Wealthy Are Fleeing America in Record Numbers

October 27,2009

New York Post

By Andy Soltis

New Yorkers are fleeing the state and city in alarming numbers — and costing a fortune in lost tax dollars, a new study shows.

More than 1.5 million state residents left for other parts of the United States from 2000 to 2008, according to the report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy. It was the biggest out-of-state migration in the country.

The vast majority of the migrants, 1.1 million, were former residents of New York City — meaning one out of seven city taxpayers moved out.

New Yorkers are fleeing the state and city in alarming numbers — and costing a fortune in lost tax dollars, a new study shows.

More than 1.5 million state residents left for other parts of the United States from 2000 to 2008, according to the report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy. It was the biggest out-of-state migration in the country.

The vast majority of the migrants, 1.1 million, were former residents of New York City — meaning one out of seven city taxpayers moved out.

“The Empire State is being drained of an invaluable resource — people,” the report said.
getty images/nancyney

What’s worse is that the families fleeing New York are being replaced by lower-income newcomers, who consequently pay less in taxes.

Overall, the ex-New Yorkers earn about 13 percent more than those who moved into the state, the study found.

And it should be no surprise that the city — and Manhattan in particular — suffered the biggest loss in terms of taxable income.

The average Manhattan taxpayer who left the state earned $93,264 a year. The average newcomer to Manhattan earned only $72,726.

That’s a difference of $20,538, the highest for any county in the state. Staten Island was second, with a $20,066 difference.

It all adds up to staggering loss in taxable income. During 2006-2007, the “migration flow” out of New York to other states amounted to a loss of $4.3 billion.

The study used annual US Census reports, which showed which states had increased population, combined with Internal Revenue Service data, which show which states, cities and counties had lost people.

While New York City and the state were the losers, the Sunshine and Garden States were winners. more than 250,000 New Yorkers who lived in and around the city fled to Florida. Another 172,000 city taxpayers ended up in New Jersey.

Why all the moving vans?

The center, part of the conservative Manhattan Institute, blames the state’s high cost of living and high taxes.

The study also revealed surprising details about how city residents moved from borough to borough.

Manhattan lost 64,480 taxpayers, and more than half — 34,383 — went to The Bronx.

Brooklyn lost 68,951 taxpayers — including 43,688 who went to Staten Island.

The study also had some good news. The peak loss of New Yorkers was in 2005, when nearly 250,000 residents left the state. But last year, only 126,000 left, the lowest figure over the eight-year period.

Click here for the full report.

Little Brother: GPS for Kids

October 27, 2009

Chicago Sun-Times

By Sandra Guy

Best Buy is selling a transmitting device that lets parents keep track of their children. Parents can place the device in a child’s backpack or lunch box, for example.

The “Little Buddy Child Tracker” retails for $100 (far less than other devices that sell for $200 to $500). It combines global satellite positioning and cellular technology to signal the child’s whereabouts to a computer or smartphone.

Parents can program the device to set up specific times and locations where the child is supposed to be — in school or at home, for example — and the device sends a text message if the child leaves the site in that time.

The device immediately drew angry writeups from some techies, who called it a reason for children to run away from home.

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City to Pay for Ratting Out Tax Cheats

October 27, 2009

NBCChicago.com

By Andrew Greiner

You dirty rat.

Chicago and Cook County residents aren’t the only ones about to get shocking tax news; the city is debuting a “tax whistle-blower” plan that could turn neighbor against neighbor in Chicago’s business community.

The folks at city hall will pay cash bounties to informants who turn in business tax cheats around the city. The reward would amount to some sort of percentage of the tax money that the city recovers.

“It’s just another way of bringing people into compliance,” Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh told the Sun-Times.

“It would probably be … a business knowing that a competitor is not remitting a tax. An employee [of the tax-dodging business] could know that, too. Typically, you need to provide some type of incentive.”

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Autoimmune Disease May be coming from Home Insecticides

October 27, 2009

USA Today

New research suggests a link between women’s exposure to household insecticides — including roach and mosquito killers — and the autoimmune disorders rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

The scientist did not find a direct cause-and-effect relationship between insecticide exposure and the illnesses, and it’s possible that the women have something else in common that accounts for their higher risk. But epidemiologist Christine Parks, lead investigator of the study, said the findings do raise a red flag.

“It’s hard to envision what other factors might explain this association,” said Parks, an epidemiologist with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences who was to present the study over the weekend at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in Philadelphia.

