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Popular animal shelter shut down after inspection

bluesarahlou — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:50:35 -0700

The Marin Humane Society shut down an animal rescue group's San Rafael operations and seized 19 animals for treatment after uncovering "shocking conditions" at the center.

The Milo Foundation was forced to close its adoption center and animal holding site at 2060 Fourth St. on Friday, one day after an unannounced early-morning inspection by the Marin Humane Society. The inspection uncovered health and safety violations including triple the number of dogs and cats allowed at the site, animals living in their own feces and untreated for contagious diseases and inadequate staffing or medical supervision, Humane Society officials said.

"It was overwhelming," said Capt. Cindy Machado of the Marin Humane Society. "After witnessing shocking conditions for the animals at Milo in San Rafael, we issued a directive to the Milo Foundation that operations at its San Rafael facility must stop immediately."

Machado said last week's inspection was in response to complaints of mismanagement at the San Rafael site. In July, she accompanied an inspection of the foundation's sanctuary in Willits by the Humane Society of the United States that uncovered similar animal health and safety issues of inadequate housing and lack of care. That inspection was prompted by complaints from former sanctuary staffers.

The findings resulted in Humane Society officials meeting with foundation representatives "to address long-term plans for Willits and improve conditions there," Machado said.

Lynn Tingle, Milo's executive director, disputed the allegations, although she acknowledged the San Rafael center had more dogs on hand than its city permit allowed. She said the foundation was in the process of requesting the city to update its permit to allow an additional 10 dogs on site.

"I disagree with their findings," said Tingle, of Berkeley. "I just think there's a big difference between animal control and animal rescue. We're about saving lives. We're going to fight this."

Machado said there were about 30 dogs and 20 cats at the site on Thursday. The use permit issued by the city of San Rafael allowed for 10 dogs and 25 cats, she said.

The city of San Rafael has no record of complaints regarding the site and no application on file from the foundation to amend its use permit, said city spokeswoman Terri Hardesty.

She said the decision to issue or amend a permit requires review by the county public health department and the Marin Humane Society. Those agencies have authority to shut down the business if unsafe conditions are found, she said.

"We have to follow their lead," Hardesty said.

Machado said in addition to the strong smell of urine and excrement upon their arrival Thursday, inspectors found animals - some of which were in the process of being adopted - suffering from diseases including ringworm.

"It was a breeding ground for massive problems of animals with diseases and no vet care," Machado said. "They don't have any disease control measures that prevent diseases from passing through animal populations. It was just a time bomb waiting to happen."

Tingle countered claims of a lack of medical expertise, noting the foundation's veterinarian bills are about $10,000 a month. Veterinary paperwork was provided to the Humane Society, she said.

The center's five-person staff including a veterinarian technician and four animal care staffers as well as a dozen volunteers, Tingle said.

"As yet we don't have a veterinarian on our staff, but we have very established long-term relationships with vets in the Bay Area and Mendocino County," Tingle said.

The San Rafael center opened in 2008 in a building that used to house a veterinary hospital. The nonprofit foundation was created in 1994 to provide homes for unwanted pets.

Machado said the agency was working with Milo to make arrangements for its animals and provide treatment for those with serious health issues. The San Rafael center needed a "deep and thorough cleaning," she said.

In January 2007, Milo shut down its pet adoption center on Solano Avenue in Berkeley over neighborhood complaints that included excessive barking, excrement on the sidewalk and a pervasive smell of urine.

Machado said her agency was committed to helping Milo develop a plan "to prevent these issues from ever happening again."

Hardesty said if Milo did violate the terms of its use permit, the foundation may have to plead its case before the Planning Commission in order to retain it.

"There's going to be conversations between all agencies and the city," she said. "The next step will be to see if that makes sense to have a hearing on revocation."

Source

This is outrageous

stephley — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:52:53 -0700

US Troops Still Dodging Deadly Showers
by the Associated Press
Military races to inspect more than 90,000 facilities to reduce deadly threat
WASHINGTON - The military is racing to inspect more than 90,000 U.S.-run facilities across Iraq to reduce a deadly threat troops face far off the battlefield: electrocution or shock while showering or using appliances.

Pfc. Justin Shults shows some of the burn wounds he received after being electrocuted in a shower facility in Iraq, in this photo taken in January in San Antonio, Texas. Shults suffered third-degree burns on 13-percent of his body. He is suing contractor KBR Inc. for faulty wiring of the facility. (Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News via AP)

About one-third of the inspections so far have turned up major electrical problems, according to interviews and an internal military document obtained by The Associated Press. Half of the problems they found have since been fixed but about 65,000 facilities still need to be inspected, which could take the rest of this year. Senior Pentagon officials were on Capitol Hill this week for briefings on the findings.

The work assigned to Task Force SAFE, which oversees the inspections and repairs, is aimed at preventing deaths like that of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pittsburgh. He died in January 2008, one of at least three soldiers killed while showering since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Scores more soldiers suffered shocks between September 2006 and July 2008, according to a database maintained by KBR Inc., the Houston-based contractor that oversees maintenance at most U.S. facilities in Iraq.

"We got a ton of buildings we know probably aren't safe and we just don't have them done yet," said Jim Childs, an electrician the task force hired to help with the inspections. "It's Russian roulette. I cringe every time I hear of a shock."

