David Prosser Says Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg’s record as a state Justice Department lawyer consists only of the prosecution of cases regarding regulation of docks.

Explanation: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser says challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg’s record consists only of prosecuting cases regarding regulation of docks

Environment, Candidate Biography, Legal Issues, Wisconsin, David Prosser,

The candidates in the acrimonious race for Wisconsin Supreme Court have spent a considerable amount of time focusing on their experience and qualifications for the job. Justice David Prosser’s experience is pretty simple to understand. He has served a dozen years on the court and was Outagamie County district attorney for a couple of years. A Republican, Prosser also served 16 years in the state Assembly, and was speaker. The JoAnne Kloppenburg file is more difficult to evaluate: 21 years as an attorney in the state Department of Justice. That leaves plenty of room for interpretation -- by the candidate and her opponent. That’s what happened in a March 21, 2011, debate at the Marquette University Law School. Prosser told the audience that Kloppenburg "is incredibly envious" of his record as a district attorney, and his time as a lawmaker and justice. He said he had prosecuted cases that involved violent crime. "I’ve had victims of crime cry on my shoulder," Prosser said. He continued with this observation about Kloppenburg’s experience: "She has a very different record as a prosecutor. It’s all the prosecution of DNR regulations of docks … the length of docks. The width of docks. Whether people can have docks. That’s a complete different kind of prosecution that I am familiar with or have been writing cases about as well for 12 and a half years." That stopped us and undoubtedly many in the audience. More than two decades on cases hassling dock owners? Sounds like a lot of legal grunt work. It’s a claim that Prosser has made repeatedly on the campaign trail, and a theme that’s been picked up in ads from outside groups attacking Kloppenburg. We asked for backup. Prosser’s campaign spokesman Brian Nemoir said in an email that state court records and other research tools showed 46 cases that involved Kloppenburg, 76 percent of which "were for the DNR." "Of the 46, five were directly identifiable with piers," he said. Fair enough. For a decade, Kloppenburg led the Department of Justice’s environmental litigation team. Docks would be in her wheelhouse. Kloppenburg opponents have seized on her record as a environmental lawyer, painting her as an extremist. On March 29, talk show host Charlie Sykes said: "If you are an environmental zealot, I do understand that JoAnne Kloppenburg is probably your candidate." Sykes added: "If you have a pier that’s a few feet too close … JoAnne Kloppenburg is your worst enemy." But let’s circle back to the support Prosser’s campaign provided. Of the 46 cases cited, only five dealt with docks. What about the rest? The Kloppenburg campaign gave us a list of 17 published decisions of cases that she argued before the state Appeals Court. The cases involved water and air pollution permits, a landfill dispute and the state’s authority over navigable waterways. Two involved the civil rights of state prison inmates, one involved the treatment of a prisoner. No dock cases were included. The campaign noted that over the years, Kloppenburg has argued hundreds of cases in circuit courts around the state, and numerous cases before the state Supreme Court -- including one in which a decision was handed down March 23,  two days after the debate at Marquette. In that case, Kloppenburg represented the state in a lawsuit involving a dispute over a hearing for a water discharge permit for a paper mill in Green Bay. Environmentalists wanted a public hearing about the permit; the DNR did not. Kloppenburg represented the DNR and won the case -- with Prosser voting with the majority. While environmentalists were unhappy with the decision, business groups -- some of which are paying for ads attacking Kloppenburg’s legal credentials -- were pleased. She said her campaign was able to identify citations of 206 court cases dating back to 1989, and said few, if any, involved docks or piers. Other cases she’s handled in her career included those involving complaints from prisoners, the state’s part of lawsuits against big tobacco companies, Indian treaty rights and gaming compacts, and medical malpractice caps. She has had numerous cases involving well-known state and local companies, including Patrick Cudahy, Enbridge, Georgia Pacific, and a sunken barge in the Menomonee River. Kloppenburg told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board that her job was to enforce the state’s environmental laws. When we asked Prosser directly to explain his comment, he said he was well aware Kloppenburg handled a much broader variety of cases for the Justice Department than docks. Indeed, a number of them were argued before him on the Supreme Court. "I’m certainly aware of the breadth of those cases," Prosser said, adding that his comments about docks were "a little rhetorical flourish." Prosser recalled a case about a July 2006 decision about a Green Lake subdivision that let homeowners have a fractional interest so they could have a boat slip on a nearby dock. The court ruled in favor of the DNR and forced the association to reduce the number of boat slips. Prosser also mentioned another case that was relayed to him in a private letter from a circuit court judge in northern Wisconsin. "Those are the two I was most familiar with," Prosser said. He added this about his dock comment: "I was really trying to inject a little bit of levity into this. I think the rhetorical flourish is easily justified in terms of these two cases." But that flies in the face of the reality of the campaign. As we noted, the dock cases have emerged as a line of attack against Kloppenburg from several fronts. What’s more, those in the audience didn’t offer a lot of chuckles during that portion of the debate. Former Journal Sentinel reporter Alan Borsuk, who now works for the Marquette Law School, blogged this about the event: "I’ve been at some testy and tense debates and joint appearances by candidates in various races, but this one was way up the list, if it wasn’t the champion on my personal list." Borsuk noted the exchange about experience and said Prosser touted his record "while slighting her record in environmental work with the attorney general’s office as involving ‘the length of (boat) docks.’"  Let’s bring this ship to shore. Justice Prosser told a debate audience that his opponent’s work as a prosecutor was very limited and said she only handled cases involving the size and length of docks. But the record shows a much broader range of cases handled by Kloppenburg in her time at the Department of Justice. Indeed, Prosser later said he was well aware of the "breadth" of those cases. What’s more, Prosser brushed the claim off as a "rhetorical flourish" and an attempt at "levity." That would be more believable if people treated it that way at the time and if it didn’t match up with one of the major lines of attack from Kloppenburg critics in the campaign. At PolitiFact, a statement is False if it is not accurate. It’s not accurate to say that Kloppenburg’s has only handled dock cases. That’s a ridiculous claim -- from a justice who has heard her argue a variety of cases before him on the state’s high court. False plus ridiculous equals .


Under-Skin Defibrillators Seen Closer to Reality

Explanation: This story includes an independent source and details about the underlying concept of the new device and its limitations that help readers put the research into the proper perspective. Aside from including more pertinent information, this story did a better job of characterizing the research report as one step in a long process. Until two treatments are directly compared, it is usually inappropriate to claim that one is superior to the other. This story does a good job of explaining the results of research into this new device without implying that the preliminary trials produced evidence it may be better than existing devices.

The story notes that the cost of the device would be similar to that of existing devices, but that implantation is simpler, which might make those costs lower. It would have been helpful to specify the estimated cost of existing implantable defibrillators. This story outlines the problems with the electrical lead wires of existing devices that have harmed patients and required re-operations and recalls. It explains that by using wires placed under the skin, instead of through blood vessels into the heart, the new device might reduce the risks associated with implantable defibrillators for certain patients. The story cautions that only about a quarter of patients who currently are given implantable defibrillators might be candidates for the new type of device. Although the researchers pointed out in their journal article that “the initial experience includes several cases of problems such as lead migration, lead dislodgement, and inappropriate sensing,” the story does not refer to any potential harms. In the lead, this story appropriately characterizes the new report as a step toward implantable defibrillators that do not have wires attached directly to the hearts of patients. It points out that much of the new data is based on the experiences of about 60 patients who had one of the new devices for a year. The story makes more than one reference to the need for further trials before the developers of the new device would have enough evidence to apply for FDA approval. The story points out that the new device is intended for use in a subset of patients who are already considered candidates for conventional implantable defibrillators. The story includes an independent source. It points out that the trials of the new device were paid for by the manufacturer and that the lead researcher founded the company. The story makes clear that, depending on the results of further trials, the new device could be an incremental improvement on existing implantable defibrillators for certain patients. It also notes that it does not offer the heart pacemaker function of some existing implantable defibrillators. The story points out that the new type of implantable defibrillator is available in some countries in Europe, but that further trials are needed to produce evidence that could be used to apply for FDA approval in the United States. The story notes that the device has been under development for several years and requires further research before it can be considered for clinical use. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.


California to require abortion medication at public colleges.

