Once you recognize you’re burned out, you can pull yourself back from the ledge , but it’d be best to never get there in the first place. Luckily, the signs are usually right in front of you: you just don’t want to see them, or you’re too busy actually working to recognize them. If you keep an eye out, you’ll be able to cut off burnout before it takes hold so hard you can barely get up for work.
Applesauce is an excellent accompaniment to many holiday treats (latkes, ham, roasted pork), but the store-bought stuff can be a little lacking. Luckily, you can easily jazz it up with stuff you probably already have in your fridge.
ROCKVILLE — If a high-school coach has sex with a 16-year-old student, did that coach commit a crime? In Maryland, that depends.
“Right now, it’s illegal for a teacher or coach to have sex with someone under the age of 18 if that person is ‘under their care or custody,’’’ at the time, explains Lisae Jordan with the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
But she says a quirk in Maryland law carves out an exception.
“The law only prohibits teachers and coaches from having sex with children at other times if they are working for the school.”
Jordan has lobbied to close that loophole in Annapolis. A bill that would have narrowed the exemption failed in the Maryland state legislature in the last legislative session.
That loophole in the law comes into play in a recent case in Montgomery County. The family of a 16-year-old member of the Walter Johnson High School crew club alleged that a part-time coach exchanged thousands of text messages with the teen and eventually met her at a country club in September, where they claim the two had sex.
Attorney Norman Schneider filed a civil suit against the Walter Johnson High School Crew Club. The coach, who was employed by the crew club, can’t be charged with a crime because he was not a school employee and wasn’t in direct supervision of the girl at the time of the alleged incident.
Instead, Schneider filed a civil suit against the crew club that alleged emotional distress and assault. Schneider also alleged that the club failed to properly vet the coach.
ABC7 first reported on the lawsuit. The coach — who is not named because he has not been charged with a crime in this case — told the TV station that the allegations were “bogus.”
WTOP’s attempts to contact the coach were unsuccessful.
WTOP contacted the Walter Johnson High School crew club for comment. Stuart Bassin, acting as spokesman for the club, said he couldn’t comment beyond the fact that the coach, who is no longer with the team, worked as a strength and conditioning coach for eight to 10 hours a week.
Bassin said the coach has not been with the club “for some time.” He said he could not comment on Schneider’s claim that the club failed to properly vet the coach.
The crew club at Walter Johnson High School Crew Club is a nonprofit organization, independent of Montgomery County’s public school system. The club’s coaches are not school employees.
In 2012, a Montgomery County Public School employee was arrested over allegations that he had sex with a high school student where he coached part time. But because of a legal loophole, the case was dropped.
Maryland state law stipulates that sexual contact between students and full-time permanent employees was prohibited. While the coach was a full-time employee at an MCPS middle school, he was a part-time coach at the high school where the 16-year-old student attended, so he could not be prosecuted.
That loophole has since been closed.
The post Lawsuit alleging sex between coach, student draws attention to quirk in Md. law appeared first on WTOP.
WASHINGTON — The Commonwealth Transportation Board approved a plan Wednesday that will bring a tolling system to Interstate 66 at rush hour, allowing solo drivers to use the lanes legally during restricted periods for the first time, and leading to renewed questions and interest from WTOP listeners.
Here are some answers to questions submitted to WTOP:
Q: When exactly will the tolls be in place?
A: The tolling system is scheduled to be up and running in mid-to-late 2017. Once it goes live, drivers with at least one other person in the car will continue to travel for free at any time of day. Drivers who are alone will have to pay a toll that varies based on the congestion in the lanes in order to maintain a speed of at least 45 mph. The concept is the same as the 95 Express Lanes, where tolls rise to discourage drivers from entering the lanes when they are crowded, and fall when the lanes are less crowded.
The HOV and tolling rules would be in effect from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in the eastbound direction and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the westbound direction.
Today, HOV rules only apply for two and a half hours each day in each direction.
Q: Will people going in the reverse commute direction have to pay a toll or meet HOV requirements?
A: Plans to include a toll on reverse commuters were scrapped after public comments against the idea. The change means that triggers for widening of Interstate 66 eastbound between the Dulles Connector Road and Ballston can only focus on the status of the road during the morning commute.
Q: Will any money go toward I-66 improvements?
