TB cases linked to Castro bars 

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis linked to SanFran’s Castro bars:

San Francisco health officials have traced several cases of tuberculosis to patrons of Castro gay bars, with one of the people infected a bartender in the area. The discovery has prompted them to ask 140 employees of businesses in the gay neighborhood who may have been exposed to an active case of TB to get screened for the potentially deadly disease…

According to a fact sheet handed out to bar owners, obtained by the Bay Area Reporter, the health department is concerned that the “cluster of highly infectious TB cases” may be “working its way through the SF gay community…”

“You don’t get it from sex or sharing food or beer bottles. It is spread by someone who has it in their lungs who either sneezes or coughs,” explained Kawamura (Dr. Masae Kawamura, director of the health department’s tuberculosis control section). “Bars are notorious sites of transmission. There is a higher risk of breathing in contaminated air.”

The Bay Area Reporter Online | TB cases linked to Castro bars

Image by Flickr user mjagbayani

“Scrubs” can be deadly

OK I’m in agreement on this one…

Hospitals should provide workers with clean uniforms and prohibit wearing them in public.

Opinion: Germs on Hospital Scrubs – WSJ.com

Eleanor Rigby II

Eleanor Rigby

eleanor rigby- John Harris:

So at the moment – and though I find Eleanor Rigby very difficult to listen to – I think it’s one of The Beatles’ best ever songs, and probably (Paul) McCartney’s greatest achievement. If you need convincing, watch the treatment in Yellow Submarine, in which Liverpool is portrayed as a bleached-out morgue, and whirling blue and red soccer stars play on, oblivious to it all.

I agree: BART Cop Needs to Be Held without Bail

After seeing better video of the BART shooting, I’m convinced the officer needs to be locked up.

And why isnt this larger in the media? Are pre-judicial execution style slayings by police acceptable nowadays? Is this what we’ve done to America?

There is no reason for that officer to be walking the streets. Mehserle needs to be held without bail as he as an apparent danger to himself and society.

Neal Rodriguez: BART Cop Needs to Be Held without Bail.

Until justice is in place, more riots will happen.

Wake up national media! Report this! This is not a local story.

Larry Craig abandons quest for bathroom cruising rights

Former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has reached the end of the road in his effort to reverse his conviction in an airport bathroom sex sting, one of his lawyers said Thursday.

Attorney Tom Kelly said Craig had decided against asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to void the conviction. The decision means the legal wrangling in the case is over.

PageOneQ | Larry Craig drops further appeals

More evidence Bush abstinence-only policy is a failure

If only George Sr. And Barbara had abstained!

Note: Electoral win in 2004 notations, colors,  added by me. (I’m sorry Obama, old habits die hard. There’s just too much evidence to show that conservative policies found in Republican states have drastic negative consequences. This needs to be shown.)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mississippi (R -2004, 2008) has claimed the distinction of having the highest teen birth rate in the United States, a figure more than three times higher than the states with the lowest rates, health officials said on Wednesday.

Mississippi, a comparatively poor state in the South, had a rate of 68.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 in 2006, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report. That marked a 13 percent increase over 2005.

Mississippi often performs badly in health rankings. For example, 33 percent of its population is obese, the highest in the nation.

New Mexico (R -2004, D -2008) (a rate of 64.1 per 1,000) and Texas (R -2004, 2008) (63.1) were next on the list, according to the CDC. Those two states had been tied for the highest in the nation the previous year.

Teen birth rates were highest in the South and Southwest (mostly Red R 2004, 2008) and lowest in the Northeast (all Blue D, 2004, 2008), the CDC said. The lowest rates were recorded in New Hampshire (18.7), Vermont (20.8) and Massachusetts (21.3), according to the report.

The only states with a decrease in teen birth rates from 2005 to 2006 were North Dakota (R -2004, 2008) , Rhode Island (D -2004, 2008) and New York (D -2004, 2008) .

The CDC previously reported that the nationwide teen birth rate rose in 2006 for the first time in 15 years. The national average was 40.5 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19.

Critics have said that one factor in that increase may be recent federal funding for so-called abstinence-only education that does not give information about contraceptives.

Mississippi has highest teen birth rate | U.S. | Reuters

Don’t have cable? No inauguration for you

I can’t say I like this decision one bit.We have something called the “Public Broadcasting System” for all citizens. This is an event that should be shared with every single American across good old-fashioned airwaves. I have to agree with Lisa Derrick at La Figa that the spinning of this is “repulsive.” What about the poor. What about those of us who barely watch enough TV to warrant having cable?

It’s not TV, it’s the presidential inauguration.

HBO has scored exclusive broadcast rights to the Jan. 18 opening ceremony of President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Don’t have HBO? No worries. The network is in talks with cable and satellite distributors to air the event, which will be held at the Lincoln Memorial, without commercial interruption for free to all.

HBO Snags Rights to Inaugural Kickoff

Photos: Violent protest in Oakland over BART shooting

Amazing photos of an out of control Oakland protest in the SF Chronicle.

BART police shooting protest

Photo by Noah Berger / Special to The Chronicle

Be sure to read the article too. It’s a fascinating piece on ignorant mob mentality.

Shepard Fairey Obama image to be at National Portrait Gallery

The iconic red, white and blue portrait of US President-elect Barack Obama will become part of the permanent collection at the US National Portrait Gallery.

Barack Obama by Shepard Fairey

The Washington DC gallery has acquired the stencilled image by Los Angeles-based street artist Shepard Fairey.

Curators at the Smithsonian Institution museum plan to hang it by Inauguration Day on 20 January.

The gallery usually acquires official portraits of presidents as they are leaving office.

An official portrait of Mr Obama will be added later, and a portrait of President George W Bush was unveiled at the gallery in December.

Fairey’s mixed-media work depicts Mr Obama with the word Hope.

The image – later modified with the messages of Change and Vote – became one of the most memorable images from the 2008 election.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts & Culture | Gallery gets iconic Obama image.

Cast of ‘Wicked’ hosts cabaret for gay rights

Lots of people are up in arms about the passing of California’s Proposition 8, and the cast of “Wicked” is no exception.

Next Monday, performers from the four North American companies of the Broadway musical will host “Defying Inequality,” an evening of cabaret performances benefiting four nonprofits that promote civil rights for gays.

Cast of ‘Wicked’ hosts cabaret for gay rights | Entertainment News & Buzz | Los Angeles Times

Lesbian couple invited to ride on Obama’s train to Washington

When US President-elect Barack Obama takes a whistle stop train ride from Philadephia to Washington DC on the Saturday before his inauguration, he will be riding in the company of “everyday Americans who have been invited to make the journey based off their extraordinary stories.”

The Presidential Inauguation Committee (PIC) has now released the details of those everyday Americans.

16 families, among them a lesbian couple.

Lesbian couple invited to take a ride on Obama’s train to Washington – from Pink News – all the latest gay news from the gay community – Pink News

Army SNAFU: ‘John Doe’ Letters to Families of the Fallen

If you send mail using templates at your job, you realize how important it is to get the custom information correct. The Army is learning the hard way.

The Army mistakenly sent letters addressed “Dear John Doe” to 7,000 family members of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, unleashing calls from troubled relatives and prompting a formal apology yesterday from the Army’s top general…

The letters, mailed late last month by the Army’s Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operation Center in Alexandria, contained information about private organizations that assist families of the fallen. But in what the Army called a printing error by a contractor, the letters did not contain specific names and addresses; instead, they had the placeholder greeting “Dear John Doe.”

Army Sends ‘Dear John Doe’ Letters to Families of Fallen Troops – washingtonpost.com.