10th Cir won't grant permanent stay on marriage recognition case, tells Utah to go to #SCOTUS.
— @chrisgeidner
Scientific American:
CDC Botched Handling of Deadly Flu Virus
The third recent mistake in handling of pathogens is a “wake-up call,” says Centers for Disease Control head
Public Radio East:
In the course of trying to understand a laboratory accident involving anthrax, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stumbled upon another major blunder — involving a deadly flu virus.
The flu incident apparently posed no health risk, but it went unreported to top brass for six weeks. Those officials now recognize a pattern of problems in their world-class laboratory. And these incidents are raising broader questions about the safety of high-security germ labs.
Helen Branswell:
Today the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control made a startling announcement.
Dr. Tom Frieden’s communications team had called a news conference, ostensibly to report on the organization’s investigation into a laboratory accident that took place at the CDC involving anthrax.
But shortly before Frieden’s conference call was to take place, the Atlanta-based agency sent out an embargoed news release about what he was going to discuss. And it contained a bombshell: The CDC’s influenza division, one of the leading flu laboratories in the world, recently sent another lab a sample of flu contaminated with live H5N1 virus.
If you know the term bird flu, H5N1 is the virus you probably first heard referred to that way. It’s highly lethal to chickens, and it’s very dangerous for people too. Though fewer than 700 people have been known to have been infected with the virus worldwide, roughly 60 per cent of those cases ended in death. It’s a nasty virus.
given the CDC mistakes with handling deadly pathogens, consider @mlipsitch points about restricting deadly research
http://t.co/...
— @DemFromCT
I'm re-upping that
Marc Lipsitch story because it's a topic that people should be familiar with.
More politics and policy below the fold.
Tara C. Smith:
If we do experience an orthopoxvirus outbreak from smallpox, monkeypox, or something else entirely, the U.S. does have a stockpile of smallpox vaccine—enough to immunize every citizen. Once the nature of the outbreak is identified, that is. Still, whether the exposure comes from an inadvertent contact with a hidden orthopoxvirus in nature or after stumbling upon great-grandpa’s stash of smallpox scabs in the attic, rest assured that a return to the days of hundreds of millions of smallpox deaths is unlikely.
But as
Helen Branswell points out, there are more citizens in the world than just US citizens.
Danbury News-Times:
The race for governor goes through Newtown.
On the radar of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control coalition and various Second Amendment factions, Connecticut is bracing for a surge in campaign spending from both ends of the political spectrum in this midterm election year.
Each side is quietly laying the foundation for an emotionally charged campaign, 18 months after the slaying of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School by a heavily armed gunman.
At the forefront of the clash is Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat in his first term who is the face of the state's tough new gun laws, which were prompted by the shooting.
Raising money to defeat Malloy is New Jersey counterpart and adversary Chris Christie, who has been assailed by gun violence prevention groups for vetoing a bill restricting some high-capacity gun magazines and refusing to meet with parents of the Newtown victims.
"He has time to come here and try to help raise funds for the Republicans, but he can't make time to meet with us for a half hour," said Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting.
Chris Christie is what we used to call growing up "a louse". Here's a guy who's going to take his reputation down just for a shot at the WH. Well, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Suzy Khimm:
Bolstered by a strengthening economy and job market, the U.S. budget deficit has continued to shrink, reaching its lowest level for the fiscal year to date since 2008.
The deficit declined to $366 billion for the period from October 2013 through June 2014, according to the Treasury Department. That’s 28% percent lower than the deficit for the same nine months last year. The government had a small monthly surplus of $71 billion in June.
There's only one state where a debate for governor debate looks like this
— @charlieNPR
David Frum:
Don't Knock the Reform Conservatives
Skeptics are right that the new crop of thinkers offer a bigger change in tone than substance. That change is reason enough for optimism.
Lucia Graves:
One of the many threads in the tapestry of Benghazi conspiracy theories is the contention that, faced with a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate there, the American military didn't do what it could have to save lives. Specifically, that a "stand-down order" was issued from on high that prevented the use of military assets that could have saved the four Americans who died the night of Sept. 11, 2012.
But hours of transcribed interviews with nine military leaders, conducted by the House Armed Services and Oversight and Government Reform committees—and made public for the first time Wednesday night—have yielded some news. Namely, that this contention appears to be a bunch of hooey, according to a close examination by the Associated Press.
Erica Grieder has a good piece on the border situation:
Democrats have reacted to the humanitarian dimension of the story; Republicans are more focused on the security side. Both aspects of the situation should be addressed. The effort to do so would benefit from thoughtfulness, calm, and cooperation—between the parties, and between the state and federal government. Such qualities have been in short supply during recent rounds of debate about illegal immigration, though, and after several days of reporting, I found that to be an ominous aspect of the situation in itself. Compared to the situation unfolding in the Valley this summer, illegal immigration from Mexico looks more and more straightforward: an economic phenomenon, rising and falling in response to labor market conditions, without nearly so many children caught in the middle.