House passes $1.4T government spending bill amid impeachment.

Explanation: The Democratic-controlled House voted Tuesday to pass a $1.4 trillion government spending package, handing President Donald Trump a victory on his U.S.-Mexico border fence while giving Democrats spending increases across a swath of domestic programs.

Global trade, AP Top News, Government spending, Mexico, Health, General News, Legislation, Politics, Immigration, Impeachments, Business, Bills, Tobacco industry regulation, Donald Trump

The hard-fought legislation also funds a record Pentagon budget and is serving as a must-pass legislative locomotive to tow an unusually large haul of unrelated provisions into law, including an expensive repeal of Obama-era taxes on high-cost health plans, help for retired coal miners, and an increase from 18 to 21 in the nationwide legal age to buy tobacco products. The two-bill package, some 2,371 pages long after additional tax provisions were folded in on Tuesday morning, was unveiled Monday afternoon and adopted less than 24 hours later as lawmakers prepared to wrap up reams of unfinished work against a backdrop of Wednesday’s vote on impeaching Trump. The House first passed a measure funding domestic programs on a 297-120 vote. But one-third of the Democrats defected on a 280-138 vote on the second bill, which funds the military and the Department of Homeland Security, mostly because it funds Trump’s border wall project. The spending legislation would forestall a government shutdown this weekend and give Trump steady funding for his U.S.-Mexico border fence, a move that frustrated Hispanic Democrats and party liberals. The year-end package is anchored by a $1.4 trillion spending measure that caps a difficult, monthslong battle over spending priorities. The mammoth measure made public Monday takes a split-the-differences approach that’s a product of divided power in Washington, offering lawmakers of all stripes plenty to vote for — and against. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was a driving force, along with administration pragmatists such as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who negotiated the summertime budget deal that it implements. The White House said Tuesday that Trump will sign the measure. ”The president is poised to sign it and to keep the government open,” said top White House adviser Kellyanne Conway. The bill also offers business friendly provisions on export financing, flood insurance and immigrant workers. The roster of add-ons grew over the weekend to include the permanent repeal of a tax on high-cost “Cadillac” health insurance benefits and a hard-won provision to finance health care and pension benefits for about 100,000 retired union coal miners threatened by the insolvency of their pension fund. A tax on medical devices and health insurance plans would also be repealed permanently. The cost of the package grew as lawmakers added the repeal of three so-called “Obamacare” taxes and extended expiring tax breaks. Those policy changes will add $428 billion to the deficit over 10 years. The legislation is laced with provisions reflecting divided power in Washington. Republicans maintained the status quo on several abortion-related battles and on funding for Trump’s border wall. Democrats controlling the House succeeded in winning a 3.1% raise for federal civilian employees and the first installment of funding on gun violence research after more than two decades of gun lobby opposition. Late Monday, negotiators unveiled a scaled-back $39 billion package of additional business tax breaks, renewing tax breaks for craft brewers and distillers, among others. The so-called tax extenders are a creature of Washington, a heavily lobbied menu of arcane tax breaks that are typically tailored to narrow, often parochial interests like renewable energy, capital depreciation rules and racehorse ownership. But a bigger effort to trade refundable tax credits for the working poor for fixes to the 2017 GOP tax bill didn’t pan out. The sweeping legislation, introduced as two packages for political and tactical purposes, is part of a major final burst of legislation that’s passing Congress this week despite bitter partisan divisions and Wednesday’s likely impeachment of Trump. Thursday promises a vote on a major rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, while the Senate is about to send the president the annual defense policy bill for the 59th year in a row. The core of the spending bill is formed by the 12 annual agency appropriations bills passed by Congress each year. It fills in the details of a bipartisan framework from July that delivered about $100 billion in agency spending increases over the coming two years instead of automatic spending cuts that would have sharply slashed the Pentagon and domestic agencies. The increase in the tobacco purchasing age to 21 also applies to e-cigarettes and vaping devices and gained momentum after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signed on. But anti-smoking activists said the provision didn’t go far enough because it failed to ban flavored vaping products popular with teenagers. “The evidence is clear that flavored e-cigarettes are driving the youth epidemic,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “As long as flavored e-cigarettes remain available, kids will find ways to get them and this epidemic will continue.” Other add-ons include a variety of provisions sought by business and labor interests and their lobbyists in Washington. For business, there’s a seven-year extension of the charter of the Export-Import Bank, which helps finance transactions benefiting U.S. exporters, as well as a renewal of the government’s terrorism risk insurance program. The financially troubled government flood insurance program would be extended through September, as would several visa programs for both skilled and seasonal workers. Labor won repeal of the so-called Cadillac tax, a 40% tax on high-cost employer health plans, which was originally intended to curb rapidly growing health care spending. But it disproportionately affected high-end plans won under union contracts, and Democratic labor allies had previously succeeded in temporary repeals. Democrats controlling the House won increased funding for early childhood education and a variety of other domestic programs. They also won higher Medicaid funding for the cash-poor government of Puerto Rico, which is struggling to recover from hurricane devastation and a resulting economic downturn. While Republicans touted defense hikes and Democrats reeled off numerous increases for domestic programs, most of the provisions of the spending bill enjoy bipartisan support, including increases for medical research, combating the opioid epidemic, Head Start, and child care grants to states. Democrats also secured $425 million for states to upgrade their election systems, and they boosted the U.S. Census budget $1.4 billion above Trump’s request. They won smaller increases for the Environmental Protection Agency, renewable energy programs and affordable housing. “I am so proud that we are able to do so much good for children and families across the country and around the world,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y. The outcome in the latest chapter in the long-standing battle over Trump’s border wall awards Trump with $1.4 billion for new barriers — equal to last year’s appropriation — while preserving Trump’s ability to use his budget powers to tap other accounts for several times that amount. That’s a blow for liberal opponents of the wall but an acceptable trade-off for pragmatic-minded Democrats who wanted to gain $27 billion in increases for domestic programs and avert the threat of simply funding the government on autopilot. “Many members of the CHC will vote against it,” said Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Joaquin Castro, D-Texas. “It’s true that there are a lot of good things and Democratic victories in the spending agreement. I think everybody appreciates those. What members of the Hispanic Caucus are concerned with is the wall money, the high level of detention beds, and most of all with the ability of the president to transfer money both to wall and to detention beds in the future.” The bill also extends a long-standing freeze on lawmakers’ pay despite behind-the-scenes efforts this spring to revive a cost-of-living hike approved years ago but shelved during the Obama administration. Because dozens of Democrats oppose the border wall, Pelosi paired money for the Department of Homeland Security with the almost $700 billion Pentagon budget, which won more than enough GOP votes to offset Democratic defections.


Chumlee from 'Pawn Stars' has passed away.

Explanation: Reports that the 'Pawn Stars' personality has passed away are a hoax.

Inboxer Rebellion, celebrity death hoaxes, pawn stars

Austin “Chumlee” Russell (so nicknamed by a friend’s father due to his resemblance to the character of Chumley the walrus in the Tennessee Tuxedo cartoons) is one of the stars of the popular reality show Pawn Stars, the “resident clown” of the staff at the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, where he is frequently derided by the shop’s owners, Rick Harrison and Richard “Old Man” Harrison, for being bumbling and lazy. Beginning in May 2013, a rumor was circulated on the Internet claiming that Chumlee had recently passed away from a “marijuana overdose”: In what may come to be a medical landmark, “Chumlee” Russell of Pawn Stars fame died from a marijuana overdose Monday night and was found by friend “Big Hoss” Harrison on Tuesday morning. Earlier this year, “Chumlee” was arrested with seven pounds of marijuana which he asserted were all for personal use. According to Dr. Angstrom H. Troubador, “The only possible way he could have died from a marijuana overdose without first clogging his lungs with soot is through the use of vaporizers. Reportedly, Chumlee had rigged up to 90 vaporizers into one tube and had a team of groupies constantly loading them up with the stickiest and most potent of marijuana available on the market.” Fans and family mourn the loss of “Chumlee” and have taken the opportunity to speak out against drug abuse. “To die like that, it’s just a shame,” said Rick Harrison, manager of the world famous Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, as he teared up. “It’s just a shame to lose such a fun guy as Chum. Rest in peace, buddy.”  The rumor was nothing more than a hoax, a bit of fiction promulgated in a 14 May 2013 article published on the Internet Chronicle web site, one which followed up that site’s equally fictitious report from two months earlier which claimed Chumlee had been arrested for possession of seven pounds of marijuana. (The putative cause of death given in Chumlee’s phony Internet Chronicle obituary, a “marijuana overdose,” is virtually a medical impossibility.) In March 2014, a similar spoof article published by eBuzzd (along with images of fake reaction tweets from other celebrities) spawned more false Chumlee death rumors, this time positing that the Pawn Stars personality had passed away of a heart attack: Austin Russell, also known as Chumlee, star of History’s reality series “Pawn Stars,” has died from an apparent heart attack, sources confirm to eBuzzd. He was only 31 years old. The news comes as a shock considering Chumlee’s [sic] had just recently altered his lifestyle habits, and lost 75 pounds in a year by exercising at a gym six days a week and improving his diet, including drinking more juice, eating more vegetables and abstaining from red meat, a change that was inspired by his father’s death at age 54 from pancreatic cancer, two weeks before Pawn Stars debuted. In July 2017, business2community.com revived the “marijuana overdose” death hoax:  Austin “Chumlee” Russell from “Pawn Stars” being found dead from a marijuana overdose or heart attack is a celebrity death hoax. There is no truths that the TV personality has passed away. Russell is one of the stars of the popular reality show and is just like a son to Rick Harrison. He has been around the shop since he was a kid. Everybody loves Chum, but he is often the “resident clown.” Part of the reason he is not taken seriously is that he constantly begs Corey Harrison to buy items that entertain him like video games and circus paraphernalia that usually do not make good business sense. The real Chumlee remains alive and well, as indicated by his ongoing tweets and his appearances at his  candy store in Las Vegas: Buy some candies for @somahe80 at Chumlee's candies shop. Thanks @chumlee_ for the photo pic.twitter.com/i6E8sXKBGm — Gérôme (@G72T1) July 3, 2017


The seasonal flu kills more people every year in the U.S. than COVID-19 has to date.

