Global Meltdown: Investors Are Dumping Nearly Everything
September 22, 2011
CNBC
Patti Domm
With no solution in sight for Europe and new fears of a global recession, investors dumped stocks and commodities and ran to the safety of U.S. Treasurys.
Treasury yields, as a result, slipped to historic lows with the 10-year yielding 1.75 percent and the 30-year at 2.86 percent.
The dollar was also a beneficiary of a massive fear trade that sent U.S. stocks sharply lower, on the heels of steep sell-offs in equities markets around the globe.
The worst performing stock market sectors mirrored the sell-off in global commodities markets, with materials down 4.6 percent and energy stocks down 4.1 percent.
Copper, hit by concerns of a Chinese slowdown, tumbled 7 percent to a 1-year low. Gold, usually a safety play, was sold into the maelstrom as investors raised cash. The euro [EUR=X 1.346 -0.0117 (-0.86%)], broke below 1.35, a recent bottom of its range. It was trading in the 1.346 area, an eight-month low against the dollar. The dollar index [.DXY 78.47 1.13 (+1.46%)] was 1.4 percent higher.
“People are finding it really isn’t gold. It isn’t precious metals. It’s not currencies. U.S. Treasurys are where people are flocking to at a time of extreme concern about risk, and we continue to see Treasurys continue to get bid up,” said Zane Brown, fixed income strategist at Lord Abbett.
The selling in risk assets picked up momentum after the Fed’s statement Wednesday, in which it characterized risks to the economy as “significant” and noted that “strains in global financial markets” (or Europe) could be a catalyst. Then overnight, a preliminary China manufacturing data showed moderating growth.
The Fed unveiled the much anticipated “Operation Twist” program in an effort to drive down rates. The program got a lukewarm reception even though the Fed surprised markets with a plan to also buy mortgage securities.
The Fed intends to swap $400 billion in shorter dated Treasurys for the same amount in the 6-year to 30-year range. For the most part, traders worry the “twist” will do little to help the struggling economy.
“The Fed will have to go on a publicity tour over the next few weeks, coming out and stating what is the metric by which they will judge this as a success or failure,” said Kevin Ferry of Cronus Futures.
“The metrics we look at—the financial conditions index—it’s worse today,” Ferry said. Spreads on a whole range of credit market indicators widened, including investment grade corporates, emerging market sovereigns, high-yield corporates, and municipal bonds.
Brown said he does not see the U.S. falling into recession , as the markets fear.
“The combination of consumers spending what they can, durable goods improving just at the margin, exports improving just at the margin and what the Fed does to promote lending should help us avoid a recession,” he said. Brown said the Fed may spur some increase in bank lending, driving some economic activity.
“The activity on the part of the Fed is really going to make it difficult for banks to make money unless they start lending. That’s what the Fed hopes will happen. Their rationale for doing this is to promote risk taking,” he said.
The lack of resolution on Europe , however, remains the biggest culprit as investors worry the exposure of European banks to the sovereign crisis will kick off a global banking crisis. The EU, IMF and European Central Bank put off until October to determine what will be done about the next payment to Greece, without which it will default. Markets have been disappointed with the lack of a bigger plan of action from European leaders.
“I think it’s about the lack of leadership anywhere in the world. We’re seriously distressed about the lack of leadership and constant squabbling in Washington,” Brown said.
The animosity between political parties was once more in the headlines Thursday as the House defeated a spending billi that would keep the government running. Republican majority leader Rep. John Boehner said he expects the bill to pass and blamed Democrats.
Click Here For The Full Report From CNBC
Depressed People Have Slightly More Strokes
September 22, 2011
Fox News
A new study shows people who are depressed may be a little more likely than others to suffer a stroke down the road.
Looking back at 28 past studies, researchers estimated there would be 106 extra cases of stroke per 100,000 depressed people each year, 22 of them fatal.
But don’t reach for the antidepressants just yet, because the study has major limitations.
The biggest problem is that nobody knows how to account for the link—people who have the blues might smoke more and exercise less, for instance. Indeed, accounting for that did weaken the apparent tie between depression and stroke, which kills about 137,000 Americans a year.
