Sukhanov said, “that is not the worst-case scenario.”
His forecast is worrisome as Russia’s annual domestic consumption amounts to 67 million to 72 million tons. As is expected this year Russia may consume up to 68.5 million tons of grain and so, considering the remaining stocks from previous years, Sukhanov’s institute colleagues are putting the Russian grain export potential this year at a mere 13.5 million tons.
If so, that would be all we will be able to sell to our traditional buyers of grain in the Middle East and North Africa, and some Southeast Asian countries that joined them last year. “But this is not a long-term trend. Next season, Russia might have a good crop and again become a leader among world grain exporters,” Sukhanov said.
Despite the poor forecast for this year, Russia has ambitious plans for increasing its grain exports. The new edition of the national program for development of agriculture for 2013-2020, adopted in early July, set a target of a 115-million-ton grain harvest by 2020, which should bring Russia within reach of the United States, the traditional leader on the global grain market.
The current Russian predicament begins to tell on the world prices. Although there is no acute grain shortage in the world, other major grain producers, including the United States, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and China, are experiencing some problems. Forecasts in these countries account for the current high grain prices, about $330 per ton of food wheat. Sukhanov believes global grain prices could rise by another 10 percent before the year is out.
However, our experts do not believe that this will make a big difference in the prices of bread, meat and other staples because the share of grain in the end product is small. For example, in Russia, grain accounts for only 23 percent of a loaf of white bread.
So, as the saying in Russia went some 20 years ago, “the fight for the harvest is going on.”
A fire north of Stanley in the Salmon/Challis Forest on the border of the Frank Church Wilderness of No Return continues to grow after it sparked Friday. U.S. Forest Service officials say the Halstead Fire is now threatening several campgrounds, as well as a local boy scout camp. The exact location of the fire is about 15 miles north of Stanley, between Beaver Creek and Marsh Creek near Seafoam Lake. Officials say lightning started the fire on Friday, and it has now grown to at least 60 acres. Several nearby campgrounds have been evacuated. The Bradley Boy Scout Camp is also in the area. Two-hundred scouts have been evacuated and the camp has been shut down for around 200 more scouts who were set to go to the camp this week. Officials from the U.S. Forest Service Regional Office in Salmon, Idaho, say one heavy-attack firefighting helicopter is currently battling the flames. Several fire crews, including two USFS hotshot crews, two USFS hand crews, and several smoke jumpers are standing-by to protect nearby camp-grounds and homes.
An evacuation alert has been issued for approximately 50 properties in the Wilson’s Landing area of West Kelowna, B.C., after a wildfire jumped a fireguard late Sunday night. The fire was sparked by lightning on Friday and was declared contained by noon on Sunday. However, on Sunday night winds in the area picked up and fanned the flames and on Monday morning officials said what was a fire of 4.4 hectares had grown to 30 hectares, and was only 20 per cent contained. “Crews have been on site overnight working hard to re-establish containment lines where it was safe to do so. The fire spread is southward and towards Westside Road. At this time Westside Road is closed for the safety of the public,” said a statement issued by the Forest Service. Early Monday morning, officials with the Regional District of Central Okanagan issued an evacuation alert for 40 to 50 homes in the Jenny Creek subdivision — and those along Blue Grouse Road, Browse Road and parts of Westside Road, all in the Wilson’s Landing area of West Kelowna. Residents are being urged to be ready to leave their homes on short notice. The fire has also closed a 14-kilometre section of Westside Road from Bear Creek Road to Browse Road, as fire crews carry out a controlled burn. “It’s right adjacent the road right now. Our crews are currently actively burning the fuels between the road and that fire, and they’re using Westside Road as a natural fire guard,” said fire information officer Michaela Swan. There’s no word when Westside Road will re-open. Residents are being asked to detour north through Vernon to get to Kelowna. About 25 firefighters, two helicopters and two air tankers are fighting the flames.
Wildfires burned across the state Sunday, with one blaze threatening about100 homes in Pottawatomie County. The fire, which started Sunday afternoon about two miles northwest of Earlsboro, was encroaching upon structures, and a mandatory evacuation order was put into effect, state emergency management spokeswoman Keli Cain said. The Pottawatomie County sheriff’s office said about 30 homes were evacuated in the town about 50 miles east of Oklahoma City. By 9:30 p.m., people were allowed to return to their homes and some firefighters were being allowed to leave the scene, Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said. “The fire is contained, but not out,” Booth said. There were no reports of injuries or homes lost to the fire on Sunday. The fire had scorched across about 1,300 acres before being contained, Cain said. Firefighting resources were brought in from Cleveland County, and an Oklahoma National Guard helicopter made water drops, she said.
