prepareforchange--2019-01-19--Key Research Eating Organic Foods Cuts Your Cancer Risk and More

Key Research: Eating Organic Foods Cuts Your Cancer Risk and More!

Some people laugh at those who make the effort to buy organic foods as often as possible. It’s a waste of money, they say. An organic apple isn’t any healthier than a non-organic apple, they insist. Well, the next time you hear someone spew this baloney, you reference this recent research suggesting showing how beneficial organic can be.  Researchers in France say that people who regularly eat organic food have a lower risk of developing cancer than those who don’t.  For the study, almost 69,000 adults volunteered to provide researchers with information on how often they ate organic food, drinks, and dietary supplements. Researchers scored the participants based on how often they ate organic food – “most of the time,” “never,” or “I don’t know.”  Researchers tracked the volunteers’ cancer diagnoses at 2 points in the study: in 2009 and again in 2016. Breast cancer was shown to be the most prevalent cancer diagnosis, but the team also observed prostate cancer, skin cancer, colorectal cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and lymphoma.  Participants who ate the highest amount of organic food were 25% less likely overall to develop cancer than the others. [1]  Additionally, the most frequent consumers of organic food had: [2]  Julia Baudry, the study’s lead author and a researcher with the Center of Research in Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cité of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, said:  Now, the study doesn’t prove that eating organic reduces your risk of cancer. It could be that people who eat organic food lead healthier lifestyles and there might be an environmental component to the findings, as well. As well, studies relying on self-reporting from participants is less-than-ideal.  But still, it’s impossible to deny that striving to live a clean, healthy lifestyle comes with great benefits – even if it means paying a bit extra for food that hasn’t been doused in pesticides. [1]  Baudry said that despite the other potentially influential factors not examined in the study, the findings strongly suggest “that an organic-based diet could contribute to reducing cancer risk.” [2]  Dr. Frank Hu, chairman of the department of nutrition at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the study could have been strengthened by the researchers testing pesticide residue levels in participants in order to validate exposure levels.  Hu and other nutrition experts at Harvard said the study results “are still preliminary” and they are calling on the U.S. government to fund more long-term studies to confirm the results.  And if for some reason you are unable to buy organic foods, that doesn’t mean you should skip out on consuming fruits and veggies. As the American Cancer Society (ACS) notes, eating lots of fruit and vegetables is one of the ways you can lower your risk of cancer, regardless of whether they’re organic or not.  You can read more details of the study for yourself online at JAMA Internal Medicine.


sottnet--2019-04-19--Researchers identify genetic causes of poor sleep

The largest genetic study of its kind ever to use accelerometer data to examine how we slumberThe international collaboration, led by the University of Exeter and published in Nature Communications, has found 47 links between our genetic code and the quality, quantity and timing of how we sleep. They include ten new genetic links with sleep duration and 26 with sleep quality.The Medical Research Council-funded study looked at data from 85,670 participants of UK Biobank and 5,819 individuals from three other studies, who wore accelerometers - wrist-worn devices (similar to a Fitbit) which record activity levels continuously. They wore the accelerometers continuously for seven days, giving more detailed sleep data than previous studies, which have relied on people accurately reporting their own sleep habits.Among the genomic regions uncovered is a gene called PDE11A. The research team discovered than an uncommon variant of this gene affects not only how long you sleep but your quality of sleep too. The gene has previously been identified as a possible drug target for treatment of people with neuropsychiatric disorders associated with mood stability and social behaviours.The study also found that among people with the same hip circumference, a higher waist circumference resulted in less time sleeping, although the effect was very small - around 4 seconds less sleep per 1cm waist increase in someone with the average hip circumference of around 100cm.The team involved colleagues from the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts General Hospital as well as the Netherlands, France and Switzerland. They found that collectively, the genetic regions linked to sleep quality are also linked to the production of serotonin - a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of happiness and wellbeing. Serotonin is known to play a key role in sleep cycles and is theorised to help promote deeper and more restful sleep.Senior author Dr Andrew Wood, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "We know that getting enough sleep improves our health and wellbeing, yet we still know relatively little about the mechanisms in our bodies that influence how we sleep. Changes in sleep quality, quantity and timing are strongly associated with several human diseases such as diabetes and obesity, and psychiatric disorders.Lead author Dr Samuel Jones, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "This study identifies genetic variants influencing sleep traits, and will provide new insights into the molecular role of sleep in humans. It is part of an emerging body of work which could one day inform the development of new treatments to improve our sleep and our overall health."The group also found further evidence that Restless Leg Syndrome is linked to poorer sleep from the genetic variants they found to be associated with sleep measures derived from the accelerometer data.The full paper is entitled ' Genetic studies of accelerometer-based sleep measures yield new insights into human sleep behaviour '.


theguardianuk--2019-05-31--Use of male mice skews drug research against women study finds

Use of male mice skews drug research against women, study finds

The male mind is rational and orderly while the female one is complicated and hormonal. It is a stereotype that has skewed decades of neuroscience research towards using almost exclusively male mice and other laboratory animals, according to a new study.  Scientists have typically justified excluding female animals from experiments – even when studying conditions that are more likely to affect women – on the basis that fluctuating hormones would render the results uninterpretable. However, according to Rebecca Shansky, a neuroscientist at Northeastern University, in Boston, it is entirely unjustified by scientific evidence, which shows that, if anything, the hormones and behaviour of male rodents are less stable than those of females.  Shansky is calling for stricter requirements to include animals of both sexes in research, saying the failure to do so has led to the development of drugs that work less well in women.  “People like to think they’re being objective and uninfluenced by stereotypes but there are some unconscious biases that have been applied to how we think about using female animals as research subjects that should be looked at by scientists,” she said.  The male bias is seen across all fields of pre-clinical research, but one of the starkest areas is neuroscience, in which male animals outnumber females by nearly six to one. And considering the brain through a “male lens” has had public health implications, according to Shansky’s article, published in the journal Science.  In one recent example, the sleeping drug Ambien, which had been tested in male animals and then men in clinical trials, was later shown to be far more potent in women because it was metabolised more slowly in the female body. Across all drugs, women tended to suffer more adverse side effects and overdoses.  Major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are twice as prevalent in women, but tests designed to mimic their symptoms in rodents are typically developed and validated in males. Shansky’s work shows male and female rodents can behave differently in such experiments, which could provide new insights into these conditions.  Recent research has challenged the reasoning behind using almost exclusively male animals, with one analysis of nearly 300 neuroscience studies revealing that data collected from female mice was not more variable than that from males – in fact, for some measures, the reverse was true.  Female rodents have a four- to five-day reproductive cycle, during which oestrogen and progesterone increase roughly fourfold. However, male mice housed together establish a dominance hierarchy in which the circulating testosterone levels in the dominant males are, on average, five times as high as the subordinates.  This evidence has led the US National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to introduce mandates in 2016 to include both sexes in research. However, major UK funders such as the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council have yet to introduce any similar requirements. “Now that the US and Canada have made these mandates it’s time for Europe to step up,” said Shansky.  She is also concerned about the approach taken by some research teams in the US which incorporate both sexes in experiments by working things out in males first and then repeating it in females. “It perpetuates the dated, sexist and scientifically inaccurate idea that male brains are a standard from which female brains deviate,” she said.  Ironically, Shansky said, the ways in which the male and female brains differ may have remained under-investigated due to a backlash against the idea of there being meaningful differences between the male and female brain.  “There’s a concern that research that shows sex differences in the brain will be weaponised by misogynists or used to justify and promote inequality,” she said. “It’s up to scientists to make sure that the message of those studies is not conveyed in a comparative way that adds any value. It doesn’t have to be a competition, it’s not about being better, it’s just about saying this is how things works.  “There’s nothing anti-feminist about saying the neurobiology in the female brain might be different.”


theindependent--2019-09-11--China is dividing the world over genetic engineering research