Explanation: COVID-19 is also deadlier in terms of how many people are estimated to die from it per year. Preliminary estimates from the CDC found that the 2018-19 influenza season resulted in an estimated 34,200 deaths in the U.S. As of July 27, 2020, more than 4.2 million COVID-19 cases had been reported across 50 states, seven territories and Washington, D.C., and more than 146,500 deaths were associated with the respiratory disease — nearly four times the death toll associated with the 2018-19 flu season.

Throughout the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, countless social media posts, high profile pundits, and even the president attempted to downplay the threat of the virus in the U.S. in various ways, including comparing its death toll to that of the seasonal flu:  This claim is false and dangerously downplays the severity of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In terms of the case fatality rate, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes as the number of people who die from a given condition, medical experts argue that COVID-19 is, in fact, deadlier than the seasonal flu. Though COVID-19 fatality rates vary largely depending on available medical infrastructure within a country, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine reports that the U.S. is among the 20 countries most affected by the virus and has a mortality rate of 3.4%. By comparison, flu infections over the last decade have resulted in a mortality rate hovering around .1%.


Just on the issue of immigration alone, it is next to impossible to find a policy difference between (Donald) Trump and Congressman (Joe) Heck.

Immigration, Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto,

National and state Democrats are trying to tie Nevada Republican Senate candidate Joe Heck to the controversial immigration policies of Donald Trump,including Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto. In a recent news release, Cortez Masto’s campaign called the two Republicans "ideological soul mates." "Just on the issue of immigration alone, it is next to impossible to find a policy difference between Trump and Congressman Heck," stated Cortez Masto’s release. With immigration being a top concern for Nevada’s sizable Hispanic population, we thought it was worth comparing the two candidates to see if it really is "next to impossible" to find a policy difference. Priorities On the surface level, there are many policy differences on immigration between Heck and Trump. Trump’s immigration platform is detailed on his campaign website, and centers around three topics previously distilled by PolitiFact: Build a border wall across the U.S.-Mexico border, and require Mexico to make a one-time $5 to $10 billion payment to pay for it. Increase enforcement of immigration laws, including ending birthright citizenship and ending funding for so-called sanctuary cities. Focus on American workers, including halting green cards for foreign workers until more domestic workers are hired and increasing the minimum prevailing wage for H-1B visa program recipients. Heck’s campaign and House websites acknowledge a "broken" immigration system but focus on different policy solutions. While echoing Trump in calling for implementing a mandatory E-verify system for employers and calling for increased border security, Heck says he’s open to granting citizenship or legal status to people not legally in the country if his other proposals are addressed in a "meaningful" way. Both campaigns sent lengthy responses to PolitiFact. One thing is clear: There is daylight between Heck and Trump on a number of immigration policies. Birthright citizenship Democrats claim Heck and Trump share identical positions on wanting to "end birthright citizenship and repeal the 14th Amendment." It’s true both Republicans have mentioned re-examining the concept of jus soli — extending citizenship based on place of birth, not parental nationality — but Heck and Trump differ on rhetoric. Trump explicitly calls for an end to the policy, calling it the "biggest magnet for illegal immigration." (He also cites Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid’s 1993 bill "clarifying" the concept, though Reid later called it the "low point" of his legislative career.) Heck has also called for a similar re-examination of the policy, but in a less direct tone. His most pointed comments came in 2012, where a tracker captured Heck saying he supported changing the concept. "My personal opinion is that if you’re gonna be a citizen – be considered a citizen – you should be born to at least one parent that’s a U.S. citizen," he said at the time. Heck generally hasn’t gone as far since then, most recently telling a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter that "it needs to be part of the discussion" but stopping short of a full endorsement. Legal scholars generally agree that birthright citizenship is on solid constitutional ground, but several believe it would only take a congressional act to "clarify" citizenship for children born of people not legally in the United States, and point out that the court has never fully adjudicated the issue. 2013 immigration bill Cortez Masto says Heck and Trump both opposed the 2013 bipartisan immigration legislation, commonly referred to as the "Gang of Eight" bill. That glosses over important parts of the story. In 2013, Heck described the legislation as having positives and negatives but ultimately said he’d vote against the Senate bill as written, pointing to concerns over border security and wanting to toughen the education requirements for the children of people not legally in the country looking to apply for citizenship. The bill never received a House vote, but Heck still took independent action on the immigration bill. The Republican worked on draft legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for people illegally brought into the country as children, and publicly criticized House leadership in 2013 for failing to vote on any immigration legislation. Trump, on the other hand, told Bloomberg that he only really started following the immigration debate since he started running for president in 2015. "When I made my (announcement) speech at Trump Tower, the June 16 speech, I didn’t know about the Gang of Eight. … I just knew instinctively that our borders are a mess," he said in May. This is contradicted by several tweets and interviews Trump did in 2013, calling the legislation a "death wish" for the Republican Party. Trump later criticized primary rival Marco Rubio’s involvement in the legislation, calling it "nothing more than a giveaway to the corporate patrons who run both parties." DREAMers/DACA One of Heck’s most notable forays into the immigration debate was a failed attempt to bring forward a Republican version of the long-languishing Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Heck worked for around six months to try to find a compromise path supported by both parties, businesses and immigration activists before trying to roll out the measure in December 2013. Heck’s version of the legislation, which had a pathway to citizenship for immigrants brought unlawfully into the country as children, fell flat after immigration activists and several other stakeholders declined to back the proposal over concerns that it only addressed part of the problem and wanted to hold out for a more comprehensive immigration plan. Additionally, Heck has voted against funding for Obama’s executive orders allowing undocumented children and their parents to receive work permits and exemptions from deportation. He’s on the record voting for several amendments that would strip the program’s funding and voted in 2015 to block funding for an expansion of the program while joining with 25 other House Republicans to support the existing program. In the past, Heck has tried to frame his mixed voting record on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in terms of his stated opposition to the president’s use of executive orders establishing the programs. Trump is clearly opposed to the issue, and in 2015 called for the full rescission of executive orders protecting DREAMers from deportation, as well as the mass deportation of the roughly 11 million people not legally in the country. He’s also publicly opposed the DREAM Act itself. Heck has routinely called Trump’s proposals unrealistic. "I don’t think they can find, round up and afford to deport 11 million people," he told reporters in March. The wall/border security Heck also differs on Trump’s signature piece of immigration policy — building a massive border wall with Mexico. The Heck campaign provided PolitiFact with a form letter sent to constituents who ask about the proposed border wall. The letter stresses Heck’s commitment to border security while gently dismissing Trump’s plan for a massive, thousand-mile concrete wall as being inefficient. "Physical barriers are certainly effective in areas with high cross-border traffic; however, there are vast stretches of our border that have relatively few crossings, and preventing these crossings could be more easily achieved through other methods," he says in the letter. Part of Heck’s stated reasoning for opposing the 2013 immigration bill had to do with border security — the Republican specifically called for additional border fencing and for more manpower along the border to stop illegal crossings. H1-B visas Trump and Heck also differ on what to do with temporary H1-B visas for skilled foreign workers. Trump’s plan explicitly calls to increase the minimum prevailing wage (an averaged wage paid to workers in a similar field) for H1-B recipients over fears that the program depresses wages for American workers. It also makes an unspecified point of forcing companies to hire American workers before foreign workers in the visa program. Heck’s campaign provided PolitiFact with a form letter sent to voters who ask about limiting the visas, which details Heck’s concerns that scaling back the program could hurt economic growth. "By restricting H-1B visas, growth in the U.S. in STEM fields could be restricted," Heck says in the letter. Sanctuary cities Another area of immigration policy overlap for Trump and Heck is in defunding so-called "sanctuary cities," or areas where local law enforcement doesn’t routinely report undocumented migrants to immigration authorities. There’s no agreed-upon or legal definition of a "sanctuary city," and use of the moniker is somewhat fluid. Trump seized the issue after the shooting death of Kate Steinle in San Francisco last year by an undocumented immigrant who had been deported five times, and has forcefully called for cutting off federal grants to cities that refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement. While he hasn’t been as vocal as Trump, Heck did vote to block federal law enforcement funds from sanctuary cities as part of a House bill in July 2015. The White House promised to veto the measure, which has defeated in a procedural vote by Senate Democrats. Our ruling Cortez Masto claims that "on the issue of immigration alone, it is next to impossible to find a policy difference between (Donald) Trump and Congressman (Joe) Heck." There are areas where Heck and Trump overlap on immigration policy: mandatory E-verify for employers, upping border security and questioning birthright citizenship. However, Cortez Masto made it sound like Heck and Trump are lockstep on the issue, and that's clearly not the case. There are major stated policy differences between the two Republicans — Heck opposes mass deportation, which Trump campaigned on during the primary season. And Heck has supported a pathway to citizenship for people not legally in the country, as well as supported a version of the DREAM Act. It wasn't "next to impossible" to find those differences.