By Michelle Manchir, Chicago Tribune reporterJuly 27, 2012
More than 95 percent of Illinois is in a severe drought or worse, according to a national report Thursday that increased concerns about how the hot, dry summer is affecting farming.Most of Cook County is in a moderate drought, and other parts of the Chicago area are suffering through severe drought. But the central and southern portions of Illinois are experiencing even worse conditions that are classified as extreme or exceptional, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.Surrounding states, especially Missouri and Indiana, have also been hit hard, with 55.5 percent of the Midwest experiencing at least a severe drought, compared with 45.6 percent of the country.The drought center’s new report doesn’t take into account the bit of rain the Chicago area received this week — about 0.55 inch fell at O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday and Wednesday — but it would take 3 inches or more to have made any significant improvement, said drought center climatologist Brian Fuchs.”In a lot of places in Illinois, this is the worst they remember,” said Emerson Nafziger, a professor of crop sciences at the University of Illinois.
About 66 percent of the state’s corn crop is in poor to very poor condition, according to a report his week from the Illinois Department of Agriculture. In states that are major producers of corn nationwide, about 45 percent of the corn is poor or worse, though the total produced this year won’t be known until after September, when harvesting begins, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. During the same time last year, only 14 percent of corn crops nationwide were considered poor.
“We’re sitting here, watching the sky; it looks like it could rain,” Nafziger said in by telephone from near Vandalia. “People are kind of pessimistic.”
Nationally, almost 40 percent of agricultural land is experiencing at least a severe drought, which makes the 2012 drought more extensive than any other since the 1950s, according to the USDA.
Illinois Climatologist Jim Angel said July’s heat and lack of rain could make this drought its worst on record, especially because all across the state, farmers’ soil is showing signs of having very little moisture, something essential for plant health.
“In a normal season we rely on soil moisture to get you through August, but we don’t have that,” Angel said.
Less corn production usually means higher food prices, according to the USDA, though the full effect of a sparse corn harvest wouldn’t move through to grocery stores until at least 10 months from now. But grocery shoppers could see the price of chicken or eggs and other meats increase sooner than that, since farmers often scale back on their livestock when the cost of corn feed is high, which can happen when corn production is low, Nafziger said.
Still, some say there’s room for optimism. Angel said long-term forecasts show an increased chance of above-normal precipitation and more normal temperatures over the next two weeks. The heat and dry weather looks to be shifting to the west, maybe making the Midwest a little wetter and milder, Angel said.
CORVALLIS, Oregon, July 30, 2012 (ENS) – The climate’s “new normal” for most of the coming century will parallel the long-term drought that hit western North America from 2000 to 2004 – the most severe drought in 800 years – scientists report in a study published Sunday.
“The severity and incidence of climatic extremes, including drought, have increased as a result of climate warming,” the researchers said, adding that these long-term trends are consistent with a 21st century “megadrought.”
Crops and forests died and river basins dried, but as bad as conditions were during the 2000-04 drought, in the future they may be seen as the good old days, a group of 10 researchers warned Sunday in the journal “Nature Geoscience.”
Pinyon pine forests near Los Alamos, New Mexico, had begun to turn brown from drought stress in 2002, left. Another photo taken in 2004 from the same vantage point, right, show them grey and dead. (Photo by Craig Allen, U.S. Geological Survey)
Climate models and precipitation projections indicate this period will be closer to the “wet end” of a drier hydroclimate during the last half of the 21st century, the scientists said.
“Climatic extremes such as this will cause more large-scale droughts and forest mortality, and the ability of vegetation to sequester carbon is going to decline,” said Beverly Law, a co-author of the study, professor of global change biology and terrestrial systems science at Oregon State University, and former science director of AmeriFlux, an ecosystem observation network.
The 2000-04 drought had the effect of amplifying climate change as vegetation withered and could no longer take up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
This drought cut carbon sequestration by an average of 51 percent in the western United States, Canada and Mexico, the scientists calculate, although some areas were hit much harder than others. As the plants died, they released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, with the effect of amplifying global warming.
“During this drought, carbon sequestration from this region was reduced by half,” Law said. “That’s a huge drop. And if global carbon emissions don’t come down, the future will be even worse.”
The effects are driven by human-caused increases in temperature, with associated lower soil moisture and decreased runoff in all major water basins of the western United States, researchers said in the study.
Drought has affected Colorado farm lands near Strasburg, Colorado, July 21, 2012. (Photo by Lance Cheung, USDA)
It is not clear whether or not the current drought in the West and Midwest, now being called one of the worst since the Dust Bowl, is related to these same forces, Law said. This study did not address that, and there are some climate mechanisms in western North America that affect that region more than other parts of the country.
But in the West, this multi-year drought was unlike anything seen in many centuries, based on tree ring data. The last two periods with drought events of similar severity were in the Middle Ages, from 977-981 and 1146-1151. The 2000-04 drought affected precipitation, soil moisture, river levels, crops, forests and grasslands.
One person has died in flooding caused by tropical storm Saola in the central Philippines. Torrential rain brought on by the storm and the south-west monsoon have caused more flooding and landslides in the central and northern Philippines. Landslides have been reported in the mountainous Cordillera region while flood waters have swamped communities in the capital Manila and several nearby provinces. Hundreds of families have been evacuated, with rain on Sunday night causing three major dams to spill over. In the country’s northern and central provinces, five ships have run aground with rescue operations ongoing to bring passengers ashore. Over the weekend, rain blanketed most of the Philippines, forcing the cancellation of at least 13 domestic flights. Tropical storm Saola is now moving northwest towards China.
