Prison Food Soy Lawsuit
December 23, 2009
UPI.com
A prison in Danville, Ill., is endangering inmates’ health by serving meals made with soy, nine plaintiffs allege in a federal lawsuit.
The Chicago Tribune said the plaintiffs allege in the U.S. District Court lawsuit the menu items involving soy that are served at the Danville Correctional Center could negatively impact inmates with existing gastrointestinal and thyroid problems, allergies or sensitivities.
The Weston A. Price Foundation, which is helping fund the suit, alleges prison inmates in Illinois are being fed as much as 100 grams of soy protein daily. That offered number is well above the nearly 25 grams a day recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“Never before have we had a large population like this being served such a high level of soy with almost no other choice,” foundation president Sally Fallon said.
The plaintiffs want the court to issue an injunction against the Department of Corrections to stop soy products from being used in prison meals throughout the state. The plaintiffs are also seeking unspecified damages.
The Tribune said the Department of Corrections has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
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Doctors: Prescription Drugs Killed Brittany Murphy
December 23, 2009
CBS News
Authorities said Monday it appeared actress Brittany Murphy died of natural causes after becoming ill with flulike symptoms in the days before she collapsed in the bathroom of her Hollywood Hills home.
Celebrity Web site TMZ is reporting there were “large amounts of prescription medications” on the nightstand when paramedics arrived at her Hollywood home, and that Murphy was “complaining of shortness of breath and severe abdominal pain” in the week before she died.
“She always denied any relationship to drugs,” US Weekly Entertainment Director Dena Sansing told CBS News. “She said she had never tried it. She said the strongest thing was Sudafed — it wasn’t her thing.”
But at least one leading pathologist tells “The Early Show” he’d bet a lethal combination of prescription drugs was involved.
“It’s possible, certainly” (that Murphy died of natural causes), Dr. Cyril Wecht told “Early Show” co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez Tuesday, “and usually, it will be some kind of a congenital heart condition. But in most of those cases, the patient will be aware that there is some heart problem.
“When you have a 32-year-old person dying suddenly, and especially a celebrity in Los Angeles, you can place your bet down that it’s going prove to be a case of acute combined drug toxicity. And I bet you that this young lady tragically died in the same way that Michael Jackson did, and Anna Nicole Smith, and her son, Daniel Smith, and Heath Ledger — a combination of drugs that had been prescribed for her, prescribed for her husband, for her mother, in some fictitious names, probably by doctors who are very, very quick to make available anything that celebrities want, sometimes using knowingly fictitious names.
“So, even though these drugs are, quote, legal, unquote, they are, many times, illegally obtained. And it’s a tragedy. And it’s being played out everywhere in America every day, and we only come to know about it when it involves celebrities.”
What leads Wecht to conclude drugs were involved here?
“I am aware of some of the drugs that were found. One of them was a drug that was involved with Michael Jackson, Adivan. One of them was a drug that was involved with Anna Nicole Smith, Klonopin. Two of the drugs are pain relievers, Hydrocodone, which we frequently see in these cases, and Vicoprofen, a form of Vicodin. So, I guarantee you that, if the pathologists at the Los Angeles coroner’s office had found something dramatic, like a heart attack, like a stroke, or like something of a definitive nature, would you have heard about it. The fact that they say that they’re going wait for toxicology tests and it will take a couple of months, you can be sure that this is going to prove to be a case of acute combined drug toxicity. A tragedy.”
Officially, Assistant Chief Los Angles County Coroner Ed Winter said to reporters that an autopsy had been conducted and officials were awaiting the results of toxicology and tissue testing before determining an official cause of death. It could take up to six weeks before a determination is made public.
Officials also interviewed Murphy’s personal physician and examined prescription drugs taken from her home. None of the medications was illegal, reports said.
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The Link Between Soda and Obesity
December 23, 2009
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
Regular soda consumption significantly increases a person’s risk of obesity, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA).
“We drink soda like water,” said Harold Goldstein of the Center for Public Health Advocacy, which also took part in the study. “But unlike water, soda serves up a whopping 17 teaspoons of sugar in every 20-ounce serving.”