The 1918 influenza pandemic was called the "Spanish Flu" because it emanated from Spain.

Explanation: Chuck Grassley’s ‘Spanish Flu’ Tweet Adds to Wave of Xenophobic COVID-19 Rhetoric From GOP

As United States President Donald Trump and his supporters continued to try to normalize xenophobic rhetoric surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa came under criticism online for his own effort.“I don’t understand why China gets upset [because] we refer to the virus that originated there [as] the ‘Chinese virus,'” he wrote on Twitter. “Spain never got upset when we referred to the Spanish flu in 1918 & 1919.”Grassley was hit with thousands of responses in a Twitter phenomenon commonly called “the ratio,” with many of the replies correcting him on the origin of the 1918 pandemic’s name.In reality, the “Spanish flu” — a strain of H1N1 influenza — was not first detected in Spain. As sources ranging from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to the Journal of Translational Medicine have identified the midwestern United States as the likely starting point for the disease. According to a 2004 study published in the journal:Haskell County, Kansas, is the first recorded instance anywhere in the world of an outbreak of influenza so unusual that a physician warned public health officials. It remains the first recorded instance suggesting that a new virus was adapting, violently, to man.If the virus did not originate in Haskell, there is no good explanation for how it arrived there. There were no other known outbreaks anywhere in the United States from which someone could have carried the disease to Haskell, and no suggestions of influenza outbreaks in either newspapers or reflected in vital statistics anywhere else in the region. And unlike the 1916 outbreak in France, one can trace with perfect definiteness the route of the virus from Haskell to the outside world.In February 2018, the The Wichita Eagle, the state’s largest newspaper, published a report commemorating the centennial of the outbreak:No one knows for sure what farm, what family may have first fallen ill. The community was most likely Santa Fe, now a ghost town in Haskell County, says Darlene Groth, curator at Haskell County Historical Society in Sublette.What is known is that a Kansas country doctor — Dr. Loring Miner, who practiced in Haskell County — became concerned when he noticed this three-day flu wasn’t typical. It was an “influenza of the severe type,” he wrote, and hit young, strong and otherwise healthy people the hardest. He was the first to report to Public Health Reports — a publication of the U.S. Public Health Service — that this flu was a killer.Furthermore, several reports have verified that the disease’s enduring nickname was derived from one of the few sources of coverage it received during World War I. According to a 2019 study published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine and Health, reports out of Spain were a function of its remarkably free press, relative to news organizations in other countries:As Spain was neutral in the First World War, newspapers there were free to report the devastating effects that the 1918 pandemic virus was having in that country. Thus, it was generally perceived that the pandemic had originated in Spain, and the infection was incorrectly dubbed “Spanish flu”. During the fall of 1918, the front pages of Spanish newspapers were filled with the names of those who had died of the pandemic in the country.In other European countries, however, the press refrained from reporting news of the spreading infection, in order to avoid alarming the general population, which was already suffering the privations caused by the First World War. On 22nd August 1918, the Italian Interior Minister denied the alarming reports of the spread of the flu pandemic, and in the following months, both national and international newspapers followed suit. Nor was censorship restricted to news of the spread of the fearsome infection; it also extended to information and comments that contrasted with the official versions of the nature of the disease.In order to avoid public alarm, several local hygiene authorities refused to reveal the numbers of people affected and deaths.Grassley’s tweet is part of a larger wave of xenophobic and racist remarks that right-wing politicians and outlets have churned out in an apparent attempt to blame China for the virus outright and change the national narrative, defying the process the World Health Organization went through in designating the disease behind the 2020 pandemic as COVID-19.“We had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said according to the New York Times. “Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing.”The Sinophobic rhetoric has made its way to the White House Twitter account:But as CNN reported, the shift was sudden; Trump only began using this particular descriptor for COVID-19 on March 16th 2020:Trump only started calling the “Chinese Virus” within the last two days.Between January and March 15th, he referred to it as the “coronavirus”, at least on Twitter anyway, 41 times.Since March 16th he hasn’t called it the “coronavirus” once. pic.twitter.com/luucCArdjA— Nathan McDermott (@natemcdermott) March 18, 2020As often happens, the political demonization dovetails with public discrimination. Reported attacks against people of Asian descent have increased both in the United States and internationally.


Woman strangled at North Carolina assisted living center.

Explanation: Authorities are investigating the strangulation of a woman found dead a month ago at a North Carolina assisted living center.

Health, North Carolina, Assisted living, Tarboro

No arrests have been made in the death of 75-year-old Rebecca Eudy, who was found April 5 at Open Fields Assisted Living in Tarboro. Her death certificate says Eudy asphyxiated and suffered traumatic injuries to her neck. Eudy was charged with assault in December after a fight with a 46-year-old man living at Open Fields who allegedly exposed himself to her. Open Fields is an adult care facility, which houses the elderly and also some people with severe and persistent mental illness. Eudy’s daughter has filed a complaint with the state Department of Health and Human Services after learning that her mother’s death was being treated as a homicide.


One out of four corporations doesn't pay a nickel in (federal income) taxes.

The taxes paid, or not paid, by corporations is a perennial topic in Washington. There is broad agreement that the current rules should be changed but no consensus on what those changes ought to be. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., pulled out a dramatic statistic during a Sept. 24, 2013, back-and-forth with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on CNN’s Crossfire. "One out of four corporations doesn't pay a nickel in taxes," Sanders said. The two senators were talking about federal income taxes, and we decided we should check to see if Sanders’ claim is accurate. In the context of his debate with Graham, the implication is that if it weren't for special deals in the tax code, these companies would be writing checks to the Internal Revenue Service. Sanders' office pointed us to a Government Accountability Office study from 2008. The GAO conducts analysis for Congress. In one sense, that study found that Sanders understated the situation. For all corporations, about two-thirds, or about 1.2 million, paid no federal income taxes in 2005. But many of those firms are quite small -- an owner and a couple of employees. For large U.S.-controlled corporations, those with at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in gross receipts, one out of four paid no taxes, as Sanders said. The total revenues for those large companies was about $1.08 trillion. That, however, is not the end of the story. Why they owe no taxes We will focus on the large corporations because those seemed to be the ones Sanders had in mind. The GAO study found that 80 percent of those firms reported no income at the point in their tax return when they subtracted salaries and wages and took other deductions. That is, they showed a gross profit based on selling items for more than it cost to produce them, but they had additional expenses after that, such as payroll and tax deductions, which drove their taxable income to zero. The GAO lumped together firms that paid no taxes because they failed to turn a profit and those that were profitable but used additional wrinkles in the tax code to avoid paying the government. Distinguishing between those two groups sheds light on the situation. Citizens for Tax Justice is a research group that has as one of its goals "requiring the wealthy to pay their fair share." It has written in defense of Sanders’ positions before, but its most recent study of corporate tax payments suggests that the one-in-four statistic might be less significant than it seems. Steve Wamhoff, the group’s legislative director, said their 2011 report started with the Fortune 500 companies and culled the ones that met two criteria: they had three consecutive years of profitability from 2008 to 2010, and they provided enough information to do an accurate analysis. Of the 500, 220 did not meet those standards. With some notable exceptions, such as Google and Microsoft, the primary reason those 220 companies fell off the list was they had real losses. "We get the fact that if you have profits one year but not the next year, you would carry your losses forward," Wamhoff said. "We get that, but if you’ve been profitable for three years straight, those are the ones who really should be paying taxes." Of the 280 consistently profitable corporations that remained, the study found that 22 paid no taxes in 2008, 49 paid none in 2009, and 37 paid none in 2010. Across all three years, there were 30 corporations that had a tax rate of zero or even a negative rate. The negative rate meant they might get a rebate check from Washington or have a tax credit they could apply to future earnings. Many familiar names show up in this list, such as Wells Fargo, Boeing, Verizon and General Electric. In the study’s three-year span, those 30 companies had pre-tax profits of about $160 billion, but their direct contribution to the federal treasury was zero. Citizens for Tax Justice pointed the finger at the rules for accelerated depreciation and stock options. The report said these and various other deductions allowed the firms to avoid hefty tax bills. However, those policy matters fall outside the scope of this fact check. A lack of profits tends to reduce the tax bill For fact-checking purposes, the Citizens for Tax Justice findings are interesting for another reason. If pre-tax losses explain why a large number of firms would not owe the government money, then the meaning of Sanders’ claim begins to look quite different. We would not expect a firm without profits to pay taxes. The GAO study did not probe this deeply. The Citizens for Tax Justice did, albeit for a smaller group of corporations. In rough terms, out of the original 500 corporations, 220 or about 40 percent were dealing with losses. The study found 78 consitently profitable companies, or about 15 percent of the original 500, that paid no taxes in at least one year. That is less than one out of four; it’s closer to one out of six. If we look at the 30 that paid nothing in any year, the ratio drops to one out of 16. Eric Toder, co-director of the Tax Policy Center, generally seen as a centrist think tank, cautions against reading too much into the 2008 GAO study. In a blog post written shortly after it was released, he called it "interesting and suggestive, though also not conclusive." Toder noted that most corporations are quite small with gross receipts of less than $250,000. They report no income because the money turns up as paychecks to the owner and employers where it is subject to the individual income tax. He agreed that some large corporations use "aggressive techniques to shift reported profits to low-tax jurisdictions," but even those end up paying some U.S. taxes. Toder’s bottom line on the one out of four statistic? "Whatever the technical factual basis of the statement, it isn’t terribly meaningful or revealing." William McBride, chief economist at the Tax Foundation, a group that promotes lower taxes, finds Sanders’ ratio "misleading." McBride, as do the other analysts we contacted, pointed to the costs of doing business. His list included salaries and wages, interest, depreciation, rent and other taxes. "You cannot legitimately deny these businesses these write-offs," McBride said. Our ruling Sanders said that one out of four corporations doesn’t pay a nickel in taxes. The statement reflects a 2008 study from the Government Accountability Office. However, the GAO study did not distinguish between firms that had losses in the normal course of business and those that reported losses solely through the use of the tax code. Groups along the political spectrum give much weight to the costs of doing business that can lead to a bad year. There is wide agreement that losses in one year can be carried forward and that salaries are an unavoidable expense, to mention just two factors. Special tax breaks and abuses of the tax code exist but even an analysis from a group that shares many of Sanders’ perspectives pointed to a ratio that was, at most, one out of six and possibly as small as one out of 16. The one out of four statistic fails to take into account many relevant factors. We rate the claim .