Explanation: California will be the first state to require abortion medication on college campuses under a law signed Friday by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Medication, Health, General News, Abortion, California, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, U.S. News, Laws

The law takes effect in 2023 and only applies to the 34 campuses in the University of California and California State University systems. But the law will only be implemented if a state commission can raise more than $10 million in private donations to pay for it. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill last year, arguing it was not necessary because abortion services were readily available off campus. But Newsom, who took office in January, said the law is needed “as other states and the federal government go backward, restricting reproductive freedom.” Several Republican-led states, including Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi, have passed laws banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Abortion-rights groups are challenging those laws in court. “Abortion is a protected right, and it is important that everyone — including college students — have access to that right, if they so choose,” said Democratic Sen. Connie Leyva, the bill’s author. Religious and anti-abortion groups opposed the bill, with Live Action President Lila Rose saying the law “turns universities into abortion centers.” And Maria Jose Fernandez, legislative advocate for the California Catholic Conference, said the law is “trying to limit the alternatives for women.” “We’re giving them the option to terminate a life, but what about those who want to continue on with that pregnancy? Where is the help for those women?” Fernandez said. The medication is an option for women who are less than 10 weeks pregnant. The process requires taking two pills. The first pill, taken at the clinics, blocks the hormone progesterone. The second, taken a few days later at home, has an effect similar to a miscarriage. More than 400,000 women attend public universities in the state. Officials at the University of California and California State University did not take a position on the bill as it worked its way through the state Legislature. California State University spokesman Michael Uhlenkamp said the university will comply with the law by 2023. University of California spokeswoman Sarah McBride said the university “believes students should have access to affordable and convenient reproductive health care of their choosing.” “The university is currently evaluating next steps and will implement the law accordingly,” she said. Also Friday, Newsom signed a law clarifying that Planned Parenthood can prescribe birth control via teleconference without a video chat, as they can in other states. Jodi Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said the bill signings show “that California understands reproductive health care is health care. And health care is a human right.” ___ This story has been updated to correct the name of the anti-abortion advocacy group Live Action.


Exhausted polar bear wanders into Siberian city.

Explanation: A starving polar bear has strayed hundreds of kilometers from its natural Arctic habitat and wandered, exhausted, into the major Russian industrial city of Norilsk in northern Siberia.

The female bear, visibly weak and seemingly ill, lay despondently on the ground for hours on Tuesday in Norilsk’s suburbs, its feet caked in mud, occasionally rising to sniff around for food. It is the first polar bear seen in the city in more than 40 years, according to local environmentalists. Oleg Krashevsky, a local wildlife expert who filmed the polar bear close-up, said it was unclear what had brought the animal to the city, although it was possible it had simply got lost. He said it had watery eyes and could clearly not see well. Climate change has been damaging polar bears’ sea-ice habitats and forced them to scavenge more for food on land, bringing them into contact with people and inhabited areas. A state of emergency was declared in a remote inhabited area of northern Russian earlier this year when dozens of hungry polar bears were seen scavenging for food and entering public buildings and homes. State wildlife experts are expected to arrive in Norilsk on Wednesday to assess the bear’s condition. Local residents in the city known for nickel production came out to photograph the bear and look at it as police prevented them from getting too close. Krashevsky said it was not clear what would be done with the polar bear as it looked too weak to be taken back to its natural habitat.


Mediterranean diet may help prevent dementia, study says

Explanation: This is a story about a study that won’t be presented for two months yet – about a health benefit that is seen in individuals who self-report consuming a Mediterranean diet. It was good that the story pointed out "The study shows association, not causation" but the explanation of this was a bit awkward and incomplete. It also never answered what "36% less likely to have areas of brain damage" really meant. 36% of what? And what clinical significance might that have? There can be a difference between being able to find something and whether that something has significance in people’s lives. Dementia is a major concern for older people. However, the gist of the story  – that the "Mediterranean diet may help prevent dementia" – as the headline states – is something an observational study can’t prove. That’s what the story could have better explained.

Another not applicable criterion for this story. Costs not mentioned, but also hard to pin down costs of this diet. The story specified that those following a Mediterranean diet were ‘36% less likely to have areas of brain damage’. This is an inadequate presentation of information because the reader has no sense of how common the thing prevented might be (36% of what?) and also how well this measurement of brain damage correlates with a clinical parameter of concern to real people. There can be a difference between being able to find something and whether that something has significance in people’s lives. There was no discussion of harms, but we’re not sure of any from this diet – so we judge this criterion Not Applicable in this case. The story highlighted the results of a study to be presented two months from now. This means that the results have not been peer reviewed. This should have been explained. Even then there are weaknesses in stories about presentations at scientific meetings. See our primer. We appreciate that the story stated that the study showed an association but does not prove causality – but think the story could have used better language to explain this, such as: The story came close at times – dancing around these messages – but never quite clearly communicating the significance of the limitation of an observational study. No disease-mongering of Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia in this story. The story has a quote from a clinician who does not appear to be associated with the research to be presented that was reported on. The story could have at least briefly mentioned other approaches to risk reduction. For example, control of hypertension and use of daily aspirin to reduce risk of vascular disease in the brain. It doesn’t require many words in a story to put one area of research into context of other research in the field. There isn’t any question about the availability of the ‘mediterranean diet’ so this criterion is not applicable for this story. The story appropriately tried to put this research into the context of other resarch on the Mediterranean diet and health. Although there is some language in the story that is very similar to that found in a news release, we rule this satisfactory because an independent expert was quoted, indicating that the story didn’t rely solely or largely on a news release.


New study finds EPA and DHA omega-3s lower risk of coronary heart disease

Explanation: This news release summarizes a recent paper published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings that evaluated the effect two types of omega-3 fatty acids — eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) — had on reducing risk of coronary heart disease. The report was a meta-analysis, meaning researchers evaluated the findings of multiple published studies. Specifically, the meta-analysis looked at 18 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 16 prospective cohort studies. RCTs are designed to measure the effect of a specific intervention under clearly-defined, experimental conditions. This means that researchers aim to determine, with some degree of certainty, whether a specific intervention is causing a specific outcome. Prospective cohort studies follow large groups of people over extended periods of time, allowing researchers to determine what characteristics or behaviors may be associated with specific outcomes. Because of the nature of these cohort studies, they can only tell researchers if a behavior or practice is correlated with an outcome — but not whether the behavior is causing the outcome. These sorts of meta-analyses can be extremely valuable tools for assessing a broad body of work on a given subject. However, this news release is problematic. It is written in a way that is confusing, if not misleading, and fails to make clear that the scientific-sounding organization that funded the study (and wrote the release) is an industry group that was created to promote the global use of omega-3 supplements or foods that are high in omega-3s. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, approximately 370,000 people die of coronary heart disease each year in the United States. Many adults make decisions about their diet, activities and lifestyle based on how those decisions may affect their heart health. Research on subjects such as how omega-3 fatty acids affect heart disease risk play an important role here. According to a 2015 Washington Post article, people in the U.S. spend $1.2 billion each year on fish oil supplements, largely because they contain omega-3s that consumers think will reduce their risk of heart disease. But increasingly consistent evidence shows that fish oil does not, in fact, protect against heart disease. If people are going to make informed decisions about their personal health — and how they spend their money — they need to have good information that they can actually understand. News releases like this one make it hard for most consumers to understand exactly what the research says.

coronary artery disease,Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s,GOED,omega-3s