Ron Vance, who served as a sergeant in the California Army National Guard, remembers being knocked out cold in a shower building in 2004 in Taji, Iraq. He said he screamed and fell while showering, suffering burns on his back and shoulders. Another soldier who tried to pry him from the shower head also was injured. Vance, 57, of Fresno, Calif., said he's still too traumatized to shower without his wife nearby.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., called Task Force SAFE's findings troubling. He said the task force is doing good work but said problems should have been fixed much earlier.

"Just imagine getting the news that they've done 25,000 facilities, but your son or daughter is in the 65,000 they haven't done," Casey told the AP.

Last year, 94 troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan or other Central Command countries sought medical treatment for electric shock, according to Defense Department health data. KBR's database lists 231 electric shock incidents in the more than 89,000 facilities the company runs in Iraq, according to military records.

KBR is the target of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Maseth's family. They claim the company knew there were electrical problems in the building where he died, but didn't fix them. His mother testified last year on Capitol Hill.

Army investigators have since reclassified Maseth's death as negligent homicide caused by KBR and two of its supervisors. An Army investigator said KBR failed to ensure work was done by qualified electricians and plumbers. The case is under legal review.

"KBR is not responsible for the electrocution deaths widely reported, including that of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth," Heather Browne, a KBR spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

KBR and another contractor, Arkel International, are the targets of a second lawsuit, filed by the family of another soldier electrocuted in Iraq, Staff Sgt. Christopher Lee Everett, 23, of Huntsville, Texas. Everett, a member of the Texas Army National Guard, was killed in September 2005 when the power washer he was using to clean a vehicle short-circuited.

Task Force SAFE inspectors found many of the facilities that fall under KBR's contract have electrical problems, according to an internal military document obtained by The Associated Press. Of the 20,340 maintained by KBR and inspected so far, 6,935 failed the government inspection, the document said. When about 2,000 of the buildings with faulty work were re-inspected, the facilities passed, the document said.

The Defense Contract Management Agency has accepted KBR's plans to correct the problems, according to the document the AP obtained. It said the agency will closely oversee KBR's work.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., questioned why KBR has been allowed to continue to perform electrical work in Iraq. He said the military should take a more careful look at the electrical work in Afghanistan, too, where KBR also has a large contract for electrical work.

"If they found widespread problems, the obvious question is why has there not been action to remove the contract and bring in another contractor?" Dorgan said.

Browne, the company spokeswoman, said KBR has cooperated with the government, performing technical inspection and providing requested information.

Task Force SAFE (the acronym stands for Safety Action for Fire and Electricity) said it is making progress. The Army is tracking reports of just over two fires each day in Iraq, mostly blamed on electrical faults. But that's down from nearly five fires a day, Brig. Gen. Kurt Stein said in an e-mail to the AP. Stein said the number of electrical shocks has also been reduced.

"Although we are still seeing some electrical shocks, they tend to be minor and are often preventable," Stein said.

In addition to the repairs, Stein said the military has purchased more reliable surge protectors to replace ones that had been bought in Iraq.

"Our hearts go out to the families of those who died or were injured from electrical shock or fire," Stein said. "We take our job to inspect, identify, repair and prevent electrical and fire incidents very seriously."

Vance, the guardsman who was shocked in the shower, said the military didn't take his injuries seriously. He's since retired on partial disability from the Veterans Affairs Department for a "cognitive disorder" related to the incident, but he has sought additional compensation for what he describes as ongoing knee and shoulder problems for falling in the shower.

"I really don't think they cared. I didn't die," Vance said. "It wasn't a priority on their list. It was like, he's fine. He's alive. He's OK."

Nation Waits for FDA Overhaul

stephley — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:14:31 -0700

Agency is so understaffed, it inspects less than 1 percent of imported food
Tom Costello Published April 26, 2009 by NBC News

The Food and Drug Administration may be the only federal agency that both political parties agree is in desperate need of an overhaul.

The FDA is so understaffed it inspects less than 1 percent of imported food.President Barack Obama is promising action, though progress has been slow in the first 100 days. His choice to head the FDA - Dr. Margaret Hamburg - still has not been confirmed by congress.

Assuming Hamburg is confirmed, she will head an agency whose own Science Board concluded more than two years ago "is at risk of failing to carry out its mandate, leaving our citizens at risk of grievous harm."

The FDA is responsible for overseeing the safety of the nation's foods, drugs, medical devices and consumer products. In each of those areas, the agency is widely regarded as having fallen down on the job.

But its biggest black eye comes from the way the agency has handled its food safety responsibilities.

Safety of the food supply The president has promised to act quickly to ensure the safety of the nation's food supply, following the most recent salmonella outbreak involving peanut butter that has sickened nearly 500 people and killed 10.

That outbreak follows others involving baby formula, pet food, spinach, jalapenos, cooked ham, anchovies - and the list goes on.

After pointing out that America's food safety laws have not been updated since they were written during Teddy Roosevelt's administration, the president announced the creation of a new "Food Safety Working Group." The group's mission is to determine how our food safety laws need to be overhauled.

During an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer on the Today Show, Obama said "at a bare minimum, we should be able to count on our government keeping our kids safe when they eat peanut butter."

"That's what Sasha eats for lunch," he added, referring to his daughter.

Among the FDA's handicaps is enforcing food safety; it does not have the authority to order a recall on its own. It relies on the cooperation of food providers to voluntarily recall products.

