The Water Next Time: Professor Who Helped Expose Crisis in Flint Says Public Science Is Broken

By Steve Kolowich FEBRUARY 02, 2016
When Marc Edwards opens his mouth, dangerous things come out.

In 2003 the Virginia Tech civil-engineering professor said that there was lead in the Washington, D.C., water supply, and that the city had been poisoning its residents. He was right.

Last fall he said there was lead in the water in Flint, Mich., despite the reassurances of state and local authorities that the water was safe. He was right about that, too.

Working with residents of Flint, Mr. Edwards led a study that revealed that the elevated lead levels in people’s homes were not isolated incidents but a result of a systemic problem that had been ignored by state scientists. He has since been appointed to a task force to help fix those problems in Flint. In a vote of confidence, residents last month tagged a local landmark with a note to the powers that be: "You want our trust??? We want Va Tech!!!"

But being right in these cases has not made Mr. Edwards happy. Vindicated or not, the professor says his trials over the last decade and a half have cost him friends, professional networks, and thousands of dollars of his own money.

more

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Water-Next-Time-Professor/235136

Enter the Sanders Democrat

Whether or not he defeats Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders has awakened a powerful new constituency
February 3, 2016 2:00AM ET
by Bhaskar Sunkara

Ever since Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980 with an appeal to blue-collar whites, politicians have chased the “Reagan Democrat.” The key to capturing swing states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, the theory went, was to win over white workers turned off by “tax-and-spend liberalism” and the excesses of the Democratic Party.

Bill Clinton restored Democratic control of the White House in 1992 by wooing back some of these voters. His role in transforming the Democratic Party at the national level throughout the 1990s is undeniable. It was Clinton — not Reagan — who balanced the budget and ended “welfare as we know it,” cementing a long-running reorientation of his party. Where Democrats once sought to expand the welfare state, the Clinton-led party managed its decline.

In this pursuit, the president found an ally in his wife. As first lady, Hillary Clinton echoed the administration’s tough-on-crime rhetoric and strongly supported landmark achievements such as the 1996 welfare reform bill, which placed onerous new restrictions and requirements on recipients of the program, and the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).



...

The closeness of this week’s Iowa caucuses, which ended in a virtual tie between Hillary Clinton and Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, is a sign that the New Democrat chickens are coming home to roost. The candidates, after all, could not have more different backgrounds. It’s not just that Clinton is polished and her talking points are carefully vetted, while Sanders is scraggy and more prone to speak off the cuff. Nor is it Sanders’ almost anachronistic background on the socialist left. The difference can be found in their language and the way they frame their appeals — both the style and substance of their politics. Clinton is quick to remind audiences that she “represented Wall Street” as a New York senator. Sanders, on the other hand, speaks of “breaking up” big banks, calls for a “political revolution” and doesn’t flinch from his socialist identity.

more

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2016/2/enter-the-sanders-democrat.html

Wednesday Toon Roundup 2- The Rest

Dem Results








Doll



Zika



Police




Reparations



Listening

Wednesday Toon Roundup 1- Republican Results

Wednesday Bernie Group Toon Roundup

N.F.L. Great Ken Stabler Had Brain Disease C.T.E.

Shortly before he died last July, the former N.F.L. quarterback Ken Stabler was rushed away by doctors, desperate to save him, in a Mississippi hospital. His longtime partner followed the scrum to the elevator, holding his hand. She told him that she loved him. Stabler said that he loved her, too.

“I turned my head to wipe the tears away,” his partner, Kim Bush, said recently. “And when I looked back, he looked me dead in the eye and said, ‘I’m tired.’ ”

They were the last words anyone in Stabler’s family heard him speak.

“I knew that was it,” Bush said. “I knew that he had gone the distance. Because Kenny Stabler was never tired.”