Cost is only addressed in a quote from the executive director of an omega-3 industry organization, who refers to increasing one’s omega-3 intake as an “inexpensive” lifestyle change. What does “inexpensive” mean? What may be cheap for one consumer could be cost-prohibitive for another. What’s more, it’s difficult for any reader to work out what the cost may be, because the release doesn’t make it easy to determine how much of EPA or DHA one needs to take in order to see any potential benefit. It is only in the tenth paragraph, which quotes an editorial suggesting that taking “at least 1 gram of EPA+DHA per day…continues to be a reasonable strategy.” That’s still not necessarily clear for many consumers, since it’s not directly linked to the benefits discussed elsewhere in the release, but it’s the only reference to how much an individual might need to consume — and it’s buried near the bottom of the release. The release tells readers that, among the RCTs, “there was a statistically significant reduction in [coronary heart disease] risk in higher risk populations, including…16 percent in those with high triglycerides and 14 percent in those with high LDL [low-density lipoprotein] cholesterol.” So the release is claiming that seafood, supplements and pharmaceuticals offer a 16 percent reduction in risk of coronary heart disease for people with high triglycerides. That sounds good, right? But over what time span? A year? A lifetime? And how high does a person’s trigylceride count need to be in order for that person to have “high triglycerides?” The release doesn’t tell us. And then things get really confusing. Consider this statement: “A non-statistically significant 6 percent risk reduction among all populations in RCTs, a finding supported by a statistically significant 18 percent reduced risk of [coronary heart disease] among prospective cohort studies.” Does the statistically significant finding somehow make the non-statistically significant finding more, well, significant? No. Does bundling those two things together into one sentence muddy the waters for readers? You bet. Does the release still fail to explain the time-frame it is using when discussing risk reduction? Yes. Providing readers with figures describing the absolute risk reduction would have been very helpful here. The release does not mention any potential problems associated with omega-3s. And there are potential harms. For example, the University of Maryland Medical Center notes that patients should consult with their doctors about potential interactions with prescription drugs before taking omega-3 supplements, and adds that “High doses of omega-3 fatty acids may increase the risk of bleeding, even in people without a history of bleeding disorders, and even in those who are not taking other medications.” There are concerns about other potential harms as well, such as whether fish oil supplements may increase risk for prostate cancer. We don’t expect a news release to include an exhaustive summary of all the possible harms associated with a particular intervention. But we do expect a news release to at least acknowledge that the potential for harms exists, when appropriate. The release does tell readers the total number of RCTs and cohort studies that the meta-analysis looked at, as well as the overall number of study participants involved. That’s good. The release also articulates the difference between the two types of studies — which is also a good thing. However, things get dicey when the release starts discussing benefits. For example, the release tells readers that “The study reviewed 18 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 16 prospective cohort studies, with 93,000 and 732,000 subjects, respectively.” As noted above, the release also states that the study found a “16 percent [risk reduction] in those with high triglycerides and 14 percent in those with high LDL cholesterol.” It would be natural for readers to assume that those risk reduction numbers are based on the 18 RCT studies, which evaluated 93,000 study participants. But that would be wrong. According to the journal article, only six of the RCT studies looked at patients with “high triglycerides,” and only five of the RCT studies looked at patients with high LDL cholesterol. So, while the release is not technically incorrect, it’s misleading — and that’s not okay. No disease mongering here. But there’s also no context about the prevalence of coronary heart disease. This is a really close call. The story makes clear that the research was funded by the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) — which also issued this news release, through AAAS’s EurekAlert! news service. The release also quotes two GOED employees, and clearly identifies them as such. However, the release doesn’t include any language explaining what GOED is, what it does, or who its members are. And that’s important, because GOED is not an independent research organization, it’s an industry group that exists to promote consumer use of products that contain omega-3 fatty acids. There are many actions that invididuals can take to reduce their risk of coronary heart disease, including losing weight, exercising regularly, and managing stress. The release doesn’t mention any of them. This is particularly problematic given that these are actions which are not mutually exclusive: one could lose weight, exercise regularly, manage stress and eat more fish (for example). The release refers to consuming EPA and DHA in the form of either seafood or supplements, so we’ll give this a pass. However, that single reference to sources of EPA and DHA is only found in a quote in the tenth paragraph. There are a ton (to use a technical term) of studies on omega-3 fatty acids and heart disease, including lots (and lots) of meta-analyses (like this one or this one, for example). What sets this meta-analysis apart? The release doesn’t tell us. As noted above under the Why This Matters section, there’s considerable evidence and recent consensus that fish oil doesn’t have much if any effect on cardiovascular disease. A few points here. First, the release states that increasing their consumption of omega-3s is a “change that most consumers need to make.” That’s over-reach, and that alone would give the release an unsatisfactory rating here. But there’s one other note that we’ll make here, since it doesn’t really fit anywhere else: at no point does the news release tell readers what EPA and DHA stand for. Nor does it explain what they are, or even what omega-3 fatty acids are, much less how they may be beneficial for heart health. If you’re going to use terms that are not common knowledge — such as “DHA omega-3s” — please give your readers some idea of what you’re talking about.


XARELTO® (rivaroxaban) Associated with Significantly Reduced Time in Hospital and Decreased Costs Compared to Standard of Care in New Study of Patients with Low-Risk Pulmonary Embolism (PE)

Explanation: iStock / Getty Images Plus The news release is about a study that explores if patients with pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in the lungs, who are at low risk for complications can be sent home from the emergency department early rather than be admitted to hospital. The patients were divided into two groups: One group of patients were sent home early while taking rivaroxaban (Xarelto), a type of blood thinner, whereas the “usual care” group could get any blood thinner of their physician’s choosing, including rivaroxaban, and hospitalization. The study findings suggest that early discharge of low-risk patients was safe and feasible and also resulted in cost savings because of less time spent in hospital. Unfortunately, the news release seemed to suggest that it was the use of rivaroxaban that resulted in cost savings–rather than the strategy of sending low risk patients home early. The news release failed to state was that over half the patients in the comparison group who got usual care also received rivaroxaban. In other words, the news release implies that rivaroxaban was being compared to other anti-coagulants when what was actually being compared was an early vs. late discharge strategy. Janssen’s misleading news release could result in news stories trumpeting rivaroxaban as a superior blood thinner, when that is not what this study looked at.

The news release acknowledged that there would be a cost savings associated with the early discharge group. But, adding in the cost of the drugs used in the study would have been useful. It’s worth noting that the modest case savings reported here might be considerably larger if a generic blood thinner is used. Both primary and secondary efficacy outcomes are listed: Primary: patients who received Xarelto spent less time in the hospital due to blot clots — either in deep veins (DVT) or the lungs (PE) —  when compared to the standard of care (SOC) within the first 30 days of treatment (4.8 vs. 33.6 hours, respectively). Secondary: No recurrence of venous thromboembolism (VTE), or VTE-related deaths … or any significant differences in the bleeding-related hospitalizations … or physician visits … within the first 90 days. It requires a close reading of this news release, and the study, to realize that this should have been framed as early discharge while on a blood thinner did not result in harmful outcomes compared to patients who were admitted and had longer hospital stays. We’ll address this issue under quality of evidence, below. However, the release did provide quantification of benefits so it squeaks by on this one. This news release does provide a section on the side effects and drug interactions of Xarelto. It also could have mentioned some of the risks of early release from the hospital. While this news release describes the study with reasonable accuracy, one glaring omission is the fact that they neglected to mention that most of the usual care group also got rivaroxaban. In effect, attempting to spin this study to suggest that rivaroxaban was better than its competitors in treating pulmonary embolism is a rather significant mischaracterization of what the study attempted to demonstrate, which was the safety of an early discharge strategy compared to keeping patients in the hospital. No disease mongering. Pulmonary embolism is a relatively common disorder with a very wide range of severity and mortality. It’s made somewhat clear that both the news release and the study are sourced from Janssen Pharmaceutical Company (who’s developing rivaroxaban with Bayer). However, the principal investigator quoted in the release has financial ties to the company, which should have been disclosed. There are other blood thinners used in patients with PE, but the release doesn’t name any of them. The news release states that the current research adds to previous studies dating back to 2015, and that rivaroxaban is currently being used to reduce the risk of blood clots in people with atrial fibrillation and deep vein thrombosis (or, DVT). The vice president of scientific affairs for Janssen Pharmaceuticals is quoted in the news release as saying the research is “the first prospective randomized trial” to investigate discharging emergency room patients with low-risk pulmonary embolism” (LRPE). It also gives some background on an earlier study to establish that this isn’t a brand new idea. The headline of this release crosses the line into unjustified language. It credits rivaroxaban with reducing the time patients spent in the hospital, when the early discharge strategy was actually the main difference between the groups — not the use of rivaroxaban.


Michigan expands list of conditions medical pot can treat.

Explanation: Michigan regulators have significantly expanded the list of conditions approved for treatment by medical marijuana.

The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs on Monday added 11 medical conditions deemed debilitating by the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act of 2008. They are: arthritis, autism, chronic pain, colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, obsessive compulsive disorder, Parkinson’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, spinal cord injury, Tourette’s syndrome and ulcerative colitis. Denied conditions include anxiety, asthma, brain injury, panic attacks, depression and diabetes. Existing entries on the list include post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, Crohn’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and severe and chronic pain. Officials say they received public comments related to petitions to add conditions to the list. They add the final decisions reflect changes in state law to include marijuana-infused products and advancing research.


A hand-held police radar unit successfully tracked a military aircraft on maneuvers, nearly causing the aircraft to fire a missile in response.

Explanation: A classic "warning against technology" tale.