And there’s a more troubling possibility, said An Pan, a researcher at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston who worked on the study.
In an earlier study, he found depressed people who take antidepressants appeared to have an increased risk of stroke compared with depressed people who weren’t on the drugs.
“These medications could be one possible reason for the increased risk of stroke in depression and the majority of studies did not control for this,” he told Reuters Health.
He stressed, however, that antidepressant use might also just be an indicator of severe depression, which might account for the extra risk.
“The current data on whether medications have an independent role (in stroke) is not clear at this moment,” Pan said.
The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, are based on a total of more than 317,000 people followed for two to 29 years.
For health providers treating depressed people, the results add one more health problem to watch out for on a list that already includes chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
But for a person with the blues, they don’t mean a whole lot, said Pan.
Click Here For The Full Report From Fox News.com
Are Kids Getting Too Many Antibiotics?
September 22, 2011
Yahoo Health
By: Lisa Collier Cool
Would you give a child a powerful prescription drug for a case of the sniffles? Most parents wouldn’t dream of it, but a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that too many kids are still getting antibiotics for colds and sore throats for reasons that appear to be more psychological than medical. What’s more, taking the drugs is leading to dangerous antibiotic resistance.
The study, published this month in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that for every 1,000 kids taken to doctors for cold or sore throat symptoms, 229 go home with a prescription for antibiotics—even though these illnesses are usually viral, and don’t respond to these drugs. Although that’s a 24 percent drop from the numbers of the 1990s, these findings are not good news. Here’s what you need to know to make sure your kids (and you, too) aren’t put at risk by taking antibiotics unnecessarily:
What do antibiotics treat?
Introduced in the 1940s, antibiotics were hailed as wonder drugs, and indeed they were: penicillin and the many antibiotics developed since then were able to cure bacterial diseases such as tuberculosis, strep throat, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, meningitis, and many infections. Antibiotics work by killing the bugs responsible for an illness or inhibiting their growth. Only one percent of all bacteria are capable of causing illness. Some beneficial ones live in our gut and help us digest food, provide us with some nutrients and destroy some bad bugs.
Why shouldn’t kids take antibiotics?
If a child has a strep throat or is sick with another disorder caused by bacteria, there’s no reason to avoid these drugs. However, viruses, not bacteria, cause colds and most sore throats so there’s no point in taking an antibiotic. In the long run, using antibiotics for these common viral illnesses can lead to antibiotic resistance, a growing problem in today’s world that is making more and more diseases harder to treat.
What is antibiotic resistance?
Every time someone takes antibiotics, bacteria that are sensitive to that drug are killed, but resistant germs may survive and multiply. Almost every type of bacteria has gotten stronger and less responsive to antibiotics, the CDC reports, creating new strains of superbugs. Bacteria acquire resistant traits either via genetic mutations or by picking up resistant DNA from already resistant bacteria. Overuse or improper use of antibiotics is the main cause of this problem, which has lead to drug-resistant pneumonias, skin infections and sexually transmitted diseases, among other health threats.
How serious are the effects?
People infected with drug-resistant microbes are more likely to require hospitalization and are at increased risk for dying from their disease. And because the usual antibiotics no longer work, MDs are forced to turn to second- or third-choice drugs that are often more toxic, less effective, and more expensive. Resistant superbugs are a threat in both hospitals and in the community, where they can be spread through hand-to-hand contact, touching contaminated surfaces, or airborne droplets released when an infected person coughs or sneezes. MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is the best-known superbug.
Why do doctors prescribe antibiotics for viral infections?
For some, it may be the path of least resistance when parents are pressuring them to “do something” to help a sick kid. Although doctors know that antibiotics won’t help a child with a cold or sore throat, many apparently find it difficult to tell parents that there’s nothing they can do to speed recovery. The truth is, about all anyone can do for a cold or sore throat is to get rest, drink lots of fluids, treat the symptoms and wait it out. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel has recommended against giving children under four the nonprescription cold remedies adults can take to ease symptoms. These over-the-counter medications don’t seem to work in this age group and may not be safe for kids under two.