Complicating efforts, the FDA is not alone in policing food safety. Even though the FDA is responsible for 75 percent of the food supply, the USDA actually gets 80 percent of the food safety funding, though its responsibilities are limited to meat and poultry.

Marion Nestle, the author of "Safe Food" and a professor of food studies and public health at New York University, writes in the San Francisco Chronicle "this weird division of responsibility began in 1906, and it's breathtaking in its irrationality. The FDA oversees the safety of cheese pizza; the USDA oversees pepperoni pizza."

Meanwhile, the FDA is so understaffed, it's only able to inspect roughly 1 percent of foods that are imported into the country. And the rate of inspections at U.S. plants isn't much better. The FDA had not inspected Peanut Corporation of America's Georgia plant since 2001. Investigators say PCA's own internal tests repeatedly found salmonella traces, but it continued to sell peanut butter products.

The Obama administration has already signaled that it intends to streamline the entire food safety process.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak told NBC News in February that "we need to figure out how to coordinate what FDA does and USDA does and ultimately merge those entities into a single food agency that would be responsible for all food products so that there's no possibility of something falling through the cracks."

Don't be surprised if a central theme in the president's Food Safety Working Group includes merging the responsibilities of the USDA and FDA into a single agency.

However, experts also suggest food safety will not improve unless cities and states also improve their food safety procedures.

A stronger FDA Look for Obama to increase oversight of imports and closer inspection of domestic food production as well, though it's unlikely a new food safety agency would have the manpower necessary to inspect every import and every U.S. plant involved in food or drug manufacturing.

The FDA's own Science Board notes "there are 375,000 establishments making FDA-regulated products."

"In just a decade, there has been a ten-fold increase in imports, coming from more than 100 other countries. Over 50 percent of drugs are imported, along with 15 percent of our food supply," according to the report.

Former FDA Associate Commissioner William Hubbard told NBC News "I think the agency is at a tipping point. If change doesn't come in terms of new management and resources, they could be a failed institution."

While former President George W. Bush preferred a market-based approach to food and drug safety, Democrats in Congress are already moving toward giving the FDA more power.

The House passed a bill on April 2 that would give the FDA the power to change the ingredients in cigarettes and mandate new warning labels. However, the bill stops short of giving the FDA the authority to ban tobacco products or nicotine. A similar bill is under consideration in the Senate.

Tobacco is considered a leading cause of preventable deaths in America, killing more than 400,000 people each year. Yet until now, tobacco products have been among the least-regulated products in the nation. Even Obama has been trying to wean himself off the habit.

Assuming she is confirmed by the Senate, Hamburg will have her hands full when she takes over as FDA Commissioner.

Her track record suggests she's up for the challenge. Her resume includes stints as the senior scientist for the Nuclear Threat Initiative where she also served as vice president of biological programs; assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services; New York City health commissioner.

She's also held positions with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at HHS.

The White House's priorities, and her own, will likely be revealed during her confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill.

Oops! Killing Pigs Not Egypt's Best Idea

stephley — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:52:34 -0700

Belatedly, Egypt Spots Flaws in Wiping Out Pigs
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
CAIRO - It is unlikely anyone has ever come to this city and commented on how clean the streets are. But this litter-strewn metropolis is now wrestling with a garbage problem so severe it has managed to incite its weary residents and command the attention of the president.

“The problem is clear in the streets,” said Haitham Kamal, a spokesman for the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs. “There is a strict and intensive effort now from the state to address this issue.”

But the crisis should not have come as a surprise.

When the government killed all the pigs in Egypt this spring - in what public health experts said was a misguided attempt to combat swine flu - it was warned the city would be overwhelmed with trash.

The pigs used to eat tons of organic waste. Now the pigs are gone and the rotting food piles up on the streets of middle-class neighborhoods like Heliopolis and in the poor streets of communities like Imbaba.

Ramadan Hediya, 35, who makes deliveries for a supermarket, lives in Madinat el Salam, a low-income community on the outskirts of Cairo.

“The whole area is trash,” Mr. Hediya said. “All the pathways are full of trash. When you open up your window to breathe, you find garbage heaps on the ground.”

What started out as an impulsive response to the swine flu threat has turned into a social, environmental and political problem for the Arab world’s most populous nation.

It has exposed the failings of a government where the power is concentrated at the top, where decisions are often carried out with little consideration for their consequences and where follow-up is often nonexistent, according to social commentators and government officials.

“The main problem in Egypt is follow-up,” said Sabir Abdel Aziz Galal, chief of the infectious disease department at the Ministry of Agriculture. “A decision is taken, there is follow-up for a period of time, but after that, they get busy with something else and forget about it. This is the case with everything.”

Speaking broadly, there are two systems for receiving services in Egypt: The government system and the do-it-yourself system. Instead of following the channels of bureaucracy, most people rely on an informal system of personal contacts and bribes to get a building permit, pass an inspection, get a driver’s license - or make a living.

“The straight and narrow path is just too bureaucratic and burdensome for the rich person, and for the poor, the formal system does not provide him with survival, it does not give him safety, security or meet his needs,” said Laila Iskandar Kamel, chairwoman of a community development organization in Cairo.

Cairo’s garbage collection belonged to the informal sector. The government hired multinational companies to collect the trash, and the companies decided to place bins around the city.