Technology, police, Techno File, Techno-Industrial Terror

This report has been circulating around the internet for several years at least. Examples: A report has revealed that two traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved in an unusual incident whilst checking for speeding motorists on the A1 road between Oldhamstocks and   Grantshouse. Last May, they were using a hand-held radar device to trap unwary motorists on the Edinburgh to London trunk road. One of the unnamed officers used the device to check the speed of an approaching vehicle, and was surprised to find that his target had registered a speed in excess of 300 miles per hour. The £5000 machine then seized up and could not be reset by the bemused PC’s. The radar had in fact latched on to a NATO Tornado aircraft in the North Sea, which was taking part in a simulated low-flying exercise over the Borders and Southern Scotland. Following a complaint by Sir William Sutherland, Chief Constable of the Lothian & Borders Police force to the RAF liaison office, it was revealed that the officers had a lucky escape – the tactical computer on board the aircraft not only detected and jammed the “hostile” radar equipment, but had automatically armed a Sidewinder air-to-ground missile ready to neutralize the perceived threat. Luckily the Dutch pilot was alerted to the missile status and was able to override the automatic protection system before the missile launched. The Police have so far declined to comment, although it is understood that officers will be advised to point their radar guns inland in future. USMC speeding ticket Top this for a speeding ticket: Two California Highway Patrol Officers were conducting speeding enforcement on I-15, North of MCAS Miramar. One of the officers was using a hand held radar device to check speeding vehicles approaching near the crest of a hill. The officers were suddenly surprised when the radar gun began reading 300+ miles per hour. The officer attempted to reset the radar gun, but it would not reset and turned off. Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact locked onto a USMC F/A-18 Hornet which was engaged in a low flying exercise near the location. Back at the CHP Headquarters the Patrol Captain fired off a complaint to the USMC Base Commander. Back came a reply in true USMC style: Thank you for the message, which allows us to complete the file on this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Hornet had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked onto your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it. Furthermore, an air to ground missile aboard the fully armed aircraft had also automatically locked onto your equipment. Fortunately the Highly Trained Marine Pilot flying the Hornet recognized the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile system alert status and was able to override the automated defense system before the missile was launched and your hostile radar was destroyed. Thank you for your concerns. The story is almost certainly false for a number of highly technical reasons. First off, police radar is relatively weak — it doesn’t need to be strong, and you wouldn’t want to fry passing motorists or the police officers who use it daily. These units don’t have much range; a few miles or so is sufficient since the police officer needs to be in line-of-sight with the vehicle he’d like to track. Next, a number of different radar types (pulse, continuous-scan, doppler, and so on) are used for different purposes. Doppler radar is used for tracking the speed of an object, whether it’s a moving automobile or a particularly threatening thunderstorm. Pulse units are used for aerial and naval navigation as well as military applications; in the latter case their ON/OFF nature makes it slightly more difficult for an enemy to identify their source. Additionally, there are different types of scan profiles in use, such as circular, unidirectional,  bi-directional, helical, raster, palmer, conical, and track-while-scan. Police radar units are directional ones that send pulses in a relatively narrow cone in the direction the officer points the device. (This type of radar is used to prevent the operators from being exposed to the devices’ high-frequency radiation over long periods of time.) Therefore, it’s pretty unlikely that an officer pointing a hand-held unit at an incoming car would also manage to illuminate a flying aircraft — an intervening hill, a large building, or even heavy plant growth would block any stray signal. Surface-to-air missile (SAM) radars behave differently than handheld police units. Also, each type or model of radar gives off very specific characteristics, and the onboard systems in military planes can differentiate among these types of threats (e.g., a SAM-2 vs. a ZSU vs. an F-16). To quote from Info-Strategies’ web site, “Every radar produces a radio frequency (RF) signal with specific characteristics that differentiate it from all other signals and define its capabilities and limitations.” Excepting a case of incredible coincidence, the police radar wouldn’t be on the “threat” list. Also, SAM radar units are also relatively short range systems (30-50km), since the usual practice is to employ longer-range tracking stations to keep watch on incoming aircraft, then alert the SAM unit in the aircraft’s flight path of the impending arrival of the hostile plane. Building on the above, we also need to remember that radar is in common use all over the world, and Europe sports some densely-packed airspace. All aircraft are tracked by large, fixed stations in order to prevent mid-air collisions and other accidents. Thus, the Tornado in question was most likely being “painted” by multiple radar stations at various airports around the UK, and possibly also from the continent. A puny police traffic-enforcement radar signal wouldn’t even be noticed in all the noise. Next, and very important to our understanding of this legend, the systems on military aircraft will not automatically arm and fire offensive ordnance. This is the case  to specifically prevent incidents such as the one described in this story. There’s no way that the Tornado’s systems would auto-arm a missile, much less try to fire it without a human “go” signal. At any rate, a human operator in a non-wartime situation would need  explicit permission to fire at an enemy position; if the pilot in our story was alerted of a possible “threat” radar signal by an onboard system, he or she could simply confirm the source by checking the direction from which the signal was emanating. As the police unit was outside any military firing range it would be obvious from the start that the signal was not a threat or was merely a spurious contact. Lastly, there are glaring factual errors in the story itself. The “Sidewinder” is a heat-seeking air-to-air missile (AAM) designed for short-range strikes against attacking aircraft. In other variants of the story, an “ASRAAM” (also a heat-seeking AAM) is mentioned. Neither would ever be used against a ground-based target; instead an ALARM (Air-Launched Anti-Radar Missile), AGM-65A “Maverick,” or AS.30(L) air-to-surface missile (ASM) would be fired. Also, the act of “jamming” radar does not involve disabling the unit itself, but rather forces it to produce inaccurate or widely fluctuating results (or no results at all) in order to confuse the operator and any incoming missiles are attempting to “lock” onto the target. This urban legend seems to be a classic “warning against technology” tale, cautioning us against the development of systems that could somehow escape human control and cause havoc. Compare this tale with Cruise Control, in which a misunderstanding of the operation of an automotive device leads to a serious accident. Also think of  the Y2K craze, or even to recent stories of the purported existence of an automated “Armageddon” system called “Dead Hand” in Russia (which was supposedly about to fire all Soviet missiles on 1/1/2000 after the computers failed). All are about our fear of modern technology and how a possible lack of human control in a given situation spells disaster.


Health advocates call for action to stem youth e-cig use.

Explanation: Public health advocates rallied at Kentucky’s Capitol on Tuesday to push for legislation aimed at reducing smoking and e-cigarette use among young people.

Health, General News, Legislation, Kentucky, Business, Mitch McConnell, Public health, Tobacco industry regulation

A group called the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Tomorrow urged Kentucky lawmakers to impose an excise tax on the sale of e-cigarettes. The bill would tax e-cigarettes at 27.5% of their wholesale price, which is equivalent to the state’s $1.10-per-pack tax on cigarettes. The measure would generate an estimated $34 million in its first year. Another measure backed by the group would raise the minimum legal age in Kentucky to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21. It’s similar to a new federal law championed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The coalition also called for increased state funding for tobacco prevention and cessation efforts. The statehouse rally featured students, health advocates and business leaders. “Kentuckians broadly support the measures that research tells us will curb the youth e-cigarette epidemic, which continues to expand at alarming rates in the commonwealth,” said Ben Chandler, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. State health officials last week announced Kentucky’s first probable vaping-related death. The person who died was a male in his late 20s, officials said.


Ultrasound Headset May Be New Way to Recognize Concussion on the Sidelines

Explanation: A Los Angeles-based company has found that its “advanced version” of a transcranial Doppler (TCD) device is able to pick up changes in blood flow in the brains of recently concussed athletes, potentially increasing the likelihood of a useful ultrasound device that can be available on the sidelines of sporting events to diagnose concussions in real time. The abstract of the study is being presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting, and the association issued this news release as part of its conference outreach. The news release does an admirable job of explaining the experimental design that led to this finding, getting specific about the nature of the participants and using language understandable to lay audiences. Its omission of information about potential costs, harms and conflicts of interest is less ideal. Journalists, of course, will also need to be sensitive to the fact that the research has not yet undergone peer review. [Editor’s note: Kathlyn Stone, one of three reviewers on this news release, worked for the American Academy of Neurology from 2000-2004 as senior manager of media relations. She has no current relationship with the AAN.] According to the release, more than 1 million athletes in the United States sustain concussions each year. Detecting those “hits” early—ideally on the field of play—and determining which require medical intervention would be valuable. That being said, there really is no medical intervention to prevent sports-related concussion except to abstain from more contact. If the test were sensitive enough to detect early signs of concussion, it could prevent some additional damage that could result from continuing to play.

Association/Society news release,Diagnostic tests

While the study’s principle investigator notes that the device may be “less expensive” than MRI, costs are not broached in the text. To have one of these devices at all sport events, say, starting at high school and beyond, would be quite expensive. Plus, staff would need to be trained to use the device and interpret the results. Dopplers are not used and interpreted by the lay public. The practicality of this was not mentioned. The release states that the TCD ultrasound device “was able to differentiate between healthy and concussed athletes 83 percent of the time” compared to lower success rates for other procedures. But that is not the only important statistic. While the concordance between the clinical criteria and the ultrasound was 83 percent, the test has a sensitivity of only 70 percent, suggesting that 30 percent of concussions are missed. In addition, there is a 17 percent false positive rate, It was not made clear by the news release when the test was performed. It appears that the test was well after the traumatic event, so we do not know what the test performance is at the time of injury. The release also makes clear that physicians do not yet know what to “make” of this ability when it comes to clinical care. Possible harmful effects, most notably false positive and false negative results, of the ultrasound procedure are not mentioned. A false positive could result in unnecessary follow-up tests and treatments while a false-negative result could lead to an athlete resuming on-field play too soon, greatly increasing their risk of head injury complications and severity. The experiment is carefully explained in the news release, using language that will be accessible to non-scientists. But  we are not told when the test was performed in relation to the trauma, which has bearing on the results and diagnostic accuracy. We think the release earns a satisfactory here for adding a caution that doctors have not yet forged a clear link between documenting changes in blood flow in the brain after a concussion and treatment. The release doesn’t engage in disease mongering. Concussions among athletes is an increasingly recognized health risk. While the news release makes clear that the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation funded the study, it does not illuminate the potential conflict of interest of the lead investigator. The lead investigator is identified in the release as the co-founder of Neural Analytics which developed the technology, and a journalist or other reader must then infer that the company may well be a beneficiary of the adoption of this technology. At minimum, some acknowledgement of the financial prospects for the company would be appropriate. Existing strategies to detect changes in blood flow in the brain—magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and “traditional” transcranial Doppler devices—are compared to the advanced version of TCD ultrasound tested here. However, we think the criteria here was just marginally met. An alternative for diagnosing concussion not discussed is evaluating clinical signs and symptoms, the typical method for classifying a head trauma as a concussion or not. We do not know whether doppler ultrasound is a better predictor of long-term problems than clinical signs and symptoms. The second half of the news release discusses through comments of sources the need for further research to explore the utility of the device. That type of content sends the message to readers that the technology is not yet available. We do have concerns with the language suggesting that this technology should be readily available at sporting events. The closest the release comes to claiming novelty is its assertions that the TCD ultrasound device is more accurate than other devices and that its application “may be a less expensive and portable way to measure these changes.”  We’ll give that a satisfactory. Although the text does not shy away from demonstrating that the technology under study does a better job of detecting changes in blood flow among concussed athletes than do other diagnostic strategies, it also offers cautionary comments that make clear the device is still very much in the testing phase.