If you want to conduct groundbreaking but contentious biological research, go to China. Last year, Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced he had created the world’s first gene-edited human babies, shocking the world at a time when such practice is illegal in most leading scientific nations. More recently, US-based researcher Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte revealed he had produced the world’s first human-monkey hybrid embryo in China to avoid legal issues in his adopted country.  Yet if China is fast becoming the world capital of controversial science, it is not alone in producing it. More babies produced using the “Crispr” gene-editing technology are now planned by a scientist in Russia, where another researcher is also hoping to conduct the world’s first human head transplant. And Japan has recently lifted its own ban on human-animal hybrids.  The world is rapidly moving towards a two-tier system of cutting-edge medical research, broadly divided between countries with minimal regulation and those that refuse to allow anything but the earliest stages of this work. The consequences of this split are likely to be significant, even potentially affecting your own access to healthcare.  The births of the Crispr babies in China led to uproar among the scientific community, which criticised He Jiankui, and inspired calls for a halt in any Crispr research on human embryos. In around 30 countries, gene editing of human embryos is already banned outright or at least tightly controlled. For example, in the UK only a handful of research groups have been granted a licence to conduct experiments, and certainly not with any aim of bringing an embryo to term.  But in most countries, things are less clear. The Chinese establishment was quick to condemn He’s work and declare it illegal. And some commentators have made the point that, despite outside perceptions, Chinese science is far from unregulated. Yet the fact remains that He was able to conduct the work unimpeded, with evidence suggesting he may have even received state funding.  With a technology moving as quickly as Crispr, many nations will not have had the time nor expertise to develop a comprehensive stance. As a result, it seems likely that we won’t be able to avoid a two-tier system for this kind of research. Nations with developed regulation for biotech will be able to adapt more quickly and easily to the latest advances and put restrictions in place. Other states will scramble to keep up, leaving scientists to proceed without having to consider the ethical or social implications of their work. And that’s assuming all governments want to restrict this kind of research, which they may not.  We have seen what happens when there is this kind of international disconnect with other biotechnologies. “Medical tourism” has become a boom sector within the healthcare industry. People travel from all over the world to private clinics that provide – or claim to provide – stem cell therapies unavailable in their home countries. There have been high-profile cases of people travelling from the US to Mexico in order to skirt national laws and access mitochondrial replacement therapy.  So it’s safe to assume that those with the means to do so might try to access gene editing abroad when it’s not available in their own countries, perhaps to avoid passing on a known heritable condition they carry. And with home DNA testing kits becoming widespread (although not necessarily accurate), the number of people wanting to edit their genome before having children is likely to increase.  A lack of or loose medical regulations also tends to produce predatory clinics that charge huge amounts for what sounds like wonder cures but might be, at best, a sugar pill or, at worst, something actively harmful. And, perhaps worst of all, regulatory problems might contribute to destroying the reputation of promising developing medical technologies. The more nasty incidents that are attributed to an unregulated therapy, the less and less willing people will be to support legitimate medical trials.  This kind of two-tier system of medical regulation could also lead techniques such as gene-editing to become much more culturally accepted in some countries than others. Our society continues to struggle with xenophobia and racism, so we may also find prejudices and legal dilemmas developing for genetically engineered humans (never mind human-animal hybrids).  Would people born using technologies such as Crispr be allowed to visit or emigrate to countries where their very creation was illegal? Would it be illegal for them to have their own children and spread their genetically altered genome? This kind of conflict between international human rights legislation and domestic policy is yet to be tested but could have grave consequences.  On the other side of the divide, if countries with strong regulations move too slowly to allow treatments that may be lifesaving or disability preventing, it could worsen health inequality. We already have serious global problems with distributive justice, the ways in which services or technologies are only accessible to the privileged. If a particular illness could be prevented through Crispr, is it right that someone should have to risk their child developing the disease just because they cannot afford to travel to a country where the technique is legal?  Unfortunately, the obvious solution – internationally agreed standards and regulations – may be a pipe dream. We have consistently failed to find global consensus on gene-editing issues, just as with embryo research. Even if it is possible to reach common ground, developing and implementing mutually acceptable terms that are flexible enough to handle the inevitable further technological progress will take many years. For now, proposals for concerted effort to keep track of gene editing research may be the best we can do.  It’s difficult to predict what could happen in the meantime. But it seems likely that more and more gene editing and other controversial practices will take place in a variety of regulated and unregulated circumstances. Sadly, it may be the case that little progress is made until the types of problems outlined above become all too real.  David Lawrence is a postdoctoral fellow at Newcastle Law School. This article first appeared on The Conversation


theirishtimes--2019-05-20--Ireland needs to step up clinical research to boost therapies for patients report

Ireland needs to step up clinical research to boost therapies for patients – report

A joint Government and industry funded programme to scale up clinical research in Ireland would offer much more opportunity for patients to participate in clinical trials and to avail of new therapies, while ensuring better treatment outcomes, according a report issued on Monday.  The Future Investment in Clinical Research report calls for a major step-change to enable Ireland to increase its clinical research capability fourfold over the next five years.  It was drawn up by experts in clinical research: patient representative bodies, academia, clinical research centres, specialists in healthcare delivery, funding agencies and the biopharma and medtech industries.  Their report concludes a programme “to enhance and scale up the national clinical research infrastructure . . . would deliver a significant increase in the number of international and multi-centre clinical trials conducted in Ireland”.  “This would ensure increased access to new emerging therapies for Irish patients . . . generating an additional 3,000 direct and indirect jobs with gross value added of €200 to €300 million per annum,” it adds.  The report, outlined at a seminar in Dublin, contends a well-resourced and functioning clinical research system should be a fundamental component of the overall healthcare system, benefiting patients, healthcare delivery, research and academia.  “It is proven internationally that the more research-active a national health system is, the better the outcomes for patients. It is also a unique selling point for the very large life sciences sector operating here in Ireland,” it says.  While acknowledging substantial investment made to date by Government in clinical research, it says an integrated Irish clinical research system is needed to drive excellence and innovation. It recommends an initial investment of €22 million in clinical research in the first year, and confirms Biopharma and MedTech industries would match that investment.  On average, each patient participating in a clinical trial will generate a benefit of €13,500 to the economy. Additionally, the health service benefits from medicines worth an average of €5,899 per patient for those participating in clinical trials, it says.  In 2018, an estimated 500 Irish patients were recruited into clinical trials of medicinal products for 24 months, which had estimated annual revenues and savings to the health service of €7.5 million and €5.9 million, respectively. “Clinical research is a labour-intensive activity undertaken by a highly skilled and educated workforce. It has the potential to become a key feature of Ireland’s knowledge economy,” the report notes.  “Ireland is doing about a quarter of what we should be doing in the realm of Clinical Research – for example, in Denmark, which has the same population as Ireland, four times the number of clinical trials take place,” according to Prof Pat O’Mahony, chief executive of Clinical Research Development Ireland.  “Our life sciences sector has grown rapidly over the past half-century, to a point where it now has global significance. However, our clinical research system, infrastructure or performance do not compare with our growth in the manufacturing sector,” he added.  Patient outcomes were always better in countries where clinical research was further advanced. For Ireland to emulate that success, further collaboration and investment was required, Prof O’Mahony said.  Participation by patients in clinical research means “the possibility of innovative medicines sooner, better healthcare and the possibility to make a difference for others with the same health issues”, said Avril Kennan, chief executive of the Medical Research Charities Group.  Too few patients were currently offered the possibility off taking part, she said. “Investment in the clinical research system will bring economic benefits, will help boost a beleaguered HSE staff and, most importantly, will lead to better health and quality of life for the Irish people. The report represents not some vague hope for the future but the potential to make a real difference to our parents, our children, our friends and all those we hold dear.”


theirishtimes--2019-10-03--Hyping research runs risk of devaluing science

A chemical in cannabis could treat pancreatic cancer, it was reported in August. A Harvard study demonstrated that it could even kill cancer cells from elsewhere in the body.  Unfortunately, there’s a catch, which the news report at Yahoo Lifestyle hinted at in the final paragraph: preclinical studies are up next. This is code for this study coming from lab animals, not people, and the next step will be in animals too. There’s little chance of patients getting a new drug any time soon.  Such news stories pushed scientist Dr James Heathers to set up a Twitter account, @justsaysinmice, where people poke fun at hype in science news. Dr Heathers, a physiologist at Northeastern University in Boston, started it because he would read interesting news about research, but then be underwhelmed by the original scientific paper.  A recent example: a news headline warned that hospital lights could increase risk of death in patients with heart disease. The study was in mice. Conflating results from rodents and people frustrates patients and families. “Imagine what it’s like to be told we are going to have a fantastic new cure for Alzheimer’s, when your father has Alzheimer’s, and then there continues to be no good therapeutic options,” Heathers says.  While science has cleared Alzheimer’s in mice, there is still no treatment for people, despite billions of euro spent by drug companies. This isn’t that surprising. The mouse brain is quite different from ours, and mice don’t get Alzheimer’s. Scientists must genetically tweak the mice to give them hallmarks of the human disease.  Animal studies are still crucial for developing new drugs, but the jump to patients is expansive. An exciting discovery in lab rodents is usually a decade and a billion dollars away from a drug. Suggesting a treatment is close is a way of hyping the early science.  Each month, Prof Malcolm Macleod, brain scientist at the University of Edinburgh, sees a patient in his neurology clinic who asks him about a new treatment they read about in the news. “I go find the scientific paper and it turns out to be much less promising,” he says.  Exaggeration is not all the fault of news hacks. In 2014, a British Medical Journal study found that many exaggerations in UK newspaper stories originated in press releases from universities. They found that one in three press releases exaggerated the inference to humans from animal research.  Irish research institutes are not immune to overselling. Earlier this year, two press release from Irish research institutes heralded scientists having developed “a new tuberculosis treatment”.  The press releases from Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland stressed the need for new tuberculosis drugs, but did not note that human subjects were not involved in the research. The approach was novel, exciting even – it sought partly to support the body’s own immune response to TB.  “It’s a really good scientific paper,” says Prof Stephen Gillespie, TB expert at the University of St Andrews in the UK, “but they now need to show it works in an animal model.” A treatment in patients is “many, many years away,” he says.  Usually scientists would not call an approach at this stage “a treatment”. The road ahead is long and bumpy. The FDA in August approved a new drug for TB, Pretomanid, which was originally developed in the 1990s.  Today, university press releases read like news articles, describing a discovery in engaging language, with quotes from scientists. The package is often repeated verbatim in news reports, without scrutiny.  “There’s huge effort put into promoting science, much of it appropriate and ethical, and some of it not so much,” says Brian Trench, writer and science communications researcher. “There’s a vastly smaller effort put into checking promotional material for authenticity and accuracy.”  Trench says most media don’t have the resources to scrutinise claims from universities, such as a discovery being a true breakthrough. “[Critical scrutiny] tends not to happen on anything like the scale that might be the case in other areas of journalism,” he adds.  In January, a researcher went on RTÉ’s News At One to discuss the TB paper. The focus was on the delivery of “the drug molecule” via an inhaler and how it could help patients.  More advanced preclinical testing was promised for this “new treatment of tuberculosis”. It is questionable whether listeners could gauge that this meant the strategy is possibly five years away from first-in-human tests, and 10 years away from being on a prescription. If all goes well. The vast majority of drugs that get to be trialled in people fail.  One explanation for not being explicit about results from animals is that universities wish to avoid unsavoury attention from activists. Macleod says such caution as misplaced. “We should be open about what we do and be prepared to stand up and articulate why it is that we use [animal] models and what their limitations are,” he says. Rodent studies are part and parcel of biomedical research.  Developing a new drug is that tough. While there’s remarkable progress in treating many diseases, we are left with complex conditions that require huge collaborative efforts. The picture of constant breakthroughs by individual labs is misleading. “We need to be honest in what we can and cannot do,” Macleod says.  “Science is hard to do,” says Heathers, who is concerned that “science is being collectively devalued because we are doing a bad job communicating where everything is at and how well it works.” Exaggerated reporting of science, in his view, runs the risk of creating a perpetual attitude of distrust in science that is harmful to science, researchers and society.


