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Saturday, February 10, 2007

Joan M. Donatelli, 59, a substitute teacher was arrested after two female students, a 10 year-old and a 9 year-old, in her 4th grade class at Lew-Port school in Lewiston, New York witnessed her using cocaine at her desk on February 1, 2007.

According to Lewiston police Sgt. Frank J. Previte, at least two students saw Donatelli use the end of at least two pen caps to “repeatedly” scoop cocaine out of the green colored bag and inhale the drug into her nose, while she was teaching the class. The students were sitting no less than five feet from the teacher’s desk at the time of the incident.

The children who reported the incident are being called “credible.”

“First of all their candor, their account of everything in stating what they saw. They were very specific about the color of the bag, the color of the pencaps that were used, which all again, we were able to back up,” added Previte.

Previte also stated that Donatelli admitted to using the drug only after police searched the classroom and found trace amounts of cocaine on her desk. Donatelli then got rid of the evidence and drugs by throwing the items out in a trash bin inside a bathroom.

“She stated that she had a problem, that she has an addiction, something she’s been struggling with,” stated Previte.

The superintendent of Lewiston-Porter Central Schools, Don Rappold, sent a letter home to parents of the students saying:

“On Thursday, February 1, 2007, it was reported that a substitute teacher in your child’s classroom may have a substance abuse problem. This letter is to inform you that the Lewiston-Porter School District responded to the report by advising the police. The matter is now under investigation, and the District is fully cooperating with the authorities. Pending the outcome of the investigation, the substitute teacher has been prohibited from being on our campus.”

Donatelli is being charged with at least two counts of endangering the welfare of children and seventh-degree criminal possession of an illegal substance. She is expected to appear in the Lewiston Town Court on February 21, 2007. More counts of endangering the welfare of children may be added, but only after police can confirm that other students in the class witnessed the incident.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Twenty-four thousand delegates from over 132 countries are expected to attend the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto this week

Delegates include scientists, politicians, health care workers, government and non-governmental officials, people with AIDS and celebrities. In attendance will be Bill and Melinda Gates, Bill Clinton, Richard Gere, Olympia Dukakis and Sandra Oh.

The theme of the conference is “Time to Deliver” and is meant to focus attention on the need to meet past promises to increase funding for treatment, care and prevention. The conference began on August 13th and is scheduled to end on August 18th.

There is growing frustration with the failure of developed countries to provide drugs to combat the AIDS crisis in the developing world, particularly Africa.

“What the Western world has to do is deliver on its promises, which it never does. It always betrays the people of Africa,” Stephen Lewis, the UN secretary general’s special envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa, told CBC News.

In the week leading up to the conference, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates announced a donation of US$500 million spread over five years to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Gates and former US President Bill Clinton will be sharing the podium during this week’s conference.

International AIDS conferences have usually been attended by world leaders, particularly the leader of the host country. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been criticized for snubbing the conference by sending his health minister, Tony Clement, to attend in his place. The prime minister, who is touring Canada’s far north this week, officially declined his invitation to attend three weeks ago.

“It’s a dreadful mistake in political judgment, and it’s not excusable,” said Lewis, who was Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations in the 1980s. “It’s a lost opportunity to tell the world how Canada feels about this pandemic.

“The Arctic sovereignty issue will still be there on August 18 (when the AIDS conference ends),” said Lewis. “Forty million people worldwide carry this virus, and most will die preventable deaths. What greater scourge is there than that?”

This is the second major international event Canada has hosted which Harper has snubbed. Last month, he did not appear in Montreal for the 2006 World Outgames, a celebration of elite gay, lesbian, and transgendered athletes.

The AIDS conference is expected to be the largest in history and will be ten times the size of the first which was held in Atlanta in 1985. It has become a biennial event and is convened by the International AIDS Society (IAS), an independent association of HIV professionals, with more than 7,000 members from 153 countries.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The polygamist family at the center of the new TLC reality television series Sister Wives are now the subject of a criminal investigation. Yesterday, following Sunday’s debut of Sister Wives, police in Lehi, Utah, where the show is set, announced they are investigating Kody Brown and his four wives for possible charges of bigamy.