Hillary Clinton travels with a doctor carrying a Diazepam pen in case she has a seizure.

Explanation: The Washington Post identified the above-pictured agent as “Secret Service Assistant Special Agent in Charge Todd Madison” but we have not been able to independently verify his identity. We’ve reached out to the Secret Service for additional information.

Uncategorized, diazepam, diazepam pen, hillary clinton

Conservative corners of the Internet were aflutter in August 2016 over claims that a Secret Service agent frequently spotted standing near Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention was actually a doctor carrying a Diazepam pen in case the presidential nominee had a seizure. While these claims have proliferated quickly across social media, the evidence back them up is flimsy to non-existent. Author Mike Cernovich was one of the first to raise questions about Clinton’s bodyguard when he posted images purportedly showing the agent’s “medic badge” on Twitter: Hillary’s handler is medic (see badge) and carries pen with injection. #HillarysHealth pic.twitter.com/LxlV18MRcx — Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 7, 2016  Fringe web sites such as the Ralph Retort the Conservative Treehouse and the Last Refuge have attempted to legitimize the “doctor angle” by asserting that Clinton’s attendant might have been identified as Dr. Oladotun Okunola, such as when The Ralph Retort offered a confusing headline — “REPORT: CLINTON’S HANDLER IDENTIFIED as Neurologist Dr. Oladotun Okunola?” — that purposefully misled readers by emphasizing the salacious (but untrue) words “CLINTON’S HANDLER IDENTIFIED” then returning to lower case before inserting a skeptical question mark. A photographic comparison of Dr. Okunola and Clinton’s attendant, however, reveals that they bear little resemblance to each other and are in fact two separate people: Hillary Clinton’s handler is clealy not Dr. Oladotun Okunola, but is he a different doctor being explained away as a Secret Service agent? The evidence here is also pretty flimsy. The only real “evidence” offered for that hypothesis is a photograph of the agent’s supposed “medic” lapel pin, but the image is too blurry to positively identify it. However, a side-by-side comparison of the agent’s pin and a “medic” pin shows that they are not the same: The physician assistant pin is round (the agent’s pin is not), has a black border (the agent’s pin does not) and has a gold emblem in the center (the agent’s pin does not). The agent’s pin is most likely a red Secret Service pin, similar to the one pictured below: Furthermore, the “doctor” accompanying Hillary Clinton does not always wear the pin in question. Secret Service agents sometimes wear matching lapel pins at large events to help identify one another, but those lapel pins are frequently changed: There can be as many as 10 different types of credentials for events. At the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta — where we supervised 250 event and entertained President Bill Clinton and a host of celebrities from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Muhammad Ali over a 30-day period in the Olympic Village — our extensive security plan included eight credentials ranging from lapel pins for the Secret Service to thermal hand-screening for athletes and employees with access into the residential area of the athletes’ village. The photograph below shows the agent wearing another pin, likely one commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Secret Service in 2015: Other web sites offered “proof” that the pictured man was not a Secret Service agent by maintaining that the Secret Service do not wear clearance badges: If he was Secret Service, he wouldn’t be wearing a security clearance like that. However, both the Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention were classified as National Special Security Events (NSSE), which require special credentialing: The USSS’s Major Events Division (MED) is responsible for NSSE planning and coordinates with other USSS headquarters and field offices. Some of the coordination includes advance planning and liaison for venue and air space security, training, communications, and security credentialing. NSSE operational plans include the use of physical infrastructure security fencing, barricades, special access accreditation badges, K-9 teams, and other security technologies. Of course, the “smoking gun” to this theory is that the agent has purportedly been pictured carrying a Diazepam pen used to treat seizures: Again, this image is too blurry to positively identify the object in the agent’s hand. However, a video of the agent using the above-pictured object shows that it is being used like a flashlight and not a Diazepam pen:  Theories about a doctor being planted in the Secret Service to administer Diazepam in case Hillary Clinton has a seizure are based on mostly uninformed speculation about a few blurry photographs but no actual evidence. If some sort of medical cover-up were taking place, it’s doubtful that the Secret Service doctor would wear a badge or pin identifying himself as a doctor, or that he would openly carry a Diazepam pen in plain sight.


Radio Marti and TV Marti have spent more than $500 million to reach less than 1 percent of the Cuban population.

Explanation: Hurricane Dorian spun across the Atlantic ocean toward Florida on Friday, becoming an even stronger Category 4 storm as residents and tourists alike hunkered down in one of America’s biggest vacation destinations.

Foreign Policy, PunditFact, Lawrence O'Donnell,

Dorian has the potential to put millions of people at risk, along with holiday attractions such as Walt Disney World, the NASA launchpads along the Space Coast, and even President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Dorian was packing maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) as it churned an unpredictable path toward Florida. “Although fluctuations in intensity are possible early next week, Dorian is expected to remain a powerful hurricane during the next few days,” the NHC said in a statement on Friday. On Florida’s east coast, where Dorian’s winds are expected to quickly gather speed on Monday morning, residents snapped up bottled water, plywood and other supplies as fast as they could be restocked. Some gas stations had run out of fuel. “They’re buying everything and anything that applies to a hurricane, flashlights, batteries, generators,” said Amber Hunter, 30, assistant manager at Cape Canaveral’s ACE Handiman hardware store. In the Bahamas, evacuations were already underway, two days before Dorian is expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge forecast at up to 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 meters) to the northwest of the islands. NHC Director Ken Graham saw a worrying, unpredictable situation for Florida, with the hurricane set to hit land somewhere up its east coast and potentially linger over the state, spinning slowly. “Slow is not our friend, the longer you keep this around the more rain we get,” Graham said in a Facebook Live video. It was unclear where the hurricane would hit land, but the results were expected to be devastating: “Big-time impacts, catastrophic events, for some areas 140 mph winds, not a good situation,” said Graham. Mindful of that warning, Cocoa Beach Mayor Ben Malik was putting up storm shutters on his Florida home on Friday afternoon and worrying about the flooding Dorian could unleash on his barrier island town. “It’s slowed down, we’re looking at a multiple-day event, we were hoping it would just barrel through and leave,” Malik said of forecasts that Dorian could sit over Florida for up to two days, dumping up to 18 inches (46 cm) of water. “I’m really worried about the amount of rain we’ll be getting.”  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged residents to have in reserve at least a week’s worth of food, water and medicine. President Donald Trump told reporters before leaving for Camp David for the weekend: “We’re thinking about Florida evacuations, but it’s a little bit too soon. We’ll probably make that determination on Sunday.”  But Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson urged its 46,000 residents who planned to evacuate not to delay. “It’s decision time now. Don’t wait until I-95 north and I-75 north and the turnpike are parking lots,” said Hudson, who experienced two devastating hurricanes in 2004. Dorian’s course remains unpredictable. One of Florida’s last major hurricanes, 2017’s Irma, swept up the peninsula, instead of hitting the east coast. Florida residents like Jamison Weeks, general manager at Conchy Joe’s Seafood in Port St. Lucie, planned on staying put. “I’m planning on boarding up my house this evening,” said  Weeks. “The mood is a little tense, everybody’s a little nervous and just trying to prepare as best as possible.”  In the Bahamas, Freeport’s international airport was set to close on Friday night and not reopen until Sept. 3, amid worries that Dorian will slam tourist hotspots on the archipelago. Dorian began on Friday over the Atlantic as a Category 2 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale. By Friday night it was moving at nearly 10 mph (16 kph), giving it time to intensify before making landfall. Two thousand National Guard troops will have been mobilized for the hurricane by the end of Friday, with 2,000 more joining them on Saturday. Florida officials also were making sure all nursing homes and assisted living facilities had generators. Only one in five Florida nursing homes plans to rely on deliveries of temporary generators to keep their air conditioners running if Dorian knocks out power, a state agency said on Friday, short of the standard set by a law passed after a dozen people died in a sweltering nursing home after 2017’s Hurricane Irma. North of Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center’s 400-foot (122-m) launch tower was dragged inside a towering vehicle assembly building to shelter it from Dorian, a video posted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-owned space launch center showed.


The world suicide rate plummeted following Logan Paul's "suicide forest" video.