Previous research has linked agricultural pesticides to higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, two diseases in which the immune system goes haywire and begins to attack the body. Farmers, among others, appear to be vulnerable.

Parks and her colleagues wanted to find out whether smaller doses of insecticides, such as those people might encounter at home from either personal or commercial residential use, might have a similar effect.

The researchers examined data from a previous study of almost 77,000 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79. Their findings were to be released Monday at the American College of Rheumatology’s annual scientific meeting in Philadelphia.

Women who reported applying insecticides or mixing them — about half — had a higher risk of developing the two autoimmune disorders than women who reported no insecticide use. This was the case whether or not they had lived on a farm. Those who used or mixed the insecticides the most — judged by frequency or duration — had double the risk.

Even so, the risk of developing the diseases remained very low. Overall, Parks said, about 2% of older adults develop the conditions.

Parks said the insecticides that the women used included insect killers, such as those designed to eradicate ants, wasps, termites, mosquitoes and roaches. They didn’t include insect repellents.

There are some caveats to the research. For one, it’s not clear exactly what products the women used or when. “Over time, there have been major changes in what products were available for home use,” Parks said.

And while researchers tried to take into account the influence of factors like age that may boost a woman’s risk of getting autoimmune diseases, it’s possible they missed something that boosted the risk of illness.

Could gardening, which often entails insecticide use, be a contributing factor? That’s possible. But Parks said a lot of insecticide use takes place inside the home, not outside in the garden.

For now, she said, the findings indicate the need for “more research on environmental risk factors and better understanding of what factors might explain these findings, what chemicals might be associated with these risks.”

She declined to speculate on how insecticides might cause problems in the body.

“I would recommend that people read the labels and take precautions to minimize their personal exposure” to insecticides, she said. “This is the case regardless of whether these results are implicating a chemical that’s on the market now or was before.”

Click here for the full report.

Scientists Find Early Exposure to Flu Can Help Fight H1N1

October 27, 2009

NaturalNews 

By Sherry Baker

Despite all the panic and hype about the H1N1 pandemic and the rush to immunize people in droves against the virus, the fact is — so far — the outbreak has been fairly mild. Now University of California (UC) Davis, researchers studying H1N1, formerly referred to as “swine flu,” have identified a group of immunologically important sites called epitopes in the virus that are also present in seasonal flu viruses, which have been circulating for untold years. So what does this mean? If you were exposed to the earlier influenza viruses, you probably already have some level of immunity to H1N1.

The new study would explain why so many people over the age of 60 — whose bodies were likely exposed to similar flu viruses over the decades — have been found to carry antibodies or other kinds of immunity against H1N1. In fact, the CDC now admits pre-existing antibodies against the virus are found in about one third of H1N1 2009 patients over the age of 60, a fact that shows some natural immunity to the new H1N1 virus exists in many people.

These findings indicate that human populations may have some level of existing immunity to the pandemic H1N1 influenza and may explain why the 2009 H1N1-related symptoms have been generally mild,” researcher Carol Cardona, a veterinarian and Cooperative Extension specialist at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, said in a media statement.

Cardona and UC scientist Zheng Xing recently posted their findings online in the journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases. The study is also slated for publication in the November print edition of the journal, which is published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Our hypothesis, based on the application of data collected by other researchers, suggests that cell-mediated immunity, as opposed to antibody-mediated immunity, may play a key role in lowering the disease-causing ability, or pathogenicity, of the 2009 H1N1 influenza,” Xing said in the media release.

Curiously, the new research suggests that although previous similar flu viruses seem to have produced antibodies in exposed people, these antibodies are not what are providing protection for those infected with the H1N1 2009 strain of influenza. Instead, Cardona and Xing theorize that instead of stimulating protective antibodies, the epitopes of the new H1N1 virus produce an immune response in a different way. The virus triggers production of cytotoxic T-cells that kill infected cells, attack the invading virus, and rev up the immune system.

Click here for the full report.

Using Oregano Oil to Fight Parasites

October 27, 2009

NaturalNews

By Mike Adams

It’s not widely known, but oregano extracts are extremely effective at eliminating parasites in humans. And a lot of people have parasites they simply don’t know about.

So here, we’ve collected a number of supporting statements about the anti-parasitic properties of oregano. You’ll learn a wealth of information by reading what follows. But before we present the list, let me recommend three sources for oregano oil that you might want to check out after reading this:

Global Healing Center: www.GHChealth.com

North American Herb & Spice: www.P-73.com

Vitacost: www.vitacost.com

Just search for “oregano” on any of these three websites and you’ll find what you’re looking for. I strongly recommend all three of these companies, and I personally know their owners. (I have no financial relationship whatsoever with any of these companies and don’t earn anything from the sales of oregano products.)