What can parents do to guard against antibiotic resistance?
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, the most important thing you can do is to make sure your kids take antibiotics only when it’s absolutely necessary – when they have an illness caused by a bacterial infection. Antibiotics won’t cure colds or flu, both of which are viral infections, and are ineffective against most sore throats. When an antibiotic is prescribed, be sure that you or your child takes it according to directions – taking less of the drug because you feel better allows germs to survive, which could give rise to the next generation of superbugs. And to protect yourself and your family against antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are already around, the best defense is frequent hand washing.
Click Here For The Full Report From Yahoo Health
Save Your Brain By Preventing Diabetes
September 21st, 2011
Natural News
By: S. L. Baker
Currently, an estimated 24 million people world-wide are living with Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of the mind and personality-robbing affliction known as dementia. And the numbers keep climbing. But why? Mainstream medicine puts the blame on the fact people are living longer and genetics offers little hope to stop dementia unless Big Pharma comes up with some miracle pill – an approach that so far has failed miserably.
However, now there’s evidence much dementia could be triggered by another disease that is often preventable and even reversible with natural health strategies.
A new study just published inNeurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, reveals diabetes significantly increases the risk of developing dementia. And type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease which has reached epidemic proportions, is due primarily to obesity and inactivity.That suggests that by taking control of your health with good nutrition and exercise, you may be able to not only prevent diabetes but also dementia.
“Our findings emphasize the need to consider diabetes as a potential risk factor for dementia,” said study author Yutaka Kiyohara, MD, PhD, of Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, in a media statement. “Diabetes is a common disorder, and the number of people with it has been growing in recent years all over the world. Controlling diabetes is now more important than ever.”
The research found people with diabetes were more likely to develop both Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, such as vascular dementia. Vascular dementia results when blood vessels become damaged and interrupt oxygen-rich blood flow to the brain.
In all, the scientists studied 1,017 people age 60 and older who were given a glucose (sugar) tolerance test after fasting overnight in order to test for diabetes. Then, over the course of about 11 years, the research subjects were followed and tested for dementia. During this time, 232 people developed the memory destroying disease.People with diabetes had double the risk for dementia when compared to those with normal blood sugar levels.
These findings remained consistent even after the researchers accounted for other factors such as hypertension, high cholesterol and smoking. The risk of dementia was also higher in people who did not have diabetes, but had impaired glucose tolerance. This “pre-diabetes” condition is also part of a cluster of symptoms (including being overweight, having high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood glucose levels) known as metabolic syndrome which has become widespread and is already known to raise the risk for heart disease as well as diabetes – and now dementia can be added to this list.
The new study findings are actually positive because, as NaturalNews as previously covered, there are numerous ways to reduce and sometimes even reverse type 2 diabetes — by keeping weight under control, exercise and adding specific foods to a healthy diet.
Click here for the full report from Natural News
Job Hunting Tips For New College Grads
September 21st, 2011
DailyFinance
By: Sheryl Nance-Nash
Recent college grads may be feeling a bit ripped off. They did what they were supposed to — studied hard, graduated, and now … nothing. A new online study by Harris Interactive for American Express (AXP) reveals that 68% of recent grads are not working or are working at a job that is not in their field. Nearly half are only making ends meet with the help of mom and dad.
It’s not surprising that some 80% of new grads reported moving in with their parents after all the pomp and circumstance. For the first time in nearly a year, in August, the economy had the distressing distinction of not adding any new jobs. With so much frustration to be found in the job market, more young people are running back to the classroom: 27% opted to pursue another degree in 2010, up from 20% in 2007.
So, what can a person with a newly minted bachelor’s degree do? Plenty.
Personality Counts: The news on the job front isn’t all bad. According to American Express’ Recent Graduate Environment Survey, 62% of hiring professionals said that personality traits such as communication skills and a good attitude are the qualities they look for most when interviewing. Significantly fewer gave such high importance to a candidate’s qualifications/skill set (36%), intelligence/knowledge (23%), work history (11%), or educational background (10%).