But they failed to understand the ethos of the community. People do not take their garbage out. They are accustomed to seeing someone collecting it from the door.

For more than half a century, those collectors were the zabaleen, a community of Egyptian Christians who live on the cliffs on the eastern edge of the city. They collected the trash, sold the recyclables and fed the organic waste to their pigs - which they then slaughtered and ate.

Killing all the pigs, all at once, “was the stupidest thing they ever did,” Ms. Kamel said, adding, “This is just one more example of poorly informed decision makers.”

When the swine flu fear first emerged, long before even one case was reported in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak ordered that all the pigs be killed in order to prevent the spread of the disease.

When health officials worldwide said that the virus was not being passed by pigs, the Egyptian government said that the cull was no longer about the flu, but was about cleaning up the zabaleen’s crowded, filthy, neighborhood.

That was in May.

Today the streets of the zabaleen community are as packed with stinking trash and as clouded with flies as ever before. But the zabaleen have done exactly what they said they would do: they stopped taking care of most of the organic waste.

Instead they dump it wherever they can or, at best, pile it beside trash bins scattered around the city by the international companies that have struggled in vain to keep up with the trash.

“They killed the pigs, let them clean the city,” said Moussa Rateb, a former garbage collector and pig owner who lives in the community of the zabaleen. “Everything used to go to the pigs, now there are no pigs, so it goes to the administration.”

The recent trash problem was compounded when employees of one of the multinational companies - men and women in green uniforms with crude brooms dispatched around the city - stopped working in a dispute with the city.

The government says that the dispute has been resolved, but nothing has been done to repair the damage to the informal system that once had the zabaleen take Cairo’s trash home.

The garbage is only the latest example of the state’s struggling to meet the needs of its citizens, needs as basic as providing water, housing, health care and education.

The government announced last week that schools would not be opened until the first week of October to give the government time to prepare for a potential swine flu outbreak, a decision that could have been made anytime over the past three months, while schools were closed for summer break, critics said.

Officials in the Ministry of Health and other government ministries said they had not made this decision - and that they had counseled against pre-emptive school closings.

It appears to have been ordered by the presidency and carried out by the governors, who also ordered that all private schools, already in class, be shut down as well.

“We did not propose or call for postponing schools, so the reason is not with us,” said an official in the Ministry of Health who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to the news media.

The heads of three large governorates, or states, in Egypt announced Wednesday that their strategy for keeping schoolchildren safe was to take classes, which on average are crowded with more than 60 students, and split them in half and have children attend school only three days a week, another decision that was criticized. There have been more than 800 confirmed cases of H1N1 in Egypt, and two flu-related deaths.

“The state is troubled; as a result the system of decision making is disintegrating,” said Galal Amin, an economist, writer and social critic. “They are ill-considered decisions taken in a bit of a hurry, either because you’re trying to please the president or because you are a weak government that is anxious to please somebody.”

Cairo’s streets have always been busy with children and littered with trash.

Now, with the pigs gone, and the schools closed, they are even more so.

“The Egyptians are really in a mess,” Mr. Amin said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/world/africa/20cairo.html?_r=3&pagewan...

Salmonella outbreak strikes 21, prompts beef recall

bluesarahlou — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:00:08 -0700

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – At least 21 people in Colorado and 10 other U.S. states have been sickened by a salmonella outbreak that prompted the recall of more than 800,000 pounds of ground beef, federal and state officials said on Friday.

Raw hamburger associated with known illnesses in Colorado was traced to Beef Packers Inc. in Fresno, California, a unit of Minneapolis-based agribusiness giant Cargill Inc, officials said.

Beef Packers' voluntary recall of nearly 826,000 pounds (375,000 kilograms) of ground beef was announced on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The company said the recalled meat, which was produced from June 5 to June 23, was shipped to retail outlets in 12 Western states, including Safeway stores, Sam's Club stores and United Grocers stores.

"We are working with retailers to ensure that all of the ground beef subject to the recall has been removed from the meat case," Beef Packers said in a statement.

A spokesman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, Bryn Burkard, said confirmed salmonella poisoning cases linked to the meat in question had surfaced in 11 states, with the bulk of the cases, at least 21, in Colorado. The other states were not immediately identified.

The Colorado Department of Health and Environment said four people have been hospitalized but all were recovering.

Burkard said the latest outbreak was caused by the so-called Newport strain of salmonella bacteria, which is resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics and more frequently results in hospitalization.

Dr. David Acheson, a physician and former head of food safety for the Food and Drug Administration who now works as a private consultant, said the Newport strain is often found in dairy cows, which are typically slaughtered for ground beef when they grow too old to yield milk.

A Cargill spokeswoman declined to comment on the origin of the beef that was recalled.

Acheson said the latest recall, which follows a salmonella-related recall of raw hamburger in July by another producer, is relatively significant in size.

"When you're getting up to a million pounds, that's a lot of meat," he said.

Salmonella is a common food-borne bacteria that causes acute gastrointestinal illness and can be life-threatening in patients with weakened immune systems, though its presence in food does not trigger an automatic recall under current regulations.

Recalls are mandatory for contamination by the more lethal E. coli bacteria.

The latest salmonella outbreak follows a string of food-borne safety scares that led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation last week to require more inspections and oversight of food manufacturers and would give the government new authority to order recalls.