Explanation: There were an estimated 788 000 suicide deaths worldwide in 2015. This indicates an annual global age-standardized suicide rate of 10.7 per 100 000 population.

Junk News, fake news, huzlers, logan paul

YouTube star Logan Paul was widely condemned after he posted a video titled “We Found A Dead Body in Japan’s Suicide Forest” which featured footage supposedly showing the body of a man who recently took his own life. But a surprising claim was made in a fake news article published by the “fauxtire” web site Huzlers: the world suicide rate dropped 37 percent as a result: Days After Youtube star Logan Paul uploaded a video of him and friends laughing at a japanese suicide victim’s corpse, It is being reported that worldwide suicides have actually dropped by 37% since the video was uploaded a few days ago. This, of course, is not a genuine statistic. Huzlers is a fake news web site that does not publish factual stories. A disclaimer at the bottom of the web site states that “Huzlers.com is the most infamous fauxtire & satire entertainment website in the world.” In addition to the dubious origins of this rumor, the world suicide rate does not fluctuate on a day-to-day basis, so there would be no way to know if Paul’s “suicide forest” video, which was first uploaded on 31 December 2017, had any impact on the suicide rate over the course of a few days. Paul has since apologized for the video, which upset many of Paul’s notoriously obsessive fans and inspired criticism from mental health advocates. Suicide is a serious problem in Japan, home to the so-called suicide forest that Paul visited, with more than 20,000 such deaths recorded there annually. The rate has been in decline there in recent years, as Japanese officials have undertaken prevention efforts. The most recent data from the World Health Organization comes from 2015. According to WHO, the suicide rate was 10.7 per 100,000 people in 2015:


North Carolina is one of four states" that hasn't opened gyms.

Explanation: North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a Republican, is running for governor against incumbent Roy Cooper, a Democrat. Forest, who has accused Cooper of reopening business sectors arbitrarily, tweeted that North Carolina is one of only four states that hasn't reopened gyms. Most other states have reopened gyms with restrictions. And in a couple states, gyms opened after a court ruling -- not the governor's orders. But his claim is generally accurate.

North Carolina, Coronavirus, Dan Forest,

Gov. Roy Cooper has kept gyms and fitness centers closed during the coronavirus outbreak, drawing criticism from his Republican challenger. The number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations has been steadily rising in the Tar Heel state, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Cooper has said he worries that the heavy breathing associated with exercise could increase the spread of the virus. But Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, the Republican who hopes to unseat Cooper in November, criticized the governor for picking pandemic "winners and losers." On Monday, Forest said North Carolina is one of only a fraction of states keeping gyms closed. "Now, 46 states have gyms/fitness centers open - North Carolina is one of four states that does not," Forest tweeted. Is that ? Generally speaking, yes. Some states are taking a regional approach to reopening gyms. In those states, gyms are allowed to open in some counties but not others. Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina are the only states where governors are keeping gyms closed across the board. Our review of virus-related executive orders tracked by CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the National Governors Association backs up Forest’s assessment. Our review of these websites found that Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina are the only states keeping gyms closed across the board. Most other states have either reopened gyms with restrictions, or reopened gyms in some areas but not others. For example, in California, gyms are allowed to reopen in all but seven counties. In Pennsylvania, 54 of the state’s 67 counties had entered a "green phase" by June 19, meaning gyms could reopen at reduced capacity. But 13 counties remained in the "yellow phase," meaning their gyms were still closed. Things are moving a little slower in Washington, where less than half of the state’s 39 counties have entered Phase 3. That’s the phase when gyms can reopen at less than 50% capacity, according to the Seattle Times. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer allowed some gyms to open on June 10, while others remained closed because they didn’t meet the state’s qualifications to reopen. But a federal judge recently halted the order, allowing all gyms to open on June 25. They’ll remain closed if Whitmer’s appeal is successful. A similar situation happened in Wisconsin, too. Gov. Tony Evers didn’t lift his ban on gym operations. The ban was dissolved after the state Supreme Court struck down his stay-at-home order. Forest tweeted that "46 states have gyms/fitness centers open" and that "North Carolina is one of four states that does not." Our review found that North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts are the only states where gyms remain closed across the state. It’s worth noting that, in other states, government leaders are opening gyms in some counties, but not others. But Forest’s wording is broad enough to account for that variation. We rate this claim .


Trapped Thai boys being closely watched for health problems.

Explanation: The 12 youth soccer teammates who were trapped in a flooded Thai cave for more than two weeks are finally out, and now they are being closely monitored in a hospital.

Youth soccer, International News, Soccer, Health, Caves, Pneumonia

The boys — who ranged in age from 11 to 16 — emerged in relatively good shape. Here is a breakdown of the health issues they still face: WHAT CONDITION WERE THE BOYS IN? The first eight boys rescued came in with low body temperatures and were provided with heaters, Thai doctors said Tuesday. One had a low heart rate, and one had a scratch on his right ankle. Doctors suspected two had lung infections — probably pneumonia — based on irregular X-rays. HOW ARE THEY FEELING AFTER TREATMENT? Overall they were feeling better, with no fever, and were getting around on their own and smiling. But doctors said the boys were being kept quarantined. Parents were allowed to see them through a glass isolation barrier and talk to them via hospital phones. It could be at least seven days before they can be released from hospital, said Jedsada Chokdumrongsuk, permanent secretary at the Public Health Ministry. WHY ARE THEY BEING QUARANTINED? The boys were malnourished and weak, and doctors are probably worried that they could be susceptible to germs spread by family members or other visitors, said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University infectious diseases expert. But it’s also possible they are infection risks to others. Thai doctors have said they don’t know what type of unusual illnesses the boys may have picked up in the cave. “We have never experienced this kind of issue from a deep cave,” and doctors are running a battery of tests on the boys, Jedsada said. Bats live in caves. They can spread viruses ranging from rabies to Nipah, which can cause pneumonia, seizures and death. The boys told doctors they did not see any bats or other animals, and experts say it’s unlikely bats would dwell as deep in a cave as the boys were. Lipkin said more likely risks are tetanus bacteria that could infect a wound, diarrhea-causing bacteria that could have contaminated the cave waters, and inhalable fungal spores that could cause breathing problems — including pneumonia. WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR THE BOYS? Lipkin said the most likely problems will stem from “the stress associated with this harrowing experience.” One of the Thai doctors said the boys were happy but that psychologists would be evaluating them. The guided escape was stressful, and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the boys were given an anti-anxiety medication to help calm their nerves. People who endure such an intense and dangerous event can go on to suffer lasting anxiety, depression and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Thailand’s Department of Mental Health said hospitals are working with the families to help the boys mentally recover, including by not digging for details about what they endured. ___ 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.


“Clearly, the Obama administration did not leave any kind of game plan for something like this.”

Explanation: Numerous Obama administration officials dismissed this statement. Ronald Klain, who was Obama’s Ebola response coordinator, tweeted a link to the plan. Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary for President Donald Trump, held up a hard copy of the Obama “pandemic playbook” during a May 14 press availability on the White House lawn.