A: All money from the inside the Beltway tolls beyond the cost of operating and maintaining the system is required by law to benefit toll-paying users of the road. Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration estimates that the tolls will draw $18 million in gross revenue during the first full year of operation in 2018, which should translate to about $8 to $10 million in revenue for the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission to assign to projects such as park and rides, improved bus service or carpooling and road improvements in the corridor.
Under the agreement between the Commonwealth Transportation Board and the NVTC, some of the revenue is expected to be used later to widen I-66 eastbound to three through lanes from the Dulles Connector to Ballston. The agreement delays consideration of that widening until the early 2020s.
Q: Will I have enough time to get off 66 for another route after seeing the toll price if I think it is too high?
A: Like on the 95 and 495 Express Lanes, signs will show the toll rates to several destinations such as Ballston, Rosslyn and the D.C. line. Drivers will likely be able to exit onto the Beltway if the toll is higher than they are willing to pay. Like the existing Express Lanes, the price will be based on the distance traveled as well as the level of congestion.
Q: Will I still be able to drive alone to Dulles Airport during the restricted periods?
A: VDOT plans to remove the exemption to HOV restrictions for drivers going to Dulles Airport.
Q: Will hybrids have to pay the tolls or will they be exempt?
A: The hybrid exemption is already scheduled to be phased out for the corridor because of the consistent traffic, and this plan would specifically put an end date for it. VDOT Commissioner Charles Kilpatrick has included phasing out the exemption as a way to help improve traffic flow during HOV hours. The federal government has some oversight of the road’s performance during HOV periods, so a plan to speed up traffic flow is required.
The hybrid exemption generally does not apply in the toll situations that have been set up so far in Virginia, and Virginia Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne has said it would also not apply at any point to the new HOT (HOV or Toll) lanes being constructed outside the Beltway.
The outside the Beltway plan is proceeding separately, with the two new Express Toll lanes in each direction scheduled to open around 2021 if the schedule remains on track. VDOT plans to award the outside the Beltway contract as a full public-private concession in the same way the 95 Express Lanes were constructed. There would be no limits on improvements to parallel roads.
Q: “Can you help me understand exactly what areas this affects? I travel in from Woodstock and get off at Route 50. I’m driving in around 5:20 a.m. and leave at 3:30 p.m. So, will there be tolls in this area or is this further east? Is it a full $17 a day?”
A: The $17 per day number was a combination of the highest rate expected in the morning (which would probably be well after your trip) and the highest rate expected in the afternoon (which again would likely be later than your trip).
If you get off at Route 50 — you would not be driving through the area where the just-approved tolls are going to be anyway. The tolling plan approved Wednesday focuses only on the portion of I-66 inside the Beltway, and will only apply at rush hour (four hours in the morning heading eastbound and four hours in the afternoon heading westbound). Just in case you change your commute between now and the start of tolls in a year-and-a-half to two years, the lanes will be free for anyone with two or more people in the car. It will go up to three or more around 2021 to coincide with a regional plan and match the new lanes that will be added outside the Beltway.
The supporters of the plan would say you may still see benefits from the changes though since some of the money is scheduled to be used along the entire corridor as needed to boost commuter bus service, park and rides and carpooling, which could get cars off the roads.
If you don’t end up getting a new commuter bus option that works for you, you’ll see a more direct impact down the line from the plans for 66 between Gainesville and the Beltway — they’re going to add two new HOV or toll lanes in each direction there. Those will be enforced 24/7 — free for three people in the car with an EZPass Flex switched to the HOV position or open to anyone willing to pay the variable toll that will be displayed on overhead signs like the 95/495 Express Lanes.
The post FAQs about the new I-66 tolls inside the Beltway appeared first on WTOP.
Washington Post |
A DC day care costs three times as much as public college tuition Washington Post Quality day care has long been seen as critical to a child's early development. And a new report shows the unsurprising obstacle that prevents many families from getting that care: the cost. In the United States, about 11 million children under the age ... Report: DC has highest child-care costs in the nationWTOP all 7 news articles » |
Patch.com |
Traffic Alert: Checkpoint Friday in Georgetown South Patch.com MANASSAS, VA - The Manassas City Police Department will conduct a traffic safety checkpoint in the area of Georgetown South from 7 to 11 p.m. Friday. Officers will inspect vehicles for compliance with traffic and safety regulations (operator's licenses ... |
Fairfax County Animal Watch Washington Post No incidents were reported by the Animal Control Division of the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. FAIRFAX CITY. The following incidents were reported by the animal control section of the Fairfax City Police Department. and more » |
There are dog watchers, dog walkers, dog hotels, and dog salons, but when you just need to keep your pooch pal outside of a store for a couple of minutes while you run an errand, do you resort to the old “tie the leash to the parking meter” technique? A startup in NYC is betting that you’ll be willing to pay for the convenience of stashing your dog in a “curbside kennel” while you shop.