SOURCE

Biden’s Version

Grandpa — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:57:11 -0700

Biden’s Version
By the Editors (National Review Online)

There’s a line in the movie Dave in which a guy impersonating the president, looking for ways to cut the budget, asks his commerce secretary, “So, we’re spending $47 million so that somebody can feel better about a car that they have already bought?” It doesn’t cost $47 million to get Joe Biden to give a speech - he’ll talk anywhere, anytime, at great length, for free - and his address to the Brookings Institution on Thursday was intended to prevent buyer’s remorse. America already has bought the $787 billion stimulus package and will be paying off that bill for a very long time. Was it a good buy? Two hundred days later, unemployment still is creeping upward, almost at 10 percent, and the public is starting to wonder why it is getting so little bang for its buck. President Obama, just returned from Martha’s Vineyard, dispatched Biden to make Americans feel better.

But in making his case for the stimulus, Biden - exaggerated. Just a little. First, he offered a revisionist history of the financial crisis and the administration’s response to it. Biden said that when Obama took office, the economy was “on the verge of failure. Credit was frozen. Businesses couldn’t borrow for inventory, much less expand or hire.” Not really. By January, the worst of the crisis had passed. Problems remained, but the credit markets had mostly thawed, aided by unprecedented interventions from the Treasury and the Fed to guarantee interbank lending.

Biden also exaggerated when he said, “We took the very unpopular, but necessary, step of rescuing the banks.” Actually, the Bush administration did that. The Obama administration’s only notable contribution to the constellation of bank bailouts was the Public-Private Investment Program, a dimly burning star that tanked with investors when it was unveiled and hasn’t really been heard from since.

“And now,” Biden added, “although there’s a long way to go, eight out of ten of the largest financial institutions in America . . . have repaid the government in full, and, I might add, at a $4 billion profit for the taxpayers.” As Biden failed to mention, that $4 billion profit is dwarfed by the hundreds of billions in debt and dubious equity the taxpayers still have tied up in failed companies like AIG, Citigroup, and Fannie and Freddie, much of which is unlikely ever to be profitably resolved. A long way to go, indeed.

Biden said that the administration “took action in stabilizing the housing market, allowing responsible homeowners to stay in their homes. And we’re beginning to see the results of that.” But the administration’s efforts have not had much of an effect on foreclosures, primarily because the slice of borrowers who are good loan-modification risks is relatively small. Most borrowers who fall behind in their payments either catch up eventually without help or can’t catch up no matter what.

That’s four big exaggerations or omissions, and we haven’t even gotten to the stimulus yet. Biden kicked off this portion of the speech with a silly metaphor. Critics of the stimulus, he said, call it “a grab-bag of too many different programs. But the fact is . . . the Recovery Act is not a single silver bullet. I think of it as silver buckshot, as opposed to a single bullet.” This is an illuminating analogy. Think of the stimulus as scattering the nation’s silver instead of hitting targets with precise shots.

According to its starry-eyed backers, the stimulus was supposed to fund hundreds of infrastructure projects, create thousands of “green-collar jobs,” put millions back to work - fast. But the money for such projects has slowed to a trickle. Instead, the bulk of the stimulus has gone to pay for tax rebates, income redistribution, and bailouts for fiscally incontinent state governments, all of which Biden ignored in his speech.

On tax rebates: “My Republican friends - as my mother would say, God love them - forget that they insisted on $288 billion in tax cuts.” Wrong. The tax rebates in the stimulus were included to fulfill Obama’s campaign pledge that 95 percent of Americans would receive a tax cut. It’s strange that his administration would “blame” the Republicans for insisting on tax rebates that Obama now wants to extend. If it had been up to conservatives, the tax cuts would have taken the form of rate reductions, not rebates.

On income transfers such as extensions of unemployment benefits, food stamps, and Medicaid: “I know my Republican critics think maybe we shouldn’t do that. Maybe that’s the difference between being a Democrat and a Republican. . . . I believe this was the right thing to do morally.” Putting aside the question of whether these programs are morally virtuous, Republicans opposed these provisions of the stimulus bill because they all but locked states into making “temporary” extensions of these programs permanent, inflicting enormous expenses down the line. This is why some governors, such as Rick Perry of Texas, said thanks, but no.

On state bailouts: “Ask the governors, Republican and Democrat. Without the billions of dollars in Recovery Act stabilization funds coming in, could they have maintained essential services in their states?” That is mostly true of Republicans named Arnold Schwarzenegger and of Democrats in blue states that have redefined “essential services” to include six-figure annual pensions for state employees and health insurance for “children” up to the age of 25.

As far as infrastructure spending is concerned, Biden talked a good game. But a brutal fact-check issued hours after the speech by the Associated Press noted a number of exaggerations and omissions in this part of his speech, too. Biden neglected to mention the dramatic slowdown in highway spending, numerous complaints of waste because of a lack of competitive bidding, and more than $1 billion spent to “repair” bridges that passed recent inspections with high marks.

“If you look at the Recovery Act as a two-year marathon,” Biden said, “we’re at the nine-mile mark. . . . Two hundred days in, the Recovery Act is doing more, faster and more efficiently and more effectively than most people expected.” To the contrary: There are plenty of reasons to think that the stimulus has been as inefficient and ineffective as its critics feared it would be - unemployment is getting worse rather than improving as predicted, countries that spent less on stimulus (and those that employed tax-rate reductions), are recovering more quickly, etc. - and Biden’s exaggerations only served to highlight these reasons.

