[CharlesAnthony]

$1:

Avondale Pharmaceuticals recently acquired Niacor, a prescription version of niacin,

I do not understand why anybody would buy something that is commonly found in macarroni.

It might be an interesting stock to watch.

[Thanos]

[Thanos]

Awesome all-WINNING Trump-grade slum-lord capitalism in full effect in Edmonton. Make Alberta Great Again!

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n ... nts-motels

$1:

Used syringes in stairwells. People living in laundry rooms and common areas. Weapons left lying in hallways. Neglected children.

Those are a few of the sights city police encountered while inspecting some of Edmonton’s roughest apartments and motels in 2017. Officers visited 27 properties across the city last year, a recent report to the Edmonton Police Commission shows.

Created in 2014, the Project Watch team works with city employees, fire inspectors, Alberta Health Services, Child and Family Services and other agencies to inspect motels, apartments and other rental accommodations that have become magnets for crime and disorder.

“Since then we’ve seen great successes, but we still are very frustrated by the number of these locations throughout the city,” said Deputy Chief Kevin Brezinski in a recent interview.

Project Watch came about after west division officers noted an increase in crime along a “motel row” on 111 Avenue, Brezinski said.

“They noticed that the living conditions for some of these folks was inadequate, and they found that there were vulnerable children living in these locations.”

Exact locations of the buildings are not included in the report to the police commission because it would identify “vulnerable” residents, some of whom are on social assistance, said city police spokeswoman Cheryl Voordenhout.

But west division had 11 Project Watch inspections last year, the most of the city’s six police divisions.

In one inspection in a northeast division apartment complex, Project Watch officers found insecure doors and windows, missing smoke detectors and random people living in storage rooms and common areas. Child and Family Services, which had an office across the street, had “numerous” child neglect investigations involving residents at the complex.

A fire inspector alerted police to the building, which was already well known to local police officers as a gang hot spot. Inspectors also found some occupants had changed the locks of the buildings and installed their own surveillance systems to alert them to any police presence. They also believe the caretaker of the building was involved in “criminal behaviour” on the property.

After most Project Watch inspections, social services, fire inspectors and other agencies follow up with residents and owners. Officers also distribute bags of toiletries to some occupants.

Here are details from some of the most recent inspections.

Project Watch inspections, July to December 2017
July 6, apartment in downtown division

Alberta Health Service’s (AHS) environmental health unit requested Project Watch inspect a downtown apartment. Police found the building had insecure doors, broken windows, and “unauthorized” occupants living in common areas and storage rooms. There were “numerous” water leaks in the building, loose guardrails and evidence of drug use. Police arrested one unauthorized occupant who was impersonating another resident.

Aug. 17, apartment in downtown division

Project Watch inspected a downtown apartment building with a long history of infractions. The owner of the building had previously been fined and ordered to repair unsafe living conditions — the building was even closed for a time by AHS. Again, there were people living in common areas, insecure doors and windows and water leaks, as well as bed bugs and cockroaches.

Nov. 2, apartment in downtown division

Insecure doors, gang tags, and broken windows greeted inspectors. Police also found a man living in an abandoned car. Inside the building, they found a man who had been robbed and sustained chest injuries after being kicked repeatedly in the ribs.

Dec. 7, apartment in northwest division

The Edmonton Catholic School District alerted Project Watch to this building, saying a family of new immigrants displaced by a recent fire were living there. Inspectors found, among other things, a hatchet lying in the middle of a main floor hallway. All of the mailboxes in the building had been pried open, along with suite doors on every level. Several suites believed to have children staying in them had “evidence of drug and alcohol abuse.”

Dec. 14, apartment in downtown division

A repeat offender, in 2010 the owners of this building were fined $38,663 under the Public Health Act. Gang tags, needles and syringes were found in all common areas during the latest inspection, and all the main entryway windows were smashed out. Kitchens in two units had “extensive” fire damage, and many smoke detectors either did not work or were missing.

Something really ought to be done about this atrocity. The police, fire department, and health system busybodies shouldn't be allowed to interfere with the beauty of the natural free market in such a manner. Why aren't they being considerate of slum-investing shareholder value?!?!?!?!?!?

[DrCaleb]

Thanos Thanos:

Something really ought to be done about this atrocity. The police, fire department, and health system busybodies shouldn't be allowed to interfere with the beauty of the natural free market in such a manner. Why aren't they being considerate of slum-investing shareholder value?!?!?!?!?!?

I know those shitholes well. Have to go looking for the girlfriends' son when he doesn't call home for a month or so. Usually find him at one of those establishments, fucking his meth whore. Or down by the river at the shantytown, if it's summer.

When you drive by them, you have to wonder how they even stay in business.