Sister Wives focuses on Brown, his four wives—Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn—and his 13 children and three step-children. The family has said they are participating in the show to bring more public awareness to polygamist families and fight societal prejudices.

Brown has claimed the arrangement is not illegal because he is only legally married to Meri, and the other marriages are only spiritual unions. However, Lehi police said yesterday that state laws identify bigamy through cohabitation, not just legal contracts. The department plans to turn their findings over to the Utah Attorney General’s office at the conclusion of their investigation.

TLC contacted the state attorney general’s office before the series was broadcast in anticipation of potential legal issues. The office has not explicitly stated they will not charge the Browns, but has stated they do not have the resources to prosecute polygamists unless they are suspected of serious crimes, like child abuse and child trafficking.

Saturday, December 2, 2006

As families fled their homes in the early morning hours on Thursday October 26, there was no warning. The Esperanza Fire southeast of Los Angeles and West of Palm Springs, California, had ballooned under the influence of Santa Ana winds to more than 19,000 acres as of the morning of October 27. No time to get the animals, no time for crates or even a leash. Sadly, owners left behind not only their horses, lamas, donkeys, chickens, rabbits, but also their dogs and cats.

Many of the families who did manage to evacuate their pets found themselves in the parking lot at the Fellowship in the Pass Church Red Cross Shelter where a MuttShack Animal Rescue team caught up with them.

Pam Anderson, Director of the emergency Red Cross shelter said that many people with animals had come and left.

The air was thick with smoke, and ash was raining down on the parking lot where dog owners, not able to take their dogs into the shelter were camping out in pup tents andin their cars.

Those who could afford it checked themselves into pet friendly hotels in nearby towns.

Some were prepared. Jane Garner, a small dog breeder was able to get all her animals out, and had set up her puppy runs alongside her RV in the parking lot. Others were not doing too well, having left home without as much as a leash.

The same scenario played out at the Red Cross shelter at Hemet High School. Animals were being boarded in vans, trailers and cars and small travel crates.

When MuttShack Animal Rescue arrived, a small fracas had sent several dogs off in different directions, running out of the school parking lot down busy streets necessitating an instant rescue response.

The Incident Command for the Esperanza Animals, Ramona Humane Society in San Jacinto welcomed MuttShack‘s offer to help at the shelters.

Ramona Humane Society had recently published a notice in their Newsletter about the newly passed “PETS Act”and warned owners not wait until a major disaster such as an earthquake or fireto prepare. “Be proactive to ensure that your pet will be taken care of.”

MuttShack and PetSmart Charities set up ad hoc facilities for the animals at both shelters.

The Red Cross shelter, run by Madison Burtchaell of the Orange County Red Cross was very accommodating about allowing a small emergency pet shelter adjacent to the School.

Barbara A. Fought of PetSmart Charities, an organization that works with animal welfare organizations and provide assistance in disasters, provided crates and emergency supplies.

MuttShack and Red Cross volunteers, Martin St. John, Tom Hamilton, and Steve Meissner helped assemble the crates to secure a safe environment for evacuated pets.

It was a great relief for evacuees who had camped out in the parking lot to finally leave their vehicles and relax at the shelter, setting up their cots to grab some sorely needed rest.

Firefighters and residents reported loss of wildlife and animals. The Esperanza fire burned 34 homes, consumed 40,000 acres and cost five Firefighters their lives before it was contained four days later on October 30. Firefighting operations cost nearly $10 million.

MuttShack Animal Rescue is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization active in disasters and dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and care of lost or discarded dogs, cats and other animals.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Australian researchers say they have scientifically proven that stress causes sickness. The Garvan Institute in Sydney has discovered that a hormone, known as neuropeptide Y (NPY) is released into the body during times of stress. Their findings show the hormone can stop the immune system from functioning properly.

“Neuropeptide Y is one of those hormones that gets unregulated or released from neurones when stressful situations occur…it’s known for example that it regulates blood pressure and heart rates so your heart rate goes up but it hasn’t been known that it actually can affect immune cells as well,” said Professor Herbert Herzog, one of the researchers.

Herzog feels it is good to finally have proof of something people have suspected for so long.

“Now we have proven without doubt that there is a direct link and that stress can weaken the immune system and that makes you more vulnerable when you for example have a cold or flu and even in the more serious situations such as cancer can be enhanced in these situations,” said Herzog.