Getting your hair washed at a beauty salon can, in rare cases, increase the chances of a stroke.

Explanation: Just don’t bend your neck back, literally, at all. It can be something as simple as saying, “put five or six towels down.” Don’t bend your neck back, no matter how comfortable you are, or what your stylist says.

Uncategorized, beauty parlor stroke syndrome, salon, stroke

In January 2014, a woman in San Diego, California, went to a local salon to get her hair done. What happened next sounds like the most nightmarish of urban legends: the angle and degree she was tilted in the chair and the way her head tipped back over the sink while the stylist was washing her hair caused Elizabeth Smith to have a stroke two weeks later: “I vomited, my head became hot and I couldn’t stand. I had weakness in my arms and legs. They didn’t think I was going to live,” said Smith, choking back tears. Smith says she could hardly believe what nearly killed her. Her doctors pointed to her time in the shampoo chair. Beauty Parlor Stroke Syndrome is what they called it. It’s a rare but documented condition. Multiple doctors who saw Smith say when her neck was bent backwards, it hyperextended, her vertebrae slicing an artery. A clot began forming, later causing a stroke. “Several of Ms. Smith’s neurologists confirmed with her that the stroke was caused by the vertebra dissecting her artery during her hair wash,” said Smith’s attorney Carree Nahama. The danger is real, although the probability of it happening is low. A study that came out in 1993, subsequently covered by the New York Times, found that older people have a higher risk of a stroke during or after a visit to the beauty salon (Smith was in her late 40s at the time): The patients suffered from a variety of complaints attributable to poor blood flow in arteries leading through the neck to the back of the brain, including severe dizziness, imbalance and facial numbness. Four out of five suffered strokes leading to permanent neurologic damage. “In older people, neck motion beyond a certain degree can be extremely dangerous, particularly hyperextension and rotation,” said Dr. Weintraub, chief of neurology at Phelps Memorial Hospital in North Tarrytown, N.Y., referring to backward arching and twisting. He and others have suggested that patients receiving anesthesia or undergoing prolonged dental work may also be vulnerable, since they too have their necks arched back abnormally for prolonged periods. A 2006 study also looked into the issue, saying while it probably occurred more than previously thought, the risk of stroke in these cases was easily alleviated: Taken together, hyperextension combined with hanging the head backwards in a hair washbasin can be seen as a risk factor for posterior circulation ischemia. It probably occurs more often than assumed and a number of patients may report about previous dizziness episodes under the same conditions when asked specifically. It can be prevented by changing the shampoo routine from the hanging head position to a flexed or neutral position. Dr. Scott Olson, a vascular neurologist at the University of California, San Diego, told us that while he hasn’t seen this specific case, he has seen this particular injury (more commonly called a “vertebral artery dissection,” which can lead to subsequent clotting and stroke) and it’s not unprecedented: It’s pretty much a fluke. I have seen people who’ve had this happen while surfing, they happen after dental visits. I had an auto mechanic who was working on a car for a day and had his head hanging over a creeper… I had a patient fall asleep in a movie theater and ended up having a dissection. [But] …It’s like a lot of things in life where it’s the same thing you’ve done. I think people should not be inordinately worried about it. I mean, tens of thousands of people across this country have their hair washed at salons every day. It’s very statistically uncommon. He says there are signs to watch for after a potential injury: Things people should pay attention to, should be concerned about? Pain on one side of the neck after extension, and obviously, any neurologic symptoms like vertigo. There’s some genetic disorders, like Marfan Syndrome, hyperextensible joints, or connective tissue disease that will make you more prone. Elizabeth Smith says she racked up $250,000 in medical bills and has permanently lost part of her vision and mobility. She is now suing the salon for damages. On 30 March 2016, we spoke to Smith. She told us: I had no idea that the story would go on, and I’m glad that it has. The two big skepticisms really are — people think that you feel something, but you feel nothing, because your artery has no nerves, so you feel nothing when it happens. So just because you’re like “oh, I’m comfortable,” doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. The other thing is that the delay from injury to stroke is because you get a little bit of a bleed, and a little bleed won’t clog or occlude your artery. It takes your body time to build a clot big enough to do the damage, roughly two weeks. For me, it was 8 days, but that wasn’t the full stroke.


Explanation: This report does a good job of using a recent, credible report to debunk the myth that taking vitamin C can prevent or treat colds. The segment uses its medium fairly well to deliver the key message. The piece has two major weaknesses. First, it fails to make clear the distinction between the benefits of vitamin C supplements and whole foods rich in the vitamin. More important is the overstatement the physician-journalist made about the possiblilty the vitamin itself can help prevent cancer. This is a major error that can mislead viewers about a very serious condition. (This problem is compounded at the end of the piece when the host says, "I’m still taking vitamin C," without any challenge from the physician-journalist.) At the end of the piece, the host tells viewers that more information is available from its online partner, WebMD. This is commendable, a best practice in broadcast medical news. The WebMD article does indeed provide additional details about the Cochrane report that can help viewers understand the topic better.

Information about how much it would cost to take the vitamin prophylactically for a year would have made a useful point–taking vitamin C isn’t just ineffective, it’s costly. It would also have been good to report how much money Americans spend on vitamin C products to treat colds–not just the supplements but lozenges, often-expensive vitamin C products marketed for cold treatment, etc. The physician-journalist accurately describes the findings in a way people can easily understand on television–essentially that there is no benefit of taking C in preventing colds, with the exception of one key subgoup of little relevance to most Americans. Given the nature of the findings, more precise quantification is not needed. The report fails to indicate that taking high levels of vitamin C, as some advocates suggest, can have serious health consequences, from dental erosion to kidney toxicity. It can also interact with aspirin and other drugs. The story looked at numerous trials that passed a high quality bar. It also identified the source of the information well. But the physician-reporter added a worrisome note that "it [vitamin C] may even help prevent cancer for sure." This is a broad, potentially misleading overstatement for which no evidence is given. In fact, the American Cancer Society makes clear that diets rich in fruits and vegetables, which are high in vitamin C and many other nutrients, are believed to reduce risk of cancer. The ACS makes clear that there is no evidence linking the vitamin itself to reduced cancer risk. This problem is compounded at the end of the piece when the host says, "I’m still taking vitamin C," without any challenge from the physician-journalist. The report does not exaggerate the risks of the common cold. The segment accurately indicates the high crediblity of the Cochrane group, and there appear to be no underlying conflicts of interest that would call the conclusions into question. When the discussion shifts to the importance of adequate intake of vitamin C, the physician-journalist fails to make sufficiently clear that the known benefits of vitamin C are from eating whole foods high in the vitamin. Thus the viewer does not fully understand that eating these foods is a wise alternative to taking the supplements. The report ends nicely with the note that the only proven method of reducing colds risk is to wash hands. Vitamin C supplements are widely available. The report accurately describes vitamin C as widely used. Like most media reports of this study, this one drew heavily on the Cochrane abstract itself. It shares some language with other reports, but not in a way that demonstrates lack of rigor.


UN demands immediate halt to attacks in Ebola areas in Congo.

Explanation: The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday called on armed groups jeopardizing the response to an Ebola outbreak in Congo to immediately halt their attacks, expressing “great concern” at the potential regional spread of the often deadly virus.