[Thanos]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Thanos Thanos:

Something really ought to be done about this atrocity. The police, fire department, and health system busybodies shouldn't be allowed to interfere with the beauty of the natural free market in such a manner. Why aren't they being considerate of slum-investing shareholder value?!?!?!?!?!?

I know those shitholes well. Have to go looking for the girlfriends' son when he doesn't call home for a month or so. Usually find him at one of those establishments, fucking his meth whore. Or down by the river at the shantytown, if it's summer.

When you drive by them, you have to wonder how they even stay in business.

There's seemingly an endless appeal process for landlords when they get caught owning a shanty that's little better than a sewer. If anything the law that allows a single home to be closed off and fenced up for being a drug den should also be applied to some of these "hotels" and apartments. That would catch the attention of the slime that own them. But, y'know, free market and all that.

[CharlesAnthony]

Thanos Thanos:

Awesome all-WINNING Trump-grade slum-lord capitalism in full effect in Edmonton.

That sounds like every major/bigger-than-Edmonton city in the country.

Oh, I get it!
You do not go out much!

[Thanos]

Go away, please.

[rickc]

CharlesAnthony CharlesAnthony:

Thanos Thanos:

Awesome all-WINNING Trump-grade slum-lord capitalism in full effect in Edmonton.

That sounds like every major/bigger-than-Edmonton city in the country.

Oh, I get it!
You do not go out much!

I am starting to believe that the nurses do not let you go out much either. You don't happen to share a padded room with another poster on this forum do you?

[CharlesAnthony]

Oh, I get it!
Edmonton is the ONLY town in the country that has slums!

[DrCaleb]

$1:

Drug companies submerged [West Virginia] in opioids: One town of 3,000 got 21 million pills

Drug companies hosed tiny towns in West Virginia with a deluge of addictive and deadly opioid pills over the last decade, according to an ongoing investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

For instance, drug companies collectively poured 20.8 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills into the small city of Williamson, West Virginia, between 2006 and 2016, according to a set of letters the committee released Tuesday. Williamson’s population was just 3,191 in 2010, according to US Census data.

“These numbers are outrageous, and we will get to the bottom of how this destruction was able to be unleashed across West Virginia,” committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and ranking member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) said in a joint statement to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

The nation is currently grappling with an epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that, on average, 115 Americans die each day from opioid overdoses. West Virginia currently has the highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the country.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/201 ... ion-pills/

[DrCaleb]

Militants Militants:

I think Moderate/Conservative-Capitalism better chose than Liberal-Capitalism but maybe it's only me.

Capitalism is an economic system, Liberal/Conservative are political terms. They run in different spheres of our society.

China,for example practices Capitalism as its economic system, but Communism as it's political system.

[DrCaleb]

Militants Militants:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Militants Militants:

I think Moderate/Conservative-Capitalism better chose than Liberal-Capitalism but maybe it's only me.

Capitalism is an economic system, Liberal/Conservative are political terms. They run in different spheres of our society.

China,for example practices Capitalism as its economic system, but Communism as it's political system.

Lies right on me.

Conservatism + Moderate believe in Capitalism the least in Swedish centrist portions the Alliance 4 parties systemics.

Liberals believe in Capitalism too. So do Socialists. That's my point, political and economic ideology are related, but don't have to be separate or divided into extremes.

[CharlesAnthony]

$1:

The nation is currently grappling with an epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that, on average, 115 Americans die each day from opioid overdoses. West Virginia currently has the highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the country.

Oh, no!
Whatever is going to happen when all of their clients are dead????

[stratos]

Well according to Marx we have been in late stage capitalism for around 100 years. I guess pulling the mantra out every 5-10 years will make you right at some point.

[Thanos]

More of the glorious traditions from the good ol' days returns to Coal Country!

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/06/58345612 ... rs-disease

$1:

Epidemiologists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say they've identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease ever reported, a cluster that was first uncovered by NPR 14 months ago.

In a research letter published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, NIOSH confirms 416 cases of progressive massive fibrosis or complicated black lung in three clinics in central Appalachia from 2013 to 2017.

"This is the largest cluster of progressive massive fibrosis ever reported in the scientific literature," says Scott Laney, a NIOSH epidemiologist involved in the study.

"We've gone from having nearly eradicated PMF in the mid-1990s to the highest concentration of cases that anyone has ever seen," he said.

The clinics are operated by Stone Mountain Health Services and assess and treat coal miners mostly from Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia, a region that includes what have historically been some of the most productive coalfields in the country.

"When I first implemented this clinic back in 1990, you would see ... five [to] seven ... PMF cases" a year, says Ron Carson, who directs Stone Mountain's black lung program.

The clinics now see that many cases every two weeks, he says, and have had 154 new diagnoses of PMF since the fieldwork for the NIOSH study concluded a year ago.