Corrections and Updates, Health Check, Coronavirus, Mitch McConnell,

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell alleged that the Obama administration did not provide the Trump administration with any information about the threat of a possible pandemic during a May 11 Team Trump Facebook Live video discussion with Lara Trump. "They claim pandemics only happen once every 100 years, but what if that is no longer true? We want to be ready, early, for the next one. Because clearly, the Obama administration did not leave any kind of game plan for something like this," said McConnell. This claim caught our attention because its definitive nature was directly at odds with the position of some former Obama administration officials, who immediately disputed it and started circulating on social media the link to such a plan. We reached out to McConnell’s press team to ask for the basis of his statement. McConnell’s spokesperson David Popp said in an emailed response that "this is a unique crisis and we are all adapting to the public health and economic challenges." In terms of the pandemic’s economic impact, he said there was "definitely no playbook there" and instead credited McConnell with his work on the CARES act, a coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress. Soon after McConnell made his playbook comment, Ronald Klain, who was the White House Ebola response coordinator from October 2014 to February 2015, tweeted out a link to a document titled "Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents." The document, originally unearthed in March by Politico, is a 69-page National Security Council guidebook developed in 2016 with the goal of assisting leaders "in coordinating a complex U.S. Government response to a high-consequence emerging disease threat anywhere in the world." It outlined questions to ask, who should be asked to get the answers and what key decisions should be made. Nicole Lurie, another Obama administration official, confirmed to us the existence of the NSC pandemic playbook and also said similar documents were created for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "To say there was no playbook was ridiculous," said Lurie, who served as the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS during both terms of the Obama administration. The playbook lists types of infectious disease threats that could emerge. "Novel coronaviruses" were among pathogens flagged as having potential to cause heightened concern. Lurie said that there were tabletop exercises, which included planning for a pandemic-like situation, during the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations. (The Trump administration also conducted an exercise — known as "Crimson Contagion" — in 2019.) Other Obama-era officials offered similar stories in interviews this week with CNN: "They were extensively briefed, to the extent that they paid attention to these things during the transition," said Jeremy Konyndyk, who directed USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. "We absolutely did leave a plan. It was called a playbook," said Lisa Monaco, who was a former homeland security adviser to President Obama  The goal, she said, was to share the lessons learned during Ebola and Zika. Meanwhile, Peter Loge, who served as a senior adviser within Obama’s Food and Drug Administration, told KHN he remembered a very clear message from the HHS secretary regarding the presidential transition. "Our job was to set up the Trump political staff for success, and we took that mandate very seriously," said Loge. He and his colleagues wrote memos to inform the Trump staff about priority issues. "But nobody called me and asked what I was doing in my job," said Loge. However, the Trump administration has maintained that the coronavirus sneaked up on the U.S., and Trump himself has even said it was a "very unforeseen thing." But, in a May 14 exchange with reporters on the White House lawn, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany acknowledged the existence of the Obama pandemic playbook, even holding it up to show the press. She also dismissed its usefulness. "The Obama-Biden plan that has been referenced was insufficient. It wasn’t going to work. What our administration did under the leadership of President Trump was do an entire 2018 pandemic preparedness report," said McEnany. Trump, who was standing nearby, agreed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Obama administration did not leave behind a "game plan" for a pandemic. That’s wrong. Multiple Obama-era officials have said they left a 2016 "pandemic playbook" that detailed exact steps to take in the event of an infectious disease outbreak. The White House press secretary even held up the actual document on the White House lawn. There has been discussion in recent days as to whether the Obama plan was dated because it dealt with lessons learned from earlier outbreaks that may not apply to the current pandemic. Still, McConnell’s statement focused only on whether any such "game plan" existed, and ample evidence suggests it did. We rate it . UPDATE, May 15, 2020: In a Fox News interview, McConnell acknowledged that he was incorrect in his assertion that the Obama administration didn’t leave behind any kind of "game plan" regarding a pandemic threat. "I was wrong. They did leave behind a plan so I clearly made a mistake in that regard," McConnell said May 14.


Facebook post Says the CDC now says that the coronavirus can survive on surfaces for up to 17 days.

Explanation: A CNBC story touted a misleading headline that said the CDC reported that the coronavirus survived on cruise ship cabins for up to 17 days. A recent CDC report found that traces of the virus were found on the ship for that long, not a live sample.

Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,

A CNBC story circulating on Facebook displayed a misleading headline that claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the coronavirus "survived" in cruise ship cabins for up to 17 days. The headline, which has since been changed, led some Facebook users who shared the story to believe that the CDC now says the virus can survive on surfaces that long. The organization has made no such statement. The story was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Knowing the facts has never been more important. Please consider donating to PolitiFact today. The World Health Organization says it’s not certain how long the virus that causes COVID-19 survives on surfaces, but it seems to behave like other coronaviruses: "Studies suggest that coronaviruses (including preliminary information on the COVID-19 virus) may persist on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days. This may vary under different conditions (e.g. type of surface, temperature or humidity of the environment)." New CDC research conducted on the Diamond Princess cruise ship found traces of the coronavirus on some of the ship’s surfaces up to 17 days after passengers disembarked. But traces are not the same thing as live viruses. The report doesn’t conclude that the virus "survived" on any of the surfaces that long and the CDC hasn’t issued an official statement that gives that assessment, either. Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology and molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale University, also told us it was the presence of the virus that was found, not a live sample. "The CDC report examined the presence of viral RNA on various surfaces of the cruise ship. They found viral RNA up to 17 days after cabins were vacated on the Diamond Princess," Iwasaki wrote in an email. "A piece of viral RNA is not the same thing as a live infectious virus. In order for a virus to be infectious, it has to have intact membrane, spike protein and the whole intact genome (there are close to 30,000 bases of genetic code in the viral genome)." We previously looked at how long the virus can survive on certain surfaces in a recent fact-check and found research suggesting it can live for up to three hours in the air, four hours on copper, 24 hours on cardboard and three days on plastic and stainless steel. It’s important to note that the study hasn’t been peer-reviewed and more research is needed. The WHO and other health experts recommend that people disinfect surfaces often and wash their hands to avoid contracting or spreading the virus. More research needs to be done, but there is no evidence that the coronavirus can surive for up to 17 days on various surfaces. We rate this .


Drones to deliver vaccines, blood and drugs across Ghana.

Explanation: Hundreds of drones will begin delivering life-saving vaccines, blood and medicines to patients in Ghana this week in the largest scheme of its kind, the global vaccine alliance GAVI said on Wednesday.

Medics will place orders by text message when supplies run dry, said GAVI chief executive Seth Berkley. Drones will then fly in from four distribution centers, hover over health posts and drop deliveries using tiny parachutes. “The idea is that these four distribution centers can make up to 600 on-demand delivery flights a day,” Berkley told reporters in a telephone briefing. “And that can expand up to 2,000 (a day) over time.”  The aim is for deliveries to arrive within 30 minutes, Berkley added, meaning emergency treatments such anti-snake venom or rabies shots could arrive in time to save lives. The project - led by Zipline, a California-based robotics company - is designed to deliver to around 2,000 health facilities serving 12 million people across the west African country. It is backed by the non-profits GAVI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as several companies including the parcel delivery firm UPS and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Up to 12 routine and emergency vaccines will be available, including shots for yellow fever, polio, measles, meningitis and tetanus, as well as 148 blood products and other critical medicines. The drones fly autonomously and can carry up to 1.8 kilograms of cargo, GAVI said. Zipline said a similar but smaller project had made more than 13,000 deliveries of blood products since it was launched in Rwanda in 2016 - about a third of them for emergency life-saving treatment.


Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb passed a law that will lead to jail time for women who fail to disclose abortions.

Explanation: What's true: Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill into law mandating that health care providers gather and report certain information whenever they treat patients suffering from abortion complications. What's false: The law posits legal penalties (including jail time and fines) for health care providers who fail to report information about patients with abortion complications, not for patients who fail to disclose such information to their doctors.

In March 2018, a number of memes appeared on social media to express the notion that the state of Indiana had just passed a law requiring that “every time a woman seeks medical or psychological treatment she MUST be quizzed about past abortions,” with the failure to disclose such information being punishable by jail time and fines:  The most common interpretation attached to such memes was that women would face jail time for their failure to disclose previous abortions in health care settings. However, the actual news underlying this claim reported that health care providers (not patients) would be subject to potential legal sanctions under the law if they did not attempt to elicit and report information about previous abortion complications from their patients: A new state law directs Indiana doctors and hospitals to investigate every time a woman seeks treatment for a physical or psychological condition whether she previously had an abortion that is in any way connected to the ailment. If so, the care provider is obligated starting July 1 to submit a detailed “abortion complications” report to the State Department of Health, or risk being charged with a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, for each instance of noncompliance. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who routinely describes himself as “pro-life,” approved Senate Enrolled Act 340 with little fanfare prior to departing on three-day Canadian trade mission. Senate Enrolled Act 340 was authored by Indiana State Senator Travis Holdman in January 2018; it was signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb on 25 March 2018. That bill amended existing law to require that health care providers “report to the state department each case in which [they] treated a patient suffering from an abortion complication,” and to require that reports of abortion complications (including psychological or emotional complications, depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, and sleeping disorders) contain information such as the age and race of the patient, the type of abortion procedure used, and where that procedure was performed. The bill says that each failure to report an abortion complication as required is a misdemeanor. In other words, the law posits legal penalties (including jail time and fines) for health care providers who fail to report information about patients with abortion complications, not for patients who fail to disclose such information to their doctors. Critics of the bill maintained that it was an attempt to discourage abortions by making the procedure appear “dangerous” and required the gathering of “inappropriate” information about patients: Opponents of SEA 340 said the abortion complication reporting requirements are overly burdensome and view the law as the state’s latest attempt to restrict abortion access. Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, wondered why the same state requirements are not required for other medical care. “It seems to me that this is an attempt to make this appear like a dangerous procedure, and it’s not,” Errington said. Martinsville Rep. Peggy Mayfield, the Republican who carried the bill, said the legislation is necessary for health purposes because the state is the only group providing oversight of abortions. Holcomb said the bill’s language is commonplace in other states. “This bill does what 27 other states have done to gather information on these procedures without restricting access to them,” Holcomb said in a statement. Richard Feldman, a family physician and the group’s legislative chairman, said the bill’s reporting requirements went too far and could create barriers in the doctor-patient relationship, even for physicians who don’t perform abortions. “We opposed this bill and felt compliance was onerous for physicians, especially in light of non-compliance being treated as a criminal violation including jail time,” he said. “Further, the list of complications is astonishingly long and many are inappropriate in regard to current standards of care, research value, clinical relevance, or reasonable time frames for patient contact.”


Bacteria formed on cut onions and potatoes are responsible for more food poisoning cases than spoiled mayonnaise.

Explanation: The one instance we found that fingered bulb onions as the transmitter in a food poisoning case was the 1984 sickening of 28 people in Peoria, Illinois. Botulism was passed to those unfortunate souls by the sauteed onions used on a restaurant’s “patty melt” (a cheeseburger on rye with sauteed onions).