Africa, Burundi, Health, United Nations, South Sudan

A resolution adopted unanimously by the U.N.’s most powerful body condemned the attacks “in the strongest terms,” especially “those posing serious security risks for responders.” It singled out Allied Democratic Forces rebels. The council said the security situation in areas affected by the Ebola outbreak “is severely hampering the response efforts and facilitating the spread of the virus” in Congo and the region. Members cited a World Health Organization warning and expressed “great concern about the potential for the virus to spread into Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Burundi.” The resolution adopted by the council demanded that all parties “ensure full, safe, immediate and unhindered access for humanitarian and medical personnel” to Ebola-affected areas. This is the first time an Ebola outbreak has occurred in Congo’s far northeast, where multiple rebel groups are active. Last week, the ministry of health said teams responding to the Ebola outbreak are attacked three or four times a week on average, a level of violence unseen in the country’s nine previous outbreaks of the virus. Ebola is spread via the body fluids of infected people, including the dead. The health ministry said Monday there were 239 confirmed cases and 35 probable cases. At least 120 people have died. In trying to contain the outbreak, which was declared on Aug. 1, health experts have faced resistance from wary communities, with infected people slipping away. Safe burials are often flashpoints where families bristle at outsiders telling them how to say goodbye to loved ones. In one example of the rumors that pose challenges to containing the virus, the health ministry said this month that 22 young people in the northeastern city of Butembo dug up an Ebola victim and opened the body bag to verify that health workers had not taken organs from the body. The resolution adopted by the council emphasized the need for Congo’s government and those providing assistance “to enhance efforts to communicate to the public” and implement safety and health protocols and preventive measures. This will “mitigate against misinformation and undue alarm about the transmission and extent of the outbreak among and between individuals and communities,” the council said. The resolution also underscored the need to step up engagement with local communities and work closely with religious leaders, youth and women’s groups, and affected families, including on resuming humanitarian assistance. The Security Council also emphasized that “men and women are affected differently by the Ebola outbreak” and the response must address their different needs. It urged international support to bring the Ebola outbreak under control. Ethiopia’s U.N. Ambassador Tekeda Alemu said it is “vital” that the international community provides flexible financial support “to enable a more rapid response.” Sweden’s U.N, deputy ambassador Carl Skau said the resolution “sends a clear, coherent and comprehensive message of support to all those involved in the front-line response efforts, on the ground in (Congo) and in neighboring countries.”


Minnesota environmentalists aren’t excited about DFL’s wins.

Explanation: Minnesota’s most influential environmental organizations are often politically aligned with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. But many of those groups aren’t feeling particularly victorious after the DFL’s big victories earlier this month.

Lake Superior, Environment, Mark Dayton, Minnesota

That’s because they don’t expect much change when it comes to two of the state’s most fiercely contested natural resources projects: PolyMet’s proposed copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota and the plan to replace an aging Enbridge oil pipeline that enters the state from Canada and North Dakota and ends near Lake Superior. Several environmental organizations opposing PolyMet and the Enbridge Line 3 project say DFLer Tim Walz, Gov. Mark Dayton’s successor, is unlikely to dramatically change course for the mine or pipeline, even if he supports many of their other causes. “Right now I’m not seeing any indication that there’s going to be a message to change what’s been going on in any kind of significant way,” said Scott Strand, a senior attorney for the Environmental Law and Policy Center. --- The nonprofit news outlet MinnPost provided this article to The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute for Nonprofit News. --- The PolyMet project took a leap forward earlier this month when the Department of Natural Resources granted it key environmental permits. The DNR’s long-awaited decision was celebrated by many who see the $1 billion project as a source of jobs, but the plan has been fought tooth-and-nail by some environmentalists worried its waste could pollute Lake Superior and the surrounding watershed. Dayton has put up some hurdles for the Enbridge project. His Department of Commerce has been vocal in its opposition. He also vetoed a bill that would have authorized the pipeline to move ahead without typical approval from the Public Utilities Commission, though the five-member PUC board — made up of three Democrats, a Republican and a nonpartisan member — approved the project in June anyway. The PUC recently unanimously rejected petitions to reconsider that decision, leading protesters to march to Walz’s new office at the Capitol. As governor, Walz won’t be able to unilaterally stop either project. But as Strand noted, some state agencies need to approve permits for Enbridge and said more robust opposition from Walz could influence them, even if Walz can’t “preordain” an outcome. (Legal battles over the PUC decision are likely to reach the state Supreme Court, too.) Aaron Klemz, a spokesman for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA), said he believes a new DNR under Walz could restart the environmental review process based on MCEA’s assertion that PolyMet is planning to build a much bigger mine than it has proposed. Dayton has supported PolyMet. That project also needs additional permits before it can open. Walz maintains PolyMet should move forward if the company’s plan meets state environmental standards. He has a similar stance on the Enbridge Line 3 replacement, but Walz spokeswoman Kayla Castaneda said in an email there “must be meaningful engagement with all the tribes affected by the project,” especially the ones opposed to it. The proposed route for the pipeline doesn’t cross any tribal land, but it would span wild rice waters tribes have rights to, and areas with cultural importance. “When it comes to a project that could impact our environment, I believe we need to follow the science,” Walz said in a written statement. “If a project meets or exceeds all environmental standards, then it should be permitted. If it does not, it should not.” Environmental groups have been eagerly waiting to see whom Walz appoints to lead key agencies as a signal of how his administration may approach PolyMet, Enbridge and other projects. Castaneda said Walz’s Cabinet choices are expected to be announced in mid-December. But many say they’re not holding their breath for commissioners with an environmentalist slant. “There’s nothing that’s been promised on the campaign trail that would suggest that he’s been any different than Dayton has been,” Klemz said. Tara Houska, campaigns director for Honor the Earth, an organization fighting Enbridge, said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s strong opposition to the pipeline has sparked optimism that the Walz administration will follow suit. But she criticized Walz, saying he has not been clear enough in his position on the pipeline and said she hopes Flanagan’s stance and status as a member of the White Earth Nation “translates to action” and isn’t simply “political cover.” Houska noted Michigan’s incoming Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has been flatly against replacing an Enbridge pipeline in her state. Supporters of the Enbridge project in Minnesota say a new pipeline would be safer than the old one and its construction would create jobs in rural Minnesota. Enbridge says the existing pipeline is not operating at full capacity because of safety worries. Opponents worry about spills and other possible environmental problems with a new pipeline, and are urging an end to projects that support fossil fuels amid escalating global temperatures. The frustration of Minnesota’s environmental groups illustrates their lack of political traction on PolyMet and Enbridge, as well as the split inside the DFL between those favoring economic development through jobs in natural resource industries versus those concerned about potential damage to the environment. PolyMet has been supported by most prominent Republicans and DFLers, who say the project can be done safely. The company has promised hundreds of jobs, a claim that’s been backed up by some research, and the DNR is satisfied with PolyMet’s pollution-protection measures. The state has also secured financial promises from PolyMet in case of trouble, although some have questioned whether it’s enough money to fix a disaster. Environmentalists still do support much of Walz’s agenda. For instance, Walz been skeptical of another project, a potential Twin Metals copper-nickel mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and the Boundary Waters Action Fund ran ads to support him. Castaneda took pains to show the concerns of environmental organizations are not sidelined. She said Walz’s administration is reaching out to pro-industry and environmental groups for input to build bridges and garner advice for Cabinet appointees. For now, the MCEA and other environmental groups will continue their fight to stop Enbridge Line 3 and PolyMet largely with lawsuits, protests and outside lobbying of state government. Not all environmental groups are discouraged. Margaret Levin, state director for the Sierra Club’s North Star Chapter, struck a hopeful tone when interviewed by MinnPost. Though her chapter has been opposed to the PolyMet and Enbridge projects, she didn’t criticize Walz or other DFLers directly. Levin said the Walz administration has “potential” to help the state “come together around long-term economic growth and sustainability that will be truly sustainable and clean and equitable.” She also singled out Flanagan’s opposition to Enbridge as positive. “I think that the governor-elect is a populist and understands and appreciates the power in the grassroots,” Levin said.


More "25- to 34-year-olds are moving to Austin than any other city in America.