thenewyorktimes--2019-01-07--US Officials Warn Health Researchers China May Be Trying to Steal Your Data

U.S. Officials Warn Health Researchers: China May Be Trying to Steal Your Data

“N.I.H. has basically been operating on the principle that everyone is well intentioned,” said Scott Kennedy, an expert on China at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who briefed the N.I.H. working group. “Then they run smack dab into the challenge of China, which has millions of researchers scrambling for money and for fame and for national glory. That creates an environment where some people may feel pressure to skirt, ignore or break the rules.”  In some cases, Dr. Collins and Mr. Wray said, Chinese graduate students or visitors have taken intellectual property from American laboratories and given it to Chinese scientists or arms of the Chinese government, which published and commercialized the findings.  In other cases, scientists who received grants from the N.I.H. had shadow laboratories in China, which also received funds from the Chinese government. The foreign funding and affiliations were, in some cases, unknown to the National Institutes of Health and even to the American universities where the scientists worked.  Particularly worrisome to American officials was the finding that China had somehow obtained confidential information from applications for N.I.H. research grants. Under federal law, the N.I.H. uses an elaborate process of peer review to evaluate applications, and information in the applications — providing valuable insights into some of the world’s most advanced biomedical research — is supposed to remain confidential.  Congress has poured money into the institutes, which have a budget of $39 billion this year, up 30 percent from 2014, and lawmakers say the agency has been phenomenally productive. More than $4 out of every $5 is distributed to researchers around the country studying cancer, heart disease, diabetes and myriad other conditions.


truepundit--2019-06-06--Trump to End Research Using Fetal Tissue From Aborted Babies

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it will end future research conducted with fetal tissue from aborted babies.  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also announced it would not renew a multi-million dollar partnership with the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) that funded the use of body parts obtained from aborted babies for medical research into diseases such as HIV and Zika. The agency will no longer allow government scientists to conduct research with fetal tissue.  “Promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities of President Trump’s administration,” the statement said. “Intramural research that requires new acquisition of fetal tissue from elective abortions will not be conducted.”  UCSF was the top recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2018. Its taxpayer-funded research included a $13 million contract to supply 90 mice injected with aborted baby cells each month.  The extension of the contract expired on Wednesday, but the university called the decision to end it “abrupt” in a statment, adding that it “deeply opposed” the decision to prevent federal researchers from using tissue obtained from abortion. It emphasized it complied with all federal and state laws and exercised appropriate oversight in the collection of the parts. – READ MORE


freedombunker--2019-07-20--The Apollo Missions Were Cool But Private Enterprise Has Been Better for Innovation

The Apollo Missions Were Cool, But Private Enterprise Has Been Better for Innovation

Fifty years ago, Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's 1961 promise to land Americans on the Moon. It was exactly the sort of project at which government was supposed to excel: a grand endeavor with no immediate payoff harnessing the resources of an entire nation.  Arguably, all it really demonstrated was that, if you could mug the taxpayers of an extremely wealthy nation to fund a scheme with no obvious benefit, you could orchestrate history's coolest photo opportunity and show up those damned Russkies.  Some people mourn the end of the Apollo era as the end of heroic projects. It's more accurate to say that it was the end of federal dominance of the public image of innovation and the dawn of an era of lower-profile but more-beneficial developments that improve human health, happiness, and wealth.  More beneficial? But didn't the space program give us Tang? Actually, no—the stuff was already around, just not particularly popular until NASA made the astronauts drink it. But sure, let's give NASA credit for marketing drink mix (it's got the electrolytes Moon rocks crave!).  The private sector, on the other hand, has transformed the world around us with communications technology, computers, medicines and medical devices, and innovations in biotechnology. I'm probably missing something there, so feel free to email or tweet my oversight to me (in Apollo days, you'd have had to entrust your jabs to the government mail or a federally guaranteed telephone monopoly).  These transformations come courtesy of a host of sources, some involving government endeavors, many purely private, and others conflating the two—especially when it comes to defense spending, which has flowed in copious quantities over the years to many takers.  Increasingly, the researchers changing and improving the world in which we live do so for private businesses and independent organizations, seeking to solve specific problems or meet the perceived needs of consumers.  "U.S. [research and development] funding reached an all-time high of $499 billion in 2015," according to estimates from the National Science Foundation's National Center for Science and Engineering. "This will represent the largest amount the U.S. or any nation has ever spent on R&D in a single year," reported the American Institute of Physics (AIP) in 2016.  Of that $499 billion, "the federally sponsored share fell to a record-low 23 percent while the business sector's share rose to a record-high 69 percent," AIP noted. The federal government's share of spending was at its lowest level since 1953, the year the National Science Foundation started measuring.  In 2016, the private sector funded 73 percent of U.S. research and development—$374.7 billion of $515.3 billion—the National Science Foundation announced earlier this year.  Meanwhile, the world has morphed in recent years in strange and interesting ways that may not be as dramatic as a Moon landing but are at least as important. These changes are apparent from the fact that I'm typing this article on a laptop computer on the back patio of my rural Arizona home. When finished, I'll transmit it almost instantaneously to my editor in Washington, D.C. As I work, I'm doing my best to ignore the noisy endeavors of my teenage son, who himself is a result of fertility treatments unavailable a few decades ago and who has acquired most of his education remotely, using a variety of lessons and resources available to him far from any traditional classroom.  Even the internet that makes much of this possible and is sometimes credited to government is more accurately described as the result of a private efforts building on earlier public initiatives, with heavy emphasis on entrepreneurialism departing from and prevailing over Defense Department priorities.  Not everything new and cool is sitting on or near my patio table, though.  The world around us would be almost unimaginable—for good or ill—without cell phones. Lots of people contributed to the development of the technology, but the final spur came from rivalry between engineers at Bell Laboratories and Motorola. "Joel, this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cellphone, a real, handheld, portable cellphone," Motorola's Marty Cooper reportedly boasted to his rival, Bell's Joel Engel, in the very first public call, placed as reporters looked on.  Golden rice, which started as a Rockefeller Foundation initiative, "has the potential to reduce or eliminate much of the death and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency," according to a letter signed by 144 Nobel Laureates. The modified rice is prominent among the low-key but potentially world-changing developments of the biotechnology revolution in general, and genetically modified organisms in particular.  Perhaps less important in terms of biotechnology, but still intriguing, is the looming challenge to vegans: is lab-grown meat ethically acceptable? The schism should be GMO popcorn-worthy.  3D printing has picked up buzz since the 1980s as a means of lowering manufacturing costs, speeding production—especially of prototypes and small runs—and evading government restrictions. "The simplicity and low cost of [3D printing] machines, combined with the scope of their potential creations, could profoundly alter global and local economies and affect international security," the RAND Corporation noted last year.  Tellingly, as the innovations accumulate and transform society, the world is becoming more prosperous, with per-capita income soaring over recent decades (nope—no post-Apollo slump!) in an important break from agonizingly slow historical gains.  "The speed of poverty alleviation in the last 25 years has been historically unprecedented," Alexander C. R. Hammond wrote in 2017 for the Foundation for Economic Education. "Not only is the proportion of people in poverty at a record low, but, in spite of adding 2 billion to the planet's population, the overall number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen too."  Economic liberalization—free markets—get much of the credit for this. Freer markets have opened the floodgates of innovation, research, and development. As a result, "agricultural productivity has greatly improved due to more scientific methods of farming, access to plentiful and much improved fertilisers and pesticides, and new high-yield and disease-resistant plants," Marian Tupy pointed out last year for CapX.  Yeah, maybe it's not as overtly heroic as a Moon landing. But people are healthier, happier, and wealthier because of these and myriad other private innovations, inspiring and building on one another.  And yes, that applies to space exploration, too. Recent innovations in launch vehicles and reusable craft come courtesy of private innovators. You can even get spectacle, if that's what you want, in the form of the Tesla Roadster and mannequin "astronaut" that SpaceX launched into the interplanetary void.  Sure, that was pure marketing, just like the culmination of the original space race. But it was marketing done with the company's own money. And it was viewed across the world on a host of devices invented and improved by private initiative in the 50 years since the Apollo astronauts took those first steps on the Moon.