Oregano vs. parasites
Also called wild marjoram and Mexican wild sage, oregano has a peppery flavor with a hint of sage and thyme. Chinese doctors have used oregano for centuries to treat fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and skin problems. It helps to loosen and remove mucus. It is a digestive aid and is thought to help get rid of intestinal parasites. Oregano is known to have powerful antioxidant and anticancer activity. In a study at Georgetown University, essential oil of oregano inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus (staph) bacteria in the test tube as effectively as antibiotics did.
- Prescription for Dietary Wellness: Using Foods to Heal by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC

Some herbs and their extracts, too, may be helpful, such as oil of oregano, garlic, citrus seed extract, berberine, plant tannins, undecylenate, and caprylic acid. Intestinal parasites are not uncommon and also should be identified and treated. A stool sample sent to an experienced lab can identify most intestinal parasites. Treatment often requires medications such as Flagyl, Humatin, or Yodoxin, although some herbals, such as artemisia, oil of oregano, and berberine, may also be helpful.
- Ultraprevention : The 6-Week Plan That Will Make You Healthy for Life by Mark Hyman, M.D.

The essential oil of Oregano has been demonstrated to be a potent antioxidant. The non-polar fraction of the residue obtained after the essential oil is removed from Oregano also exhibited antioxidant activity. Tocopherols, especially gamma tocopherol, have been identified as the major antioxidative components of the non-polar fraction, accounting for as much as 1% of the constituents of the non-polar fraction. Oil of Oregano inhibited enteric parasites in adults.
- PDR for Herbal Medicines, Fourth Edition by Thomson Healthcare, Inc.

In one study, 77 percent of patients treated for enteric parasites were parasite free after taking oil of oregano in tablet form for six weeks. At this writing, it has inhibited the growth of at least ten different microbes, including Candida albicans (yeast). To top it off, oregano – like its relative rosemary – contains the powerful compound rosmarinic acid, which has been found to have anti-mutagenic and anti-carcinogenic properties.

To continue reading the report, click here.

Best and Worst States for H1N1 Flu Vaccine Info

Oct. 27, 2009

ABC News

By Courtney Hutchinson

Though the H1N1 vaccine is still not widely available, some states are doing a better job than others at keeping their public informed about where the limited supply can be found.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has admitted that getting enough vaccine to all the states will be a “bumpy road,” but a state-by-state comparison of flu Web sites reveals that some states, like New Jersey, Wisconsin and Kansas, are helping this process run a little smoother by providing vaccine locating tools, lists of local doctors who will provide the vaccine, and even phone numbers for hotlines devoted to helping the public locate a H1N1 vaccine clinic or doctor nearby.

Meanwhile, other state health department Web sites keep their citizens in the dark. For example, Alabama and Mississippi have virtually no specific information about where flu shots can be found, and at best, they suggest that you “contact your health provider” or promise that information is “coming soon.”

As of Friday, 16.1 million doses of H1N1 vaccine were available for shipping to health providers nationwide, and millions more become available every week. Now that vaccine supply is increasing, it’s up to state and local health departments to let the public know when vaccine will be coming to their area and where those eligible can go to get it.

Using the information on New Jersey’s site, one can easily find counties that have available clinics, the location of the clinics, and the times they will administer vaccine — though you must be a resident of that county to attend such a clinic. A quick statewide search turns up a few counties that are currently providing clinics; Randolph Township, for example, will hold a nasal spray clinic this Thursday for residents who are in the CDC’s priority group.

Some States Better Than Others for Online H1N1 Vaccine Info

For those not eligible to receive the nasal spray — pregnant women, for example — local health departments are taking names and contact information for a priority list. When injectable vaccine becomes available in the county, those on this list will get a call.

This is the way Washington County, Kan., is handling the situation as well. Anyone in the CDC’s priority group can be put on a list and will be called in to receive their vaccination when it arrives at their local health department.

Many other states provide this level of information. Georgia’s Web site offers a list of doctors who will provide the vaccine — to current patients and to new ones — once it’s delivered to them. Their site also connects users with local county health department clinics. While not all counties have clinics at this point, those that do, such as Jefferson County, have all the necessary information right there: dates, location, time of day and a phone number for fielding questions.