…………………………..
Haboob in Phoenix, Arizona July 2012 at Mission Community Church
Phoenix covered in blanket of dust for second time in a week as massive cloud rolls in from desert
A second cloud of yellow in less than a week overwhelmed suburban Phoenix on Sunday, mixing with torrential rains and gusty winds that wreaked havoc on midday traffic in the area.
The thick wall of dust, known as a haboob, which is Arabic for ‘strong wind,’ was seen making its way through the town of Laveen about eight miles southwest of downtown Phoenix.
The greater Phoenix area and northwest and north central Pinal County were under a dust storm warning that expired at 7pm on Sunday.
Second coming: A large dust cloud was seen making its way through the Phoenix suburb of Laveen on Sunday
This comes just days after an enormous dust cloud measuring around 2,000 feet tall and almost 100km wide swept over the city, traveling at 35mph. The dust cut power to some 9,000 homes and caused disruptions at the local airport.
Caused by Arizona’s monsoon season which begins in early June and runs through till the end of September, haboob’s only occur in Africa, the Middle East, Australia and Phoenix, Arizona.
Known as the granddaddy of dust storms, the haboob is a rare event and is caused by loose dust being blown upwards in the absence of rain and collecting skywards where it is then propelled by another more distant thunderstorm brewing behind it.
Despite some of the 1.5 million residents of Phoenix objecting to the term haboob being used, meteorologists in the city confirmed that they have been using the Arabic word to describe the massive dust storms for over 30 years.
‘I think what’s going on is that we’ve had a higher frequency of stronger dust storms over the last couple of years and the term has been in play much more because of that,’ said Ken Waters of the Phoenix National Weather Service office to KPHO.
Blowing gusts of up to 50 mph at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, the haboob is destructive because of the fine dust particles that manage to permeate everywhere during the storm.
The 2,000 foot tall haboob cloud covers the city of Phoenix, Arizona cutting power to 9,000 homes
The haboob phenomenon affects Phoenix during the months of June through September which is Arizona’s monsoon season
The monsoon is here as the weather caused damage and traffic delays due to flooding all over the Valley. Washes in Queen Creek were raging Sunday while deputies tried to manage all the road closures. Part of Hunt Highway was shut down between Gary and Ellsworth roads as the water washed out debris from an abandoned storehouse. Crews cleaned up layers of mud off of Elliot near Ellsworth Sunday night. That road opened up just before 10 p.m. Even the little kids had it all figured out in Fountain Hills, as one 4-year-old told us, “They are cutting the tree so cars can move.” Near Calaveras and Yerba Buena roads, crews worked to clean up a tree that just barely missed hitting cars or houses. “All of a sudden we looked out the front and the tree just went crashing,” said Katherine Gratz. “It is kind of sad. It’s probably been here 70 years, the neighbors say,” said another neighbor, Hayden Bronte. We’re told four other households had to evacuate just around the corner from where the tree fell after the winds toppled some power poles. “It was as if the storm moved over the top of like this street and sat and it was like almost tornado force winds. It was insane,” said Ruth Woody, who evacuated her home Sunday afternoon. Another pine tree in the same area completely uprooted. Two palm trees were holding up the top of the pine while its roots stood more than five feet out of the ground.
Heavy rains in central and eastern Costa Rica have triggered floods that have forced evacuations and may be responsible for at least one death, relief workers said Sunday. Four people are missing, down from eight earlier, according to Freddy Roman, a spokesman for the local Red Cross. The government has declared a “yellow alert” in various parts of Cartago, a central province where one person was reported dead, said Roman. The person was rescued after a landslide, but died on the way to the hospital from injuries and heart failure, he said. A yellow alert is also in effect for parts of Limon, an eastern province. More than 1,500 people have taken refuge at shelters and others are waiting to be rescued, according to the Red Cross. “We have reports of people trapped in their houses that have been flooded by overflow from the Chirripo River, also of several communities that are isolated in other parts of Limon,” said Guillermo Arroyo, director of operations of the Costa Rican Red Cross. Heavy rain is typical this time of year in Costa Rica, where the rainy season runs roughly from May-November.
(CNN) — Heavy rains in central and eastern Costa Rica have triggered floods that have forced evacuations and may be responsible for at least one death, relief workers said Sunday.
Four people are missing, down from eight earlier, according to Freddy Roman, a spokesman for the local Red Cross.
The government has declared a “yellow alert” in various parts of Cartago, a central province where one person was reported dead, said Roman. The person was rescued after a landslide, but died on the way to the hospital from injuries and heart failure, he said.
A yellow alert is also in effect for parts of Limon, an eastern province.
More than 1,500 people have taken refuge at shelters and others are waiting to be rescued, according to the Red Cross.