“The fact that personality counts almost twice as much as candidates’ skill set is good news for graduates who say their biggest challenge is not having enough work experience,” says Jennie Platt, director of millennial and household product strategies at American Express. “Highlight your interests and passions and let your personality come through in an interview. Be open to applying for jobs outside of your field of study or work. We were surprised to learn that even though recent grads are having a tough time navigating the job market, more than 60% have not looked outside their field of study for work.”
Improve Communication Skills: What’s holding the young folks back? More than half of hiring pros said that while social media has improved recent grads’ ability to think out of the box, it has deteriorated their writing skills (87%), ability to focus on a task (79%), and verbal communication skills (78%).
Learn the Hot Spots: What every underemployed eager beaver wants to know is where the good jobs are. Freshly minted grads are much in demand in health care (46%) and professional/scientific/technical services (37%). Internet marketing (29%) and Web design (29%) round out the list of the sectors that are most on the hunt.
If you’re wondering if you went to school for nothing more than the spiritual rewards, well, that depends largely on your paper. According to the survey, the most marketable degrees are technology (55%), business (52%), engineering (49%), finance (28%) and science (27%). Turns out an entrepreneurial degree is more attractive than a liberal arts degree.
Click here for the full report from DailyFinance
The Next Big Threat to Your 401(K)
September 21st, 2011
Daily Finance
By: Sheryl Nance-Nash
It’s bad enough the stock market has been beating up on most of our 401(k)s lately. Now, legislators and big thinkers are debating a variety of proposals to reduce the tax benefits of saving in 401(k)-type plans.
One idea being floated would take away the immediate tax deduction you get for your contributions. So if you make $50,000 a year and contribute $5,000 to your 401(k), you’d no longer have the pleasure of seeing your taxable income drop to $45,000.
Right now, Americans are typically taxed once on dedicated retirement accounts: Either you contribute pretax income and don’t pay taxes until you take the cash out — as with your 401(k), for example — or you pay in with your post-tax income, but the money that you withdraw at retirement is tax free — as with a Roth IRA. Under this new scenario, those 401(k) investments could be taxed both before and after taxes, just like your regular investments.
But some things may be sacred. There’s not a high probability that you’ll have to pay taxes on your profits any sooner than you do right now. Say you have $100,000 in your 401(k) and you make $5,000 in capital gains on it. As it stands now, you wouldn’t get taxed on that $5,000 until you withdraw it, and there’s not much chatter that anybody is looking to change that.
So who has the most to lose from the proposals being debated? Low-income workers, says the nonpartisan, nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute, because they’re the ones most likely to respond to a loss of the tax break by either cutting their contributions or stopping them altogether.
A Major Disincentive to Save for Retirement
At a recent hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, EBRI Research Director Jack VanDerhei, explained the potential impact.
“As expected, the highest-income workers generally would be the most affected if federal tax limits in 401(k) type plans were lowered,” VanDerhei said in a prepared statement. “But the surprising result we found is that the lowest-income workers would also be very negatively affected, and many report that they would reduce contributions or stop saving in their work-based retirement plan entirely, if the current exclusion of worker contributions for retirement savings plans were ended.”
For instance, VanDerhei said that if workers lost their deduction in 2012 and saw it replaced with flat-rate tax credits — as was recently proposed by Brookings Institution Fellow William Gale — the average reductions in 401(k) accounts at normal retirement age would range from a low of 11.2% for employees now ages 26-35 in the highest-income groups, to a high of 24.2% for employees in that age range in the lowest-income group.
At the hearing, Gale explained his proposal to “reform public policies toward retirement saving by replacing the current deduction for contributions to retirement saving accounts with a flat-rate refundable credit that would be deposited directly into the saver’s account. The proposal would (a) address long-standing concerns in the retirement saving system by improving incentives for most households to participate and by raising national saving, (b) offset pressures created by the current weak economy for households to reduce their retirement saving, (c) help solve the long- term fiscal problem facing the country by raising $450 billion over the next decade in a manner that is consistent with the principles of broad-based tax reform and distributes the fiscal burden in a progressive manner.”