Former Austin Mayor Will Wynn, who often speaks on urban growth, suggested that Austin’s attractiveness to retirees and young Americans helps explain demand for downtown housing. "As our society ages, and as boomers start retiring by the millions, we’re going to see a dramatic increase in the demand for dense urban multifamily housing, with a broad mix of uses nearby," Wynn told the Austin American-Statesman for a March 30, 2014, news story headlined "Austin’s rebuilding boom." "Couple that with the fact that more 25- to 34-year-olds are moving to Austin than any other city in America," Wynn said, "and you’ve got yourself a hell of a strong demand for urban housing. I tell people that by any way you possibly measure it — quality of life, public safety, environmental sustainability, public health and fitness, economic — mixed-use density is literally the answer." Density preferences aside, is Wynn right that more young adults are moving to Austin than to any other U.S. city? Wynn recalls a newspaper story By phone and email, Wynn said he learned of Austin’s draw from a Statesman news story citing U.S Census Bureau research. He didn’t have the story handy, but we found a March 30, 2013, Statesman news story stating that analyses of U.S Census Bureau data by William Frey, a senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, found that from 2009 through 2011, the Austin metro area drew more Americans in the cited age span than any other U.S. city--just as the area did the previous three years, the story said. Frey, the newspaper said, measured rates for annual average net migration (including people who left Austin) of young adults ages 25 to 34 and young adults with college degrees. "Austin hits the trifecta," Frey said then. "It's got jobs, cachet, it's got people who see that it's a pathway to careers, either because they go there to get an education or to use an education." Frey further said jobs typically are the top reason people move. Twenty-somethings traditionally have the highest rates of mobility, and college graduates typically are more willing to move out of state for jobs because they tend to compete for them in national markets, Frey said then. Updated analysis places Austin-Round Rock fifth But there's been a change in the rankings, according to Frey’s Nov. 15, 2013, analysis of more recent census data. The Austin-Round Rock metro area placed fifth among 51 major metro areas as a draw on "millennials," adults in the cited age group, from 2009 through 2012, according to a chart posted online by Brookings. Over those three years, the Austin-Round Rock area had an average annual gain of 8,061 25- to 34-year-olds, Frey wrote. Washington, D.C., ranked first among major metro areas with an average annual gain of 12,583 people in the age group, he wrote. Also, the Denver, Portland, Ore., and Houston areas netted greater gains than the Austin area, according to Frey’s breakdown. On the Brookings site, Frey described the D.C. results as a "renewal of young adults in the post-recession period… compared to the loss of young adults during the recession. The existence of both government and non-government employment opportunities in a highly educated ‘millennial friendly’ environment make the nation’s capital an attractive destination until migration flows to a broader group of areas emerge. "A few other areas, including San Francisco and Minneapolis, have showed a rising post-recession young adult boom as well," Frey wrote. His chart shows the San Francisco area ranked sixth among major metro areas with an average annual gain of 7,688 such young adults in the three years. The Minneapolis area, 11th among major metros, had an average annual gain of 3,708 adults in the age group, according to the chart. Researcher says No. 5 isn't so bad To our inquiry, Frey said by email that while Austin’s rank fell between the cited time periods, there is another way to compare--by the rate of change in such adults settling in major metro areas. By that measure, Frey added, the Austin-Round Rock area’s 2.7 net gain per 100 25- to 34-year-olds placed it second among major metros only to the Denver area, which had a 3.0 rate, he said. Still, Frey said he considers numeric gains to be a more accurate measure of where migrants are going. Numeric gains, he said, are "not affected by the size of the destination population  In other words, among all the places in the country, which places are gaining the biggest aggregate numbers of migrants? The rate, is more of an ‘impact’ measure: how are recent migrants affecting the destination population?" Generally, Frey said, the Austin area "has both educational and employment opportunities relevant to young people who are looking to advance -- especially during a period when many other places have taken sharp employment hits. Even if young people coming to Austin are not getting their dream jobs right away, they will be networking with others who might make that happen. This will not be the case in many other places." We wondered why Austin’s rank slipped. Frey said that as the economy "slowly revives elsewhere, there will  be competitors, but being number two or number five" isn’t bad, he wrote. Wynn, apprised of the Austin area’s latest ranking, speculated by email that Austin by itself, rather than the metro area, draws more young adults than any other U.S. city. Our ruling Wynn said more 25- to 34-year-olds are moving to Austin than any other city in America. Wynn did not offer nor did we find data specific to individual cities. But four major metro areas, led by Washington, D.C., netted more new residents in the cited age group in the latest three years checked by Brookings demographer James Frey. The Austin area ranked fifth among the nation’s major metros. We see no basis for currently declaring Austin No. 1, but Wynn's claim has an element of truth; the Austin area was the biggest draw for young adults in some recent three-year periods. We rate his statement as . – The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.


Denver Zoo mourns death of oldest hippo, 58-year-old 'Bertie'.

Explanation: Denver Zoo was mourning the death on Monday of Bertie, a 58-year-old male hippopotamus who was its longest resident and the oldest hippo accredited to a North American zoo, officials said.

Bertie was humanely euthanized after his keepers saw “a significant decline in his quality of life due to his advanced age,” the zoo said in a statement. Most hippos live about 30 to 40 years in the wild, and up to 50 in zoos. “This is a very sad loss for Denver Zoo and our community. Bert was a member of our family for more than 50 years,” zoo President and Chief Executive Shannon Block said. “He will be missed by all of us, including the many families and children who visited him and came to know his charismatic personality over the years,” Block said in the statement. The zoo said Bertie’s appetite had recently decreased noticeably, and that he had become less consistently interested in training sessions with his keepers. He also became more reluctant to leave his pool and showed some difficulty walking. The zoo said veterinarians were limited in their treatment options because he had not responded well to medications. Diagnosing problems in hippos is particularly difficult because of their size and anatomy, the zoo said, but all of Bertie’s symptoms pointed to severe old age. Ultimately, the zoo said, his caretakers knew that his quality of life would not improve. “This is never an easy decision, but it was the right one,” said the zoo’s Vice President of Veterinary Medicine Scott Larsen. “We’ll all miss him very much, but were glad he lived such a long, happy life here at the zoo.”   Bertie arrived in 1958 from New York’s Central Park Zoo. He is the father of every hippo calf born at Denver Zoo, which said he had sired 29 offspring with two mates. One of them, Bertie’s 12-year-old son, Mahali, is the only hippo now at the zoo.


EU court orders countries take hard line on air quality.

Explanation: The European Union’s top court ruled on Wednesday that cities needed to act if pollution levels were exceeded in a single black spot rather than based on an average across a region, taking a hard line in a case brought by Brussels residents.

European governments are facing pressure to reduce the level of pollution in cities to address growing concerns about the long-term damage to public health of exposure to pollutants, particularly those from vehicle diesel engines. A report released last year by the European Court of Auditors said that air pollution causes about 400,000 premature deaths each year in the EU and hundreds of billions of euros in health-related external costs. EU law requires countries to assess the level, notably in urban areas, of a range of pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter, and take action if certain limits are hit. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) was asked to rule in a case brought against Brussels by residents and campaign group ClientEarth over the region’s air quality plan. The ECJ judgment came a day after a ground-breaking ruling where a local court said France was responsible for air pollution in the Ile-de-France region around Paris, although it did not award damages to a mother and daughter who had suffered respiratory ailments. The ECJ said that while authorities could choose where to conduct sampling, this needed to include the most polluted areas and concluded that the average measurement from different parts of the city did not show the exposure to pollutants. To determine whether a limit had been reached in a calendar year it was sufficient if the pollution level was higher than the limit at a single sampling point, the ECJ said. It also found that national courts were empowered to review the location of air quality stations and could order local authorities to make sure they are located appropriately. “The ostrich-like approach, where some authorities try to hide the real extent of pollution rather than ensure their citizens breathe clean air, must stop,” Jens Muller, air quality manager at Brussels-based campaign group Transport and Environment, said in a statement.


Alabama: Case of meningococcal disease in Jackson County.

Explanation: The Alabama Department of Public Health’s Immunization Division is investigating a case of meningococcal disease, the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in children between the ages of 2 and 18 in the United States.

Immunizations, Meningitis, Health, Alabama, Public health, Scottsboro, United States

In a news release Tuesday, the department said the case was found at Scottsboro Junior High School in Jackson County. No other cases have been identified. Medical Officer Dr. Karen Landers says the department has already started contacting parents to make them aware of the exposure. Symptoms of meningococcal disease include a sudden onset of fever, headache, stiff neck, confusion and sometimes a rash. Landers says the disease is highly contagious and spread to others within two to 10 days by contact through respiratory and throat secretions, such as saliva.


America’s air isn’t getting cleaner as fast as it used to.

Explanation: For decades America’s air was getting cleaner as levels of a key smog ingredient steadily dropped. That changed about seven years ago when pollution reductions leveled off, a new study found.

Colorado, North America, Science, Smog, U.S. News, Air quality, Pollution

This means when tighter federal air quality standards go into effect later this year, many more cities may find themselves on the dirty air list. There are several reasons for the flattening of nitrogen oxide levels including hard-to-reduce industrial and truck pollution, said study co-author Helen Worden, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. The study, in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used satellite and ground measurements to track nitrogen oxides, a major ingredient in smog. Levels fell 7 percent from 2005 to 2009, but only dropped 1.7 percent from 2011 to 2015. “We can’t say anymore it’s going down,” Worden said. The results also show the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s computer models overestimate how clean the air really is, said University of North Carolina’s Jason West, who wasn’t part of the study. Smog is created when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds cook in sunlight. Those chemicals come from cars, trucks, power and industrial plants. In 2015, the EPA proposed new air quality standards limiting smog levels to 70 parts per billion, down from the current 75 parts per billion. Those rules are slated to go into effect this fall, but that has been delayed once already. More than 170 counties in the United States are already exceeding the older clean air standard for smog, according to the EPA. Worden and colleagues tried to figure out what was happening, ruling out the flow of the smog ingredient from China since levels in that country went down since it tightened its air quality rules. While the 2008 recession may have played a role in the slowdown, Worden said there were other bigger factors at play. The biggest and easiest pollution reductions have already been achieved, leaving smaller, more difficult cuts, Worden said. University of Maryland air scientist Ross Salawitch said exposure to elevated ozone can lead to coughing and difficulty breathing, and make respiratory diseases such as asthma worse. For Worden, who lived in Los Angeles in the early 2000s when it was smoggier than it is now, she would bicycle to work and check ozone levels daily. If smog levels were high, “it would really make my lungs burn,” she said. ___ Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears . His work can be found here . ___ The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


Drug critic slams FDA over antibiotic oversight in meat production.