“We have reports of people trapped in their houses that have been flooded by overflow from the Chirripo River, also of several communities that are isolated in other parts of Limon,” said Guillermo Arroyo, director of operations of the Costa Rican Red Cross.
Heavy rain is typical this time of year in Costa Rica, where the rainy season runs roughly from May-November.
A South Korean nuclear reactor went into automatic shutdown on Monday apparently after a malfunction, plant operators said, while ruling out a possible radiation leak. The 1,000-megawatt reactor at Yeonggwang some 260 kilometres (156 miles) south of Seoul halted operations after warning signals around 3:00 pm (0600 GMT), the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power said. An investigation was under way to determine the cause of the shutdown, it said, adding there was no danger of a radiation leak. A warning signal and automatic shutdown can be triggered by a number of factors including malfunctions in the cooling pump, Yonhap news agency said. South Korea operates 22 reactors, which meet about 35 percent of its electricity needs. In February the country’s oldest nuclear plant at Gori, built in 1978 near the southern city of Busan, briefly lost mains power and the emergency generator failed to kick in. The incident resulted in no radioactive leaks but sparked an extensive probe amid concerns over nuclear safety following last year’s atomic crisis in Japan. In May, five engineers at Gori were charged with trying to cover up the potentially dangerous power failure and in July 32 people were charged with corruption involving the state nuclear power agency and its contracts with suppliers. A nuclear safety agency approved the restart of the Gori plant this month, but it has yet to resume operations due to protests by civic groups.
TERRIFIED PATIENTS fled from a hospital in western Uganda as soon as news broke that a mysterious illness that killed at least 14 people in the region was Ebola, one of the world’s most virulent diseases.
Ignatius Besisira, a member of parliament for Buyaga East County in the Kibaale district, said people had at first believed the unexplained deaths were related to witchcraft.
“Immediately, when there was confirmation that it was Ebola . . . patients ran out of Kagadi hospital [where some of the victims had died],” he said. “Even the medical officers are very, very frightened.”
Government officials and a World Health Organisation representative confirmed the Ebola outbreak at a news conference in Kampala on Saturday.
“Laboratory investigations done at the Uganda Virus Research Institute . . . have confirmed that the strange disease reported in Kibaale is indeed Ebola haemorrhagic fever,” they said in a joint statement.
Health officials said at least 20 people had been infected and of those 14 had died.
There is no treatment or vaccine against Ebola, which is transmitted by close personal contact and, depending on the strain, can kill up to 90 per cent of those who contract the virus.
It has a devastating history in Uganda, where in 2000 at least 425 people were infected, of whom more than half died. Ebola was previously reported in the country in May last year, when it killed a 12-year-old girl.
During an outbreak in 2007, which claimed at least 37 lives, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni advised people not to shake hands and public gatherings were also discouraged.
One of those who succumbed to the outbreak in Kibaale was a clinical officer, Mr Besisira said. The other fatalities came from a single household in Nyamarunda subdistrict, he added.
Joaquim Saweka, WHO’s representative in Uganda, said the suspected infections emerged in the region in early July but the confirmation came only on Friday.
The Ugandan government said a national emergency taskforce had been set up and urged the population to remain calm. The government, WHO and the US Centres for Disease Control have sent experts to Kibaale to tackle the outbreak.
Mr Besisira had not heard of people moving out of the region, but the Daily Nation newspaper in neighbouring Kenya said yesterday that people were leaving the area around Kagadi town, where the disease first appeared. – (Guardian service)
Ebola, one of the world’s deadliest viruses, has been confirmed in Uganda, where 14 people have already died from what health officials were calling a mysterious illness. The illness was not immediately described as Ebola because patients were not showing the typical signs of the lethal disease, the nation’s health minister told CNN on Sunday. After news of the virus broke, a team of health experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ugandan government were deployed to the area to begin emergency response measures, according to a government statement. The experts discovered the strain was Ebola Sudan, one of the most common strains of the virus. This particular strain has been associated with a 70 percent mortality rate in recent years. The virus manifests as a hemorrhagic fever. The last severe outbreak occurred in 2000, killing 224 people in Uganda. It was first reported in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the CDC. The strange disease was first reported in the area several weeks ago, according to a government statement.Ignatius Besisira, an MP for Buyaga East County in the Kibaale district, said people first believed the unexplained deaths were from witchcraft. “Immediately, when there was confirmation that it was Ebola … patients ran out of Kagadi hospital (where some of the victims had died),” Besisira told the Guardian. “Even the medical officers are very, very frightened.” Lab tests confirmed the illness was Ebola hemorrhagic fever. A baby from the village of Nyanswiga was the first confirmed death and so far 14 of some 20 that are known to have been infected have died. A clinical officer who treated the original case also fell ill and died soon afterward. Her four-month-old baby, admitted for treatment last Monday, died four days later. The clinical officer’s sister, who took care of the baby when she became ill, has been admitted for treatment with similar