The Garvan Institute study centres on two key events that enable the human body to recognise foreign substances and control invaders. When our body encounters a pathogen (bacteria and viruses), the immune cells retain and interrogate suspects. Their activation is made possible by NPY. These cells then return to the lymph nodes, which are found all over the body, with information about the foreign invaders. The lymph nodes are where decisions about defence are made.

“Most of us expect to come down with a cold or other illness when we are under pressure, but until now we have mostly had circumstantial evidence for a link between the brain and the immune system,” said lead Garvan researcher, associate Professor Fabienne Mackay. “During periods of stress, nerves release a lot of NPY and it gets into the bloodstream, where it directly impacts on the cells in the immune system that look out for and destroy pathogens (bacteria and viruses) in the body.”

In the case of bacteria and viruses, TH1 cells are part of the attack team that is sent out on the ‘search and destroy’ mission. But when their job is done they need to be turned ‘off’ and the immune system reset. The same hormone, NPY, that activates the sentry cells now prompts the TH1 cells to slow down and die.

“Under normal conditions, circulating immune cells produce small amounts of NPY, which enables the immune cells on sentry duty and the TH1 immune cells to operate – it’s a yin and yang kind of situation. But too much NPY means that the TH1 attack is prevented despite the foreign invaders being identified – and this is what happens during stress,” added McKay.

The impact of stress on the body has been observed in athletes. Ph. D researcher at the University of Queensland, Luke Spence, together with the Australian Institute of Sport, studied elite and recreational athletes over five months.

They found elite athletes were more susceptible to respiratory diseases under stress.

“A lot of elite athletes put themselves through vast amounts of physical stress in their training, but also their emotional, psychological stress of feeling the pressure of Australia on their shoulders, wanting to compete and wanting to do their best,” said Spence.

It’s not just athletes who are prone to stress. Pressures at work and at home may cause emotional and mental stress that can be equally damaging. Almost a third of all work absenteeism in Australia is due to illness, costing employers over $10 billion a year.

“I think it has a huge impact for the work force and also for employers – if their employees are constantly stressed, constantly under pressure, they are more likely to get sick,” Spence said.

Further research could lead to the development of new drugs which may inhibit the action of the neuropeptide Y hormone.

Herzog warns people to minimise stress before it becomes a problem.

“Relaxation methods like yoga will help you to prevent that but there will still be people out there that are not responding to that and treatment by interfering with the system will be important,” he said. “There’s obviously some time until such a treatment will be available but this is something we will definitely work towards.”

The Garvan research will be published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Volume 202, No. 11.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

The number of laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 swine flu virus in Fiji rose to 97 on Thursday. A further 16 cases were confirmed by the laboratory at Mataika House, one day after it had confirmed 8 cases to bring the total to 81.

Both sets of cases were confirmed from batches of 24 samples sent for testing. The 8 cases confirmed on Wednesday were all men, 7 from Suva and 1 from Nadi. All 16 of the cases confirmed on Thursday were from Suva, 8 men and 8 women.

The spokesman for the Fiji Health Ministry, Iliesa Tora, reiterated the Fijian government’s advice to the public, stating that as yet there have been no H1N1 cases in Fiji that have incurred serious complications.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Charles Eugene Flowers and Stephanie Bassitt, who run Love Demonstrated Ministries in San Antonio, Texas, United States, have been arrested and charged with aggravated assault for tying a girl to their van and dragging her behind it on her stomach.

The victim had stopped running with a group of campers, after falling behind. She says Bassitt yelled at her while Flowers tied her to the van.

The girl was treated for injuries on her stomach, legs and arms. She reported that this was the second assault. Flowers and Bassitt remain in jail on US$100,000 bond each.

Love Demonstrated Ministries is a 32-day Christian boot camp for girls whose parents feel they are “at risk teens”. Such camps have raised controversy before.

An organization called the International Survivors Action Committee maintains a list of U.S. organizations where numerous abusive incidents have been reported; however, their list should not be taken as exhaustive. Neither Love Demonstrated Ministries nor New Horizons Youth Ministries, which has an alumni site describing abuse appeared.