Zorro
Zorro's JournalThe surprising link between air pollution and Alzheimers disease
With environmental regulations expected to come under heavy fire from the Trump administration, new research offers powerful evidence of a link between air pollution and dementia risk.
For older women, breathing air that is heavily polluted by vehicle exhaust and other sources of fine particulates nearly doubles the likelihood of developing dementia, finds a study published Tuesday. And the cognitive effects of air pollution are dramatically more pronounced in women who carry a genetic variant, known as APOE-e4, which puts them at higher risk for developing Alzheimers disease.
In a nationwide study that tracked the cognitive health of women between the ages of 65 and 79 for 10 years, those who had the APOE-e4 variant were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia if they were exposed to high levels of air pollution than APOE-e4 carriers who were not.
Among carriers of that gene, older women exposed to heavy air pollution were close to four times likelier than those who breathed mostly clean air to develop global cognitive decline a measurable loss of memory and reasoning skills short of dementia.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-air-pollution-alzheimers-20170131-story.html
FBI Shuts Down Prominent New ISIS Recruitment Website

WASHINGTONSaying the measure would greatly aid efforts to combat the rise of anti-American sentiment online, the FBI announced Tuesday that it had shut down a prominent new ISIS recruitment website, www.whitehouse.gov.
Blocking sites like this one, which spread propaganda in the effort to attract people to ISIS, is vital to winning the war on terror, said spokesperson Terrence Moreland, adding that the FBI recently became aware of the site after prominent ISIS leaders began posting on social media in support of the online recruitment hub.
While it can be hard to keep up with the number of internet outlets posting Islamic extremist propaganda, ultimately sites like whitehouse.gov are the greatest resource ISIS has to incite terrorism against the U.S. Even though we finally managed to shut it down after a little more than a week, the site was so popular that theres no telling how many individuals have already been radicalized.
Moreland went on to say that the FBI was also contacting Twitter to request the removal of several prominent accounts known to encourage ISIS recruitment, including @DHSgov, @POTUS, and @realDonaldTrump, but admitted there was only so much it could do to silence such a determined enemy.
http://www.theonion.com/article/fbi-shuts-down-prominent-new-isis-recruitment-webs-55191
Divenire
This is a glorious piece of contemporary music to take one's mind off the troubles of the day.
Protect it? President Trumps travel ban threatens America
It was obvious that Donald Trump would do dramatic things early on as president to shake up an existing order that he and many of his supporters believe is bad for America. But the stunning cruelty and ineptitude with which Trump abruptly imposed a temporary ban on all refugees and on immigration from seven majority Muslim nations causing commotions at airports from San Diego to New York and nightmares around the world should give even his admirers pause. Presidencies are often haunted by early missteps, and this one was gargantuan.
Before announcing the new rule Friday, Trump and his inner circle didnt consult any of the high-powered national-security officials in his Cabinet, including, as reported by The New York Times, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Chief John Kelly. Had they been involved, there is a far better chance that the new policy would have been crafted with more care and might not have accepted the paranoid fiction that all refugees are a security threat with none deserving of kindness. It probably would have pinned down such crucial details as how those with green cards from Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Libya and Yemen would be treated by customs authorities.
Instead, these legal residents of the U.S. faced 48 hours of intense confusion and fear.
There will be many Trump supporters who rally to his aides insistence that the media exaggerated problems and that the turmoil at airports was at least as much due to protests and problems Delta had with its computers. But it says something that the American Civil Liberties Union, which raises $4 million online in a typical year, raised six times that this weekend.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/sd-donald-trump-immigration-travel-ban-20170130-story.html
Trump's first week: For many in Arizona, it doesn't get any better than this
Across the massive mall parking lot from the Red Lobster, Rush Limbaughs radio show blared from the speakers of a silver sedan, idling near Party City with its windows down.
The nominal topic Monday was the alleged liberal assault on NFL quarterback Tom Brady, but Limbaugh had long since moved on: to a border wall, suspicions of nationwide protests and President Trumps response to the threat posed by foreigners.
Nodding approvingly in the drivers seat was Doyle MacCree, 84, of Goodyear, a conservative suburb west of Phoenix.
Here, more than 120 miles from the border, Arizona voters outraged with President Obamas executive orders that welcomed the foreign-born to America are delighted with Trumps first week in office, when his actions seemed to have done the opposite.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-trump-happy-phoenix-20170130-story.html
As mentioned in another article, Trump's actions are increasing his approval ratings with registered Republicans.