symptoms, but is currently in stable condition, the government statement said. There is no treatment or vaccine against Ebola, which is transmitted through close contact and, depending on the strain, can kill up to 90 percent of those who contract the virus. While Ebola outbreaks occur every few years, the virus’s delicate composition has so far impeded a significant, long-duration attack. But much about the disease remains a mystery.The CDC has a team of scientists stationed at a Ugandan laboratory who study Ebola and other deadly viruses that are often found in equatorial Africa. Ebola is among a list of viruses highlighted by the US as a potential biological-weapons threat. Officials are currently trying to determine the extent of the outbreak, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told CNN.com on Sunday. “These outbreaks have a tendency to stamp themselves out, if you will, if we can get in and … stop the chain of transmission,” he explained. Health officials are urging area residents to report any suspected cases and avoid contact with anyone who has contracted the virus and to disinfect bedding and clothing of an infected person by using protective gloves and masks. They also advise against eating dead animals, especially monkeys, and to avoid public gatherings if at all possible. Despite the ongoing threat, the WHO said in its statement that it does not recommend travel restrictions to Uganda because of the outbreak. Besisira said officials in Kibaale had released radio broadcasts outlining the precautionary measures on Saturday. “We have assured (the people) that we have a very strong team … who are making sure the disease is controlled … I am very confident we can contain it,” he added. While there are no reports of people moving out of the region, the Daily Nation newspaper in Kenya said on Sunday that people were leaving the area around Kagadi town, where the disease first appeared. “We have to move to safer places because we can easily get infected by this disease here,” the paper quoted a resident, Omuhereza Kugonza, as saying. Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids and tissues of infected persons. It can also be transmitted by handling sick or dead infected wild animals, such as chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope and fruit bats. Symptoms include sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, impaired kidney and liver function and bleeding.
The number of gastro entritis cases has gone up to 132 at Dasuya in Punjab where spread of cholera and gastro enteritis cases was reported in some districts. Out of these, 86 have been discharged after treatment, a senior medical officer said today. Yesterday, the number of gastro patients admitted to the civil hospital at Dasuya was 117. Meanwhile, three serious patients were referred to Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar, Dr Naresh Kansra, senior medical officer (SMO) of the Dasuya Civil Hospital said today. An increase in the number of gastro patients has been witnessed at Dasuya in the past few days. Director family welfare Punjab Karnjit Singh and state surveillance officer Deepak Bhatia inspected the areas of Dasuya town affected by gastroenteritis and also went to the hospital to meet the patients. Over 4000 chlorine tablets were distributed among the people of the area.
Biohazard name:
Cholera and gastroenteritis diseases
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Lunchtime Sunday at the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) turned bad after at least 100 students had to be rushed to area hospitals after suffering a nasty bout of food poisoning. According to an Ateneo de Davao University press statement Sunday: “A number of students, staff and administrators were rushed to the hospital a few hours after lunch after they complained of upset stomach with bouts of vomiting. Administrators and staff were dispatched to assist students in the hospitals. Some of the students were confined, majority were sent home after they were checked by doctors and administered the appropriate medications.” The Philippine news source, Interaksyon reports Sunday, the students were attending the student leaders gathering – called Sui Generis – with ADDU President Fr. Joel Tabora. The gathering of students ate lunch at the school around 12:30 pm. The menu included chicken adobo, pancit, fish , rice and buco salad. A couple of hours later, students starting getting sick, showing food poisoning symptoms such as nausea and vomiting. Chair of the student council Samahan, Mureene Ann Villamor told Interaksyon reporters that the chicken adobo “smelled terrible.” On the Facebook page of the student paper, Atenews, there are several posts about the outbreak including a photo of the implicated food, chicken adobo (or adobong manok ) by photographer Caycee Coronel. Students were taken to Davao Doctors Hospital and San Pedro Hospital or treatment. The etiologic agent of the outbreak has yet to be determined.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Food Poisoning
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Wildlife experts are shocked at the recent mass-death of wild peacocks fearing it may be an outbreak of the highly contagious Newcastle disease. At least 60 peacocks were found perished in the Thar desert in southern Pakistan, officials have confirmed, but local media reports say hundreds of the exotic birds have died. Newcastle disease, which has nothing to do with Cheryl Cole or Brown Ale, is the deadliest of all viruses spread among birds. The Pakistani wildlife ministry said tests were being done to determine cause of death, but experts are suspecting they may have been afflicted with Newcastle disease, known locally as ‘ranikhet’. A spokesperson said the wild peacocks had been weakened by starvation, deforestation and a lack of safe drinking water blamed on delays to the annual monsoon rains. Lajpat Sharma, an official in the provincial wildlife ministry said: ‘Wild peacocks have become susceptible to bacterial and fungal attack, which further suppressed the immunity of the birds that paved the room for viral attack.