It’s called Dog Parker and it is currently being tested outside a Brooklyn eatery. CBS New York reports that there’s a $25 membership fee that gets users access to the temperature-controlled doggy lockers (three different sizes) for twenty cents a minute.
The company’s founder says that she follows the same sanitation rules as doggy daycares and that the kennels are cleaned regularly.
What’s a bigger concern is that bad dog owners would abuse the system as a way to cheaply stash their dog for hours at a time. While many dogs might be okay with spending hours in a locked crate on a New York City sidewalk, others may not handle it so well.
The founder says the kennels are intended for short trips, but that stays are limited to three hours. If the dog is left longer than that, they are taken to a boarding facility where owners would have to pay an additional fee to retrieve their furry friend.
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While the number of ill students is climbing, the good news for Chipotle is that the outbreak appears to have nothing to do with the E. coli outbreak that reached restaurants in nine states, now they have a new outbreak of norovirus, the pathogen that causes the most outbreaks from contaminated food in this country.
Norovirus is probably best known for its insidious presence on cruise ships, but most cases occur elsewhere. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, 70% of outbreaks originate when a sick person serves food. The virus can also spread to people who happen to be in a room where someone with the virus vomits, and is also impervious to many cleaning products and hand sanitizers.
While requiring employees who are sick to stay home is an important step, it’s not perfect, since people with norovirus can be contagious before and after they show any symptoms.
AdAge reports that an unnamed executive outlined the company’s post-outbreak marketing strategy. The campaign won’t begin until after the CDC officially declares the outbreak to be “over,” and it will include direct-mail coupons inviting customers back, making executives available for interviews, and running open letters to customers in newspapers.(They should probably also publish those on, say, Instagram or Facebook to reach their younger customers.)
The executive also explained some changes made to their cooking processes: lettuce, cilantro, and tomatoes are now processed in regional facilities, then sanitized and sealed for delivery to restaurants. That’s dicing that used to be done in restaurants.
Chipotle: CDC and Media Tactics Have Added to E. Coli Hype [AdAge]
Boston Students Afflicted by Chipotle-Linked Outbreak Top 120
Amazon is always adjusting their prices, and sometimes those adjustments aren’t in your favor. When you throw an item in your cart and the price suddenly rises by five or ten bucks, that’s enough to make you look for it elsewhere, or maybe not buy the item at all if it wasn’t something that you needed. Yet there is a way to get Amazon to bring the price back down: ask nicely.
This isn’t a super-secret strategy, but you may not have thought to try it. The founding couple of Rather Be Shopping did, and they employed the strategy with a robot kitty that’s a popular toy this holiday season. You know the drill: they put the toy in their cart, and the price went up before they went to purchase. That’s when they logged on customer service chat.
The agent checked the price history and found that yes, the price had indeed risen in the last 24 hours. She offered an adjustment after the order was placed.
Like all tools in the consumer toolkit, we warn you not to abuse this one, especially as December continues and customer service lines get busier. Amazon calls it a “one-time exception” in this example, and even if they allow you to use it multiple times, save it for major price increases on big-ticket items.
Amazon Hack: How To Get the Lower Price After a Price Change [Rather-Be-Shopping]
Just over a year ago, we learned that Oreo churros came into existence for some reason that no one fully understands. That version was for the convenience-store market: stores would serve the choco-churros with cups of “creme.” Now the product that you never asked for is available: Oreo churros have found their way to store shelves.
Yes, someone actually saw these for sale in the frozen-food aisle at Safeway. Unlike their hot-lamp siblings, they come with Oreo creme in the middle, and are presumably heated in the microwave.
Well, it could be worse: Doritos Loaded could have made their way from 7-Eleven and Burger King to supermarket freezer cases. Wait… they did?
Cats are less likely to chew cables compared to dogs, but every precaution should be taken to make sure cats are safe if they do chew. Not only does chewing and biting damage the cords, but it can result in terrible harm to your cat, such as electric shock or choking. Keep in mind, however, that this is typical for teething younger cats, and even the most devoted cord-chewers tend to grow out of it.