tass--2019-08-13--Dongguan an innovation cluster sees tech giants coming in

Dongguan, an innovation cluster sees tech giants coming in

DONGGUAN, China, Aug. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- From 9 August to 11 August, key figures of the tech industry including Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group and Hu Yu, the Chairman-in-Office of IFLYTEK, together with 6,000 developers met in Dongguan, for Huawei Developers Conference 2019 to discuss on the terminal industry, the global application and development of 5G technology and the construction of a global industrial ecosystem. The conference took place in Songshan Lake, a high-tech area with beautiful natural scenery. The person in charge of Songshan Lake Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone Administrative Committee said Dongguan is embracing more advanced technology enterprises, talents and innovative carriers with its ever-growing ability of incubating innovative companies and superior business environment.  Dongguan excels in commercializing scientific and technological achievements, with a complete industrial chain, sufficient skilled technicians and a relevantly low land cost which increase the efficiency of industrializing and commercializing research findings and therefore make companies and products more competitive.  Meanwhile, incubators of Dongguan which help attract technology enterprises are bringing vitality and energy to the city's innovative ecosystem. Taking XBOTPARK, the start-up incubator focusing on robotics and smart hardware as an example, it has linked resources including universities, research institutes, enterprises, upstream and downstream supply chains etc. since its establishment in 2014, successfully incubating more than 90 innovative projects. Li Zexiang, one of the founders of XBOTPARK, said, for young people developing new technological products there, the iteration speed might be five to ten times faster than they are in Silicon Valley, or Europe, with only one fifth to one fourth of the cost of its counterparts.  Quality hi-tech companies in Dongguan also exert an initiator effect on converging upstream and downstream companies and improving the overall industrial ecosystem. While Huawei set its R&D Center in Dongguan, its suppliers like iSoftStone and Chinasoft International Limited also founded their bases there. Such companies are providers of emerging technologies like big data and clod computing and contributors to innovating IT services, also serving as an important part of the city's innovation ecosystem.  Some experts believe Huawei has driven Dongguan's development by setting its R&D center here. The city will function to develop, test and produce mature products. Dongguan and Shenzhen together will become new global tech hubs and play a more important role in international industrial division system.  The great business environment of Dongguan helps attract high-end innovative elements. The constantly deepened business system reform has enviably simplified the process of company registration and approval procedure, and decreased operating costs. This is also an impetus for more advanced talents operating their innovative businesses in Dongguan, promoting the core competitiveness of the city.  By the end of 2018, Dongguan is home to over 5700 national hi-tech enterprises and 36 provincial innovative research teams. The entities occupy a key position in the city's innovation ecosystem and work as its fulcrum to build into a national innovative city.  "Centering on innovation-driven development, Dongguan spares no efforts to attract investment in innovation sectors, encourage companies to strengthen R&D and support independent innovation, in ways to achieve high-quality economic growth of the city," said experts attending the conference.


theverge--2019-03-22--A physicist explains what the science of phase transitions can teach us about nurturing innovation

A moonshot is an ambitious goal, but physicist and entrepreneur Safi Bahcall is interested in what he calls “loonshots,” or the neglected, unhinged ideas that then go on to change the world.  In 2011, Bahcall — who has a doctorate in physics and founded a company focused on drug discovery — started working with then-President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on a project to shape the future of national research. On the first day, the chairman of the group said that the goal was to “write the next generation of the Vannevar Bush report.” Bahcall had never heard of Vannevar Bush, an engineer and inventor who led the Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II and played a crucial role in setting America’s priorities in science and tech.  As Bahcall read up on the history, he became more and more interested in the question of how important ideas are nurtured or forgotten. The resulting book is Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure DIseases, and Transform Industries (St. Martin’s Press) and it’s “about what an idea from physics tells us about the behavior of groups and teams, and how companies can use that to innovate faster.”  The Verge spoke to Bahcall about how the science of phase transitions can influence business, organizational trade-offs in companies, and Nokia’s doomed smartphone idea. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.  The main analogy you use throughout the book is of phase transitions. As a refresher for those who haven’t taken physics since high school, how do phase transitions work?  Imagine you have a glass of water. You stick your finger in the glass, you can swish it around. That’s always true, except as you lower the temperature, all of a sudden at the critical point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, that behavior completely changes? Why? The molecules inside are exactly the same, but suddenly they change behavior. They freeze, they become completely rigid, they go from sloshing to rigid, and in science that’s called a phase transition.  Do you want innovation? Do you want high quality? You can’t have both.  It turns out that understanding or applying that idea to groups can give you a new way to think about behaviors and why they suddenly change. Most of the books you read talk about how the change comes from the top and the CEO should be the “chief innovation officer,” but in a glass of water there’s no CEO molecule with a bullhorn checking the temperature and going, “well, it’s 33 degrees so let’s be liquid, oh it’s 31 now so everyone line up and be rigid.” There’s something about structure that causes molecules to suddenly change behavior and that has nothing to do with the top or culture. It’s what elements of structure transform the behavior of teams and companies.  I think structure can drive culture! There is a famous saying in business that culture eats strategy for breakfast and the theme here is that structure eats culture for lunch. Here’s an example. Let’s say you took 50 people and asked each one of them individually, are you excited about this early project? They’re all individually excited. You organize them into a group and then they collectively reject that idea. Why?  We want to look at underlying incentives. When you organize people into a group and the groups are small enough, people are really interested in making that project succeed. If it’s a small company, people unite around the project. But as the group gets larger and you organize into layers, you have associates and vice presidents and senior vice presidents, incentives start to shift. Instead of, “we all have a stake in this project,” incentives become more about “what do I need to do to get promoted?” Then it becomes “I want to focus on my idea and not my competitor’s idea” and you start shooting down ideas around you and emphasizing your own stuff.  It’s the exact same people, but you just increase the size or the number of layers and you’re changing the incentives. On the surface it seems like the culture changes — you’ve gone from an entrepreneurial, innovative culture to a political organization — but the people are the same. It’s not about the people changing or what the CEO does, it’s the underlying structure that drives culture.  What are some examples of this happening? Where companies went from innovative to rejecting important ideas?  Nokia is a good one. You have a conglomerate that made all sorts of stuff like rubber boots and toilet paper and over the course of 20 years they became the world’s leading smartphone company, on the cover of every magazine. And then you have this small team that developed this new idea in the early 2000s of a big phone with a big, beautiful touchscreen and a beautiful camera. The same people who led the company rejected that idea and a few years later the engineers who came up with the prototype at Nokia watched Steve Jobs unveil the iPhone, which was very similar and essentially the same idea. Within a few years, Nokia was irrelevant. That’s an example of a great team suddenly going from embracing new ideas to rigidly rejecting them, just like a glass of water goes from fluid to a rigid solid.  As they grew and expanded, structure changed and it crossed that point where it became more about people’s individual incentives and politics. Once you cross that transition, it’s just a matter of time and it’s inevitable that your organization is going to harden and become rigid and you’ll start shooting down those same ideas that you embraced.  Is size the main factor that matters in these phase transitions?  There’s a handful of variables. Others are how many levels are in the organization — you can have 1000 people organized into three layers, or 1000 people organized into 10 layers. There’s no right or wrong because the number of layers achieves different objectives. If you have lots, it means you have lots of redundancy and a lot of quality control and low error rate. Fewer layers is more freedom and space to experiment, which means a higher error rate. It depends on the goal. If your goal is innovation, you want a high error rate and to try lots of stuff. If you’re building planes, you don’t want to manufacture 10 and send them flying and see which eight fall down and crash.  There’s this idea that innovation is always good, but innovation comes along with higher failure rates, so you really want to think about specific teams or groups that create what you goal. Do you want innovation? Do you want high quality? You can’t have both.  Finally, I was intrigued by your idea of the “Moses trap,” which is exploring the downside of embracing loonshots. Can you explain the trap?  You see this pattern over and over, especially in Silicon Valley, where the leader is so enamoured with new ideas. You need two conditions. Number one is an all-powerful leader where the decisions really get made from the top of the mountain. Two, you have someone who becomes infatuated with the crazy ideas and always wants to have the next one. You always hear that something is the holy loonshot that will save the company.  That will work for a while because you can have strong technologists making those bets, but it will inevitably fail because nobody is right 100 percent or even 90 or 80 percent of the time. More importantly, when you get into those traps you develop blinders and believe that the only thing that matters are the improvements in product. You miss the small changes in strategy that can transform your industry.  Look at what happened to PanAm. You had a terrifically talented leader who identified new technologies that allowed him to build bigger, faster, better planes, and he kept turning that cycle and that worked for quite a while until it didn’t. He had all these competitors and he was building bigger faster planes, but some of them were working on small changes in strategy like frequent flyer miles, things like yield management with big data, how to arrange seats. Things that sound kind of boring but actually make a big difference, and when airline deregulation hit [creating a free market for the airline industry], he had big, fast planes but no competitors. His competitors didn’t have as high-quality planes, but they had small changes in strategy that allowed them to run a much more economical business. They survived and PanAm didn’t.


activistpost--2019-04-16--Police Use Drones To Spy On Suspicious People At Potential Crime Scenes

Police Use Drones To Spy On Suspicious People At “Potential Crime Scenes”