Explanation: The United States Food and Drug Administration allowed 18 animal drugs to stay on the market even after an agency review found the drugs posed a “high risk” of exposing humans to antibiotic-resistant bacteria through food supply, according to a study released Monday by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The study by the NRDC, a non-governmental group that criticizes the widespread use of drugs in the meat industry, is the latest salvo in the national debate over the long-standing practice of antibiotic use in meat production. Agribusinesses say animal drugs help increase production and keep prices low for U.S. consumers, while consumer advocates and some scientists raise concerns over antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The FDA stirred the debate late last year when it unveiled guidelines for drug makers and agricultural companies to voluntarily phase out antibiotic use as a growth enhancer in livestock. The agency said those guidelines were an effort to stem the surge in human resistance to certain antibiotics. But the NRDC’s study found the FDA took no action to remove 30 antibiotic-based livestock feed products from the market even after federal investigators determined many of those antibiotics fell short of current regulatory standards for protecting human health. NRDC studied a review conducted by the FDA from 2001 to 2010 that focused on 30 penicillin and tetracycline-based antibiotic feed additives. The drugs had been approved by regulators to be used specifically for growth promotion of livestock and poultry - essentially to produce more meat to sell. The FDA, in a statement, said it began a review of older, approved penicillin and tetracycline products in 2001, and issued letters to companies who made the products asking for additional safety data. “Based on its review of this and other information, the Agency chose to employ a strategy that would more broadly address the concerns about the production use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals,” the FDA said. Some academics specializing in antibiotic resistance criticized the NRDC’s study, saying that the findings do not reflect current regulatory standards because some of the drugs have been withdrawn from the market. They also say that the study assessed FDA safety guidelines that have been replaced with more stringent standards. Dr. Randall Singer, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, told Reuters that drug makers and the U.S. livestock industry are phasing out antibiotics used principally for growth promotion. “We have been telling (both of) them for years to be prepared for the elimination of growth promotion and feed efficiency labeling because you cannot make that change overnight,” said Singer, who reviewed the NRDC report for Reuters. The NRDC, which reviewed more than 3,000 pages of documents through a federal Freedom of Information Act request, said it found evidence to suggest nine of the drugs are still on the market and used by livestock producers. Reuters was not able to independently verify that detail immediately. One of the drugs still on the market is animal health company Zoetis Inc’s Penicillin G Procaine 50/100, which is fed to poultry in part to aid in weight gain. The NRDC says the FDA twice laid out its concerns to that drug maker that the product failed to meet safety regulations. The unnamed original sponsor of the drug apparently disputed the regulators’ findings, according to excerpts from a 1997 letter sent to the FDA and included in documents obtained by the NRDC. A spokeswoman for Zoetis, a unit of Pfizer Inc that owns the drug today, said the company already is working to phase out use of the drug for growth promotion as part of the new FDA guidelines and is planning to relabel the drug for more limited purposes. Once companies remove farm-production uses of their antibiotics from drug labels, it would become illegal for those drugs to be used for those purposes, Deputy FDA Commissioner Michael Taylor told reporters recently. Although the program is meant to be voluntary, Taylor said the FDA would be able to take regulatory action against companies that fail to comply. In its statement on Monday, the FDA said it is “confident that its current strategy to protect the effectiveness of medically important antimicrobials, including penicillins and tetracyclines, is the most efficient and effective way to change the use of these products in animal agriculture.”  NRDC attorney Avinash Kar, one of the study’s authors, said the group’s findings raise questions about whether regulators will be effective in enforcing the new guidelines. “The FDA’s failure to act on its own findings about the 30 reviewed antibiotic feed additives is part of a larger pattern of delay and inaction in tackling livestock drug use that goes back four decades,” Kar told Reuters.


Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson admonished a little girl who said she wanted to live on the planet Jupiter.

Explanation: Larson’s apparent mistaking of ClickHole for a straightforward popular news outlet wasn’t the first instance of (sometimes widespread) confusion over the site’s satirical nature. Prior ClickHole items that caused similar consternation on social media included claims George Clooney maintained an open tab at Chipotle through which anyone could obtain free burritos, Beanie Babies were full of spider eggs horrifically hatching after many dormant years, comedian Adam Sandler correctly predicted five tragic events, the Supreme Court ruled cops could no longer engage with members of the public in any manner, Gwyneth Paltrow starved to death after attempting a week-long “food stamp challenge,” a Texas man underwent a frightening eye enlargement procedure, Johnny Depp enrolled in medical school to save a sick child battling cancer, and Pokemon Go added a feature wherein Pokemon would scream when within a mile of a registered sex offender.

Junk News, clickhole, neal larson, neil degrasse tyson

On 23 August 2016, Magic Valley Times-News columnist Neal Larson lambasted celebrity astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson for (among other things) rudely admonishing a 12-year-old girl who expressed a desire to “live on Jupiter”: I’ve listened to Neil deGrasse Tyson before. And what I observe is a smart guy who consistently enjoys asserting his intellectual supremacy over others more than he actually likes educating. In one of his worse moments, Tyson mocked a 12-year-old girl who suggested she’d like to live on Jupiter. He ridiculed her in the midst of a crowd, then later, several times, on Twitter. That told me everything I needed to know about Neil deGrasse Tyson. For that moment he was just a horse’s astrophysicist. Although Larson didn’t provide a link to the purported dressing down administered by Tyson, it wasn’t difficult to locate the source of his claim — a 1 December 2015 item published by the satirical web site ClickHole describing a purported interaction between an 8-year-old girl and Tyson: Get ready for the most incredible science win ever, delivered by none other than Neil deGrasse Tyson. He’s pretty much the king when it comes to shutting down people who peddle bad science, but this most recent case completely takes the cake: When an 8-year-old told the badass astrophysicist that she wanted to live on Jupiter, he completely shut her down using science. Amazing! How many times can Neil deGrasse Tyson win the internet? The epic science burn happened toward the end of one of Neil’s lectures at the Hayden Planetarium in New York last weekend. Third-grader Liza Collins was attending the lecture with her parents, and during the Q&A session, she raised her hand and told Neil that she wanted to live on Jupiter. But Neil wasn’t about to let her—and her bunk science—off the hook. “Hold on, you want to live where?” Tyson said. “On a planet made entirely of unbreathable gases? One that doesn’t even have a rocky surface you could stand on? A planet that would take you six years to even get to? That’s where you want to live? Because that’s Jupiter. Enjoy your great new home!” And of course, Neil didn’t let it end there. After the event, the Cosmos host took to Twitter to really show Liza what’s what. The ClickHole piece also included screenshots of what looked to be tweets sent by Tyson: Larson didn’t appear to be aware that ClickHole is a satirical site (an offshoot of The Onion) and that none of its content was meant to be taken seriously. Each page bears a disclaimer subtly indicating as much: ClickHole uses invented names in all of its stories, except in cases where public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental. ClickHole is not intended for readers under 18 years of age. A lengthy comment appended to the ClickHole article has been attributed to Tyson, but it isn’t clear if the remarks were genuinely his. (Tyson did not link to the column on Twitter nor reference it on any platform we were able to locate.) The comment (which, if inauthentic, replicated the astrophysicist’s tone quite well) countered: Hello Neal First, I’ll forgive you for not spelling your name correctly. Second, and more importantly, I don’t mind being labeled a horse’s astrophysicist (I see what you did there), provided it’s based on factual information. So what we must do is subtract the false information from your article, and then re-assess what name you choose to call me. If it still justifies “horse’s astrophysicist”, then so be it. 1) FYI: The cosmic perspective is all about having a second look at what, on the surface appears to be important, special, ego-boosting, etc. The Olympic medal count is not immune from this analysis. In fact an even better measure is medals per GDP per capita. This will tell you how efficiently and effectively a country is spending its wealth on athletic excellence. The Tweet, though based only on population, was a playful plea that we could be winning even more medals than we are. 2) I am agnostic, and actively disavow the atheist label: [Audio: 6m30s]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnHY1cC9a4A [Video: 3m 48s] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzSMC5rWvos 3) People who deny human-induced climate change are badly misinformed. This position is neither politically Liberal nor Conservative. It’s factual. Although one could argue that all those who want to preserve the environment are the real conservatives in this discussion. 4) You use “Liberal” as a tag to characterize my politics. Since I have no active public political position, that’s a hard task to accomplish. Climate change deniers are misinformed. But so are people who think vaccines gives you autism. And so are people who think genetically modified foods are bad for you. These science-denying postures cross political boundaries, as I clumsily attempted to convey recently on Bill Maher. ma>http://www.mediaite.com/tv/neil-degrasse-tyson-criticizes-liberals-for-anti-science-beliefs-on-maher/ 5) The “incident” with a 9yr old girl never happened. It looks to be a hoax. No such tweets ever existed on November 29th, 2015, or on any other day. My only tweet on November 29, 2015 (as my followers can attest, and as anyone can see from scrolling my Twitter page was: Starship Enterprise versus Millennium Falcon. Oh yeah, I went there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMH1vDDd1xc So you abrogated your journalistic integrity by not verifying what you read in somebody else’s article, before using it as a foundational pillar in yours. 6) I am 3x appointed by President George W. Bush, serving on commissions to advise him on the future of the American aerospace Industry, on NASA, and on the annual Presidential Medial of science winners. So your disapproval of my views is not shared by others on the conservative spectrum. 7) Lastly: my research output as a scientist is not hidden. You can find it here, if you are interested: http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/curriculum-vitae So when you factor in (or simply subtract) all these elements from your writeup, If what remains still justifies labeling me a horses astrophysicist, then, as I said, I’m okay with that. Respectfully Submitted, Neil deGrasse Tyson, New York City p.s. FYI: I have relatives who live in Idaho. And I’ve loved every visit. Last they visited me, prompted this Tweet: Nephew from Idaho, puzzled by locks on my NYC apt door. I asked, Don’t you have locks at home? He replied, No, just Shotguns.