"That's an indication that it's not slowing down," Carson says. "We are seeing something that we haven't seen before."

Laney acknowledges that the full scope of what he calls an epidemic is still unknown. "Even with this number, which is substantial and unacceptable, it's still an underestimate."

"Nobody looks forward to dying"

PMF, or complicated black lung, encompasses the worst stages of the disease, which is caused by inhalation of coal and silica dust at both underground and surface coal mines. Miners gradually lose the ability to breathe, as they wheeze and gasp for air.

"I've seen it too many times," said Charles Wayne Stanley, a Stone Mountain client with PMF, who spoke with NPR in 2016. "My wife's grandpa ... [I] watched him take his last breath. I watched my uncle die with black lung. You literally suffocate because you can't get enough air."

Lung transplants are the only cure, and they're possible only when miners are healthy enough to qualify.

"[I] can't breathe, you know. [I] can't do nothing hardly like I used to," says Edward Brown, a 55-year-old retired miner from Harlan, Ky., who was diagnosed with PMF at both Stone Mountain and another medical clinic.

"That's all I got to look forward to is to get worser and worser," Brown says, pausing for a deep sigh and nervous chuckle. "Nobody looks forward to dying, you know, but it's a-comin' and then that worries me."

Brown's age and disease fit another finding of the NIOSH study and a trend Carson first disclosed to NPR in December 2016.

"Miners are dying at a much younger age," he says, noting that in the 1990s, the clinic's PMF diagnoses typically involved miners in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Now the disease strikes miners in their 50s, 40s and even 30s with fewer years mining coal.

"A high proportion" of the miners in the NIOSH study had severely advanced disease and "coal mining tenure of less than 20 years, which are indications of exceptionally severe and rapidly progressive disease," the study says.

The Stone Mountain study follows a NIOSH review of cases at a small clinic in Coal Run Village, Ky., in 2016. NIOSH researchers confirmed 60 diagnoses of PMF there in 20 months. That alarmed them because NIOSH had earlier reported only 99 cases nationwide in five years.

At the same time, an NPR survey of 11 black lung clinics in Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio identified 962 cases, 10 times the original NIOSH count. Since then, NPR's ongoing survey of clinics has counted nearly 1,000 more cases.

The NPR investigation also found that the likely cause of the epidemic is longer work shifts for miners and the mining of thinner coal seams. Massive mining machines must cut rock with coal and the resulting dust contains silica, which is far more toxic than coal dust.

The spike in PMF diagnoses is also due to layoffs and retirements brought on by the decline in coal mining. Miners who had put off getting checked for black lung earlier began streaming into clinics, especially if they needed the medical and wage replacement benefits provided by black lung compensation programs.

Coincidentally, new federal regulations that are supposed to limit exposure to dangerous levels of coal and silica dust were fully implemented in 2016, a few months before NPR first reported the PMF epidemic. The Trump administration recently announced a "retrospective study" of the new regulations, a move that has mine safety advocates concerned, especially given the epidemic of the disease caused by mine dust.

"It would be outrageous for any undercutting of those regulations that puts miners [back] in harm's way and subjects even more of them to this terrible disease," says Joe Main, the former mine safety chief at the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

"When we think we know as much as we thought we should know about the disease, the next day [there's] worse information," says Main. "It shows that the depth of the disease is worse than what we knew the day before."

Main pushed for the tougher mine dust exposure limits. His successor at MSHA is David Zatezalo, a former mining company executive.

"We are not proposing to weaken this rule," Zatezalo tells NPR in a written statement. "We are planning to collect feedback on the rule from stakeholders, which was both a commitment previously made by MSHA, and a directive from President Trump, who strongly supports America's miners."

Zatezalo did not respond to requests for an interview. His agency's formal notice for the "retrospective study" labels it a "deregulatory" action, which implies less regulation.

At a congressional hearing today in Washington, Zatezalo was asked directly about his agency's "retrospective study" of the tougher mine dust limits imposed by the Obama administration.

"Do you plan to rollback any aspect of the 2014 respirable dust rule?" asked Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

"I do not," Zatezalo responded.

Zatezalo was also asked about his agency's own description of the "retrospective study" of the new mine dust regulations as "deregulatory."

"I can't tell you why it was listed as a deregulatory item," Zatezalo responded, unless, he added, that had something to do with the frequency of testing using new dust monitors.

"Each case of advanced black lung disease is an entirely preventable tragedy, and represents mine operators' unwillingness to adequately control mine dust exposures, and safety regulators failure to set, monitor and enforce standards necessary to protect miners," Scott said in a statement to NPR.

Well, if they didn't want to die being unable to breathe because their lungs have been turned into black goo then I guess they should have just been born rich instead. No one to blame but themselves, right MAGA?