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This came up during the investigation of the widely reported pizzeria case because the father was recently sentenced for re-selling chicken wings taken from his previous employer. Indeed, there is a black market for meat, and buyers who don’t really care about the origins of the turkey breasts or chicken wings they’re serving.
To refresh your memory, the duo have been accused of ordering extra wings from the pizzeria where they worked as cooks, and selling them to other food establishments on the sly for less than the standard price.
The Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard reports that the management of Twin Trees Too, one of the area’s leading cutters of round pizzas into square pieces, knew about the charges but wanted to give him a second chance. “He swore up and down that he wouldn’t screw us,” the store manager told the paper.
The restaurant’s owners began to notice that there were about 20% fewer chicken wings in the restaurant than they had paid for, and they hired a private investigator to follow their suspects. Once they had enough evidence, the restaurant took the investigator’s work to the local police.
Offers like this come to all kinds of business owners, but the difference between perishable food and other goods sold for a lower price than the standard one is that improperly refrigerated meat can hurt you.
Syracuse restaurant owners describe chicken-wing ‘black market’ [Post-Standard]
To back up: A franchise agreement is what gives cable the right, generally, to become an all-powerful local monopoly — but also the responsibility, sometimes, to make sure everyone in the area has access. For decades, those agreements have seemed almost etched in stone. The contracts are 10 or 15 years long and renewing them feels basically inevitable. And usually, the local monopoly gets its way. Thanks to the history of franchises, competition in the cable and broadband space is basically nonexistent, so there isn’t usually that much leverage for a city or county to use to push back.
Until recently, anyway.
Comcast has never exactly been beloved or popular, but during the year they tried and failed to buy Time Warner Cable, the general simmering pot of distaste boiled over into something like a tidal wave of negativity. And the cities that have franchise agreements up for renewal in this window have started taking the opportunity to require Comcast to, well, do more and suck less.
Philadelphia, where Comcast has its corporate headquarters, pushed hard for better terms when its turn to renew the franchise agreement came up this year. The city and the cable giant spent more than eight months in negotiations before a new agreement finally made it to the city council last week.
The terms that Philadelphia and Comcast have agreed on include many more outreach programs to help lower-income residents, as well as improvements to customer service, Philadelphia Magazine reports. As part of the agreement, the city will get the maximum franchise fee of 5% of all the gross revenues from Comcast’s cable service, which right now is more than $17 million annually. Comcast will also increase funding for public, educational, and government access programs as well as upgrade the technology in over 200 city buildings at no cost. The company everyone loves to hate is also being held to specific customer service standards with regards to service appointments and outages, with fairly stiff (although a drop in the bucket, for Comcast) penalties for noncompliance.
Comcast is also being required to provide education to high school seniors, provide some graduates with jobs, and meet Philadelphia’s living wage and prevailing wage rules. And last but not least, the city is requiring that Comcast drop one of the most onerous requirements for low-income families to enrolling in the Internet Essentials program, and will be included on the pilot program to expand eligibility to senior citizens — as well as any other pilot program that Comcast conducts with Internet Essentials in the future.
In Philadelphia the concessions are all but a done deal; the city council and mayor will hold a full vote on the agreement tomorrow, Dec. 10.
That’s great for the city and its residents, but Philly isn’t the only major metro renegotiating their terms this year. Over on the West coast, all eyes are watching the negotiations Comcast went through with its hometown… and now they’re saying, “wait… what about us?”
The city of Seattle spent 2015 negotiating its own new 10-year agreement with Comcast. They were due to sit down and sign the contract on Monday, Dec. 7, but city representatives put a hold on the agreement when they heard about the terms Philadelphia was getting and demanded some improvements of their own.
Local network KIRO reports that Comcast had already promised Seattle 600 free connections for nonprofits, $8 million in support for public, education, or government channels, free service to government and school buildings, and access to Internet Essentials. As compared to the Philadelphia deal, though, that leaves a lot of Seattle residents out in the digital cold.
So, as the Seattle Times reports, city officials sent a letter to Comcast demanding a deal more like Philly’s… and they won. During weekend negotiations, Comcast agreed to include Seattle’s seniors in the Internet Essentials expansion pilot, as well as to increase a city grant for narrowing the digital divide tenfold, from $50,000 to $500,000.
City officials are exploring how to create an enforcement mechanism, to hold Comcast to the agreement, before reconvening to revisit the contract on Dec. 14.