We don’t feel better. Do you?

Breeders Snap at Dog Law Improvements

genesisrocks — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:14:49 -0700

By Stu Bykofsky
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Columnist

After a couple of decades of struggling to improve disgusting and inhumane conditions in Pennsylvania kennels, the good guys finally won last fall. Gov. Rendell happily signed Act 119 into law, which made modest improvements to the miserable health and welfare "standards" permitted under existing dog law.

About four months later, having lost their battle in the court of public opinion and the Legislature, commercial dog breeders - some of them little better than torturers - sued the state in U.S. District Court to overturn the new rules mandating veterinary care, solid flooring in cages and more cage space than a mail box.

Specifically, when the Professional Dog Abusers Advisory Council sued state Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff, they made a federal case out of it.

(Editor's note: The actual name is the Professional Dog Breeders Advisory Council.)

In a 51-page filing, the Breeders Advisory Council, represented by the Lancaster law firm of Clymer & Musser, discharged a load of buckshot.

I asked attorney Leonard Brown III to select the two or three most salient points.

The law's alleged unequal treatment of private and commercial kennels, he said, lack of due process in awarding and suspending licenses and "warrantless inspections not supported by probable cause."

The state Attorney General's Office declined comment, as did defendant Wolff, but who made available Jessie Smith, the special deputy secretary for Dog Law Enforcement.

She also declined comment, but I asked her hypothetically, about warrantless inspections, by what right do dog wardens make unannounced inspections?

"Kennels are licensed and a dog warden is going in just like a restaurant inspector to make sure it is complying with state regulation," she said, adding they can only inspect the kennels, they can't go nosing around the breeder's home.

A coalition of animal groups, led by the Humane Society of the United States, has filed friend of the court briefs in support of the law. U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo has yet to set a court date.

I wanted to know what matters the Professional Dog Abusers Advisory Council, formed in late 2007, advises the Pennsylvania Professional Dog Abusers Association about, but messages left for Pennsylvania Professional Dog Breeders Association (PPDBA) lobbyist Ken Brandt were not returned.

Might the matters include keeping dogs locked in undersized, filthy, wire-bottom cages for their entire lives? Absence of heat in the winter and shade in the summer? Denying dogs access to water and veterinary care? Or maybe practices such as getting rid of dogs by shooting them or "debarking" them to keep them quiet by jamming a PVC tube down their throats to destroy their vocal cords? All that was legal - and happened - under the old law.

The PPDBA Web site talks a lot about the breeders' rights. Not so prominent is the dogs' welfare.

Before I go too far down this road, some members of the PPDBA care for their animals, breed them carefully, raise them humanely, sell them only to good homes.

Problem is, while 300 breeders are members of the PPDBA, some 2,500 state-licensed kennels are not. Who knows what's on their minds?

To many mass breeders - and they are numerous because 890,061 dogs were imprisoned in Pennsylvania kennels last year - innocent puppies are a commodity, requiring no more care than summer squash. Their mothers were treated even worse. Until the law was upgraded, pet profiteers lawfully imprisoned mother dogs for their entire lives in tiny wire cages. They were production units, nothing more.

If you want to see what some loathsome "breeders" do, Animal Planet is premiering a one-hour documentary, "Puppy Mills: Exposed," tonight at 10.

The first part deals with Pennsylvania, condemned as the "puppy mill capital of the East." The rest of the show focuses on Tennessee and Miami, where conditions are even more appalling.

The revolting abuses - multiple dogs stuffed into a cage, dogs with serious birth defects, dead puppies in cages, feces in food dishes - are not the worst I've reported on. It will impact anyone who's ever shared a life with a dog, and should sicken anyone with a heart and a conscience.

Act 119 intended to reduce the cycle of abuse, neglect and extreme misery.

So now Pennsylvania kennel dogs' fate is in the hands of a judge named Rambo. I hope her read of the Constitution is less "Judge Dredd" and more "Rocky," and that justice will comfort the underdog and protect the voiceless. *

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/stu_bykofsky/20090427_Stu_Byk...

Largest Recall of Ground Beef Is Ordered 2/18/08 by the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company

tdsollog — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:18:43 -0800

Courtesy of the NY Times:
Largest Recall of Ground Beef Is Ordered Published: February 18, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/business/18recall.html?th&emc=th

A California meat company on Sunday issued the largest beef recall in history, 143 million pounds, some of which was used in school lunch programs, Department of Agriculture officials announced.

The recall by the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company, based in Chino, Calif., comes after a widening animal-abuse scandal that started after the Humane Society of the United States distributed an undercover video on Jan. 30 that showed workers kicking sick cows and using forklifts to force them to walk.

The video raised questions about the safety of the meat, because cows that cannot walk, called downer cows, pose an added risk of diseases including mad cow disease. The federal government has banned downer cows from the food supply.

Agriculture officials said there was little health risk from the recalled meat because the animals had already passed pre-slaughter inspection and much of the meat had already been eaten. In addition, the officials noted that while mad cow disease was extremely rare, the brains and spinal cords from the animals - the area most likely to harbor the disease - would not have entered the human food chain.

“The great majority has probably been consumed,” said Dr. Richard Raymond, the Agriculture Department’s under secretary for food safety.