The day after Stabler died on July 8, a victim of colon cancer at age 69, his brain was removed during an autopsy and ferried to scientists in Massachusetts. It weighed 1,318 grams, or just under three pounds. Over several months, it was dissected for clues, as Stabler had wished, to help those left behind understand why his mind seemed to slip so precipitously in his final years.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/04/sports/football/ken-stabler-nfl-cte-brain-disease.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Officer nicknamed 'robocop' gets 13 months for beating motorist

DETROIT, MI -- Fired Inkster police officer William Melendez, 47, will spend at least 13 months and up to 10 years in prison for the videotaped beating of 58-year-old motorist Floyd Dent in January 2015.

The sentence will be reduced by 85 days for time served.

A jury convicted Melendez in November of assault with intent to do great bodily harm and misconduct in office.

With his arms crossed, Melendez blinked frequently as Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda Evans summarized her interpretation of the crime, calling his acts "cowardly" and "barbaric."

more

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2016/02/robocop_sentenced_to_years_in.html

Jimmy Carter: US campaign funding is 'legal bribery'

Former US president Jimmy Carter says the way politics is now funded in the US amounts to "legal bribery".

Speaking to John Humphrys, who first interviewed Carter when he was running for the Democratic nomination in 1976, he said almost all candidates now relied on "massive infusions of money".

President Carter suggested he would not have become US president if he were competing under the current con

video at link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03hd981

Ketamine hailed as miracle for treating severe depression

By Sara Solovitch

It was November 2012 when Dennis Hartman, a Seattle business executive, managed to pull himself out of bed, force himself to shower for the first time in days and board a plane that would carry him across the country to a clinical trial at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda.

After a lifetime of profound depression, 25 years of therapy and cycling through 18 antidepressants and mood stabilizers, Hartman, then 46, had settled on a date and a plan to end it all. The clinical trial would be his last attempt at salvation.

For 40 minutes, he sat in a hospital room as an IV drip delivered ketamine through his system. Several more hours passed before it occurred to him that all his thoughts of suicide had evaporated.

"My life will always be divided into the time before that first infusion and the time after,” Hartman says today. “That sense of suffering and pain draining away. I was bewildered by the absence of pain.”

more

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-one-time-party-drug-is-helping-people-with-deep-depression/2016/02/01/d3e73862-b490-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html

Bernie Sanders' Political Revolution Continues In Full Force After The Iowa Caucuses

by MORGAN BRINLEE

In a speech late Monday night acknowledging his virtual tie with Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders thanked caucus-goers in Iowa for beginning "a political revolution." For voters who are feeling the Bern, the term isn't new. In fact, if you were to Google "political revolution" you'd receive a slew of Sanders-related content. Sanders has centered many of his speeches around emphasizing the importance of creating radical change in American politics — in starting a political revolution. In essence, Sanders' call for political revolution is an appeal for disenchanted or disengaged voters to believe that change, although hard, is possible and begins at the polls. But what does Sanders political revolution look like?

Sanders' message of political upheaval has found significant support among younger voters, previously criticized for their failure to engage in politics. His political revolution relies heavily on voter participation. It is, simply stated, a call for participation. In Iowa on Monday, Sanders said a political revolution wouldn't happen except with the support of the voters, stressing that no presidential candidate, himself included, would be able to stand up to Wall Street or corporate America alone.

The Vermont senator is hoping to bring voters to the polls long after the presidential election in November in order to turn his campaign's agenda into legislation. Speaking at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson dinner last October, Sanders repeated a much-uttered message of his campaign: that his presidential bid wasn't about him, it was about forcing change.

What this campaign is about is not just electing a president, it is transforming America. To do that we need millions of people — people who have given up on the political process, people who are demoralized, people who don’t believe that government listens to them. We need to bring those people together to stand up loudly and clearly and to say ‘Enough is enough.’ This country belongs to all of us, not just wealthy campaign donors.

more
http://www.bustle.com/articles/139151-bernie-sanders-political-revolution-continues-in-full-force-after-the-iowa-caucuses