Earlier EBRI analysis of the bipartisan deficit commission’s other proposal to reduce the 401(k) savings caps to either $20,000 a year or 20% of income (the so-called “20/20 cap”) starting in 2012, would most affect the highest-income workers — not surprising, since those who earn more tend to save more using these kinds of retirement plans. However, EBRI also found the cap would cause a big reduction in retirement savings by the lowest-income workers as well. Today, the annual cap is $16,500, with an extra $5,000 allowed for those who are 50 and older.
Would Employers Drop 401(k) Plans?
All the proposed monkeying around with retirement savings plans could be one more nail in the retirement coffin. After all, the number often bandied about for how much money the average American will have at retirement is around $50,000 — hardly enough to live the glamorous life in one’s golden years.
VanDerhei told DailyFinance he’s worried the Brookings proposal might find some support in Congress. “It promises to save the government $450 billion over 10 years, which could look attractive to the [Supercommittee that] is tasked with coming up with a lot of savings between now and Nov. 23.”
Gale is leading the charge to make employers’ contributions taxable and for employees to lose their 401(k) deduction. Instead, he suggests a flat-rate refundable credit of either 18% or 30% that would serve as a matching contribution to a retirement savings account. VanDerhei says this would surely diminish some employers’ willingness to offer 401(k) plans, as well as employees’ desire to participate in them.
Said VanDerhei, in a prepared statement, “Given that the financial fate of future generations of retirees appears to be so strongly tied to whether they are eligible to participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans, the logic of modifying (either completely or marginally) the incentive structure of workers and/or employers to save in a defined contribution plan needs to be thoroughly examined.”
VanDerhei says it’s not a stretch to think that too much tinkering could lead to some companies shutting 401(k) plans down. The consequences would be huge. “When people don’t have 401(k)s, they often don’t save elsewhere for retirement. Anything that will cause a drastic reduction in retirement savings at a time when there are various proposals to decrease Social Security benefits, makes it hard to see how people will have any standard of dignity in retirement.”
Click here for the full report from DailyFinance
Green Tea Improves Cholesterol and Metabolism
September 21st, 2011
Natural News
By: John Phillip
Green tea consumption has been shown to benefit many health issues ranging from help with weight management to cancer prevention and treatment. New research published in the British Journal of Nutrition explains that the natural extract from the Camellia sinensis plant has a powerful effect on cholesterol metabolism in the human body. Most forward thinking health professionals understand that dysfunction in the LDL cholesterol pathway lays the foundation for cardiovascular health problems, cancer and fatty liver disease. Regular green tea consumption is now shown to improve healthy LDL cholesterol function, enabling the fatty molecule to efficiently usher excess cholesterol from the body and to improve risk factors for many chronic disease conditions.
In one of the first studies of its type, researchers performed DNA microarray analysis to examine the effect of the active compound found in green tea called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Scientists specifically targeted the catechin to determine their effect on cholesterol metabolism in HepG2 hepatocytes. They determined that the expression levels of several genes related to cholesterol metabolism, including the LDL receptor, were changed by EGCG treatment.
EGCG was found to boost the function of the LDL receptor on liver cells. Researchers commented “This is very important as proper function of the LDL receptor enables your liver to “capture” circulating LDL and recycle it.” In this study, green tea is shown to alter gene expression toward healthy LDL cholesterol metabolism by improving receptor acceptance by the liver. The liver displays an improved capacity to capture and filter LDL cholesterol for removal from the body.
In addition to the finding that green tea alters LDL cholesterol metabolism, ECGC was found to inhibit genes to reduce the production of Apolipoprotein B (ApoB). ApoB formation is required to initially form LDL molecules in the blood. Excess production of ApoB is a significant marker for chronic illnesses ranging from cardiovascular disease and heart attack to increased risk of cancer and dementia.
Green tea and the active compound EGCG are quickly ascending to nutritional “superstar” status. The Chinese have extolled its virtues for countless generations. Researchers now document the prowess of this nutrient by scientifically validating the direct impact exerted on our genetic structure to affect healthy cholesterol function and removal from the body. The healthy benefits of green tea are realized by drinking several fresh brewed cups of organically harvested leaves each day or by supplementing with 250 to 500 mg of EGCG extract.
