Read About The Tarbaby Story under the Category: About the Tarbaby Blog
Author: John Hanno
Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Bogan High School. Worked in Alaska after the earthquake. Joined U.S. Army at 17. Sergeant, B Battery, 3rd Battalion, 84th Artillery, 7th Army. Member of 12 different unions, including 4 different locals of the I.B.E.W. Worked for fortune 50, 100 and 200 companies as an industrial electrician, electrical/electronic technician.
US eyes weapons stockpiles as concern grows about supporting both Ukraine and Israel’s wars
Oren Liebermann and Natasha Bertrand – October 11, 2023
Alex Brandon/AP
Concern is growing within the Pentagon over the potential need to stretch its increasingly scarce ammunition stockpiles to support Ukraine and Israel in two separate wars, according to multiple US defense officials.
At the moment Ukraine and Israel require different weapons: Ukraine wants massive amounts of artillery ammunition while Israel has requested precision guided aerial munitions and Iron Dome interceptors.
But if Israel launches a ground incursion into Gaza, the Israeli military will create a new and entirely unexpected demand for 155mm artillery ammunition and other weapons at a time when the US and its allies and partners have been stretched thin from more than 18 months of fighting in Ukraine.
Israel has its own capable industrial base and produces many of its own advanced weapons, but a prolonged ground campaign could drain the country’s stockpiles, officials said. The Pentagon’s Joint Staff and Transportation Command have been working around the clock since Hamas launched its war on Israel last weekend to identify extra stores of munitions around the world and how to move them to Israel quickly, officials said.
On Monday, a senior defense official said the Pentagon is contacting US arms manufacturers to speed up existing Israeli orders for military equipment that may have been considered less urgent just days ago. For months, the US has been working to expand its own defense industrial base to supply Ukraine and replenish US and western stockpiles, but those efforts are still ongoing.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin defended the ability of the US to support both Ukraine and Israel, as the US announced another $200 million in security assistance for Kyiv, including artillery ammunition.
“We can do both and we will do both,” said Austin on Tuesday at a press conference in Brussels, when asked whether the US can support both Israel and Ukraine militarily. “We’re going to do what’s necessary to help our allies and partners, and we’re going to also do what’s necessary to make sure that we maintain the capability to protect our interests and defend our country.”
Israel front and center at Ukraine meeting
The possibility of a ground invasion and the demands it may place on the US industrial base come as Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown are in Belgium for a meeting of the contact group, an organization of about 50 countries, including Israel, that has come together to supply Ukraine.
The sudden ferocity of fighting in Gaza will put Israel front and center at the meeting, officials said, with one describing it as “the most important contact group we’ve ever had.”
In 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urgently requested ammunition for tanks and other equipment as Israel’s last ground incursion into Gaza dragged on. The request was immediately approved by former President Barack Obama, and the equipment was pulled from US reserve stockpiles in Israel.
That stockpile is not as robust as it once was, however. The US moved hundreds of thousands of munitions out of its reserves in Israel earlier this year as the US and its allies were searching the world for ammunition to provide to Ukraine, prompting concerns among Defense Department officials and crystallizing the challenges the US faces as it grapples with two wars abroad, according to a source familiar with discussions.
Ukraine is using thousands of artillery shells as it tries to retake territory occupied by Russia – far more than Israel would use in a ground incursion into Gaza – but US and western stockpiles have been diminished by the need to supply Ukraine. Netanyahu vowed to carry out a “prolonged” campaign against Gaza, one that could put extant US stockpiles under more pressure than they already face.
Defense officials are also anxious about the dysfunction in Congress and whether lawmakers will approve additional funding for US support to Israel and Ukraine.
“One thing that is really important in terms of the munitions in particular and our ability to support both potentially the Israelis and the Ukrainians simultaneously is additional funding from Congress to be able to increase our capacity, in terms of our capacity to expand production and then to also pay for the munitions themselves,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters on Monday.