The future of retail is quickly becoming a reality with more shoppers ditching trips to the store in favor of ordering groceries and other products from the comfort of their own home. Despite these changing preferences, one of the country’s latest retailers wants you to know that the physical store isn’t going anywhere. But the carts on the other hand — they’re toast.
Target unveiled its idea for the future of physical retail stores this week in a holiday themed pop-up shop in Manhattan on Wednesday.
The 16,000-square-foot space is billed as “part store, part holiday playground,” and dubbed Target Wonderland. The building includes ten “spectacles,” which are essentially full on displays and renderings of rooms and other items made from toys.
While the displays are no doubt eye-catching, the future part of Target’s business rests in the merging of physical and digital retail experiences at the temporary store.
According to Target’s vision, shopping in the (not-so-distant?) future means guests will no longer be greeted by shopping carts when they enter the doors. Instead, the carts will be replaced with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) enabled keys, which can be used to add items to a digital shopping cart by scanning the bullseye tag near the product.
Once customers are done with their trip, they simply take their key to the front and purchase the items on their list.
Since this is all just a glimpse of what’s to come, Target doesn’t specify if the products will be waiting in the back room for pickup or if they’ll be delivered to a shoppers home.
Target Wonderland is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday through Dec. 22 at 70 10th Avenue in New York City.
Everyone loves (mostly) free donuts right? Of course they do, which makes Saturday Dec. 12 your lucky day – as long as you enjoy the idea of getting 12 free glazed dough tori from Krispy Kreme. To ensure everyone has their fair shot at what it’s calling #dayofthedozen, the company has created the “World’s Tastiest Coupon,” a video feature donuts rolling under a stream of glaze. That glaze just so happens to make a barcode, and when scanned – either via a print out or the video on your phone – gives the customer a dozen free donuts when you buy a dozen. [h/t to Consumerist reader Brandon]
A new report [PDF], commissioned by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, highlights not just how pervasive the problem is — involving everything from the manufacture of these drugs through the treatment of animal waste — but how, as things stand now, it’s only going to become an even bigger problem.
Here are just a handful of takeaways from the 44-page report.
1. GIVING ANTIBIOTICS TO HEALTHY ANIMALS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA
There are basically three reasons why farmers give antibiotics to animals. The first, and the one that no one really has any issue with, is treating genuinely ill animals. Which brings up the second reason: “disease prevention.”
The idea here is that because large numbers of animals are kept together in close quarters — and not always in the most sanitary conditions — they need prophylactic doses of antibiotics to preemptively prevent disease from spreading.
That might sound like a thoughtful notion, but research indicates that this low-dose application of antibiotics in healthy animals only makes the situation worse.
The UK report points to a recent study out of China which showed that sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics in pig farming resulted in huge increases in the number of antibiotic resistance genes, when compared to an antibiotic-free site in a similar region.
The third use is growth-promotion. A happy side effect of antibiotic overuse is that it can result in bigger animals, providing farmers with a bigger return on investment. This use of antibiotics in farm animals has been banned in some countries, and the U.S. recently asked drugmakers to voluntarily stop selling antibiotics solely for growth-promotion.
However, only a few drugs were pulled from the market because most growth-promoting drugs are also approved for disease prevention. Likewise, some drug companies continued to brazenly market the pig-fattening effects of their products in spite of the increased scrutiny.
Additionally, the entire growth-promotion benefit may be overinflated. A farmer who raised both traditional and drug-free birds for Perdue recently noted that the chickens without antibiotics all grew to the same required weight as the drugged-up birds. He also noticed no difference in the mortality levels between the two flocks, indicating that no diseases were being prevented by force-feeding antibiotics to chickens.
2. MOST ANTIBIOTICS ARE GOING TO ANIMALS INSTEAD OF HUMANS
The UK report acknowledges that because of the lack of transparency on a global basis, it’s difficult to say with certainty exactly how many tons of antibiotics are making their way into animal feed. What does seem to be agreed-upon is that more than 70% of medically important antibiotics in the U.S. are sold for the purpose of providing to livestock, and that this is figure is more than 50% on a worldwide scale.
And their use is only going to become more popular. A 2015 estimate from researchers at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences predicts that global consumption of antibiotics in agriculture will increase by 67% by 2030. Leading that charge will be the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) that are emerging as world financial powers.