Researchers interviewed 40,000 adults on their beverage consumption habits, finding that adults who drank one sugary beverage per day were 27 percent more likely to be classified as overweight than those who drank sugary beverages less frequently.
Drinking one soda per day involves the consumption of 39 pounds of sugar per year.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, 15.5 percent of adults, 56 percent of teenagers, and 41 percent of children under the age of 12 in Santa Cruz County, Calif., consume one soda per day. The figures on children’s consumption were obtained from their parents.
An estimated 64 percent of adults in the city of Pajaro Valley are overweight or obese. The Pajaro Valley Unified School District says that 39 percent of its seventh graders are already overweight or at risk of being overweight.
Health advocates are acting on levels from the local to national to limit the damage done by soda and other sugary beverages. Many schools have banned sugary drinks from their campuses, but Watsonville High School Principal Murry Schekman admits that it is easy for students to get around this restriction by purchasing the beverages off campus.
“We need to provide a steady stream of information to students and families so they can very much understand the real dangers of sugar-sweetened products,” Schekman said.
On the city, state and national levels, there are also campaigns to impose a tax on soda. And the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food assistance program recently banned the use of its funds to purchase juice for infants.
“By feeding infants breastmilk and water only, there is less opportunity to develop an early taste for sweetened beverages,” said WIC’s Santa Cruz County program director, Cathy Cavanaugh.
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Prescription Drugs Kill More Than Illegal Drugs
December 23, 2009
Natural News
By Mike Adams
On the heels of the sudden death of celebrity actress Brittany Murphy (http://www.naturalnews.com/027781_B…), people are once again raising the question of just how dangerous prescription drugs might really be.
Some are arguing, however, that street drugs are the real danger, not prescription drugs. But the following study demonstrates why prescription drugs are far more dangerous than illegal recreational drugs.
According to a new study conducted by physicians at St. Michael’s Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, the number of deaths due to prescription opioid use has doubled between 1991 and 2004. Following the introduction of oxycodone into Toronto’s drug formulary in 2000, there has been a 500% increase in deaths due to the drugs.
Researchers reviewed over 7,000 files from the Office of the Chief Coroner in Ontario and found that between the years of 1991 and 2004, oxycodone prescriptions increased by more than 850 percent, representing about one-third of the opioid prescriptions given in 2006. (This is the largest prescription increase among all opioid drugs.)
Following the addition of this drug into the provincial drug benefit plan in 2000, deaths from opioid usage rose by 41 percent. Shockingly, deaths from prescription opioids like oxycodone were far greater than deaths from heroin. The vast majority of people who died from opioids had visited their doctor and received a prescription for the drug within a month of their death.
The total number of opioid-related deaths in Toronto in 2004 is estimated to be 27.2 per million people. Study authors said they hope to shed light on the tremendous dangers associated with prescription opioid drugs.
Coked up on prescription smack
It’s the dirty little secret of the pharmaceutical industry: More people are killed by prescription opioids than all those killed by heroin and cocaine combined. And that probably even includes all the shootings of gang bangers in northern Mexico.
Prescription drug abuse is now more common than street drug abuse — by far! And yet Big Pharma rakes in huge profits from all the patient addictions to their opioids. And by “opioids”, what I mean is narcotics. They are, in fact, one and the same.
So of all the drug addicts in America today, you can divide them into two camps:
1) People addicted to street drugs.
2) People addicted to prescription drugs.
The people in group #1 (street drugs) are taken to jail where they are given prison sentences. People in group #2 (prescription drugs) are taken to their doctor where they are given prescription refills. It’s all really the same narcotics, it’s just that one group is legal and the other is illegal.
And what really determines whether a particular narcotic is legal or illegal? Whether or not Big Pharma profits from it. If Big Pharma makes money off the narcotics, they’re considered legal.
Big Pharma, you see, earns tens of billions of dollars each year from drug addicts. And just by coincidence, it turns out that their prescription narcotics are extremely addicting, guaranteeing repeat business. The business model is so dang lucrative, you might think they were drug dealers…
Why do you think the main sponsors for the Partnership For A Drug-Free America are the drug companies themselves? It’s because Big Pharma is trying to eliminate the competition. By keeping up the so-called “War on Drugs” front, the pharmaceutical industry can make sure it dominates the market for narcotics. After all, if you’re going to feed narcotics to a nation full of junkies, why not make a hefty profit on it? That’s the thinking of drug companies, it seems, as they have done basically zilch to effectively stem the abuse of their own prescription narcotics.