A senior defense official said on Monday that the US is “surging support” to Israel, including air defense and munitions, and is working with the US defense industry to expedite the shipment of pending Israeli orders for military equipment.
The official said that the administration currently has the resources, authorities and funding it needs to continue its support for Israel, but said officials need Congress to ensure that additional funds will be available to respond to crises and contingencies as and when they arise.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday that “we’re certainly running out of runway” to support both Ukraine and Israel with the current appropriations.
“The sooner that there’s a speaker of the house, obviously, the more comfortable we’ll all be in terms of being able to support Israel and Ukraine right now,” Kirby told reporters. “Because of existing appropriations and existing authorities, we’ve been okay. But that’s not going to last forever. I think in the immediate term, right now, we can continue to support – with the authorities in the appropriations we have – Israel and Ukraine. But you know, we’re certainly running out of runway.”
An Oklahoma judge could be removed from office for sending more than 500 texts during a murder trial
Ken Miller – October 12, 2023
In this still image from security camera video, Lincoln County District Judge Traci Soderstrom looks at her cellphone during a murder trial on June 12, 2023, at the Lincoln County District Court in Chandler, Okla. (Lincoln County District Court/The Oklahoman via AP) (AP)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A new Oklahoma judge could lose her job for sending more than 500 texts to her bailiff during a murder trial, including messages mocking the prosecutor, praising the defense attorney and calling a key witness a liar.
The chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court recommended the removal of Lincoln County District Judge Traci Soderstrom in a court filing Tuesday following an investigation by the state’s Council on Judicial Complaints.
Soderstrom, who was sworn in on Jan. 9 after being elected in November, was suspended with pay pending the outcome of a hearing by the Court on the Judiciary, which will determine whether to remove her from the bench.
“The pattern of conduct demonstrates Respondent’s (Soderstrom’s) gross neglect of duty, gross partiality and oppression,” Chief Justice John Kane IV wrote. “The conduct further demonstrates Respondent’s (Soderstrom’s) lack of temperament to serve as a judge.”
A phone call to a number listed for Soderstrom rang unanswered before disconnecting Wednesday.
The judge’s texts included saying the prosecutor was “sweating through his coat” during questioning of potential jurors and asking “why does he have baby hands?” according to Kane’s petition. The texts described the defense attorney as “awesome” and asked “can I clap for her?” during the defense attorney’s opening arguments.
Soderstrom also texted a laughing emoji icon to the bailiff, who had “made a crass and demeaning reference to the prosecuting attorneys’ genitals,” Kane wrote.
Khristian Tyler Martzall — the man who was on trial while the judge was on her phone — was eventually convicted of second-degree manslaughter in the 2018 death of Braxton Danker, the son of Martzall’s girlfriend, and sentenced to time served.
Martzall’s girlfriend and the mother of the child, Judith Danker, pleaded guilty to enabling child abuse, was sentenced to 25 years and was a key prosecution witness who was called a liar by Soderstrom during testimony.
“State just couldn’t accept that a mom could kill their kid so they went after the next person available,” Soderstrom texted, according to the filing from Kane.
Soderstrom’s texts also included comments questioning whether a juror was wearing a wig, if a witness has teeth and calling a police officer who testified, “pretty,” adding, “I could look at him all day.”
When questioned by the Council on Judicial Complaints, Soderstrom said her texting “probably could have waited” rather than realizing the comments should never have been made. She said she thought, “oh, that’s funny. Move on.”
Security video published by The Oklahoman newspaper showed Soderstrom texting or messaging for minutes at a time during jury selection, opening statements and testimony during the trial in Chandler, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City.
Kane’s petition also said Soderstrom had previously criticized other attorneys and prosecutors, and berated a member of the courthouse staff.
Soderstrom should be removed for reasons that include gross neglect of duty, gross partiality in office and oppression in office, Kane wrote.
Returning to the office is costing you $51 per day, study finds
Chris Morris, Jane Thier – October 11, 2023
Getty Images
Returning to the office won’t just cost you more time. It could add another $51 (or more) per day to your expenses, according to a new survey.