Biohazard name:
Newcastle disease
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:
confirmed
30.07.2012
Environment Pollution
USA
State of Wisconsin, [Wisconsin Dells, Adams County]
Crews will begin Monday, July 30, to replace part of a crude oil pipeline that leaked 1,200 barrels of oil in a field north of Wisconsin Dells in Adams County. Enbridge Energy could not say what caused the spill or when the line from Superior to Chicago will start operating again. The leak happened on Friday in the town of Grand Marsh. Enbridge officials said it was discovered very quickly. They said most of it was contained to the company’s right of way. The pipeline sends about 318,000 gallons per day of light crude oil from Superior to refineries in the Chicago area. Two similar pipelines along that route resumed operations on Saturday, once it was learned that they were not affected by the spill. A third line was expected to re-open right after that. Meanwhile, repairs began Saturday on the broken pipeline. Enbridge said two Grand Marsh landowners were affected, and one family was relocated for its safety. Oil was found on two small farm ponds, but drinking water wells were not affected. Federal officials said all of the pooled oil had been cleaned up. Reuters said the impact on Chicago’s oil refiners would depend on how long the pipeline’s out and how much oil the refineries have in reserve. The spill came at a poor time for Enbridge, which had another pipeline leak in Alberta, Canada, last month. The firm was the subject of a critical government report on its handling of a ruptured pipeline in Michigan in 2010 that was not noticed for 17 hours.
Dozens of wild peacocks have died suddenly in Pakistan, prompting experts to fear an outbreak of the highly contagious Newcastle disease.
Officials on Monday confirmed the deaths of at least 60 peacocks in Thar desert, part of southern Sindh province, over the last week. Local media reports say more than 100 of the exotic birds have died.
The wildlife ministry said tests were being done to diagnose the cause of death, but said the wild peacocks had been weakened by starvation, deforestation and a lack of safe drinking water blamed on delays to the annual monsoon rains.
“Wild peacocks have become susceptible to bacterial and fungal attack, which further suppressed the immunity of the birds that paved the room for viral attack,” it said.
Experts are alarmed by the number of deaths, suspecting they may have been afflicted with Newcastle disease, known locally as ranikhet.
“We are vaccinating wild peacocks protectively for suspected viral disease, as in 2003 when a few peacocks died from the same symptoms that later proved to be ranikhet,” said Lajpat Sharma, an official in the provincial wildlife ministry.
Tahir Qureshi of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also told AFP that he suspected ranikhet was to blame.
Newcastle disease is a worldwide problem among birds and sporadic outbreaks can occur frequently. Affected birds suffer from loss of appetite, coughing, sneezing, diarrhoea, and in severe outbreaks a high proportion die.
The wildlife ministry said it was supplying fresh water to peacocks in affected areas.
Sharma said there are at least 30,000 wild peacocks in the Thar desert, but Qureshi said the numbers were declining, because of poaching and lack of effective conservation.
Seven states in North India have been facing a long power cut since late Sunday night. Due to a massive breakdown in the northern grid, the main power source for the affected states, there has been a massive power outage. The affected states are Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. There is no power in Delhi and its neighbouring states since 2 am reports IBN-Live. According to the report, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that it’ll take another one and a half hour’s time to restore power. “My officers are on the spot. The fault is found near Agra. It will be corrected in one and a half hour time,” he said. Thousands of commuters in the Delhi Metro will face a harrowing time on Monday morning as services of all the lines of the Metro have been disrupted due to tripping of power supply. Train services on the 190-km Metro network connecting length and breath of the national capital were affected due to The Northern Grid failure also caused power cuts in large parts of Delhi. “Metro service will not be available today (Monday) till the supply is restored as it is a major Northern Grid power failure,” a Delhi Metro official said. The Delhi Metro normally operates over 2,700 trips a day, covering about 70,000 km and carrying around 1.8 million passengers on week days.
A massive power cut has caused disruption across northern India, including in the capital, Delhi.
It hit a swathe of the country affecting more than 300 million people in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan states.
Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said most of the supply had been restored and the rest would be reinstated soon.
It is unclear why the supply collapsed but reports say some states may have been using more power than authorised.
Mr Shinde said he had appointed a committee to inquire into the causes of the blackout, one of the worst to hit the country in more than a decade. The committee will submit its report within 15 days, he said.
The power cut happened at 02:30 local time on Monday (2100 GMT Sunday) after India’s Northern Grid network collapsed.
Mr Shinde told the BBC that he had been informed about the problem at 05:30.
Monday’s massive power cut is reportedly the first of its kind in more than a decade, affecting nearly 30% of India’s population in nine northern states. At the root of this is the severe energy crisis facing India today.
The country is facing a huge supply shortfall this summer. A shortage of coal (most of India’s energy is thermal), loss-making state electricity boards, the theft of power, a lack of transparency in fixing electricity charges and underperforming private distribution agencies mean that vast swathes of India live without electricity for several hours a day.
PM Manmohan Singh pushed through the civilian nuclear deal with the US to help meet India’s soaring energy but plans to set up new reactors have been embroiled in controversies about safety and the acquisition of land.
“Within two hours we tried to restore the railways, airport and Delhi Metro services and power supply to essential services, including the railways and hospitals, was restored by 08:00.”