Much like the tobacco companies, drug companies secretly want people to be addicted to their products.
Click here for the full report.
Jon Rappoport – InSolutions.info
Click the picture or link below to hear Kevin’s interview Jon Rappoport. Click here to purchase his new book, The Ownership to All Life and click here view his groundbreaking website.
Jon Rappoport on The Kevin Trudeau Show 12/22/09
The Kevin Trudeau Show: 12-22-09
Today, Kevin gives you more proof that reporters are just actors and cannot report the news without a teleprompter telling them what to say.
Cell Phones Allow Big Brother to Spy on You
The Revolving Door In Washington Turns Again
Big Pharma Kills Another Celebrity
Banks with Political Ties Got Biggest Bailouts
Maine Considers Cell Phone Cancer Warning
Monsanto Working on Genetically Modified Wheat
Plus, the author of The Ownership to All Life, Jon Rappoport, stopped by to blow the whistle on government corruption and media lies! Find out who really runs the world and get the inside scoop behind climate-gate and the health care reform scam. For more details visit his website, InSolution.info.
Take Trudeau on the Go! Click here to download this show to your iPod, mp3 player, or PC through iTunes!
Click below to hear The Kevin Trudeau Show RIGHT NOW!!!
Recovery Not as Strong as Previously Thought
December 22, 2009
My Way News
The economy grew at a 2.2 percent pace in the third quarter, as the recovery got off to a weaker start than previously thought. However, all signs suggest the economy will end the year on stronger footing.
The Commerce Department’s new reading on gross domestic product for the July-to-September quarter was slower than the 2.8 percent growth rate estimated just a month ago. Economists were predicting that figure wouldn’t be revised in the government’s final estimate on third-quarter GDP.
The main factors behind the downgrade: consumers didn’t spend as much, commercial construction was weaker, business investment in equipment and software was a bit softer and companies cut back more on inventories, according to Tuesday’s report.
Despite the lower reading, the economy managed to finally return to growth during the quarter, after a record four straight quarters of decline. That signaled the deepest and longest recession since the 1930s had ended, and the economy had entered into a new fragile phase of recovery.
Many analysts believe the economy is on track for a better finish in the current quarter.
The economy is probably growing at nearly 4 percent in the October-to-December quarter, analysts say. If they’re right, that would mark the strongest showing since 5.4 percent growth in the first quarter of 2006 – well before the recession began. The government will release its first estimate of fourth-quarter economic activity on Jan. 29.
Yet even such growth wouldn’t be enough to quickly drive down the unemployment rate, now at 10 percent. High unemployment and tight credit for both consumers and businesses are expected to continue to weigh on the economic recovery. Many economists predict the economy’s growth will slow to a pace of around 2 or 3 percent in the first three months of 2010.
Growth in the final quarter is expected to be driven by companies restocking depleted inventories. Stocks of goods were slashed at a record pace during the recession. So even the smallest pickup in customer demand will force factories to step up production and boost overall economic activity in the final quarter.
Stronger sales of exports to foreign customers, as well as spending by U.S. consumers and businesses, also will help underpin fourth-quarter growth.
It’s been a wild ride for the economy this year. In the first three months, it shrank at a pace of 6.4 percent – its worst downhill slide in 27 years.
The recession eased in the second quarter, with the economy dipping at a pace of just 0.7 percent. The economy returned to growth in the third quarter.
But much of the third quarter’s growth was supported by government stimulus spending. The Cash for Clunkers rebates and an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers buoyed sales of cars and homes. The clunkers program ended in August, though the tax credit has been extended and expanded beyond first-time buyers.
The government makes three estimates of GDP, which measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States, for a given quarter. Each estimate is based on more complete data. The government’s initial estimate for the third quarter was more energetic, showing the economy’s growth at a 3.5 percent pace. Subsequent estimates, however, showed the recovery was actually slower.