Click here for the full report from Natural News
Convicted Death Row Inmate, Troy Davis Executed
September 22, 2011 by Safa
Filed under Government
September 21st, 2011
The Huffington Post
By: John Rudolf
Troy Davis, convicted of murdering an off-duty Savannah police officer more than 20 years ago, held fast to his claims of innocence even as he was finally executed by lethal injection on Wednesday night.
Strapped to a gurney and minutes from death, Davis stated that he had not carried a gun the night of the murder and did not shoot the officer, Mark MacPhail, in a fast food restaurant parking lot on an August night in 1989.
Speaking directly to MacPhail’s brother and son, who witnessed the execution, Davis beseeched them to continue to examine the events that night. “All I can ask is that you look deep into this case so you can really find the truth,” he said.
Davis then addressed prison officials preparing to inject him with a lethal mix of chemicals. “May God have mercy on your souls,” he said.
The first injection began at 10:54 p.m. and Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m. Afterward, Davis’ attorneys and legal advocates quickly decried the execution as a terrible miscarriage of justice.
“I had the unfortunate opportunity tonight to witness a tragedy, to witness Georgia execute an innocent man,” Jason Ewart, one of Davis’ attorneys, said outside the prison. “The innocent have no enemy but time, and Troy’s time slipped away tonight.”
Meanwhile, family members of the murdered officer expressed relief that the execution was over, according to the Associated Press.
News of the execution quieted hundreds of protesters who had lined the highway across from the entrance to the prison for hours, chanting and singing as they faced a small army of baton-wielding prison guards in full riot gear, sheriff’s deputies and state police. The crowd of protesters was quickly dispersed by police after Davis’ death was announced.
Local observers called the protests the largest at the state’s death row in many years. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Don Earnhart, manager of a Jackson, Ga., radio station, who said he has covered executions for several decades. Protests were also seen at the state capitol, Athens, in Washington, D.C. and at the U.S. embassy in London.
The execution was delayed for more than four hours by a last-minute petition to the U.S. Supreme Court by Davis’ legal team. The justices denied the petition without comment or dissent.
Davis’ death ends an extraordinary legal saga that included three last-minute stays of execution and dozens of hearings before state and federal appellate courts. Over two decades, his legal team argued that a lack of physical evidence linking Davis to the crime and recantations by a number of critical eyewitnesses who originally implicated him in the shooting were reason enough for the Georgia courts to grant him a new trial.
But state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, repeatedly ruled against his appeals for a new trial and he was ultimately executed on the basis of the original jury verdict.
On Tuesday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which has sole authority to commute a death sentence in the state, rejected Davis’ plea for clemency, essentially sealing his fate. MacPhail’s family members had repeatedly stated their certainty that Davis was guilty of the crime and consistently fought his efforts to obtain clemency.
Earlier this week, the state’s pardons board was bombarded by hundreds of thousands of petitions to spare Davis’ life, including ones from William S. Sessions, a former FBI director, and Bob Barr, a four-term Republican congressman from Georgia and death penalty supporter. Many of those opposed to the execution noted the lack of physical evidence tying Davis to the crime and the recantation of eyewitness, many of whom told attorneys for Davis that they had been pressured by police to testify that Davis was the shooter.
“Imposing an irreversible sentence of death on the skimpiest of evidence will not serve the interest of justice,” Barr wrote in an editorial on the case last Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning, Davis offered to submit to a lie detector test, but the request was denied by prison officials.
As the hours until the execution dwindled, calls for clemency continued from around the nation and the world, including from a group of former death row wardens, who wrote to Georgia authorities calling on them to halt the death sentence due to doubts about Davis’ guilt. Among the group was the former warden in charge of the Georgia death chamber.
“While most of the prisoners whose executions we participated in accepted responsibility for the crimes for which they were punished, some of us have also executed prisoners who maintained their innocence until the end,” the wardens wrote. “It is those cases that are most haunting to an executioner.”