It’s expected that the increased demand for animal meat (and to a lesser, but still important, extent the consumption of fruits, grains, and vegetables raised using antibiotics) will result in a 99% increase in antibiotic use in these countries over the next fifteen years.
3. MASS MANUFACTURING OF ANTIBIOTICS PUTS US ALL AT RISK
Speaking of China and India, these countries are responsible for supplying many of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in these antibiotics. The UK report points to research of API plants in both countries that showed significant levels of these ingredients making their way into the surrounding waste water.
One study of a plant in India found high levels of active ingredients being flushed into a nearby river. The concentration of one common antibiotic was so high that it exceeded the level needed to kill bacteria by 1,000 times.
“To put this in perspective, this means that waste water or effluent in some areas where APIs are released via manufacturing waste have a far higher concentration of antibiotics than you would expect to find in the blood of a patient taking the drug,” reads the UK report.
4. ANTIBIOTICS IN ANIMAL WASTE IS ALSO A HUGE PROBLEM
A 2011 study claims that the overwhelming majority of antibiotics (75-90%) fed to farm animals passes through their digestive systems un-metabolized, meaning that all that cow, pig and chicken poop that hits the ground contains antibiotics.
And it’s not just livestock. The UK report notes the problem that human waste poses to the over-abundance of antibiotics in waste water.
“In countries with less developed sanitation infrastructure, there is a higher risk that waste will not be treated, and sometimes be closer to communities, thus increasing the risks of exposure, the carriage of resistant bacteria by otherwise healthy people, and the rate of drug-resistant community-acquired infections,” reads the report. “It is in these settings that there is an additional concern about antibiotics and resistant bacteria passing into the environment as sewage treatment systems are often not fully functional or do not use appropriate technologies.”
5. THERE IS LITTLE DISAGREEMENT IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
Every time someone calls for increased restriction on antibiotic use in farm animals, the pharma/farm lobbies and their supporters claim that “the science just isn’t there,” but according to the UK report, just about every scientists agrees that this is a problem and limits are needed.
Of the 139 peer-reviewed research papers covering this topic, the UK report says that a mere 7 pieces of academic research argued against the idea of limiting antibiotic use, while 100 academic papers were in favor of limits.
6. A GLOBAL RESPONSE IS NEEDED
This is not an issue that is limited to one part of the world, nor is a problem that can be solved by only a couple of large countries taking action.
The UK report calls for, among other things, a “global target” for reducing antibiotic use in food production to an agreed-upon level, along with consensus on the restrictions on the use of medically important human antibiotics on animals.
“We believe an ambitious but achievable target for reducing antibiotic use in agriculture is needed, to reduce use over the next 10 years,” reads the report. “There are countries that have advanced farming systems with very low levels of antibiotic use, particularly in Scandinavia. Denmark has combined low use with being one of the largest exporters of pork in the world. Reducing levels of use to that of Denmark for example, an average of less than 50 milligram of antibiotics used a year per kilogram of livestock in the country, may be a good starting point for such a target.”
The researchers believe that this type of decrease can be achieved “without harming the health of animals or the long-term productivity of farmers.”
Steven Roach, Senior Analyst from Keep Antibiotics Working, agrees with this recommendation, which would cut U.S. antibiotic use down to about 1/3 of where it is now.
Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter, a trained microbiologist and outspoken critic of antbiotic overuse, is applauding the report.
“The continued use of antibiotics in agriculture for nontherapeutic uses such as disease prevention and growth promotion cannot be sustained if we expect antibiotics to continue to be medically effective for humans in the future,” reads a statement from the Congresswoman, who has already introduced legislation to ban the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock.”Antibiotic resistance is now a global problem which will require a global response.”
WRIC |
Robber follows pattern, holds up eight gas stations in DC and Va. Washington Post In less than a month, a man has made a kind of crook's tour of service station convenience stores from Richmond to the District by first making a purchase, and then, according to the FBI, pulling a gun and taking cash. The FBI issued an announcement ... FBI releases photos of man sought in 8 armed robberies in Va., DCWJLA Gunman wears distinctive baseball cap during month-long crime spreewtvr.com all 10 news articles » |
We’ve written before about jerks who deliberately point lasers at nearby planes, and we’ve also covered businesses that don’t realize that their rooftop light shows might present a hazard, but now some homeowners may be unintentionally blinding pilots by misusing their home decorations.