Tuesday’s report showed consumer spending grew at a 2.8 percent pace, slightly weaker than the 2.9 percent pace previously estimated and one of the factors behind the lower overall reading.
Retail sales, however, showed decent momentum in October and November, raising hopes that holiday sales would fare better than last year, which was the worst in nearly four decades.
Still, unlike previous economic recoveries, consumers, whose spending accounts for 70 percent of overall economic activity, aren’t expected to solely power this one. Businesses and the government are having to pitch in more.
A trouble spot for the economy – the commercial real-estate market – was clearly visible in Tuesday’s report.
Builders slashed spending on commercial building projects at an annualized pace of 18.4 percent in the third quarter. That was sharper than the 15.1 percent pace previously estimated and contributed to the GDP downgrade.
Business spending on equipment and software, meanwhile, grew at a 1.5 percent pace, less than the 2.3 percent growth rate estimated a month ago.
Furthermore, businesses cut inventories more deeply, by $139.2 billion in the third quarter. However, with inventories at rock-bottom levels, businesses are starting to replenish them, which should support the economy.
It’s unclear how the recovery will fare once the government withdraws stimulus programs put in place to combat the financial crisis and the recession. If consumers pull back on spending, the economy could tip back into recession.
Economists at Capital Economics predict the recovery will slow, with the economy’s growth fading to just 1.5 percent in 2011.
Against that backdrop, the Federal Reserve pledged last week to keep interest rates at a record low to help the recovery gain traction.
Faced with the prospects of high unemployment well into the 2012 presidential election year, President Barack Obama wants the government to take further steps to put Americans back to work. The House last week passed some provisions that Obama has pushed to aid job growth. But it didn’t include new tax breaks for small businesses that hire.
The administration credits its $787 billion package of tax cuts and increased government spending with improving employment, though Republicans argue it did not help much.
Click here for the full report
San Jose Police Test Head-Mounted Cameras
December 22, 2009
Mercury News
By Sharon Noguchi
San Jose police, under fire for interactions with the public that have turned violent, on Friday launched a pilot project equipping officers with head-mounted cameras to record contacts with civilians.
Officers will activate the cameras, about the size of a Bluetooth device and attached by a headband above the ear, every time they respond or make contact with a person. At the end of the officer’s shift, the recording will be downloaded to a central server.
Chief Rob Davis said the devices, to be tested by 18 patrol officers, are a technological advance comparable to the advent of police cars, two-way radios and the 911 emergency system.
San Jose is the first major U.S. city to try out the devices, known as AXON.
Although officers are already bearing vests, weapons and radios, most of them welcome adding a camera to record their actions, Davis said. In addition, he said, “We’re making it so it has cachet.”
A leading critic of the department welcomed the cameras as a tool to provide useful evidence, but dismissed their significance as a solution to rocky police-community relations.
“The AXON project is unfortunately a positive thing right now because the level of distrust is so high,” said Raj Jayadev, director of the community organization Silicon Valley De-Bug. “But it doesn’t address the more fundamental problem: What stereotypes police may carry when they see people of color on the street and make assumptions about character.”
The cost of the trial is being shouldered by maker Taser International of Scottsdale, Ariz. But if the trial leads to full-fledged use, equipping the entire 1,400-officer department will be expensive. At $1,700 per kit and a $99 per officer monthly fee, the system could cost $2,888 per officer in the first year, or $4 million.
Davis said he expected the price would decrease, and he hoped that the department would be able to find grants to defray the cost.
The kit includes a camera, a control piece and a computer that can hang from the belt. In the pilot project, officers have been directed to switch on the camera as they are about to contact a civilian. The cameras, equipped with an audio recorder, align with the officer’s vision, and can be later switched to standby mode.
Afterward, the officer can switch the camera to a “buffer” mode, where it still records limited segments of video, and a nonrecord mode. The officer may review the tape at any time, but it may not be erased. At the end of the shift, the device’s memory is downloaded onto a central server.
Davis said commanders will randomly review the tapes, to evaluate the system and to gather information that could help assess police policies and procedures.
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Banks with Political Ties Got Bailouts
December 22, 2009
Reuters
By Steve Eder
U.S. banks that spent more money on lobbying were more likely to get government bailout money, according to a study released on Monday.
