CBS) In this exclusive story, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports the latest terror attack to America involves the possible use of poisons - simultaneous attacks targeting hotels and restaurants at many locations over a single weekend.
A key Intelligence source has confirmed the threat as "credible." Department of Homeland Security officials, along with members of the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, have briefed a small group of corporate security officers from the hotel and restaurant industries about it.
The Duval County Health Department (DCHD) has identified a case of
_Plasmodium falciparum_ malaria in a 31-year-old female resident of
Jacksonville with no history of international travel.
Although the risk of ongoing transmission is low as the weather
becomes cooler and drier, the health department would like health
care providers and residents to be aware of additional malaria cases
and requests that any suspect cases be immediately reported to DCHD's
Epidemiology Department at 904-253-1850. An investigation is underway
to determine whether this case of malaria was possibly locally
acquired. The DCHD is working with City of Jacksonville (COJ)
Mosquito Control, the Florida Department of Health (DOH), and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better understand
where this infection originated.
Florida has reported 111 cases of malaria since the beginning of
2010, all imported from other countries. Duval County has reported 5
imported cases of malaria this year [2010]. The 6th case in Duval
County appears not to be connected to recent travel, making this
possibly the 1st case of locally acquired malaria in the last 10
years for the county.
--
Communicated by:
Ana M. Viamonte Ros, M.D., M.P.H.
State Surgeon General
DCHD Communications
The first locally acquired case of dengue fever in Miami-Dade County in more than 50 years was confirmed Thursday by health officials. They warned people to take precautions against the mosquitoes that carry it.
We're both really good with computers, but I have a feeling that will be a useless skill at some point.A.N.T.S - Americans Networking To Survive Antibiotic resistance is a type of drug resistance where a microorganism is able to survive exposure to an antibiotic. Genes can be transferred between bacteria in a horizontal fashion by conjugation, transduction, or transformation. Thus a gene for antibiotic resistance which had evolved via natural selection may be shared. Evolutionary stress such as exposure to antibiotics then selects for the antibiotic resistant trait. Many antibiotic resistance genes reside on plasmids, facilitating their transfer. If a bacterium carries several resistance genes, it is called multiresistant or, informally, a superbug or super bacteria.The primary cause of antibiotic resistance is antibiotic use both within medicine and veterinary medicine. The greater the duration of exposure the greater the risk of the development of resistance irrespective of the severity of the need for antibiotics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_bug_(bacteria)
A 3rd case of eastern equine encephalitis [EEE] in a horse, this time near
Reddick, was reported in Marion County this week [week of 9 Aug 2010]. It
is the 2nd case in less than a month and caused the county health
department to issue a notice to advise residents of the risk.
Though rare in humans, EEE can be transmitted through mosquito bites.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the infection
affects a small number of humans every year, mostly in the Atlantic and
Gulf Coast states. Most of those affected have no symptoms, but in severe
cases headache, high fever, chills, and vomiting are common. Severe cases
can be fatal.
"It’s open field day now," said Tracy, the pastor of Straightway Baptist Church here. "The criminals are going to run wild."
Gang activity. Drug dealing. Cold-blooded killing. Tracy worries that a decision to shrink the police force by almost 30 percent will bring more of everything.
The EMP Commission was established pursuant to title XIV of the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (as enacted into law by Public Law 106-398; 114 Stat. 1654A-345). Duties of the EMP Commission include assessing:
1. the nature and magnitude of potential high-altitude EMP threats to the United States from all potentially hostile states or non-state actors that have or could acquire nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles enabling them to perform a high-altitude EMP attack against the United States within the next 15 years;
2. the vulnerability of United States military and especially civilian systems to an EMP attack, giving special attention to vulnerability of the civilian infrastructure as a matter of emergency preparedness;
3. the capability of the United States to repair and recover from damage inflicted on United States military and civilian systems by an EMP attack; and
4. the feasibility and cost of hardening select military and civilian systems against EMP attack.
The Commission is charged with identifying any steps it believes should be taken by the United States to better protect its military and civilian systems from EMP attack.
The global credit environment is worsening. Cost of capital is going up and availability is going down. There are large gaps between where the credit market prices risk and where the equity market is priced. Equity is lagging the deterioration in credit conditions. Moves in currency, equity and commodity markets are mirroring the moves in the credit market. Global growth, in a credit-constrained environment, will slow. Profits will be squeezed by the higher cost of capital...We advocate a zero weight toward equity, and that investors convert their equity positions to cash."
Earlier we noted that the Austrian mint was on its way to depleting its gold reserves following "panicked buying" from Europeans, who now openly fear the demise of their currency. Now, courtesy of Slim Beleggen, we understand that the situation in the silver market is just as bad and has also spilled over to Germany: the contagion is no longer one of sovereign debt, but of precious metal physical inventory. The primarily silver focused (but holding gold as well) Kronwitter precious metal online retailer is not only not accepting any orders, but has entirely taken down its website.
Today, millions of Americans say that they believe that the United States is on the verge of a major economic collapse and will soon be entering another Great Depression. But only a small percentage of those same people are prepared for that to happen. The sad truth is that the vast majority of Americans would last little more than a month on what they have stored up in their homes.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/20-things-you-will-need-to-survive-when-the-economy-collapses-and-the-next-great-depression-begins-2010-5#ixzz0nG5hBfGE
Media reports said Y. Peter Sheng, coastal and oceanographic engineer at UF, believes the six-day ocean current models released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveal that the slick "could get caught in what's called the 'Loop Current' 35 miles south of the slick, which flows through the Florida Straits and becomes the Gulf Stream."
According to Sheng, Florida's west coast from Big Bend to Cedar Key could be spared while eastern coastal beaches are threatened.
Pictures of a Market Crash: Beware the Ides of March, And What Follows After
There are a fair number of private and public forecasters with whom I speak that anticipate a significant market decline in March. As you know I tend to agree, but with the important caveat that we are in a very different monetary landscape than the last time the Fed engaged in quantitative easing, the early 1930's. The biggest difference is the lack of 'external standards.'
LEAP/E2020 is of the view that the effect of States’ spending trillions to « counteract the crisis » will have fizzled out. These vast sums had the effect of slowing down the development of the systemic global crisis for several months but, as anticipated in previous GEAB reports, this strategy will only have ultimately served to clearly drag States into the crisis caused by the financial institutions.
Therefore our team anticipates, in this 42nd issue of the GEAB, a sudden intensification of the crisis in the second half of 2010, caused by a double effect of a catching up of events which were temporarily « frozen » in the second half of 2009 and the impossibility of maintaining the palliative remedies of past years.
A closer look at the economy’s 5.9% growth rate in Q4 reveals that two temporary factors, inventories and stimulus, accounted for at least 80% — perhaps over 100% — of that growth.