You might have seen the TV ads for a product called Star Shower, that covers your home in points of light so that you don’t have to risk life and limb stringing lights in trees and along your roofline. While it might be a time-saver for folks who want to sparkle-up their holiday, it could be a blinding hazard to pilots in the sky above.
NBC Los Angeles reports on a recent incident involving a U.S. Coast Guard plane that reported what appeared to be a laser strike near Sacramento, only to find out that it was a home using Star Shower.
The instructions for the product warn users that “lasers should not be projected at or within the flight path of an aircraft within ten nautical miles of an airport,” but as this example shows, not everyone is reading the instructions — or if they are reading them, they may not even know where they are in relation to the flight path of their local airport.
Nothing happened to the pilot in the Coast Guard plane, but a helicopter pilot for the L.A. County Sheriff tells NBC that he’s experienced “flash blindness” firsthand.
“Everything goes away except green,” says the pilot. “The worst part about it is the pain. It can cause anything from a mild distraction to a complete incapacitation of the pilot resulting in the aircraft crashing.”
He says he would be very wary of pointing a Star Shower or any similar laser projector into the sky because “it could conceivably have the same negative affects to pilots as one of the single pen light lasers.”
In a statement, the makers of Star Shower reiterate that, “Lasers should not be projected at or within the flight path of an aircraft within 10 nautical miles of an airport. If your intended surface is within 10 nautical miles of an airport, lower the angle of the Star Shower so that no lasers point into the sky.”
While it’s fair to say that most things should be salted to taste, this in-depth experiment suggests that fattier meats require a lot more salt to avoid being bland.
Cooking tips aren’t just for foodies. We all eat every day (unless you’re a robot), and better cooking means healthier food, more delicious meals, and possibly even saving some cash. here were our best food hacks and tips from 2015.
You might have heard the old adage “renting is throwing money away.” It seems like common sense. You don’t buy anything when you rent, but you keep to keep the house you buy. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
There’s nothing wrong with traditional sugar cookies, but if you’re looking for a way to set yourself apart at the cookie swap, consider incorporating some spice-infused browned butter.
Prince William County community calendar, Dec. 10-16, 2015 Washington Post Community “Messiah” sing-a-long Choir and orchestra students from Osbourn Park, Patriot and Brentsville District high schools lead Handel's “Messiah” as a sing-a-long. 7 p.m. Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Cir., Manassas. |
With several states and companies passing or currently considering rules to stop the use of tiny microbeads in beauty products, the nation as a whole has been playing catchup. After at least one failed attempt to pass a measure to keep the microscopic plastic spheres from going down the drain and possibly into the stomachs of our seafood, the House passed legislation this week that would ban the use of the products.
The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 [PDF], which would phase out the use of microbeads in consumer products over the next several years, passed the House on Monday via voice vote, indicating widespread support in the legislature.
Under the bill, a ban on manufacturing products with the beads, the first step, would begin on July 1, 2017, followed by product-specific manufacturing and sales bans in 2018 and 2019.
The bill’s definition of a microbead — “any solid plastic particle” less than five millimeters in size intended for use as an exfoliant — also closes a potential loophole that environmental groups feared could keep the small spheres in use: simply using a different kind of plastic.
“As someone who grew up on Lake Michigan and represents a large chunk of Michigan coastline, I understand firsthand how important it is to maintain the beauty and integrity of our Great Lakes,” Representative Fred Upton, who co-sponsored the bill, said in a statement.
A companion measure for the House bill is currently waiting for review by the Senate Health, Education, and Labor Committee.
The small bits of plastic, often found in face washes, soaps and toothpaste, have become a hot topic for lawmakers and environmentalists in recent years, with many states taking action to end the use of microbeads.
A report issued by the New York Environmental Protection Bureau last year outlined just how unsafe the small plastic pieces can be.
According to the report, after microbeads are washed from our bathrooms, they easily travel through wastewater treatment plants and enter our waterways. The tiny beads then act as sponges for toxic chemical pollutants and become an attractive snack for marine wildlife. And because we humans often like to eat seafood, that means there’s a pretty good chance the spheres could end up in your stomach.
Despite the findings, legislation to phase out the use of microbeads state-wide has passed the New York Assembly twice in the last two years, but has stalled in the Senate both times.
Last year, Illinois became the first state to pass an ordinance that would gradually fade out the use of microbeads beginning in 2017 and ending in 2019.