Banks whose executives served on Federal Reserve boards were more likely to receive government bailout funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the study from Ran Duchin and Denis Sosyura, professors at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Banks with headquarters in the district of a U.S. House of Representatives member who serves on a committee or subcommittee relating to TARP also received more funds.
Political influence was most helpful for poorly performing banks, the study found.
“Political connections play an important role in a firm’s access to capital,” Sosyura, a University of Michigan assistant professor of finance, said in a statement.
Banks with an executive who sat on the board of a Federal Reserve Bank were 31 percent more likely to get bailouts through TARP’s Capital Purchase Program, the study showed. Banks with ties to a finance committee member were 26 percent more likely to get capital purchase program funds.
As of late September, nearly 700 financial institutions had received bailouts of $205 billion under the capital purchase program, the study said.
The banking industry has long been criticized for using political influence to obtain bailouts.
Scott Talbott, a senior vice president with industry lobbying group The Financial Services Roundtable, said the study was skewed because it did not exclude nine of the largest banks that were “strongly asked” by the government to take bailouts.
Those banks included Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) — all of which repaid their bailouts in June.
Bank of America Co (BAC.N) and Citigroup Inc (C.N) more recently announced plans to pay back taxpayers.
Talbott also noted that $116 billion has been repaid with interest.
“This demonstrates the banks were excellent stewards of the taxpayer’s money,” Talbott said.
But a watchdog for the government’s bailout, the special inspector general for TARP, said last month that the broader $700 billion bailout program “almost certainly” will result in an overall loss for taxpayers.
President Obama said in October that despite the bailout, there was still too little credit flowing to small businesses. (Reporting by Steve Eder; Editing by Gary Hill)
Click here for the full report
Spy Plane That Can Pick Up Conversations Is Due in Afghanistan
December 22, 2009
Bloomberg
By Tony Capaccio
The Air Force as soon as Christmas Day will deliver to Afghanistan the first of 24 new Hawker Beechcraft Corp. planes modified by L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. to support ground troops with video, still images and eavesdropping.
The four-man, twin-propeller plane “should arrive on or shortly after Dec. 25th,” about one month ahead of schedule, Lieutenant General David Deptula, who oversees Air Force intelligence and reconnaissance, said in an e-mail today.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the service in April 2008 to dramatically increase the number of manned and unmanned aircraft providing intelligence to ground troops. The planes will help support the 30,000 additional troops President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan. Six of the new spy planes already are flying missions in Iraq.
The Air Force is setting up stations at its air bases at Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, and Bagram, near Kabul, the capital, to receive and process data and then send it along to ground troops.
The planes also can beam images and video directly to ground troops, who will be equipped with L-3 Communications ‘‘Rovers” — laptop devices that allow soldiers to see the same images as airborne operators. Almost 5,000 Rovers have been delivered to the U.S. military by L-3 Communications.
Hand-Held Rovers
The Air Force also will give the Army about 50 of the latest-generation Rovers — hand-held versions that allow soldiers via satellite link both to receive images and to tell pilots where to direct the plane’s cameras, Deptula said.
The new planes provide “full-motion video and specialized signals intelligence” and all 24 should be in Afghanistan by September, Deptula said.
The aircraft will augment round-the-clock surveillance now provided by unmanned Predator drones.
The modified planes are equipped with both high-resolution and heat-sensing cameras produced by New York City-based L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. and with radios from Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon Co. and Melbourne, Florida-based Harris Corp.
The planes also are equipped with sensors that can monitor insurgents’ conversations and help pinpoint their location, said Jeffrey Richelson, author of the “U.S. Intelligence Community,” a detailed compendium now in its fifth edition.
The sensors are provided by the National Security Agency, which manages U.S. eavesdropping satellites.
“It’s a lot of intelligence and dissemination capability in a small package,” Richelson said. The planes, with self- protective equipment, are “also clearly designed for a combat environment,” he said.
Congress this year approved $950 million to buy as many as 37 aircraft from Wichita, Kansas-based Hawker Beechcraft Corp. The planes can fly as high as 35,000 feet and orbit for as long as five hours. They are modified at L-3 Communication’s Greenville, Texas, facility.
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