Baby Slings to Be Pulled From Market
March 24, 2010
Google News
By Associated Press
More than 1 million baby slings made by Infantino are being recalled because the products have been linked to three infant deaths.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission says babies can suffocate in the soft fabric slings. The agency is urging parents to immediately stop using the slings for babies under 4 months.
The recall involves 1 million Infantino “SlingRider” and “Wendy Bellissimo” slings in the United States and 15,000 in Canada. It follows a warning earlier this month from CPSC that sling-style baby carriers pose a suffocation risk to newborns.
Infantino President Jack Vresics (VREH’-siks) says the company will offer a free replacement baby carrier, activity gym or shopping cart cover to any affected consumer.
Click here for the full report.
Bloomberg Projects Worst NYC Job Cuts In Decades
March 24, 2010
WCBSTV.com
By Marcia Kramer
It’s a game of high-stakes chicken — with thousands of New York City jobs on the line.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg released a doomsday scenario Tuesday, saying if Albany goes through with cuts to city aid he will be forced to make massive layoffs — possibly the worst in decades.
It’s a grim equation for a grim time. Bloomberg said that Albany’s threatened cut of $1.3 billion in state aid equals the elimination of 19,000 jobs.
“We believe that we have hit the point where further cuts mean cuts to personnel,” Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler said.
And they are serious cuts. Without more money from Albany this is what the budget axe will do to the workforce:
* 3,150 fewer cops
* 1,000 fewer firefighters, which means the closure of 42 engine companies
* 8,500 fewer teachers in the classrooms
* The elimination of 900 sanitation workers assigned to various street cleaning duties
* 500 fewer parks workers
* 500 fewer people in the transportation department
* 400 fewer librarians
“The Senate yesterday put out a budget that cut our revenue sharing by $400 (million) to $500 hundred million, cut education spending by $500 million. We don’t know what the Assembly is going to propose, but it does not appear the city will weather the Albany budget without having a significant impact,” Skyler said.
It’s a terrifying situation for people living and working in the city.
“I think it’s a horrible thing. I think at a time like this they should be adding employees not firing people,” said Morshed Haque of Sunnyside.
“I think these cuts are in the wrong place, basically. I think they have to increase taxes in certain areas and they have to look at cuts in different places than human services,” added Charles Bayor of Chelsea.
When asked if he’s worried that he might lose your job, food stamp worker Joel Meisner said, “Yes, because I’m an office associate and I heard it’s possible office associate people are getting laid off by the end of May or June.”
Added Susan Meisner of the Department of Design and Construction: “Being a city worker I feel terrible about it. I think the cuts could come elsewhere.”
So now the ball is in Albany’s court, but given what’s happening there there’s no telling just how much pain lawmakers will inflict on the city.
Commissioners are being given until April 7 to come up with specific plans for the cuts.
But since this is the eighth time in two years they’ve had to cut, job losses are all but certain.
Click here for the full report.
Bi-Partisan Fear of Economic Collapse
March 23, 2010
Washington’s Blog
A new national telephone poll conducted by Opinion Dynamics Corp. for Fox News concludes:
Most American voters believe it’s possible the nation’s economy could collapse, and majorities don’t think elected officials in Washington have ideas for fixing it.
The latest Fox News poll finds that 79 percent of voters think it’s possible the economy could collapse, including large majorities of Democrats (72 percent), Republicans (84 percent) and independents (80 percent).
Unfortunately, it already has, although Bernanke, Summers and Geithner are still trying to hide that fact.
One more time, from the top …
Consumer spending accounts for the lion’s share of the economic activity. The economy cannot recover until trust is restored. Trust won’t be restored until the fraud actually stops, the criminals are prosecuted, and the fox is fired from his role as chicken coop guard.
Click here for the full report.
Health-Care Overhaul Changes to Start Taking Effect This Year
March 24, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
March 24, 2010
Bloomberg.com
By Shannon Pettypiece and Alex Nussbaum
Indoor tanning salons will charge customers a 10 percent tax beginning in July in one of the changes Americans will see as a result of the U.S. health-care overhaul signed into law by President Barack Obama.
Insurers will be required by September to begin providing health coverage to kids with pre-existing illnesses and allow parents to keep children younger than 26 on their plans as the clock has begun ticking on many of the law’s provisions. Medicare recipients will receive a $250 rebate for prescription drugs when they reach a coverage gap called the donut hole if the Senate passes and the president signs companion legislation approved March 21 by the U.S. House.