For years, law enforcement has been claiming that drones will only be used for natural disasters, crime scene investigations, car accidents and rescue operations.  That is the bill of goods being sold to the public, but it is all a lie.  A perfect example of how law enforcement promises the public one thing and, after time passes, uses it for something else is taking place in Texas at the Memorial Villages Police Department (MVPD).  Two years ago, Click2Houston reported how the MVPD claimed that they would only use drones for “better emergency response during disasters.” They also used police officer and UAV pilot Larry Boggus to solidify their claim that drones would only be used for natural disasters saying, “drones are a huge asset for us because very quickly we were able to see the amount of houses that were damaged” during a 2018 storm.  I love it when police departments provide comic relief to prove my point.  It only took one year for the MVPD to prove their “Boggus” claim that drones would only be used during emergencies was a lie. (Pun intended.)  Last week, Click2Houston revealed that the MVPD is using drones to respond to home alarms and to identify suspicious people.  When police use drones to respond to home alarms, don’t think for one second that they will only use them to fly over that particular home. When police respond to a possible break-in using a patrol car, they will typically drive around the neighborhood looking for suspicious people and possible signs of forced entry.  So what do you think police will use drones for?  All across the country their are numerous examples of police using drones to spy on crowds, but a Harvard Law School article titled “Drones as Crime-Fighting Tools in 2020: Legal and Normative Considerations” warned that the Boston Police Department’s plan to use “observation warrants” to justify spying on the public is a harbinger of what is to come.  As the video above explains, sending police drones to investigate “potential crimes” means that everyone is a potential suspect. Police will use drones to spy on people’s homes, backyards and streets, looking for suspicious people, essentially turning our Bill of Rights into a paper tiger.  A perfect example of our Bill of Rights being turned into a paper tiger is the use of Stingrays. Law enforcement has been using Stingrays to intercept millions of innocent phone conversations and texts without a warrant.  Which is exactly how law enforcement plans to use drones.  Police Stingrays and drones are designed for mass surveillance and do not care if they spy on innocent people.  As Andrew Ferguson, a David A. Clarke School of Law professor warned, “once you have flying cameras available, they will likely be used beyond the pilot project,” Ferguson said. “They will fly more and capture more data. This is a perfect example of how big data surveillance will change the power balance between citizens and police and erode community trust.” How often do police respond to false alarms? A 2014 study by the Statesman found that 90% percent or 9 out of 10 home alarms are false alarms.  False alarms are so common that some police departments charge homeowners $300.00 to as much as $500.00 for responding to them. To put it another way, a Google search of “police respond to false alarms” returned 9.4 million hits. So there is no question that launching a police drone to investigate millions of false alarms is a bad idea. Allowing law enforcement to use drones to investigate potential crimes, suspicious people or conduct observation warrants will have a negative effect on Americans’ freedoms. You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared.

disaster, accident and emergency incident


aljazeera--2019-09-24--When is this going to endaTM Indonesians shrouded in toxic haze

'When is this going to end?â€™: Indonesians shrouded in toxic haze

Jambi, Indonesia – In an emergency clinic in the south of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, three-year-old Rafael has a cough and a fever.  The boy’s oxygen levels are so low he can barely raise his head from the gurney.  All he can do is lie still and wait for oxygen; his mother waiting anxiously at his side.  Parts of Indonesia have been ablaze since July as plantation owners burn land that is no longer considered productive to prepare it for replanting in the coming season or to turn jungle into plantation, sending plumes of choking smoke into the air.  The islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan have been the worst affected by what’s known as the haze, but is really a toxic smog made up of microscopic particles, including soot and tar, and chemicals such as cyanide and carbon monoxide.  With the fires still raging the cloud of pollution spread across Malaysia and Singapore this month, affecting millions more people.  In Jambi, Rafael’s mother Yuli tried to keep her son safe from the smog, but as he struggled to breathe, she rushed him to the clinic, one of 20 emergency response units set up for those affected by the pollution.  “I keep all the doors and windows closed and keep my two children locked up in the house,” she told Al Jazeera.  “I’m not brave enough to let them go outside. I’m so worried and I just hope it ends soon. I feel so sorry for the children.”  The city’s mayor, Syarif Fasha, closed schools on Friday and has ordered a review of the situation in the coming week.  “We monitor the air quality every 30 minutes and as soon as it hits unhealthy levels, I take action,” he told Al Jazeera. “If it keeps getting worse I will recall all teachers from schools as well as civil servants.”  Over the last 48 hours the air quality index peaked at 656, which is classified as "hazardous".     Fasha has ordered 100,000 masks to be distributed across the city and every local health clinic in Jambi is required to have an operating “recovery room” for patients suffering from respiratory problems caused by the haze. The rooms are sealed and equipped with oxygen, air-conditioning units and an exhaust fan.  One such clinic is headed by Dr Tety who told Al Jazeera that she had seen a spike in patients seeking treatment for acute respiratory infections in recent days.  “If patients come in with respiratory complaints, we take them straight to the emergency room and give them a nebulizer and oxygen. Then they go to the ‘recovery room’ for ‘cooling down’ where they are given more oxygen until their breathing returns to normal,” she said.  Dr Tety said the treatment was free for patients suffering from haze-related medical conditions, on the orders of the mayor of Jambi City.  Many of the patients are children, including six-year-old daughter Marwa who has a cough, fever and runny nose.  “I’m worried about my children’s health,” her mother Nurhasana told Al Jazeera.  “They like doing their daily activities outside, but for the past few days, I’ve kept them in isolation in the house. We only go out now if we really need to.”  But while the response in town has been praised, people living closer to the fire hotspots, say they feel abandoned by their local authorities.  In the village of Catur Rahayu, about an hour away from Jambi City, Siti Sunarsi can do nothing but sit in her home and hope for things to improve. Her daughter, five-year-old Nabilla, has been off school for one and a half months, and Sunarsi says she’s worried about her education as well as the health effects of the haze.  “She’s already forgotten everything she learnt, and the smoke is getting worse and darker every day. We keep asking ourselves: ‘When is this going to end?’” she said.  Pointing to the thick orange glow in the air, Sunarsi added that the smoke pollution was taking a huge psychological and physical toll on the local population.  “Everything is upside down. It doesn’t feel like day any more, it always feels like sunset. People who are usually healthy are sick. We have to have the lights on all the time, and we’re weak and feverish from the fires.”  Asked if she had considered leaving the area and moving her children to a place where the air quality was better, Sunarsi pointed out that there were few options for local residents, as the haze had blanketed all of Jambi Province.  “Even if we could leave, where is there to go?” she said.  Last week, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visited Riau Province - another haze hotspot in Sumatra - and said that the Indonesian government had deployed some 6,000 troops across Indonesia to put out the fires.  “We have made every effort,” he told the media.  Back in Jambi City, its beleaguered mayor said that the city had received only two helicopters to drop water bombs on the fires, compared with seven in other provinces such as Riau, and that more resources and personnel were needed to tackle the choking haze.  Until then, he said he was doing all he can to keep his community safe.  “I’ve instructed all residents of Jambi to pray for rain to extinguish the fires, in accordance with their individual religious beliefs,” he said. “When nothing else is working, it’s our last resort.”


bbc--2019-01-20--Could Kenya have prevented the hotel siege

Could Kenya have prevented the hotel siege?