North Carolina’s Web site has a “flu clinic finder” that currently connects users to local seasonal flu clinics, but will transition seamlessly into an “H1N1 clinic finder” once enough vaccine is available.
California’s Web site, like many states’, links users out to their local county health department’s site, which can be hit or miss at finding vaccine information. If your county happens to be one of the good ones, with lots of vaccine information, then finding a clinic can take a matter of seconds.

With vaccine production chugging along, it is essential that states have means of communicating with the public so that when vaccine supply does pick up, residents will know how to get vaccinated. For example, even though Wisconsin does not yet provide H1N1 vaccine clinics on a broad basis, they already have a 2-1-1 number in place — a statewide hotline that links the public with information on a nearby flu clinic.

Click here for the full report.

Flu Pandemic May Cause Web Congestion

October 27, 2009

Reuters

By Maggie Fox

Securities exchanges have a sound network back-up if a severe pandemic keeps people home and clogging the Internet, but the Homeland Security Department has done little planning, Congressional investigators said on Monday.

The department does not even have a plan to start work on the issue, the General Accountability Office said.

But the Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth.

Experts have for years pointed to the potential problem of Internet access during a severe pandemic, which would be a unique kind of emergency. It would be global, affecting many areas at once, and would last for weeks or months, unlike a disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake.

H1N1 swine flu has been declared a pandemic but is considered a moderate one. Health experts say a worse one — or a worsening of this one — could result in 40 percent absentee rates at work and school at any given time and closed offices, transportation links and other gathering places.

Many companies and government offices hope to keep operations going as much as possible with teleworking using the Internet. Among the many problems posed by this idea, however, is the issue of bandwidth — especially the “last mile” between a user’s home and central cable systems.

“Such network congestion could prevent staff from broker-dealers and other securities market participants from teleworking during a pandemic,” reads the GAO report, available here

“The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for ensuring that critical telecommunications infrastructure is protected.”

BLOCKING WEBSITES

Private Internet providers might need government authorization to block popular websites, it said, or to reduce residential transmission speeds to make way for commerce.

The Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Homeland Security, a group of private-sector firms and financial trade associations, has been working to ensure that trading could continue if big exchanges had to close because of the risk of disease transmission.

“Because the key securities exchanges and clearing organizations generally use proprietary networks that bypass the public Internet, their ability to execute and process trades should not be affected by any congestion,” the GAO report reads.

However, not all had good plans for critical activities if many of their employees were ill, the report reads.

Homeland Security had done even less, it said.

“DHS has not developed a strategy to address potential Internet congestion,” the report said.

It had also not even checked into whether the public or even other federal agencies would cooperate, GAO said.

“The report gives the impression that there is potentially a single solution to Internet congestion that DHS could achieve if it were to develop an appropriate strategy,” DHS’s Jerald Levine retorted in a letter to the GAO.

“An expectation of unlimited Internet access during a pandemic is not realistic,” he added.

Click here for the full report.

Ron Paul Questions Why Obama’s Daughters Haven’t Gotten Vaccine

October 27, 2009

PrisonPlanet.com

By Paul Joseph Watson

Congressman Ron Paul has questioned why, despite his efforts to encourage the general public to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, President Barack Obama has refused to allow his own daughters to take the swine flu shot.

Despite the fact that Obama on Friday declared a national emergency in response to the H1N1 outbreak, he apparently doesn’t deem it enough of a threat to have his two daughters vaccinated against the virus.

Such double standards have led media pundits to call for Obama to get his daughters vaccinated on live television, in an effort to encourage American parents to do the same for their kids. The swine flu vaccination program, which was initially intended to be a “mass” inoculation covering the entire population, has been rejected by a majority of Americans who harbor deep suspicions about dangerous additives contained in the vaccine such as mercury and squalene.

In a Campaign For Liberty video message, former Presidential candidate Ron Paul labeled the vaccination program a “failure,” and slammed Obama for failing to follow the same advice he gave to the nation.

“It’s interesting to note that the President’s children have not gotten their shots and the explanation for this is it hasn’t been available to them – now that’s a little bit hard to buy when you think that probably anything the President wants can be available for their children,” said Paul, adding, “So in a way he’s made his decision not to give his children these inoculations – so if he has freedom of choice on this, I would like to make sure that all the American people have the same amount of freedom of choice.”

Others have echoed similar sentiments. “Surely if there is a national emergency and if the President and First Lady of the United States wanted flu shots for their daughters, they could get them. It is certainly connected to our national security right? I mean the president needs to have his wits about him 24/7 not worrying over sick children. Could this instead be yet another case of “do as I say, not as I do” from the Obama administration?” writes Cathryn Friar.