Meanwhile, the family of the murdered policeman, Mark MacPhail, and the case’s original prosecutor have argued strenuously for Davis’ execution, and have asserted that there is no doubt that he is guilty of the murder.
Joan MacPhail-Harris, the officer’s widow, said this week that Davis “has had ample time to prove his innocence” and failed to do so, according to the Associated Press. She, along with MacPhail’s children, urged the pardon’s board to deny Davis’ petition for clemency this week.
An extraordinary hearing last year ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court gave Davis the rare opportunity to present evidence of his innocence as part of a petition for a new trial. The judge overseeing the hearing ruled that the state’s case against Davis “may not be ironclad” and agreed that Davis had raised some doubts about his conviction. However, the judge concluded that Davis had not provided the court with compelling evidence of his innocence and denied his request for a retrial.
Supporters of Davis said the unwillingness of the U.S. justice system to reconsider his death sentence in light of the witness recantations and other new evidence exposed fundamental problems in the justice system.
“Troy Davis has become an incredible symbol of everything that is broken, everything that is wrong” with the capital punishment in the U.S., said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International’s U.S. branch, in an interview on the prison grounds.
Jason Ewart, Davis attorney, said he hoped Davis death would lead to systematic reform.
“This case struck a chord in the world, and as a result the legacy of Troy Davis doesn’t die tonight,” Ewart said, standing beside Davis’ family members outside Georgia’s death row.
“Our sadness, the sadness of his friends and his family, is tempered by the hope that Troy’s death will lead to fundamental legal reforms,” he said, “so we will never again witness, with inevitable regret, the execution of an innocent man as we did here tonight.”
Click here for the full report from The Huffington Post
83 Families Have Been Awarded For Vaccine Damage
September 22, 2011 by Safa
Filed under Government
September 21st, 2011
Natural News
By: PF Louis
The USA National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) is a crafty federal program to relieve the vaccine industry from liability for extreme vaccine injuries. Most claims have been rejected. But enough claims have been awarded to indicate the government’s secret awareness of the link between a vaccine and autism while publicly denying it.
Some VICP Background
The purported motive when the VICP was created in 1988 was to maintain a stable supply of vaccines. What it actually does is enable vaccine manufacturers to release risky vaccines more quickly without safety concerns by removing them from financial liability.
Though the VICP promoted easier non-adversarial access to vaccine injury victims, as of 2008 two out of three claims were rejected, according to Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC).
Apparently, there was an adversarial dynamic within the federal VICP defending the FDA. The VICP federal court had often rejected claims against FDA approved vaccines. But in 2008, the Georgia State Supreme Court issued the following statement: There is no evidence that “FDA approval alone renders a vaccine unavoidably safe.”
The VICP “Don’t Tell” Policy
Additionally, the feds are protecting the “no link of vaccines to autism” viewpoint held by all alphabet soup health agencies, vaccine industry heads, and pediatricians. But a recent study has revealed that 83 families with autistic children have been “quietly” awarded for vaccine damage over the past two decades by the VICP.
NVIC awards are annual annuities to cover the child’s health expenses. So the possibility of losing the annuity by speaking out is real. An NVIC award is effectively hush money.
Quietly awarded means you win but don’t tell. According to one parent who was awarded but has told, Sarah Bridges, PhD, proper semantics helped win her case. She didn’t use the word autism, though autism destroyed her child.
However, the recently published study by Pace Environmental Law Review reported that most of the 83 cases awarded did mention autistic behavior and even autism. One such case was awarded after the an intelligent and healthy girl went totally autistic after receiving nine vaccinations in one day!
The Pace study, which was not covered by any noteworthy media outlets, had looked into over 1300 cases of brain damage claims from vaccines. So what Sarah Bridges may have implied is that parents have a better chance if they talk seizures, permanent brain damage, etc, while not mentioning autism.
Nevertheless, the toothpaste is out of the tube, according to “SafeMinds” Executive Director Lyn Redwood, RN: “This study (Pace) dramatically shifts the debate on autism and vaccines. The question is no longer, can vaccines cause autism? The answer is clear. Now, we have to ask, How many cases of autism have vaccines caused and how do we prevent new injuries from occurring?”