The $940 billion overhaul subsidizes coverage for uninsured Americans, financed by Medicare cuts to hospitals and fees or taxes on insurers, drugmakers, medical-device companies and Americans earning more than $200,000 a year. Many of the changes in the bill of more than 2,400 pages, such as requiring most people to have health insurance and employers to provide coverage, will take at least two years to go into effect.
“Most of the major public policy changes embodied in the health care reform legislation will become effective only after the next presidential election in 2012,” said Maury Harris, an economist with UBS AG, said in a research report.
High-Risk Pools
Within 90 days, the law will provide immediate access to high-risk insurance plans for people who can’t get insurance because of a pre-existing medical problem, Harris said. These high-risk pools will be funded by $5 billion in federal grants.
Companies led by Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest health insurer, will be banned within six months from dropping a person’s coverage because of severe illness and from limiting lifetime or annual benefits.
Participants in Medicare, the U.S. government’s health coverage for those 65 and older, are expected get a $250 rebate toward prescription drugs once their benefits run out — a coverage gap know as the “doughnut hole.” The benefit is part of the package of amendments to the legislation now pending in the Senate. Drugmakers led by New York-based Pfizer Inc. will have to offer discounted drugs to Medicare recipients next year, according to an analysis of the legislation by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Menlo Park, California
In 2013, individuals whose annual income is more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000 will see an increase in Medicare payroll taxes. Those taxes will also be expanded to cover dividend, interest and other unearned income.
Employer Coverage
In 2014, employers with more than 50 employees will be required to provide health coverage and most people will be required to have health insurance, Harris said in his report.
A tax on high-cost “Cadillac” policies won’t go into effect until 2018. The insurance industry also faces about $60 billion in additional fees under the health bill through 2018, and more beyond, though it was able to postpone the levy until 2014.
By 2019, the bill is expected to have expanded health insurance coverage to 32 million people, according to UBS’s Harris.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department will have two years to set penalties on hospitals with high readmission rates and longer to test new payment systems for Franklin, Tennessee- based Community Health Systems Inc., the largest U.S. chain, and its rivals.
Financial Disclosure
Insurers also will have to reveal how much of members’ premiums they spend on medical care, as opposed to executive salaries or other administrative costs. Next year, they’ll owe a rebate to customers if the insurers spend less than 80 percent on benefits for people in individual or small-group plans.
Starting in 2014, states have their say. The legislation leaves it to them to set up and run the online marketplaces, known as exchanges, where customers will comparison-shop for coverage. Among other powers, the exchanges will be able to banish plans for premium increases deemed to be unjustified.
The legislation also creates an Independent Payment Advisory Board to suggest cuts in spending by Medicare, the government health program for the elderly and disabled, that could threaten payments for drug and device-makers. Starting in 2014, the panel’s recommendations would take effect unless federal lawmakers substitute their own reductions.
Click here for the full report.
Andrew Young – Former Aide to John Edwards
Click the picture or link below to hear Kevin’s interview with Andrew Young, former aide to John Edwards and click here read his new controversial book, The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’s Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down.
More on Andrew…
The Book That Shocked A Nation
Edwards Scandal Timeline
The Final Straw
What The Future Holds
Andrew Young on The Kevin Trudeau Show 03/23/10
The Kevin Trudeau Show: 3-23-10
Today, Kevin gives you the details behind the scam Washington D.C. is calling healthcare reform.
And get the headlines you won’t hear from the mainstream media:
12 States File Lawsuits Against Mandatory Insurance
Vaccines Killing Chinese Children
30 Million Kids Get Vaccine Tainted with Pig Virus
iPhone Chemical Tied to Chinese Factory Illnesses
How to Create a Perpetual Moneymaking Machine – Part 2
Longevity Conference
Plus, Andrew Young, former right hand man to John Edwards and author of The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’s Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down stopped by to expose the scandals and what REALLY happens behind the curtain in Washington!
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!!!
IPhone Chemical Tied to Chinese Factory Illnesses
March 23, 2010
AOL News
By: Carl Franzen
A smooth, shiny surface bursting with bright colors — the screens on the iPhone, iPod Touch and forthcoming iPad beg to be touched, just as Apple Inc. intended.
But a chemical used to imbue the popular gadgets with their tantalizing touch-screen quality is suspected of causing extensive nerve damage to numerous factory workers in China.
Various news agencies have reported that more than 40 workers at the Wintek Corp. electronics assembly factory in Suzhou were hospitalized in connection with exposure to the chemical n-hexane while working on Apple products. As many as four workers may have died from the exposure, and English Eastday reports up to 100 people have been sickened since last year.
A chemical used to make the screens of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch is suspected of causing extensive nerve damage to numerous factory workers in China
Rich Schultz, AP
A chemical used to make the screens of some of Apple’s most popular devices, like this iPhone, is suspected of causing nerve damage to the factory workers who assemble them.