Indonesian barber gears up to groom during coronavirus.

Explanation: Indonesian hair stylist Herman Maulanasyah knows that he may look comical in his makeshift protective gear but he sees that as a small price if it helps protect him and his customers from the novel coronavirus.

Clad in a plastic sheet held together with tape, a ski mask, a gas mask and latex gloves, Maulanasyah, 40, welcomes customers at his salon in the city of Bogor, south of Jakarta, even as the virus spreads across the country. “Please don’t judge, I’m not making it for fun or to look ridiculous, this is how I show my appreciation to the health workers,” Maulanasyah told Reuters at the salon he has run for 15 years. Before he starts cutting hair, Maulanasyah sprays his  protective gear and his customers’ hands with sanitizer. He has worn the gear for the past two weeks as part of efforts to cut the risks from the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus that has killed at least 240 people and infected nearly 3,000 in the world’s fourth most populous country. Health workers in Indonesia have paid a high price, with at least 24 doctors dying from the disease, according to the Indonesian Doctors Association. In Jakarta, 130 medical workers have been infected, according to the city government said. Jakarta has ordered businesses and schools to close in a bid to contain the virus and it plans large-scale social restrictions enforced by security personnel. Though Maulanasyah’s salon is outside Jakarta, where many of the cases in the country have been clustered, his income has dwindled from about 500,000 rupiah ($31) a day to 100,000 rupiah ($6.20). Customer Abdul Rahman Fattah said he felt safer having his hair cut this way but conceded that the cumbersome outfit worn by Maulanasyah meant the result may not always be perfect. As another precautionary measure, Maulanasyah allows only four people in the salon and urges everyone to keep their distance. “This is to protect myself because I have a family, my child and wife, therefore I need to ensure my safety at work because I don’t know whether the people who come here are infected or not,” he said.


China detains man for spreading 'panic' with bird flu rumors.

Explanation: Police in central China have detained a man who spread “panic” with a graphic rumor about the arrival of bird flu in his home province, state media reported on Wednesday.

Wild rumours abound on Chinese social media sites, driven in part by a broad belief that the government always seeks to cover up bad news and that state media are untrustworthy. The man detained by authorities, who was identified only by his surname, Zhou, and hails from the central province of Hubei, posted the rumor over the weekend via the popular mobile messaging platform Wechat, the official Xinhua news agency said. “The post was spread widely among netizens and aroused panic among the public,” it said, adding that Hubei’s health officials  had dismissed the rumor as untrue, since the province had yet to report human cases of the H7N9 bird flu virus. In the post, Xinhua cited Zhou as saying, “A doctor from Yichang People’s Hospital died of H7N9 at 4:21 a.m. yesterday.”  The doctor was a pregnant woman aged 31, he added, and included a dramatic touch. “A baby is still in the mother’s belly and doctors who participated in the emergency treatment have been quarantined,” he said. “Multiple cases of human H7N9 infection were also found in other regions in the province.”  China has reported more than 120 human H7N9 cases this year, including at least 31 deaths. The government initially tried to conceal an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about one in 10 of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide. China kicked off a tough campaign to control online discussion last year, threatening legal action against people whose perceived rumours were widely reposted. Authorities said the move was needed to preserve social stability and halt the spread of untrue stories that could cause panic. Rights groups and dissidents criticized the crackdown as another tool for the ruling Communist Party to limit criticism of itself and further rein in freedom of expression.


Coffee serves as an effective mosquito repellant and protection against infection by the Zika virus.

Explanation: What's true: A small bit of research has indicated that coffee can be lethal to mosquito larvae if applied to them in a specific manner. What's false: Research has not shown than coffee is effective at repelling mosquitoes and preventing people from getting bitten by them.

Medical, coffee, Home Cures, home remedies

In August 2016 concerns about the spread of the Zika virus escalated as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a warning about active Zika transmission in northern Miami. Zika exposure has been cited in the death of one Texas baby and the birth of several others afflicted with microcephaly in the United States in 2016. Meanwhile, the Miami New Times published an article suggesting that residents could use “good old café cubano” to repel mosquitoes responsible for spreading the disease: So how do we protect ourselves from the Zika threat? The Department of Health recommends wearing insect repellent and covering your limbs. Also make sure there’s no standing water anywhere on your property. The smallest amount of water can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and hold thousands of larvae. There’s one other way to ward off the pests: Use good ol’ café cubano. In the video above, Abuela Mami, a local company that ships care packages of Cuban treats to your door, shows you how to combat mosquitoes by using coffee grounds. In case you’re wondering if there’s any science to back up this claim, turns out there is. According to a study conducted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, female mosquitoes laid fewer eggs on areas covered with coffee grounds. Also, “egg hatching success was extremely low among eggs that matured on substrates soaked with coffee extracts.” Abuela Mami, the Cuban goods importer named in the article, shared a video that instructed viewers to sprinkle coffee grounds around their yards. However, the framing of the video led many to infer that coffee grounds or other coffee extracts were meant to be applied directly to their skin in order to repel mosquitoes:  Given that coffee is present in some skin care products, it isn’t likely there’s much danger in applying coffee grounds to skin (save for staining clothing or smelling like a Starbucks). But neither does there seem to be much evidence suggesting coffee has much effect (if any) on mosquito-human interaction, particularly when applied topically. A May 2015 article by The Germ Code author Jason Tetro described some of the science behind the notion that coffee can be used against mosquitoes, but primarily in the sense of its being a larvae control measure and not a topical repellant: [C]offee has shown promise in the past. Back in 2003, it was shown to kill off the babies — larvae — of a cousin of albopictus, Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito. Although the mechanism wasn’t entirely figured out, the authors at the time believed some of the chemicals in the black stuff blocked some of the important stages of development. They could not develop into adults. A closer inspection revealed some of the molecules mimicked those of insecticides. But the effect was far more dramatic and the insects could not develop resistance. In 2012, the effects on Ae. aegypti were shown to be the same in Ae. Albopictus. In this case, the larvae were exposed to coffee extracts. Once again, the larvae were unable to develop and the population was killed off. It meant coffee could be used to keep both mosquito populations from getting out of hand. Those findings pertained not to the matter of larger concern (i.e., keeping mature mosquitoes from biting people and infecting them with Zika), but to preventing larval mosquitoes from maturing in the first place. The information stemmed from research published by Parasites & Vectors in 2015 that examined addressing issues of coffee disposal alongside mosquito control measures. Researchers observed effects of coffee on the breeding (not the biting) of mosquitoes: The [study’s] results indicated that the presence of coffee extracts in artificial containers as breeding sites prevent females from laying substantial numbers of eggs. In addition, the presence of only oviposition sites with [coffee extracts] induced many females to retain most of their mature eggs within ovaries. In particular, this study indicated that there is a deleterious impact on the embryonic development of Ae. albopictus; eggs that matured in either [coffee extracts] or [diluted coffee extracts] environments were less viable than their counterparts that were maintained in a water-moistened environment. Finally, this study showed that females that developed successfully as larvae in a coffee environment tended to heavily oviposit in container habitats holding coffee. These results illustrate the potential of coffee extracts to assist in dengue vector control, acting both as an uninviting signal to gravid Ae. albopictus females and as a barrier to embryogenesis. These attributes suggest that coffee and its waste may be useful in developing potent, low-cost, and bio-rational mosquito control strategies. More importantly, turning coffee waste into an alternate control tool against mosquito vectors may represent a viable solution to the coffee-related pollution problem. Unrelated research in 2005 [PDF] similarly observed coffee (and perhaps caffeine) as having an adverse effect on mosquito larvae but did not delve into application of coffee to the skin to ward off mosquito bites. Moreover, those findings reported that coffee could also serve as a possible source of nutrition for mosquito larvae: However, the survivorship of larvae for UCG 0.01 and UCG 0.05 in comparison to the controls suggested that in nutrient-poor systems, UCG in low concentrations could benefit the larvae and boost their survivorship and hence, increase the number of larvae that successfully hatch into adults. Small amounts of UCG could enhance bacterial and algal growth, thus providing food for mosquito larvae. In short, some evidence suggests that coffee might inhibit mosquito breeding (but also suggests that in some cases could facilitate mosquito larvae survival). The science behind coffee grounds’ inhibiting mosquito life cycles is thin, and no solid scientific evidence indicates that topical application of coffee will repel Zika-carrying mosquitos.