More Leaks
The Safe Minds website has MSM video clips of three former heads of major government health agencies cautiously conceding autistic reactions to vaccinations. It’s easier to be truthful after retirement.
A high profile crusader for vaccine safety, Robert Kennedy, Jr., has sat in on some vaccine industry board meetings. He angrily asserted that vaccine industry executives are aware of the vaccine toxicity dangers while publicly denying causal connections to autism.
Click here for the full report from Natural News
Citrus BioFlavonoids Are A Powerful Defense Against Oxidative Stress
September 22nd, 2011
Natural News
By: Dr. David Jockers
Citrus fruits contain a vast array of phytonutrients that are just now being respected for the extraordinary health values they hold. Fruits and vegetables have been renowned for years for providing essential nutrients such as vitamin C. Today, nutritional scientists have discovered a group of bioactive flavonoids that enhance the effects of vitamin C and provide a powerful defense against oxidative stress.
Bioactive flavonoids, vitamin P, are found in living fruits and vegetables. The various bioflavonoids found in citrus include hesperidin, quercetin, diosmin, naringin, & rutin among others. These phytonutrients are vital for proper absorption of Vitamin C. In fact, studies have proven their ability to enhance and prolong the action of vitamin C.
Many vitamin C supplements consist of synthetically derived ascorbic acid. This is virtually ineffective. Without the natural citrus bioflavonoids ascorbic acid is easily oxidized and can actually be harmful to the body. This is why whole food nutrition is so much better than synthetically derived supplements.
Studies have shown benefits of the citrus bioflavonoids on capillary permeability and blood flow. This is due to the powerful anti-inflammatory effects of these phytonutrients. This is especially important for oxygenating tissues and maintaining normal blood pressure. It also reduces swelling, venous backup, and edema. This process also improves respiration in the lungs.
Hesperidin is found most abundantly in the peel and membranous parts of lemons and oranges. Hesperidin is often used for the treatment of varicose veins and hemorrhoids. A deficiency of hesperidin in the diet has been linked with abnormal capillary function, extremity pain & leg cramps.
Rutin and quercetin are the strongest bioflavonoid anti-oxidants. These 2 phytonutrients have very powerful anti-inflammatory benefits. They along with the other bioactive flavonoids have their greatest effects within the blood stream and capillary beds. These have also been shown to be highly effective at preventing and treating varicose veins. These are found in large quantities in the fruits and rinds of lemons, limes, grapefruits, & oranges.
A 1955 study by Dr. Biskind looked at 69 cases of acute respiratory infections that were treated with a whole water soluble citrus bioflavonoid complex. The disorders included the common cold, acute follicular tonsillitis, & influenza. Within 8 to 48 hours all but 3 cases saw a significant decline in infection. Dr. Biskind credited this rapid recovery to improved capillary permeability and the enhanced vitamin C bioavailability.
In 1962, Dr. Robert Cragin used lemon-orange derived bioflavonoids on different groups of athletes in a double blind study. It was found that the athletes taking bioflavonoids experienced less muscle and joint injuries than the control group. These athletes also recovered quicker from similar injuries than the group of athletes not taking the bioflavonoids. The addition of vitamin C to the bioflavonoids (as seen in citrus fruits) appeared to enhance these effects.
The best sources of citrus bioflavonoids are in lemons, limes, grapefruits, oranges, & tangerines. They are in their most potent form when they are picked off the tree in their full ripeness. The longer they are off of the tree the more nutrient value they lose. Once peeled, citrus fruit begin to oxidize and within days can lose a significant portion of their anti-oxidant value.
Enhance Your Citrus BioFlavonoid Consumption:
Do not throw away squeezed lemon… eat the pulp and membrane first.
If the peel is organic, you can shred it into a lemon zest and apply it to meat, salads, etc.
Avoid orange & grapefruit juices due to the high sugar and instead eat the whole fruit which contains fibers and significantly more bioflavonoids.
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