The video was embarrassing for the Department of Agriculture, as inspectors are supposed to be monitoring slaughterhouses for abuse. It surfaced after a year of increasing concerns about the safety of the meat supply amid a sharp increase in the number of recalls tied to a particularly deadly form of the E. coli pathogen.

There were 21 recalls of beef related to the potentially deadly strain of E. coli last year, compared with eight in 2006 and five in 2005. No one is quite sure what caused the increase, though theories include the cyclical nature of pathogens and changes in cattle-feeding practices caused by the ethanol boom.

The recall on Sunday was more than four times bigger than the previous record, the 1999 recall of 35 million pounds of ground beef by Thorn Apple Valley, federal officials said.

It was prompted by a Department of Agriculture investigation that found that Westland/Hallmark did not always alert federal veterinarians when its cows became unable to walk after passing inspection, as required.

“Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, F.S.I.S. has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall,” Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said in a statement. F.S.I.S. is the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Technically, the Department of Agriculture does not have the authority to recall meat. However, it can withdraw its inspectors from a plant, putting pressure on a company to issue a recall.

The company is recalling all its raw and frozen beef products since Feb. 1, 2006. Of the 143 million pounds that were recalled, 37 million went to make hamburgers, chili and tacos for school lunches and other federal nutrition programs, officials said.

Cows that cannot walk are banned for use in the food supply because they pose an added risk of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a fatal disease that eats away at the brain. There have been three confirmed cases of infected cattle in this country since 2003.

The announcement on Sunday was classified as a Class II recall, indicating that the chances of health hazards were remote. Other large recalls involving E. coli have been Class I recalls, indicating that eating the product may cause serious health problems or even death.

Officials at Westland/Hallmark meat could not be located on Sunday for comment.

Some critics pointed out that the recall exposed gaps in the nation’s system for food safety.

“The recall is obviously the big news,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society. “The longer-term problem is the inadequacies of the inspection system. How can so many downers have been mistreated day after day within a U.S.D.A. oversight system that was present at the plant?

“We need more boots on the ground at the plants,” he said.

The undercover video, shown on television and on YouTube and other Web sites, has caused an uproar since its release.

The Department of Agriculture started an inquiry and suspended the company as a supplier to federal nutrition programs. Steve Mendell, president of Westland/Hallmark, said afterward that he was “shocked and horrified” by the videos and voluntarily suspended operations pending the outcome of the federal inquiry.

On Friday, the San Bernardino district attorney, Michael A. Ramos, filed animal cruelty charges against two employees fired by the meat company. Daniel Agarte Navarro was charged with five felonies and three misdemeanors, and Luis Sanchez with three misdemeanors.

While acknowledging that most of the meat had been eaten, agriculture officials said the recall was necessary to find all the meat that had not been consumed and because the plant was not following the rules.

“The reason for doing this is because the plant was not in compliance with F.S.I.S. regulations, and therefore it is an unfit product,” said Dr. Kenneth Petersen, assistant administrator for the F.S.I.S.

Department of Agriculture inspectors conduct pre-slaughter inspections on all cattle on the day of slaughter. If an animal becomes unable to walk, before or at the time it is presented for slaughter, employees of the slaughterhouse are required to summon a Department of Agriculture veterinarian.

The veterinarian then has the discretion to determine whether the animal is fit for slaughter. The Department of Agriculture contends that employees at Westland/Hallmark sometimes failed to notify the veterinarian when animals could not walk after being inspected.

Agriculture officials said in a statement that they thought the case was “an isolated incident of egregious violations to humane handling requirements and the prohibition of non-ambulatory disabled cattle from entering the food supply.”

The Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for the safety of meat, poultry and eggs, has 7,800 inspectors who check more than 6,200 plants. In 2007, the agency suspended 66 plants; 12 of which were related to humane handling violations.

Ana Facio Contreras contributed reporting.

New Jersey: Man dies in chocolate; Camden plant may be illegal

tdsollog — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:18:39 -0700

Man dies in chocolate; Camden plant may be illegal
By Matthew Spolar and Matt Katz
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20090709_Man_dies_in_chocolate__...
Inquirer Staff Writers

A 29-year-old man died yesterday morning after he fell into an eight-foot vat of chocolate at a Camden facility that officials think may have been operating illegally.

Vincent Smith II of Camden fell from a nine-foot platform as he was tossing blocks of solid raw chocolate into a 120-degree tank used to mix and melt the chocolate for Hershey's candy, according to Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

A coworker slammed on an emergency shutoff switch as two others tried to rescue Smith, Laughlin said, but Smith, a temporary worker, was hit by a paddlelike mechanism that mixes the chocolate. He was dead when firefighters pulled his body out about 10:45 a.m.

The companies involved - Moorestown-based Lyons & Sons and a subcontractor, Cocoa Services - may have been operating illegally in Camden.

Lyons lacks a certificate of occupancy and business license in Camden, said Iraida Afanador, the city's director of code enforcement. There is no record of either company at the 36th Street address in the city's tax records.

"We need to speak to the owner to find out why he's conducting business without a license in the city of Camden, so summons and violations will be issued," Afanador said. "I'm curious now, because a life has been taken, and we want to figure out who is the owner."

Lyons is listed online as an authorized member of Camden's Urban Enterprise Zone. Afanador said she would check paper records today to investigate the history of the property.

Laughlin said the plant, once a Campbell Soup Co. location, has processed chocolate for six or seven years.