The minister said the exact reason for the collapse had not yet been pinpointed but, in the summer, “states try to take more power from the grid” and at the time of the collapse, the grid frequency was “above normal”.
“That is one of the reasons why the grid failed,” he said.
By early afternoon, 80% of the supply had been restored, Mr Shinde said.
‘Worried’
Monday morning saw travel chaos engulf the region, with thousands of passengers stranded when train services were disrupted in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
The Rajdhani train from Jammu to Delhi was more than five hours late.
“The train stopped near Panipat station [in Haryana] at about 02:30. For a long time we had no idea what was holding us up,” passenger DK Rajdan said.
“Rajdhani is air-conditioned so it was not uncomfortable. But for six or seven hours we couldn’t get anything to eat or drink and people were beginning to get worried,” he said.
Delhi Metro railway services were stalled for three hours, although the network later resumed when it received back-up power from Bhutan, one official said.
Traffic lights on the streets of the capital were not functioning as early morning commuters made their way into work, leading to gridlock.
Water treatment plants in the city also had to be shut for a few hours.
Officials said restoring services to hospitals and transport systems were a priority.
Power cuts are a common occurrence in Indian cities because of a fundamental shortage of power and an ageing grid. The chaos caused by such cuts has led to protests and unrest on the streets.
Earlier in July, crowds in the Delhi suburb of Gurgaon blocked traffic and clashed with police after blackouts there.
Correspondents say that India urgently needs a huge increase in power production, as hundreds of millions of its people are not even connected to the national grid.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has long said that India must look to nuclear energy to supply power to the people.
Estimates say that nuclear energy contributes only 3% to the country’s current power supply. But the construction of some proposed nuclear power stations have been stalled by intense local opposition.
NEW DELHI (AP) — A power grid failure blacked out northern India for hours Monday, halting trains, forcing hospitals and airports onto backup power and providing a dark, sweltering reminder of the nation’s inability to meet its energy needs as it strives to be an economic power.
While the midsummer outage was unique in its reach — it hit 370 million people, more than the population of the United States and Canada combined — its impact was softened by Indians’ familiarity with almost daily blackouts of varying duration. Hospitals and major businesses have backup generators that seamlessly kick in during power cuts, and upscale homes are hooked to backup systems powered by truck batteries.
Nonetheless, some small businesses were forced to shut for the day. Buildings were without water because the pumps weren’t working, and the vaunted New Delhi Metro, with 1.8 million daily riders, was paralyzed during the morning commute.
“This will obviously get worse,” said Subhash Chawla, a 65-year-old retiree who took the Metro once power was restored. “Unless the Metro has a separate power supply, it will be chaos in the future.”
The grid that failed feeds the nation’s breadbasket in Punjab, the war-wracked region of Kashmir, the burgeoning capital of New Delhi, the Dalai Lama’s Himalayan headquarters in Dharmsala, and the world’s most populous state, poverty-stricken Uttar Pradesh.
Most affected areas had power back by late morning, less than nine hours after the outage started. By evening, 15 hours after the outage began, officials said full power had been restored.
Many chafed at the inconvenience.
Amit Naik, a toy maker in New Delhi, was forced to close his workshop for the day.
“There was no water, so my machine couldn’t run. Other people had the same difficulties,” he said.
The Confederation of Indian Industry said the outage was a reminder of the urgent need for the government to fix the power sector, ensure a steady supply of coal for power plants and reform the electricity utilities.
Transmission and distribution losses in some states are as much as 50 percent because of theft and corruption by employees in the power industry. India’s Central Electricity Authority reported power deficits of about 8 percent in recent months.
Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde deflected criticism, pointing out that the United States and Brazil also had huge power failures in recent years.
“I ask you to look at the power situation in other countries as well,” he said.
The blackout, the worst to hit India in a decade, began about 2:30 a.m. when the grid covering eight northern states crashed. Officials in Uttar Pradesh, where the problem was believed to have begun, said the grid could not keep up with the huge demand for power in the hot summer.
But Shinde said he was not sure exactly what caused the collapse and had formed a committee to investigate.
The outage left millions sweltering in the summer heat. Muslim families were forced to eat their pre-dawn meals by candlelight before beginning their daytime Ramadan fast. “It was really difficult,” said farmer Mohammed Zaman.
As officials struggled to get the grid back on line, they drew power from the neighboring eastern and western grids as well as hydroelectric power from the small neighboring mountain kingdom of Bhutan.
New Delhi residents were roused from sleep when their fans and air conditioners stopped, and came out of their homes in the heat as the entire city turned dark. Temperatures in the city were in the mid-30s C (90s F) with 89 percent humidity.
Some trains across the northern region were stranded when their electric engines failed. Others were delayed by hours as they were hooked to diesel engines.
The failure was the first time since 2001 that the northern grid had collapsed. But India’s demand for electricity has soared since then as its population and economy have grown sharply.
But any connection to the grid remains a luxury for many. One-third of India’s households do not even have electricity to power a light bulb, according to last year’s census.