GOP-led Congress starting to worry about its role in the Trump era
Its what congressional Republicans had long dreamed about: a majority in both chambers to advance conservative policies and a president from the same party to sign them into law.
But the Trump White House isnt turning out exactly the way they envisioned.
The GOP establishment is experiencing whiplash after a week of President Trump bulldozing through the norms of policy and protocol dashing off executive orders without warning, escalating a diplomatic crisis with the countrys closest southern neighbor, triggering global confusion with a new refugee policy and generally hijacking party leaders agenda and replacing it with his own.
Rather than the hoped-for collaborative new relationship between the White House and Congress, GOP officials complain that Trump is brushing aside their advice, failing to fully engage on drafting tough legislative packages like tax reform and Obamacare, and bypassing Congress by relying on executive actions, something they frequently complained about under President Obama.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-gop-whiplash-20170130-story.html
California's new pot economy valued at $7 billion
The future of California's legal marijuana industry is being shaped in a warren of cubicles tucked inside a retired basketball arena, where a garden of paper cannabis leaves sprouts on file cabinets and a burlap sack advertising "USA Home Grown" dangles from a wall.
Here, in the outskirts of Sacramento, a handful of government workers face a daunting task: By Jan. 1, craft regulations and rules that will govern the state's emerging legal pot market, from where and how plants can be grown to setting guidelines to track the buds from fields to stores.
Getting it wrong could mean the robust cannabis black market stays that way - outside the law - undercutting the attempt to create the nation's largest legal marijuana economy. The new industry has a projected value of $7 billion, and state and local governments could eventually collect $1 billion a year in taxes.
California is "building the airplane while it's being flown," lamented state Sen. Mike McGuire, a Democrat whose sprawling Northern California district includes some of the world's most prized pot fields.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-pot-20170129-story.html
Trump did great this week (according to his supporters)
By most mainstream accounts, President Trumps first week in office was chaotic, dominated by needless arguments over inauguration crowds, mythical millions of illegal voters and a Twitter fight with the president of Mexico. Thats how it looked to many of us, anyway.
But theres a counter-narrative out there, too, among Trump supporters and on conservative media outlets such as Fox News and Breitbart. To the Trump faithful, the real news is that the president is doing what they wanted: Hes keeping his campaign promises.
Consider this a list of alternative facts, if you want except in this case, the facts are real.
Trump jawboned U.S. companies to stop exporting jobs and persuaded some to promise new jobs at home. He formally withdrew from President Obamas 12-country trade deal with Asia, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He reaffirmed his intention to build a wall on the border with Mexico, banned refugee admissions from Syria and ordered extreme vetting for would-be refugees from other countries. He instructed federal agencies to minimize any effort to make Obamacare work. He removed obstacles to the Keystone XL and Dakota access pipelines, and ordered that they be built with American steel. And next week, he plans to nominate a new Supreme Court justice whose name, hes said, will thrill conservatives.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mcmanus-trump-success-20170129-story.html
Why California's governor may emerge as top defender of liberal values
As California gears up for four years under a Republican White House and Congress, Gov. Jerry Brown is emerging as uniquely suited to playing a key role for blue states inclined toward political rebellion.
Since the tea party wave of 2010, the picture has been reversed: Red states barraging the Obama administration with lawsuit after lawsuit. The question now is whether blue states will respond in kind.
Governor Brown, who has a history of political independence and no elections left to campaign for, may be the Democrat most likely to chart a path that not only defends liberal values but also finds some practical middle ground with Washington, when possible.
The four-term governor of the countrys biggest state brings a mixture of experience, personal prudence, and pragmatism. And at a time when California is holding itself up as a big blue target for the new administrations deeply conservative agenda, experts say, Brown may provide what the state and the Democratic Party needs to see.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-californias-governor-may-emerge-top-defender-liberal-135857955.html
Rep. Hunter mixed personal and campaign expenses, trips
Among tens of thousands of dollars that Rep. Duncan Hunter paid back to his campaign treasury in November were two unexplained charges to Feis Productions, totaling $230.
The charges had originally been reported as event entertainment. It turns out Feis Productions services registrations for Irish dance festivals where Hunters daughters compete.
Any charges processed by Feis Productions would not and could not be be for anything related to a political campaign, said Jim Gilmartin of Feis.
Hunter, R-Alpine, also spent campaign funds at hotels during dance competitions one in Los Angeles, one in Orange County and one at the Arizona Grand Resort & Spa in Phoenix.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-me-hunter-unreimbursed-20170127-story.html
Another asshole Republican living large off campaign donations. Small wonder they wanted to torpedo the Office of Congressional Ethics.
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