Arthur Allen
Say It Ain’t So, President-Elect O
Some science bloggers are alarmed by predictions in the news that President-elect Barack Obama intends to appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
After eight years in which the Bush administration trashed science to favor a political agenda, these blogger are saying that Kennedy would be a most injudicious choice, since [...]
Foreclosure Epidemics
As a weird new wrinkle of the exploding mortgage crisis, the flailing housing market in California was tied to a 276 percent increase in West Nile virus cases, according to a scientific journal.
Predatory Practices
Gov. Sarah Palin’s predator abatement program doesn’t give the wolves a fighting chance; she tried to strip power from their defenders, too.
FDA Steps Up Salmonella Screening
The FDA has intensified its checks on produce coming into the United States since the Salmonella stpaul outbreak began, and has put 17 firms on notice that they need to watch contamination of their produce.
The American Way: ‘Bigger, Stronger, Faster’
When Mike, Chris and Mark Bell, were striving to become champion iron pumpers in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the brothers never dreamed that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hulk Hogan and their other idols were juiced. Steroids were for commies –like Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV. Rocky himself was clean and sober. He chopped wood to get buff.
But, as they [...]
Of Course Ivins Might Have Been Innocent
Which his lawyer says here. It wouldn’t be the first time the Feds had railroaded an innocent man. Hopefully we’ll learn more about the evidence soon.
Suicide May Clarify Anthrax Mystery
An Army scientist named Bruce Ivins committed suicide this week as the Feds were preparing to indict him for the October 2001 anthrax attacks, according to news reports Friday. If Ivins’ guilt in the attacks is confirmed, it would mean that the bioterror scare, which whipped the country into hysteria and in doing so helped [...]
How Did FDA Get it Wrong on Tomatoes?
After announcing Wednesday that the “smoking jalapenno ” had been found on a farm in Mexico, witnesses at a hearing Thursday continued to dance around the key problem with the salmonella investigation, which we identified three weeks ago: early mistakes by the New Mexico department of health and the Centers for Disease Control doomed the [...]
Is Jindal Too Conservative for McCain?
Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is young, Southern and right-wing — a set of demographics that Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, has sought to draw into his campaign. So why did Jindal last week take himself out of the running for the No. 2 spot on McCain’s ticket?
FDA Bobbles, Minnesota Finds the Red Hot Pepper
Nice piece of reporting by the AP’s Lauran Neergaard about how shoe-leather Minnesota epidemiologists traced the contaminated jalapenos that seem to be responsible for the supposed tainted-tomato Salmonella outbreak. Alerted about an outbreak in late June in Minnesota, public health officials there interviewed the sick, traced the Salmonella Saintpaul to a particular restaurant, and used [...]