The state bill even had the cooperation of product manufacturers. An official with the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois said at the time that the quick deal resulted from unique circumstances, and the availability of substitute ingredients, such as oatmeal and sea salt.
Earlier this year, the state of California voted to phase out the use of microscopic exfoliating beads in personal care products sold in the state.
Michigan also considered a ban on the use of the beads this year. MLive reports that legislators debated the bill, but failed to reach a consensus.
The issue hasn’t just been on the minds of activists, either. Several major manufacturers, such as Proctor & Gamble, Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive, have pledged to phase out use of plastic microbeads.
In February 2014, L’Oréal said it would begin phasing out the materials this year in their Biotherm products and continue with Body Shop products in 2015. All of the company’s products are expected to be microbead-free by 2017.
U.S. House approves bill to ban microbeads [MLive]
A few months ago, the word on the street was that Pepsi was bringing back a carbonated ’90s icon, Crystal Pepsi. The clear-caffeine-free beverage lives in our collective memory a a product that was briefly very popular and then disappeared the following year. Pepsi has announced that the product will come back as part of a giveaway to promote the company’s rewards app, Pepsi Pass.
They plan to give away 13,000 cases to Pepsi Pass users who enter the contest. That’s nice, but what bout people who would prefer to buy their beverages, or who don’t want to download any more apps? That’s the question: Pepsi hasn’t announced whether they plan to actually put the beverage back into production indefinitely.
Crystal Pepsi was surprisingly popular for a brief time. (I remember liking it, but was too young to have developed good taste at the time.) The public enjoyed it for a while, then probably came to realize that a caffeine-free cola that wasn’t brown and that didn’t quite taste like cola made no sense.
At least there was a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl in 1993 that hasn’t aged particularly well, so we can laugh at it.
The inevitable comparison is to Surge, which Coca-Cola brought back in a small batch as an e-commerce experiment last year, selling out within hours and eventually reaching retail store shelves. Surge, at least, was around for six years: long enough to build up a respectable and nostalgic fan base when Coca-Cola brought it back. A special giveaway is one thing, but are there enough people with fond memories of Crystal Pepsi who are willing to exchange actual money for the stuff?
In any case, Pepsi has taken to social media to market to a population that is largely too young to remember the product. The effort did give us this great ad, which tells a great and memorable story: Crystal Pepsi never went away, but simply retreated to a secret floor at Pepsi headquarters where it’s still 1993.
Will the new version taste like the old one? Someone who remembers the original clearly from more than 20 years ago will have to win and let us all know.
CRYSTAL PEPSI RETURNS [YouTube]
CRYSTAL PEPSI FAQ [Pepsi]
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. rail network accounts for about 40 percent of U.S. freight shipping by ton-miles (the length freight travels) and 16 percent by tons (the weight of freight moved). There are 21 regional railroad companies and 510 local. Below is a look at the major operators with Canadian Pacific attempting to buy out Norfolk Southern.
BNSF Railway
Parent company: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Miles of track: 32,500
Service area: 28 states in the Midwest, South and West. Also in parts of Canada.
Headquarters: Forth Worth, Texas
CSX CORP.
Market value: $26.1 billion
Miles of track: 21,000
Service area: 23 U.S. states along the East Coast, South and Midwest
Headquarters: Jacksonville, Florida
CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO.
Market value: $45.3 billion
Miles of track: 21,000
Service area: Canada and parts of the U.S. Midwest and South.
Headquarters: Montreal
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD.
Market value: $27.9 billion
Miles of track: 15,000
Service area: Canada and parts of the U.S. Northeast and Midwest
Headquarters: Calgary, Canada
NORFOLK SOUTHERN CORP.
Market value: $26.7 billion
Miles of track: 20,000
Service area: 22 states along the East Coast, Midwest and South
Headquarters: Norfolk, Virginia
UNION PACIFIC CORP.
Market value: $66.6 billion
Miles of track: 32,000
Service area: 23 states in the Midwest, South and West
Headquarters: Omaha, Nebraska
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Sources: Department of Transportation; FactSet; company data
The post A look at 6 major railroad companies appeared first on WTOP.
Best Way to Get Rid of Your Beanie Babies Patch.com They're in a box in the garage. Some might be worth something. Any one of them is worth a lot to a child in trauma. Manassas, VA. By Greg Hambrick (Patch Staff) December 8, 2015. ShareTweetGoogle PlusRedditEmailComments0. Manassas City Police is ... |