The power deficit was worsened by a weak monsoon that lowered hydroelectric generation and kept temperatures higher, further increasing electricity usage as people seek to cool off. Shivpal Singh Yadav, the power minister in Uttar Pradesh, home to 200 million people, said that while demand during peak hours hits 11,000 megawatts, the state can only provide 9,000 megawatts.
Uttar Pradesh Power Corp. chief Avnish Awasthi blamed the grid collapse on states drawing more than their allotted power to meet the summer demand.
____
Associated Press writer Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow and Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar contributed to this report.
Lightning flashes across the sky Thursday, July 26, in Nyack, New York, in this dramatic photo from CNN iReporter Eric Girard. Storms ripped through the Northeast on Thursday night, unleashing strong winds and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers.
(CNN) — Hundreds of thousands lost power due to a potent storm system that extended eastward from the Plains toward the Northeast on Thursday, bringing with it high winds and destructive lightning.
Severe thunderstorm watches were in effect at one point Thursday evening for a continuous stretch from Oklahoma through New Jersey. The danger could lurk for several hours longer, with the National Weather Service issuing such warnings in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Kentucky, Virginia, Arkansas and other points in between.
Well before then, the system had already packed a punch.
In Pennsylvania, a tree crushed a woman in her car as she sought shelter at a campsite, killing her, said Glenn Dunn, the emergency management coordinator for Potter County.
A 61-year-old man in Brooklyn, New York, died after lightning struck a church sending a scaffold crashing down on him, authorities said.
Witnesses reported trees in the region buckling under the impact.
“The trees were bending sideways, (and) the sky just went really dark and green,” said Mark Ventrini, a photographer, of the scene around 7:30 p.m. as he headed toward Belmar, New Jersey. “Some of the storms were pretty intense.”
The weather service had received reports of possible tornadoes touching down in Elmira, New York, and Brookville, Pennsylvania.
Emergency managers in Broome County, New York, reported people trapped inside a home because of downed trees in the town of Vestal.
Strong storms also caused damage in Binghamton, New York, but the weather service said no injuries or fatalities have been reported.
The residual and more widespread damage came in the form of extensive power outages. More than 100,000 First Energy customers in Pennsylvania, for instance, didn’t have electricity as of 10 p.m. ET, with other utilities like PECO and PPL reporting tens of thousands of others similarly in the dark.
An hour earlier, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a press release stating there were nearly 95,000 customers without power in that state, mostly NYSEG and Central Hudson customers.
Cuomo also declared a state of emergency for hard-hit Chemung County in the southwestern part of the state.
Many more people took in the impressive lightning storms, with daunting bolts preceding booming claps of thunder in small towns and big cities.
“The brunt of the storm itself was intense but short — there was very strong rain and wind for about 15 minutes, at which point the rain cleared and the lightning show began,” said Matthew Burke, a CNN iReporter who photographed lightning sprawling across the New York City skyline.
Several states away, tens of thousands also were in the dark, though power was being restored at a fairly fast rate. AEP Ohio, for instance, reported just over 51,000 customers lacking electricity at 6:15 p.m., yet more than 20,000 of those had the lights back on by 10 p.m.
CNN’s Greg Botelho, Lila King, Julie Cannold and Dominique Dodley contributed to this report.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Storms kill one in New York and one in Pennsylvania
More than 200,000 in Ohio, New Jersey and other states lose power
“Trees were bending sideways,” a man in New Jersey says
National Weather Service reports possible tornado touchdowns in the Northeast
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Couple: John Unger, 49, adopted the dog with his ex-fiancée 19 years ago, but after the relationship ended, Mr Unger fought a desperate despair
Together: Thanks to the generosity of strangers, the MailOnline can reveal that thousands of dollars have been donated to Schoep’s medical care, allowing the pair more time together than they ever imagined
Compassion: Mr Unger adopted Schoep, who is named after a famous brand of Wisconsin ice cream, when he was just a puppy, and now that the dog has developed arthritis, he has trouble getting to sleep
Healing: Since the funds came gushing in, the clinic was able to treat Schoep with joint laser treatments, which reduce pain and swelling while healing the animal’s limbs
All Better: Schoep will need these treatments every few weeks ‘forever,’ the vet said, but he should be able to spend his golden years pain-free
As we wait for more information about the 
A 
A few days ago we told you about the “No on 37″ response to California ballot initiative Prop 37. Proposition 37 will make it illegal to sell foods that contain genetically modified organisms (GMO) or genetically engineered ingredients (GE) unless the label lists those foods on the package.
Second coming: A large dust cloud was seen making its way through the Phoenix suburb of Laveen on Sunday
The 2,000 foot tall haboob cloud covers the city of Phoenix, Arizona cutting power to 9,000 homes
The haboob phenomenon affects Phoenix during the months of June through September which is Arizona’s monsoon season
Trains were stranded after the power failure
Lightning flashes across the sky Thursday, July 26, in Nyack, New York, in this dramatic photo from CNN iReporter Eric Girard. Storms ripped through the Northeast on Thursday night, unleashing strong winds and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers.