For several years, alerts circulated online have warned about the purported dangers of cutting an onion and then cooking with that sliced vegetable the following day:  The earliest example of such a warning we’ve encountered came in that form of a missive that began circulating in March 2008. It was penned by Sarah McCann, who writes online about food-related matters, including recipes, warning about the purported dangers of spoiled onions. (The pen name “Zola Gorgon” is a play on gorgonzola, a veined blue Italian cheese known for its strong flavor and distinctive odor.) Spoiled Onions Written by Zola Gorgon – author of several cookbooks. Watch out for those spoiled onions… I had the wonderful privilege of touring Mullins Food Products. Mullins is HUGE and is owned by 11 brothers and sisters in the Mullins family. My friend Jeanne is the CEO. The facility is mammoth. We toured about 280,000 square feet! Questions about food poisoning came up and I wanted to share what I learned from a chemist. The guy who gave us our tour is named Ed. He’s one of the brothers. Ed is a chemistry expert and is involved in developing most of the sauce formula. He’s even developed sauce formula for McDonald’s. Keep in mind that Ed is a food chemistry whiz. During the tour, someone asked if we really needed to worry about mayonnaise. People are always worried that mayonnaise will spoil. Ed’s answer will surprise you. Ed said that all commercially-made Mayo is completely safe. “It doesn’t even have to be refrigerated. No harm in refrigerating it, but it’s not really necessary.” He explained that the pH in mayonnaise is set at a point that bacteria could not survive in that environment. He then talked about the quint essential picnic, with the bowl of potato salad sitting on the table and how everyone blames the mayonnaise when someone gets sick. Ed says that when food poisoning is reported, the first thing the officials look for is when the ‘victim’ last ate ONIONS and where those onions came from (in the potato salad?). Ed says it’s not the mayonnaise (as long as it’s not homemade Mayo) that spoils in the outdoors. It’s probably the onions, and if not the onions, it’s the POTATOES. He explained, onions are a huge magnet for bacteria, especially uncooked onions. You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced onion. He says it’s not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in your refrigerator. It’s already contaminated enough just by being cut open and out for a bit, that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you put in your hotdogs at the baseball park!) Ed says if you take the leftover onion and cook it like crazy you’ll probably be okay, but if you slice that leftover onion and put on your sandwich, you’re asking for trouble. Both the onions and the moist potato in a potato salad, will attract and grow bacteria faster than any commercial mayonnaise will even begin to break down. So, how’s that for news? Take it for what you will. I (the author) am going to be very careful about my onions from now on. For some reason, I see a lot of credibility coming from a chemist and a company, that produces millions of pounds of mayonnaise every year.’ Also, dogs should NEVER eat onions. Their stomachs cannot metabolize onions. Mike Mullins of Mullins Food Products had this to say about the tour of his company’s facilities that resulted in the Internet rumor about food poisonings from onions and mayonnaise: There is some truth to the story, but the two examples from the plant tour look to have been combined. The potato in the potato salad is much more likely to spoil than the mayo. […] The ph level for mayonaise is in the low 4’s and is a poor environment for the growth of many of the organisms that can make you ill. A good rule of thumb is that if it is sold at room temperature in your retail store that it is probably safe. Any product can be mishandled and when left in suitable temperatures for growth the products can become unsafe for consumption. Often times what is mixed with mayo or salad dressings (tuna, potatoes, vegetables, etc.) can become more readily contaminated than the base of the salad dressing or mayonaise. The second example used on the tour referred to the onions. The example given was that in a warm environment an onion that was sliced is a great environment for growth. The ballpark example referred to the hot dog dressing table where fresh onions were put on top of onions that already started to show contamination. Onions are easily contaminated once the protection of the outer skin has been removed. Onions, potatoes, and eggs are handled with extreme care in the food industry once the outer layer of protection has been removed. Quite a few food poisonings have been traced back to onion contaminations, and we throw out onions after 10 days even though we cook any onions we use in our facility. The stories were used as examples for “old wives tales” for various foods. The mayo is usually the ingredient that gets the blame and we try to point out that there might be a lot more going on than meets the eye. As to the content of the article, it is true that commercially-prepared mayonnaise is hardly the food poisoning menace it is widely believed to be. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin’s Food Research Institute in late 1980 and early 1981 (results published in the Journal of Food Protection in February 1982) showed that mayonnaise actually inhibited the growth of some bacteria in food. Its high acid content, gained from the incorporation of ingredients like vinegar or lemon juice into the product, slows bacterial growth. “When you add the mayonnaise to your salad, you decrease the PH of that salad. It makes it more of a hostile environment for that bacteria,” said Michael P. Doyle, an assistant professor of agriculture and life sciences at the university. Salt in the condiment also works to prevent spoilage. However, mayonnaise is still not a substitute for keeping food cold. Also, homemade mayo, which is made from raw eggs, poses the threat of salmonella poisoning. (The eggs used in commercially-prepared mayonnaise have been pasteurized.) The claims made in the article about onions (and to a lesser extent, potatoes) are harder to substantiate. Germ transmission does occur more quickly when surfaces nasty microbes are lurking on or items that become contaminated by them are wet rather than dry; but it’s a great leap from realizing that cut surfaces of onions and potatoes are wet to concluding either of these vegetables are “a huge magnet for bacteria.” Also, cut bulb onions are highly acidic; the act of slicing them causes the enzymes they contain to generate sulphenic acids, the gas form of which has made many an unwary onion chopper cry. Given that it is mayonnaise’s acidity that retards the growth of bacteria, it’s hard to conclude that cut onions would be a hospitable place for germs or bacteria to take up residence, let alone a magnet that drew them from the air. However, long-standing superstition posits that very thing. It has long been asserted that keeping a plate of cut raw onions in the house will draw illness-causing germs from the air, thereby rendering the home free of contamination. These print sightings gathered by folklorists Iona Opie and Moira Tatum showcase that belief:  [1956] The onion is cut up and stood in an old tin-plate. Then you place it in the room where the sick child sleeps. The onion draws the complaint into itself, and when the child is better care must be taken to see that the onion is properly burnt. [1964] When there’s flu about, I puts a plate of cut up onion in every room. That’s what keeps colds away … All the cold germs goes into they. [1978] I fondly remember the smell of my mother’s window sill adorned with half onions. She swore by the legend that the onions captured any incoming germs and purified the air. Mind you, superstition also asserts that it is unlucky to keep cut onions around, as these additional sightings gathered by Opie and Tatum demonstrate: [1855] To have a cut onion lying about in the house breeds distempers. [1891] An old servant (Essex) … recently complained that … Spanish onions … were too big. When an obvious method of getting over that difficulty was suggested, she replied, ‘Oh, no! that would never do! It’s so unlucky to have a cut onion in the house.’ [1958] Special small onions are being grown for me as I am liable to keep half a cut onion from one meal to another, which I am assured is highly dangerous. Are cut bulb onions therefore a health scourge one must be on guard against? No scientific evidence points in that direction. What reports there are that tie onions to outbreaks of food poisoning almost exclusively name green onions (also known as long onions or scallions) as the culprit. Although both sorts could be exposed to e. coli and other nasties during their time in the ground or while being handled during the move to market, green onions are chopped up and eaten as is, whereas the paperish brown peel that covers bulb onions and which is discarded rather than ingested acts as a shield against contamination.


Repeat blood clots more common with stents: study.

Explanation: Treating a stent-related blood clot  with an additional stent in an emergency procedure sharply  raises the risk that a patient will get a second clot and  should be avoided, Dutch researchers said on Saturday.

One in six patients who suffer a potentially deadly clot  inside a coronary stent risk developing another clot,  especially if they had a second stent implanted during  emergency treatment for the first clot, the Dutch Stent  Thrombosis Study said. The study, led by Dr. Jochem Wouter van Werkum of St.  Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, was presented  at a joint meeting of the American College of Cardiology and  the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions in  Chicago. Stents are wire mesh tubes inserted into the coronary  arteries that supply blood to the heart. They help keep the  vessels from reclogging after they have been cleared of  blockages in an angioplasty procedure. Clots that form inside a stent, also known as stent  thrombosis, can block blood flow to the heart and cause a heart  attack or even death. Use of an additional stent during emergency treatment of a  stent-related blood clot is a strong predictor of repeat stent  thrombosis, the researchers said. Patients in the study who had a second stent implanted  during emergency treatment for their first clot were 4.2 times  as likely as other patients to endure another episode of stent  thrombosis. Patients who previously had a heart attack were 2.6 times  as likely, and those who developed a clot long after stent  implantation, known as late stent thrombosis, were 2.1 times as  likely to suffer a repeat episode. The study looked at 437 patients with various kinds of  stents who had stent thrombosis between January 2004 and  February 2007. It found 16.9 percent of the patients had multiple episodes  of stent thrombosis — 61 patients had two episodes, 12 had  three episodes and one had four episodes.