N-hexane is a flammable, fast-drying chemical made from crude oil that was used to clean touch screens in the final stages of the factory’s Apple product assembly wing. It is also found in a variety of other industries, including printing, textiles, furniture and shoemaking, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS also explains that exposure to the compound can occur merely by breathing air containing its fumes: “Since it is in gasoline, nearly everyone is exposed to very small amounts of n-hexane in the air.” But inhaled in larger doses, over a longer period of time, the cleaner can damage the nervous system, producing symptoms of numbness, muscle weakness and temporary paralysis of the arms and legs lasting up to two years, according to multiple studies.
That’s similar to the effects reported by the Wintek workers. The factory is alleged to have begun illegally using n-hexane in place of alcohol to keep up with rising demand, despite not having any of the proper procedures or equipment in place to handle it. Wintek is a Taiwan-based manufacturer that supplies not only Apple with touch screens, but other big-name companies as well, including Nokia.
However, international news Web site GlobalPost recently reported “Nokia says it confirmed n-hexane was not used on its components in the Suzhou factory — an assertion that the workers back up. The substance was used in the cleaning room on the second floor, the floor designated for Apple products, six former and current employees said.” GlobalPost said it had secured photographs of the suspected contaminated area via an employee.
In addition to interviewing former and current workers, GlobalPost attempted to reach out to Apple for comment but has not received a response.
Given Apple’s famed penchant for secrecy, that’s not exactly news in-and-of itself. However, the company has publicly moved to respond to inhumane conditions at its suppliers’ workplaces before.
Just last month, for instance, Apple released the results of an internal audit, which found that three different parts’ factories employed child laborers who were subsequently either let go or not allowed back in until they were of age. Apple also announced a thorough review to prevent the practice from ever happening again. Similarly, it has terminated contracts with factories where “excessive working hours and seven days of continuous work” were common.
As Geek.com writer Matthew Humphries put it:
If the poisoning and poor working conditions turn out to be true, we should expect Apple to take action. The company doesn’t want to be associated with such practices, and Wintek may lose its contract. Otherwise guarantees need to be made that future production will follow more stringent rules and the employees affected receive ongoing care. No one wants to buy a gadget that potentially made a worker ill; and possibly for the rest of their lives.
Studies have shown that while illness from overexposure to n-hexane can be long and painful, it is possible for a person to largely recover if the source of toxicity is removed and they are given the proper medical treatment. But “a diminution of the tendon reflexes, particular that of the Achilles tendon, may persist,” explains the Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety.
Click here for the full report.
**VIDEO** Biden Says It’s a Big F@#*ing Deal!
March 23, 2010 by JP
Filed under Government
Obama to Sign Health Care Bill Today
March 23, 2010 by JP
Filed under Government
March 23, 2010
ABC News
By: Huma Khan
President Obama signed the historic health care bill into law today, but Republicans are still fighting back with promises of lawsuits and heated rhetoric, including a shot from one GOP governor who blasted what he called Obama’s “nanny nation approach” to government.
Republicans across the country are specifically challenging the mandate in the health care bill that requires every individual to have health insurance, charging that it is unconstitutional.
The individual mandate is an “unprecedented overreach by the federal government forcing individual citizens to buy a good or a service for no other reason then they happen to be alive or a person,” Republican governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty said today on “Good Morning America.”
Pawlenty said he sent a letter to Minnesota’s Democratic attorney general arguing against the constitutionality of the mandate.
“They’ve taken it to this big, federalized, bureaucratic, government-run, kind of nanny nation approach,” Pawlenty said. “I don’t think defending the Constitution and individual’s rights under the Constitution, and the relationship between states and the federal government under the Constitution is a frivolous matter.”
Twelve state attorneys general, all of whom are Republican, have already filed suits to block the health care bill on the grounds that its requirement that everyone have health insurance is unconstitutional. Four state legislatures have already passed laws blocking the bill. On Wednesday, Virginia’s GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell will sign the bill into the state’s law, making it illegal for the federal government to require Americans to purchase health insurance.
Senior White House adviser David Axelrod dismissed the lawsuits, saying the Obama administration is very confident the health care bill “will withstand those legal challenges.
“First of all, every single major piece of legislation that’s ever been passed in this country has engendered lawsuits. That’s the nature of our system, and we expected that,” Axelrod said on “GMA.” “We’re not concerned about these lawsuits.”
Watch live coverage of President Obama signing the health care bill at 11:15 a.m. ET on ABC News network or streamed live on ABCNews.com.