A message left for Lyons at its Moorestown office was not returned. Laughlin said he had no information on Cocoa Services; a call to the phone number listed for the company online was answered by a woman as "Lyons & Sons Inc."

The companies are incorporated as affiliates of Transmar Commodity Group Ltd. in Morristown, N.J., according to a Transmar Web site. That company does not own the building, said Mary Johnson, its senior vice president.

"Right now we don't have any details to discuss," she said. "We are in the dark as well."

Laughlin said the investigation so far indicates the death was accidental. The mixing was a daily task, he said.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it also was investigating the incident. Lyons does not have any prior OSHA violations. But Afanador said that because the city Bureau of License and Inspection did not know about the business, it would not have made spot safety checks and referred problems to OSHA.

In July 2002, a 19-year-old worker died when he fell into a vat for mixing and melting chocolate at a plant in Hatfield Township, Montgomery County. An autopsy determined that the man died of asphyxiation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact staff writer Matt Katz at 856-779-3919 or mkatz@phillynews.com.

JOHN STOSSEL GIVES HIS TAKE ON TOUGH SUBJECTS, ON “YOU CAN’T EVEN TALK ABOUT IT,” FRIDAY, MAY 8 ON “20/20″

Grandpa — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:53:36 -0700

JOHN STOSSEL GIVES HIS TAKE ON TOUGH SUBJECTS, ON “YOU CAN’T EVEN TALK ABOUT IT,” FRIDAY, MAY 8 ON “20/20″
May 7, 2009 by J!-ENT
From pregnancy discrimination laws to doing less for senior citizens, from farming endangered animals to letting athletes do steroids, John Stossel brings us his take on tough subjects in an hour-long report, “You Can’t Even Talk About It,” airing on “20/20,” FRIDAY, MAY 8 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. Reports include:

America Needs to Do Less for Its Senior Citizens: Stossel reports when Medicare was created, senior citizens did not live as long, and medicine offered fewer wonderful but expensive treatments. Now Medicare is headed towards bankruptcy. Government has promised seniors $34 trillion dollars more than it has funded. It amounts to generational theft, says Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute. “The government spends around $6 on seniors for every dollar it spends on children, and yet the poverty rate among children is far higher than it is among seniors,” he says. Stossel confronts seniors about it. Some say, “we’ve paid our dues” and “every paycheck, money was deducted.” But in fact, today the average Medicare beneficiary collects two to three times more than they paid in. Why do even wealthy seniors feel entitled to have taxpayer-subsidized access to state of the art medical care?

Pregnancy Discrimination Lawsuits: To protect pregnant women at work, Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. It makes it illegal to fire, not hire, or to pay a woman less because she is pregnant. Today employers are even warned not to ask in a job interview, “Are you pregnant?” or “Might you start a family?” If the new law was supposed to end discrimination, it has not - the number of pregnancy discrimination complaints is on the rise. Stossel argues that the law does more harm than good. Carrie Lukas, a pregnant Vice-President of the Independent Women’s Forum, says: “Sometimes the laws that are intended to help women like me actually end up hurting women like me. All of a sudden a potential employer is looking at me and thinking… ’she just might turn around and sue us.’ That makes it less likely that I’m going to get hired.”

The Best Way to Save Many Endangered Species Is to Eat Them: International bans on the trade of rare animal parts (tiger organs, elephant tusks, rhino horns) have been about as successful as the international war on drugs. Wild tigers and many of the world’s most prized species are disappearing. Why? Because wherever there is a demand strong enough, market forces overwhelm law enforcement. Terry Anderson of PERK, the Property and Environmental Resource Center, claims that governments have repeatedly failed when they tried to save animals by banning their sale: failed with the Colobus monkey in West Africa… with the alligator in China… and now, with the tiger in Asia. By contrast, does America have a shortage of chickens? No. Because people own them and eat them. Allowing private owners to sell animals for food or tourism saved the Rhino and the elephant in Africa, and the bison in America. Stossel says it could work for other endangered species too, if environmental groups would drop their resistance.

Rescuing Risk Takers: Thrill-seekers hoping to surf the most difficult ocean wave, to bushwhack through treacherous back-country terrain or to catch the biggest ice-water fish sometimes take unnecessary risks, disregarding weather forecasts or warning signs. If they need to be rescued, let’s bill them for the cost of the rescue, says Stossel. New Hampshire does that. Stossel confronts the rescued, who say “no,” tax dollars should pay.

Let Them Do Steroids: Stossel asks: After years of hand-wringing over steroids in baseball, the Olympics, the Tour de France and other sports, isn’t it time to acknowledge that athletes will always be looking for ways to get a competitive edge, and, instead of treating them like children, to let them go ahead and just do it?

Radiating Food Makes It Unsafe to Eat: Last month President Obama told us the fact that 95% of food not inspected by the FDA is “…a hazard to the public health…” But he did not mention that there is one way to make food safe: irradiate it. Irradiation means moving food though a stream of ionized energy - it’s a little like x-raying it, but with more power. The point is to kill bacteria. And it works. Irradiated meat stays fresh twice as long. Irradiated strawberries last up to three weeks on the shelf. But media hype and small scare groups have made people wary of food irradiation. Ruth Kava of the American Council on Science and Health says the anti-irradiation movement is all about ignorant fear of radiation.