The deadly militant raid on a hotel complex in Kenya has raised questions about whether the security forces have learned any lessons from past terror attacks, including the four-day siege on the Westgate shopping centre in 2013.  These days individuals and vehicles entering any major public premises in Kenya usually have to go through checks by private security companies involving a range of tools - metal detectors, X-ray machines, bomb detectors and sniffer dogs.  Though Kenyans have varying opinions about how seriously the security personnel take this process.  One place where they would be expected to be conscientious is the scene of the latest attack, the complex that includes the DusitD2 hotel, known by its address: 14 Riverside.  It is home to a variety of businesses and a major hotel which was frequented by professionals, government officials and foreigners. In other words, the kind of location that the Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab would target knowing that the world would notice.  Yet however strict the security measures and however conscientious those enforcing them are, there is only so much the building owners can do to secure their property and clientele, as Tuesday's events highlighted.  The main responsibility lies with the Kenyan authorities.  Most of the recent al-Shabab attacks on Kenyan soil have been around the border with Somalia, which appeared to feed a semblance of control and stability in the rest of the country amid a lingering threat.  This however assumes that al-Shabab always plans its major actions in Somalia.  Risk analyst Mathias Muindi thinks that this latest attack has signs that there was some level of preparation by Kenyan militant cells.  "The evidence collected about the attack suspects has revealed links to parts of Kenya that are traditionally non-Muslim and non-Somali, where security agencies may not have previously paid much attention," he says.  "The problem now is that they do not have the adequate manpower to run an expanded and robust nationwide intelligence operation."  Read more about the militants  The quality and effectiveness of the government's anti-terror efforts will be scrutinised yet again - in particular whether crucial intelligence from local and foreign sources is acted upon.  Kenyan intelligence officials argue that over the years they have had successes intercepting some suspected militants, potentially preventing more attacks and proving that they are making progress.  They add that it has been nearly four years since the attack the university campus in the town of Garissa and more than five years since similar attack in the capital, referring to the Westgate siege in 2013. The suggestion is that such incidents are not the norm.  Clearly, some lessons were learned from Westgate.  The scale and depth of the emergency response - police and military counter-terror units, foreign security personnel, ambulance and fire brigade - that arrived at 14 Riverside showed organisation, in contrast to the shambles five years ago.  Security agents arrived relatively quickly and showed composure as they evacuated civilians and screened them before letting them go, to be sure that the attackers did not slip out unnoticed.  However, there were still some worrying lapses.  Security officials delayed enforcing a strict security cordon, meaning that there could have been more civilian casualties if there had been further explosions, a tactic al-Shabab has used in Somalia.  A suspicious vehicle in the car park that security agents thought could have been used by the attackers remained unattended. Footage also showed an unexploded grenade lying in a corridor of one of the buildings as security agents shuffled in and out a few feet away.  There are wider issues to consider too for Kenya's security chiefs.  "There is a lot of spending on training the security forces yet we only see limited effects because their welfare is poor," says George Musamali, the director of a private security firm.  "Training is not enough. Equipping is not enough. Something needs to be done about human resource to make sure that these people are fully motivated to do their work properly."  He also calls for a better channel of communication between the government and the public, not just in the aftermath of attacks but as a norm so that intelligence from the civilians can be properly gathered and used.  The government responded to this week's attack by using a familiar tactic: downplaying the impact of al-Shabab's actions.  This is part of an active effort to control the narrative and win the propaganda war that has accompanied this insurgency.  Kenyans were warned against sharing gruesome images from the attack and on Tuesday evening Interior Minister Fred Matiang'i announced that the affected buildings had been secured and security forces were mopping up the area.  But this came as members of the public were reporting that their friends and relatives were still in the complex hiding from the attackers.  Mr Musamali feels the government's tone only pushes away the public and loses their trust.  The government is up against a group that has arguably the most advanced media operation of any militant Islamist movement in Africa, including established radio and digital outfits.  It often films its attacks in Somalia, including the devastating assault on a Kenyan army base in the town of el-Ade exactly three years to the day of this week's attack. Some of its media material is produced in Swahili, clearly targeting audiences in Kenya, revealing its cross-border ambitions.  The threat will not go away in the short term and changes still need to be made.  Andrew Franklin, a Nairobi-based security consultant and ex-US marine, says it is clear that the government's security agencies and the many private security companies are not working together enough "and that is evident in the obvious security glitches around Nairobi".  Yet again, Kenya has suffered a big loss and as its people come to terms with this week's events they will wonder why it has to take catastrophe for more lessons to be learned.


bbc--2019-02-05--Highland rescue after pensioners SOS signal picked up in Texas

Highland rescue after pensioner's SOS signal picked up in Texas

A man who fell ill at his remote Highlands cabin was rescued after the signal from his distress beacon was picked up in the US.  The man, who is in his 70s and lives "off-grid", uses the device in its "check-in" mode every week to let his family and friends know he is well.  On Sunday he triggered an SOS, which was automatically sent to a response centre in Houston, Texas.  A coastguard helicopter and Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team went to his aid.  The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the man, who has no other means of communication other than his personal locator beacon, was found to be "very ill" from a potentially life-threatening head injury.  Prestwick Coastguard helicopter crew was unable to winch the man directly from outside his loch-side cabin because of surrounding trees.  Members of Lochaber MRT moved the man to a clearing where he could be winched to the helicopter.  Lochaber MRT described him as one of their "off-gridders", a term used to describe someone with their own power and water supplies and usually grows their own food.  The SOS signal was picked up by the International Emergency Response Coordination Centre in Houston, which in turn notified HM Coastguard mission control centre (MCC) in Fareham.  The coastguard team assessed the signal to be an emergency rather than the man's usual Sunday "check-in" with family and friends.  After being winched to the helicopter, he was flown to a landing site at Torlundy, near Fort William, and then taken by ambulance to Fort William's Belford Hospital.  Neil Blewett, UK aeronautical operations centre controller for HM Coastguard, said the man's rescue was an "excellent result".  He said: "When the man activated his beacon that signal went via satellite to Houston, which then gets sent to our MCC for attention.  "What must seem a very long way round for an alert to reach us is actually very quick thanks to the satellite technology that we use.  'In this case, the man's activation of his beacon, the satellites and the beacon itself saved his life because without any of those we would not have known he needed urgent help.  "We have since heard that the man is doing well and we wish him a speedy recovery so that he can return home as soon as possible."


bbc--2019-11-13--Army to be sent to flood-hit parts of England

Some residents in a flood-stricken village could be out of their homes for up to three weeks as efforts continue to make the area safe.  Fishlake near Doncaster has been one of the worst hit with hundreds of people being forced to leave their properties.  About 100 Army personnel are in South Yorkshire supporting the flood effort.  The prime minister visited flood-hit Stainforth to see the emergency response. But some onlookers shouted at him to say "you took your time".  One resident told Boris Johnson: "I'm not very happy about talking to you so, if you don't mind, I'll just mope on with what I'm doing."  Mr Johnson said he understood the strength of feeling as "you cannot underestimate the anguish that a flood causes".  Shelly Beniston, who is organising supply runs in Fishlake, told Mr Johnson there not been enough help from authorities.  When the prime minister asked if there was anything he could do to help, she replied: "I think it's more a less all coming in now, a little bit too late though."  The PM said the government was "plainly going to have to do more" to equip places with flood defences.  Doncaster Council said every effort was being made to increase pumping so people could return home sooner.  More widespread rain is forecast, with warnings in place for large parts of the country on Wednesday and Thursday.  On Tuesday, Mr Johnson announced more support for communities affected by flooding following a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee.  It came amid criticism from Labour and the Liberal Democrats who said he should declare a "national emergency".  Mr Johnson said authorities were working "flat out" and a request had been made for "a little bit more help" from the military in getting sandbags and other defences to some of the areas affected.  Jon Trickett, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said Mr Johnson's proposals were "too little too late".  He said: "You can't trust Boris Johnson to look out for the North or the Midlands or protect our communities from flooding."  Personnel from the Light Dragoons laid down sandbags in Stainforth near Doncaster, attempting to shore up the village's bridge.  About 500 homes have been flooded in Doncaster with more than 1,000 properties evacuated in areas hit by the floods.  Hundreds of people in Fishlake have fled their homes after the village was submerged and the fire service has been working to rescue people.  The council said the village was not safe and that "a return to properties is discouraged in the strongest possible terms".  Roads into Fishlake remain closed and the Environment Agency said people should not attempt to enter the area.  The council said the Environment Agency, along with emergency services, were working hard to recover the area for a safe return but "the latest estimates suggest a safe return could be up to three weeks away for some residents".  Scott Godfrey, landlord of the Hare and Hounds, has been using the pub as a refuge giving affected residents accommodation and hot food as well as delivering meals to people stranded in their homes.  He said they had been let down by Doncaster Council "big style" because it had rowed back on its promise of helping with provisions to send out to villagers.  He said: "We had 45 residents that were stranded who wanted meals. Luckily everyone pulled together and we managed to get some hot meals out."  The authority said it would now be offering humanitarian aid to those who have remained in Fishlake but this should not be attempted by residents. • Have flood and fire services been cut? • What are the factors making floods worse? • Why insurance does not always cover flood damage  Meanwhile, the next door village of Stainforth has been coming to the aid of those evacuated from their homes.  Other measures announced by Mr Johnson were: • Funding for local councils where households and businesses have been affected - equivalent to £500 per eligible household • Up to £2,500 for small and medium-sized businesses which have suffered severe impacts not covered by insurance  Referring to the response for people affected by the flooding, Mr Johnson added: "I know there will be people who feel that that isn't good enough.  "I know there will be people who are worrying about the damage to their homes, who will be worried about the insurance situation, worried about the losses they face.  "All I want to say to those people is that there are schemes to cover those losses."  Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had earlier said the government's response was "woeful" while Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson called for "long-term policy changes".  Mr Corbyn said if the flooding had happened in Surrey it "would have been a very different story".  Both leaders urged the prime minister to declare a "national emergency".  The five severe flood warnings along the River Don in South Yorkshire have now been removed, but 20 flood warnings - meaning "flooding is expected" - remain in place.  Last week extensive downpours meant several areas were struck by a month's worth of rain in a single day.  A couple who became new parents on Friday - to be told hours later that their home in Fishlake was underwater - have praised the support they have had from people as "invaluable".  "Thank God for the people of Stainforth, and other people around for the support that they've shown," said Dan Greenslade.  Meanwhile a Doncaster salon offered free "pamper" sessions for local children affected by flooding, and dozens of swans were rescued from oil from an upturned barge in Rotherham and cars which had been trapped in flood water.  Churches and community centres have collected toiletries, clothes, cleaning products and food for the hundreds of people displaced from their homes.


bbcuk--2019-02-05--Highland rescue after pensioners SOS signal picked up in Texas


bbcuk--2019-08-19--999 ambulance target times should be reinstated for stroke victims

999 ambulance target times 'should be reinstated for stroke victims'