Under the health care bill, by 2014 most Americans would be required to have health insurance or pay a fine, with the exception of low-income Americans. Employers would also be required to provide coverage to their workers, or pay a fine of $2,000 per worker. Companies with fewer than 50 employees, however, are exempt from this rule.
Like many of his GOP counterparts, Pawlenty assailed the partisan nature of the health care bill. The legislation did not garner one single Republican “yes” vote in the House, which passed the bill Sunday night.
“There were 10 or 15 really good reforms that both sides could’ve agreed on,” Pawlenty said. “They [Democrats] were more interested in achieving that ideological or political goal rather than working with Republicans to get something done.”
Republicans are regrouping and gearing up to use the health care bill against their Democratic opponents in November’s midterm elections. Ads blasting Democrats who were going to vote “yes” for the health care bill filled the airwaves well before the bill was even passed.
The Obama administration, however, believes the passage of the health care bill will actually help Democrats in the midterm elections.
“I think the heavy political lift would’ve been is if this bill went down,” Axelrod said. “The reality of this bill is so much different than the caricature they’ve [Republicans and insurance companies] painted.”
As the two parties prep for tight races across the country, Democrats are likely to spin the argument in a way that reflects those who voted against the bill are voting against insurance reforms that would benefit Americans, such as the removal of lifetime caps on coverage or denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
“Ultimately this is not about the politics of November. It’s about the security of Americans now and for future generations,” Axelrod said. “But I also think the politics will work out much better because we did the right thing. … Every Democrat who campaigns on this will be able to campaign proudly.”
After signing the bill, the president made remarks at the Department of Interior in what was mainly a celebratory event. In the audience were lawmakers who voted for the bill, and people whose stories the president has used in the long fight to get the bill passed.
President Obama to Sign Health Care Bill
Even after the president signs the sweeping health care legislation into law this morning, the work on health care is not over. Later this week, the president will return to the stump in Iowa to explain to the public how changes in the health care system will affect them.
The White House picked Iowa City because Obama delivered his first major speech on health care reform as a presidential candidate at the University of Iowa May 29, 2007.
The Senate also has to pass “fixes” to the bill, and Democrats are gearing up for a spate of procedural face-offs with Republicans. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, introduced bills Monday to repeal the health care bill, and GOP lawmakers are vowing to fight the bill tooth and nail.
Some Republicans say their party made a mistake by not making more of an effort at bipartisanship, now that the bill is becoming law.
“A lot of the things Republicans said are going to be discredited. It is going to be a very painful and difficult situation for Republicans to work their way out of,” said David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush who is now a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Frum dubbed the passage of the health care bill as the GOP’s Waterloo.
“If you lose something as important as this, and you pick up some seats in 2010, great, maybe you lose them in 2014,” Frum said. “This bill will still be there. This bill will still be there forever.”
The Congressional Budget Office predicted the bill would cost $938 billion — mainly through a mix of tax increases and reduction in Medicare spending — and would reduce the federal deficit by $142 billion in the first 10 years. The health care bill would extend insurance to 32 million more Americans.
Some components of the health care bill will take effect right away, including helping older Americans pay for prescription drugs and preventing insurance companies from denying coverage to children based on pre-existing conditions. Others, such as the individual mandate and more stringent regulations on insurance companies barring them from placing lifetime caps on coverage, or denying adults based on pre-existing conditions, won’t take effect until 2014.
Click here for the full report.
Indian Military to Weaponize World’s Hottest Chili
March 23, 2010 by JP
Filed under Government
March 23, 2010
My Way
By: Wasbir Hussain
The Indian military has a new weapon against terrorism: the world’s hottest chili.
After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized “bhut jolokia,” or “ghost chili,” to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects, defense officials said Tuesday.
The bhut jolokia was accepted by Guinness World Records in 2007 as the world’s spiciest chili. It is grown and eaten in India’s northeast for its taste, as a cure for stomach troubles and a way to fight the crippling summer heat.
It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili’s spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000.
“The chili grenade has been found fit for use after trials in Indian defense laboratories, a fact confirmed by scientists at the Defense Research and Development Organization,” Col. R. Kalia, a defense spokesman in the northeastern state of Assam, told The Associated Press.
“This is definitely going to be an effective nontoxic weapon because its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hide-outs,” R. B. Srivastava, the director of the Life Sciences Department at the New Delhi headquarters of the DRDO said.
Srivastava, who led a defense research laboratory in Assam, said trials are also on to produce bhut jolokia-based aerosol sprays to be used by women against attackers and for the police to control and disperse mobs.
Click here for the full report.