Paul compared Obama’s hypocrisy to politicians who lobby for the virtues of public education yet in every instance educate their own children privately.

“The biggest champions of public education make sure their kids never get public education, they always get private education where there’s a lot better choices than the kind of system they’re promoting,” said the Congressman.

Obama certainly isn’t stupid enough to inject his own kids with the same toxic soup that he encourages the idiot public to receive, and will probably be keen on getting access to the special additive-free swine flu shots produced by Baxter International that have been made available for the elite.

As Spiegel Online reported earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and government ministers received a mercury and squalene-free H1N1 vaccine. “The Vakzin [vaccine] does not contain disputed additives — contrary to the vaccine for the remainder of the population,” reported the newspaper. Soldiers in the German army were also given the adjuvant-free vaccine.

Employees of the Paul Ehrlich Institute in Germany also received the “green” inoculation after their president Johannes Löwer labeled the vaccine a greater threat than the virus itself. Löwer’s comment came after German lung specialist Wolfgang Wodarg said the vaccine increases the risk of cancer. The nutrient solution for the vaccine consists of cancerous cells from animals.

In the video update, Congressman Paul also warned that Obama’s emergency declaration on Friday was part of a plan to condition people to accept the notion of government as protector and coerce the public into complying with whatever they say, including forced quarantines.

Click here for the full report.

The Threat of Mandatory Vaccinations

October 27, 2009

Campaign for Liberty

By Adam Murdock

The H1N1 “swine” flu is an extraordinarily deadly virus.

You need to get the vaccine or you could suffer the consequences.

So-and-so has died in your neighborhood. Do you want to be next?

The above statements are typical of the lines that have been fed to the people of the world from the controlled media. In fact, the drum beat has been so deafening that you would think that people were dropping like flies. Sure there have been some deaths related to the flu but most have affected individuals with risk factors such as pre-existing lung conditions or people who are immunocompromised. Most healthy individuals that I have personally seen and in general have experienced nothing more than run of the mill flu symptoms.

Unfortunately, a lot of the hysteria has arisen out of disinformation or lack of information. I am going to address some of the disinformation by posing a few questions. First, do people die from the virus itself? And, if so, why do some individuals succumb to the virus and not others? The answers to the above questions are not commonly known but are pretty well established in the medical community. The facts are that the flu virus is seldom the sole cause of death, even among compromised individuals. In fact, many of the fatal cases arise from individuals that acquire bacterial superinfections. These bacterial infections arise after the lining of the lung is damaged by the virus which leaves the lung susceptible. The reason for this is that the lining of the lungs are critical for the removal of infectious elements and debris acquired during inhalation or from the upper respiratory tract. When these normal mechanisms breakdown or are already impaired, as is the case in pre-existing lung conditions, fatal bacterial infections can arise. It is these infections that are frequently the culprits in the flu. A result of this knowledge is that, I, as a physician am particularly cognizant of examining patients with presumed flu for signs and symptoms of pneumonia and in particular bacterial pneumonia.

What facts about the 1918 flu made some infectious disease experts worried about the swine flu this time around? The timeline of the 1918 flu was really composed of two flu seasons. The particularly virulent form of the flu was preceded by a mild flu much earlier in the season. It is believed that the milder form of the flu was able to acquire virulence factors by “mutating” into a more virulent form that affected younger, healthier patients. It was the second more virulent form that was the cause of the millions of deaths. Or was it? The media and public health officials like to blame all the deaths on the flu. As usual, there are some “confounding” variables, which in the case of the flu are other variables that may have affected the outcomes of flu victims. The first variable was sanitation. The cities of the early twentieth century were not known for their high sanitation standards. Nor was the importance of methods for preventing transmission of the virus such as hand washing and limited close contact understood. The second variable was an understanding about the virus itself and how it spreads, which as you might expect was rather limited at that time. Finally, treatment for flu patients at the time consisted entirely of supportive care. The advent of antivirals and antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial complications of the flu had yet to be invented. These factors greatly contributed to the mortality of the disease.

What about this year’s swine flu? This year’s flu also started earlier in the year, somewhat like the 1918 virus and has been relatively mild. The fear was that this virus would also acquire the factors that would make it more virulent. It is this question that has generated all the hysteria and government intervention.

This leads me to the next question: Did we really need all the hysteria over a highly speculative event with little probability of happening?

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