A family claim the Welsh Government are "playing with people's lives" after axing ambulance waiting time targets to reach suspected stroke victims.  Mari Gore's family said she was told to wait two-and-a-half hours for an ambulance after having a stroke in her home - and claim she waited five hours before getting the drugs she needed.  They now want ambulance response targets for strokes to be reinstated.  The Welsh Government say they want to "deliver further improvements".  Strokes are in the amber category of the ambulance 999 traffic light priority list - and emergency response time targets were scrapped for all but the life-threatening green category cases in 2015.  Now Mari Gore's family want "the whole system to change" after the mother from Rhondda Cynon Taff survived after suffering a stroke in her Mountain Ash home.  "(We) were told it would take two-and-a-half hours at least for an ambulance to go to the house, which is totally unacceptable," said daughter-in-law Nia Gore.  "A first responder arrived but there was still an urgency to get her to a hospital.  "That time is vital because it could have been a totally different outcome."  More than 4,000 people had to wait over an hour for medical assistance after suffering strokes in Wales between January and March this year, according to a freedom of information request from Plaid Cymru.  The figures claim waiting times for amber incidents have doubled in three years - and the average waiting time is now 26 minutes.  The NHS tells patients "the sooner a person receives treatment for a stroke, the less damage is likely to happen" and "dial 999 immediately" if you see someone has stroke symptoms.  The Gore family's call is the latest for suspected stroke victims to be moved up the priority list after a review carried out by clinicians, the Welsh Ambulance Service, the government and medical experts.  "The whole system needs changing so people don't have to wait so long," added Nia Gore, from Aberystwyth.  "They are playing with people's lives."  Mrs Gore has since recovered but her daughter-in-law admits "it could've been a totally different story".  "She's lucky because she is a strong, determined lady and wanted to get better - but that's no thanks to the ambulance."  Plaid Cymru's shadow health minister Helen Mary Jones claims an average hour-long wait time for stroke sufferers is "shocking".  "We know it is a life-threatening condition and we know if people get the right treatment at the right time then they are not only more likely to survive but there's every chance they would have a healthy life," said the Mid and West Wales AM.  "We want the Welsh Government to set a specific target for strokes and we want them to set a target from the time the call is made to the time the people arrive in the right ward."  The Welsh Ambulance Service acknowledge some patients "wait too long for help" because of problems with ambulance availability and are working to make improvements so patients get treatment quicker.  A Welsh Government statement added: "Following a review of the Welsh Ambulance Service's amber category, we are continuing to work with partners, including Stroke Association Wales, to understand how we can deliver further improvements for patients suspected of having a stroke."


birminghammail--2019-02-26--This is a national emergency MPs demands Cobra-style summit over city knife crime crisis

'This is a national emergency': MPs demands Cobra-style summit over city knife crime crisis

Birmingham MPs today called for national crisis talks as the city mourns the slaughter of three teenage boys - all victims of separate knife attacks.  A 'Cobra-style' response was needed from Home Secretary Sajid Javid to 'get a grip' on knife crime, urged Yardley MP Jess Phillips.  She said: "This is a crisis. Our Government, and the Home Secretary, need to set up a Cobra-level response to it, with a high level team meeting every week until this is solved.  "This needs to be treated like a national emergency, because it is.  "We can't keep waking up to this news. It's very real and something else needs to be done."  Her comments were backed by veteran MP Jack Dromey, who represents Erdington. He said: "Birmingham is at risk of becoming the knife crime capital of Britain. This is an emergency demanding an emergency response.  "The first duty of any government is the safety and security of its citizens. Ministers are letting Birmingham down."  What does Cobra stand for and why would it be useful to look at knife deaths? Cobra meetings are called by Government leaders in response to a national or regional crisis. They aim to bring together senior ministers, civil servants, emergency services, councils and others to come up with a fast, effective response to an emergency. They are typically called following terrorist acts or threats to national security.  Cobra meetings are so called because they are held in the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, Briefing Room A - sometimes styled as COBRA. They were first called to oversee the response to the miners' strike of 1972. Since then high profile events that have resulted in Cobra being called including the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks, Lee Rigby's murder, and the Paris and Brussels attacks; the Manchester Arena bombing and attack outside the Houses of Parliament, and following the Salisbury poisonings. MP Jess Phillips believes this type of response would demonstrate the urgency of the situation facing Birmingham and other cities over knife crime and be an opportunity to hear from experts from all parts of government about how best to respond.  City MPs are meeting communities secretary James Brokenshire today to raise their concerns, and have written to the Home Office to put pressure on Sajid Javid to act swiftly.  Added Mr Dromey: "The simple truth is that the loss of 2,100 police officers from the West Midlands force has seen all crime increase and knife crime soar.  "The time has come for those cuts to be reversed. Birmingham desperately needs many more police officers."  South Birmingham College student Hazrat Umar, 17, died after being knifed in Norwood Road, Bordesley Green, on Monday afternoon while on his way to a gym.  His death was the third fatal stabbing in just 12 days in the city.  Last Wednesday 16-year-old Abdullah Muhammad died after being stabbed in Herbert Road, Small Heath.  Seven days earlier student Sidali Mohammed, also 16, died after being stabbed outside Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College in Highgate.  Shabana Mahmood, who represents Birmingham Ladywood constituency where two of the killings have taken place, has requested an urgent meeting with the Chief Constable and Commissioner for West Midlands Police.  She said: “Tragically, this is the third teenager to be fatally stabbed in Birmingham in the last fortnight. My heart goes out to the young victim's friends and family at this truly terrible time.  “I have requested an urgent meeting with the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police and the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner. I am pleased that an increased police presence is already in place, with targeted action where appropriate.  "But our communities need assurances that measures are being put in place to work with local communities to prevent any further appalling incidents from happening.  “The rising violent crime, and particularly knife crime, we have seen in recent weeks and months across Birmingham is extremely concerning. I will do all that I can to help ensure we tackle the scourge of knife crime which has taken yet another young person from us.”  The calls for action were supported by West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson, who said today: "This is another tragic loss of life on our streets. My thoughts are with his family and friends.  "There will be an increased presence from West Midlands Police and Section 60 stop and search powers will be used to deter those who may be carrying knives.  "I will continue to invest in schemes for young people to divert them away from crime and am pressing West Midlands Police to be as efficient as possible so resources can be focussed where the public want them most.  "Ultimately the force has lost £175 million and over 2,000 officers since 2010. That is having an impact on our ability to fight crime. Even more significant though is the decimation of youth services, rising school exclusions and the growth in the drugs trade."  In December the area's MPs had made a desperate plea for extra cash to fund 500 extra police to thwart rising crime.  They said then: "With violent crime up 18 per cent and gun crime up 15 per cent, fear stalks the streets of communities all over the West Midlands.  "The government is failing the first duty of any government and that is the safety and security of its citizens.  Community campaigner Desmond Jaddoo said extra investment in neighbourhood policing was a vital step towards easing the bubbling tension in deprived communities across the inner city.  In December he warned: "Things could explode at any time. People are disaffected and there is mistrust of authority that's fuelled by lack of opportunity. We are counting the bodies of the victims."


birminghammail--2019-06-28--Air ambulance called after man slashed in street - live updates

A man has been hospitalised after an assault in a Wolverhampton street.  Emergency crews – including the Midlands Air Ambulance – were deployed to Dalbeg Close following reports of an assault at around 3pm on Friday, June 28.  Medics treated the victim at the scene and transferred him to hospital for further treatment, a spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed.  Eyewitness, who did not want to be named, told Black Country Live that there was a large emergency response at the scene.  West Midlands Police has been contacted for more information.  This is a live blog and updates on the collision and the road will folllow.  To keep up-to-date with crime in your community, join the Black Country Crime Watch  Facebook group where you will be alerted to any suspicious or criminal behaviour happening in your area.  Also follow the Black Country Live Facebook page here and here on Twitter.


birminghammail--2019-09-11--Man arrested after baby thrown into river in Radcliffe Greater Manchester

Man arrested after baby thrown into river in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester

A baby has been rescued by firefighters after being thrown into the a river.  The infant was thrown into the River Irwell from a bridge in Radcliffe  The incident prompted  a huge emergency response in the Blackburn Street area near the town centre, according to our sister title the Manchester Evening News .  Radcliffe is in the borough of Bury, Greater Manchester.  The child, a boy, was rescued by firefighters who gave him first aid. He is said to be in a critical condition.  Eyewitnesses said that two fire engines, ambulances, multiple police vehicles and the GMP force helicopter were at the area.  Greater Manchester Police said a man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and he is in custody for questioning.  Transport for Greater Manchester tweeted to say that Blackburn Street in the town was closed due to a 'police incident'.  Greater Manchester Police issued a statement saying: ""Shortly before 4.25pm today (Wednesday 11 September 2019), police were called to reports that a child was in the River Irwell.  "Emergency services attended and with the support of the police helicopter the child was retrieved and taken to hospital where he remains in a critical condition.  "A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He remains in custody for questioning.  "Blackburn Street is currently closed at the junctions with Stand Lane and Radcliffe New Road.  "An investigation is underway and enquiries are ongoing.  "Anyone with information should call police on 101 quoting incident number 1930 of 11/09/2019, or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111."

newsdesk@birminghamlive.co.uk (Ashlie Blakey, David Bentley)


birminghammail--2019-11-19--Watch - Part of Wolverhampton city centre sealed off over 'chemical smell' alert at The Moon Under W

Watch - Part of Wolverhampton city centre sealed off over 'chemical smell' alert at The Moon Under Water pub

A number of people were reported to have suffered minor injuries and part of Wolverhampton city centre was sealed off over a 'chemical smell' alert at a popular pub.  Paramedics and firefighters from Wolverhampton and Fallings Park were sent to the scene and were said to be dealing with an "incident" at The Moon Under Water in Lichfield Street.  A cordon was in place after the alarm was raised on Monday night.  Police officers were also in attendance. Those hurt were treated at the scene by paramedics.  The details of the alert were not immediately clear but the emergency response affected theategoers leaving the Grand's performance of Fame at around 10pm.  West Midlands Fire Service tweeted: "Crews from Wolverhampton and Fallings Park are currently dealing with an incident at The Moon Under Water in Wolverhampton city centre, working alongside West Mids Ambulance and specialist officers to effectively deal with a strong chemical smell."  One witness said on Facebook: "I walked past it as the fire alarm was going off. Madness."  And a member of the audience from The Grand told Black Country Live: "We noticed an ambulance on the road outside as we walked down the stairs to the bar after we left the auditorium for the interval.  "But when we were directed out of the theatre via a fire/emergency exit we realised something was very wrong.  "When we got on to Lichfield Street, police were lined up along the road and directed audience members to keep moving along.  "The area was cordoned off and there was an ambulance, two fire engines and several police cars."  Were you at the scene? Send your pictures and videos to our Facebook page here


cnbc--2019-01-09--Trump threatens to cut off federal funding for California wildfire relief

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off federal relief aid to California for wildfires, prompting a swift response from new Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that "disasters and recovery are no time for politics."  "Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen," Trump tweeted. "Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!"  The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been helping on the ground in California after wildfires in November collectively damaged or destroyed more than 20,000 structures and killed at least 89 people. The largest blaze was the devastating Camp Fire that destroyed most of the Northern California town of Paradise, killing at least 86 people in the nation's deadliest wildfire in at least a century. FEMA also has been providing help in response to the Woolsey and Hill fires in Southern California.  CNBC reached out to FEMA and the White House for comment.  "Disasters and recovery are no time for politics," Newsom fired back in a tweet. "I'm already taking action to modernize and manage our forests and emergency responses. The people of CA – folks in Paradise – should not be victims to partisan bickering."  Playing out in the background, however, are rising tensions between the Republican president and Democrats as the partial U.S. government shutdown Wednesday entered its 19th day due to a stalemate over funding Trump's proposed border wall. Newsom has been critical of the wall and Trump's policies on immigration, as well as a wide range of other issues.  Trump's threat to pull FEMA funding follows Newsom's criticism of the Trump administration Monday during his inaugural address. Newsom called the administration "hostile to California's values and interests" and also took a swipe at what he called "the corruption and incompetence in the White House."  The threat to halt disaster funds also could be a setback for recovery efforts in Paradise, a community in Butte County, where Trump edged Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by more than 3 percentage points in 2016.  The president has been critical of California's wildfire prevention efforts previously and threatened to pull federal funds in October and then again in November as firefighters were still battling major blazes across the state. For example, in November he went on social media to blame "gross mismanagement of the forests" for the state's wildfires and added, "Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!"  Then, a week after his tweet about "gross mismanagement," the president flew to California to see the devastation in Paradise with then-Gov. Jerry Brown and Newsom and suggested the "forest nation" Finland did a better job preventing wildfires by devoting "a lot of time raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don't have any problem."  In addition, back in August as the massive Mendocino Complex wildfires in Northern California were raging, the president claimed the state's wildfires were "being magnified & made so much worse" due to what he called California's "bad environmental laws."  California fire officials have said the increasing severity of wildfires in the state is due to climate change, not forest management practices.  "The president's attempt to pin sole blame for California's wildfire problems on the state's forest management is flat wrong," said Brian Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters — a union representing about 30,000 local, state and federal firefighters.  He called Trump's threat to pull FEMA aid "deplorable" and said those still rebuilding their lives in Paradise now "find themselves being used as pawns in the president's ill-informed chest-pounding at their expense." Rice also ripped the president for "a self-imposed [government] shutdown" and said Trump "has little standing to lecture anyone else about dysfunction."  Rice pointed out the lion's share of forest land in California is controlled by the federal government and added that "many catastrophic fires in California occur in the wildland-urban interface, fueled by unprecedented weather conditions, drought and development patterns."  According to the state's Legislative Analyst's Office, about one-third of the state is forested land, and nearly 60 percent is owned by the federal government. Only 3 percent is owned by state or local governments. The remaining forested land is owned by private entities, including timber companies.  On Tuesday, Newsom announced plans to expand the state's emergency preparedness for wildfires, including a five-year, $1 billion forest management plan in his next budget. He also wants the state to spend about $300 million for new helicopters and planes to combat fires as well as to update its communications equipment and install more fire-spotting cameras.


dailybeast--2019-12-05--Lawsuit: NRA’s School Safety Initiative Was a Farce Meant to Juice Fundraising

In the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in December 2012, the National Rifle Association launched a grant program that it said would be instrumental in protecting students from gun violence.  The School Shield Emergency Response Program was touted as a way to help provide schools with everything from “armed security to building design and access control to information technology to student and teacher training.” And in the subsequent years, the gun lobby continued to push the idea as school shootings became more frequent.  “When People Cried, ‘Someone Do Something!’ We Did,” The NRA declared on its website. School Shield, it added, was “A Program Whose Time Has Come.”  But as the gun group promoted School Shield, questions mounted about how far-reaching the program actually was. And now, one of the NRA’s longtime vendors is claiming that the gun-rights group artificially boosted their fundraising numbers by raising money for its School Shield program while paying out only a small number of actual grants.  In an amended counterclaim filed in Texas federal court in November, the NRA’s former ad agency—Ackerman McQueen—says that the gun lobby used School Shield as a “shell” program that it did not intend to meaningfully execute.  The longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre, the counterclaim alleges, “boosted NRA revenue through the creation of shell programs” like School Shield, “that the NRA never had any intention or meaningful ability to execute (or execute competently).”  All told, Ackerman McQueen claimed the NRA only gave a “paltry” five grants to schools between 2012 and 2014. That revelation matches reporting from Mother Jones, which revealed that the NRA’s tax returns from 2013 to 2016 showed only three grants given to schools on behalf of the School Shield program—totaling up to $200,000.  The lack of grants were, apparently, a subject of concern internally. When Oliver North became the NRA’s president in May 2018, the counterclaim alleged he “demanded” that the NRA “make [the program] real.” The gun group announced later that year that it had given 54 grants totaling over $600,000 to public and private schools in 23 states. The program is still active, recently giving a $21,000 grant to a Missouri school.  School Shield isn’t the only program that Ackerman McQueen says was used as a shell for the NRA to raise more money. According to its counterclaim, the NRA also used its Carry Guard insurance program as a vehicle to bring in more cash without providing much benefit for its members. The program was unveiled in 2017, and offered members insurance-backed criminal and civil liability protection. It also offered three levels of concealed carry gun training before shutting down earlier this year.  The counterclaim alleged that Josh Powell, the senior NRA official responsible for Carry Guard’s development, “seemed generally dismissive of the training component of the program and kept referring to Carry Guard as nothing but an ‘insurance scheme.’” The ad firm said it resisted promoting the program until the NRA could deliver on their promises to members, and expressed that it wanted nothing to do with the so-called “scheme.”  “By appealing to members’ hearts or promising benefits that were never delivered, the NRA raised millions of dollars of ‘funny money’—LaPierre’s affectionate term for brand sponsorship funds,” the counterclaim reads.  The counterclaim makes additional claims about Youth for Tomorrow (YFT)—a Christian organization where LaPierre’s wife, Susan, was president. The gun group has been scrutinized for its lack of transparency in donations to YFT before, with a report from The New Yorker and The Trace revealing that over $180,000 in NRA contributions to YFT went unreported in their tax filings. According to Ackerman McQueen, the NRA also hid donations to YFT by using another entity, stating that it used a “third-party charity”, which would then give the NRA’s money to YFT. The counterclaim did not name the alleged “third-party charity” used by the NRA.  The ad firm said this arrangement was part of “‘back-scratching’ relationships” LaPierre structured to “siphon money to pet projects that the NRA would otherwise be prohibited from contributing to.”  Ackerman McQueen’s counterclaim comes as the ad agency and the NRA are currently locked in a bitter legal battle. The gun group first sued Ackerman McQueen, claiming it was unable to provide adequate documentation for its bills to the group. The ad firm sued back, and said it complied with the gun group’s records requests. The firm also claimed that the NRA was attempting to terminate the contract between them. Both entities are seeking tens of millions from each other.  “Ackerman McQueen continues to make false claims and accusations against its former client—to avoid scrutiny of its own actions,” Michael J. Collins, counsel to the NRA, told The Daily Beast. “The counterclaim simply represents yet another desperate chapter in the agency’s smear campaign against the NRA and its members.”  Collins also said the NRA “openly” supported Youth for Tomorrow. “Including this deserving charity in its smear campaign against the NRA is a new low—even for Ackerman,” he said.  A representative for North declined to comment, and Ackerman McQueen’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.  Ackerman McQueen’s counterclaim was filed after the NRA launched a lawsuit against the ad firm in U.S. District Court in Texas. The two parties are also involved in a lawsuit in Virginia. The filing—which accuses the NRA of libel and LaPierre of libel and fraud—also includes previously reported claims of LaPierre hiding his personal expenses within the ad firm . In the NRA’s initial complaint, the gun group accused Ackerman McQueen of fraud, conspiracy, breaches of fiduciary duties, and others.