The annual State of Work report from videoconferencing company Owl Labs, first provided to Fortune, finds the average spend of returning workers is $51 per day when they work in person. And workers with pets, the company says, average $71 per day in spending.
The total, says Owl Labs, breaks down as follows:
$16 – Lunch
$14 – Commuting costs
$13 – Breakfast/coffee
$8 – Parking
($20 – pet care)
Employees who work a hybrid schedule, the company says, spend just $36 per day.
Last year’s Owl Labs data looked mostly identical—hybrid workers spent the same additional amount, $51, on in-person days in 2022, showing that a full year of new norms have done little to make an office return more convincing for most workers. “Companies that want to bring workers back to the office this fall might try providing a stipend, free lunch, or pre-tax commuter benefits to help offset these in-office costs,” Frank Weishaupt, Owl Labs’ CEO, told Fortune last year.
The new data can be shocking, but it might not be a bad idea to take these numbers with a grain of salt. Owl Labs, given its focus, has a likely bias towards workers embracing the hybrid or telecommuting lifestyle. Workers can save a considerable amount off those totals by bringing lunch from home or bypassing Starbucks on the way to work. And many office workers do not have to pay to park at work.
Still, the survey does underscore the additional costs of returning to the office in a time where the economy is uncertain and fears of a recession loom. The survey of 2,000 workers found that 94% of workers are willing to come back to the office if their bosses shore up the financial difference. They’d mainly expect support covering commuting costs and subsidized meals, snacks, and coffee—all of which, clearly, adds up fast.
While return-to-office mandates have been announced by several companies, worker compliance has been mixed. And a growing number of U.S. executives believe remote work and hybrid options will continue to grow over the next five years, according to a separate study from researchers at Stanford University.
That study found executives expect 72.6% of full-time employees will be fully in-person/on-site in 2028, compared to nearly 92% in 2018.
By Michelle Llamas, Bd Cert. Patient Adv, October 11, 2023
Michelle Llamas has been writing articles and producing podcasts about drugs, medical devices and the FDA for nearly a decade. She focuses on various medical conditions, health policy, COVID-19, LGBTQ health, mental health and women’s health issues. Michelle collaborates with experts, including board-certified doctors, patients and advocates, to provide trusted health information to the public. Some of her qualifications include:
Member of American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) and former Engage Committee and Membership Committee member
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Literacy certificates
Original works published or cited in The Lancet, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and the Journal for Palliative Medicine
Board Certified Patient Advocate, Patient Advocacy Certificate from University of Miami.
“Glyphosate, the active component found in popular herbicides such as Roundup, sees extensive application in agriculture to combat unwanted weeds that compete with crops. Nevertheless, apprehensions have surfaced concerning its safety and potential impacts on health. Legal disputes have arisen, asserting that exposure to glyphosate through products like Roundup might be connected to specific types of cancer, notably non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Glyphosate operates by inhibiting the enzyme EPSP synthase, causing disruptions in plant growth that ultimately result in the plant’s demise. While some regulatory authorities consider the levels of glyphosate in food as safe, concerns regarding its long-term consequences continue to grow. Typical repercussions of exposure include skin and respiratory irritations, and research indicates potential associations between glyphosate and both cancer and neurological disorders. Certain countries within the European Union have imposed bans on glyphosate, and Bayer, the manufacturer of Roundup, has encountered significant settlements in legal actions in the United States lawsuits linked to glyphosate exposure.”
Tips for Reducing Glyphosate Exposure
People can avoid glyphosate use with several Roundup alternatives. These include manual or mechanical methods of weed pulling, such as small and large hand tools, tillers and other mechanical methods.
Natural or organic herbicides whose active ingredients are vinegar or essential oils are also an option. Ask your local home and garden center for organic or natural herbicides that do not contain glyphosate.
Drugwatch.com writers follow rigorous sourcing guidelines and cite only trustworthy sources of information, including peer-reviewed journals, court records, academic organizations, highly regarded nonprofit organizations, government reports and interviews with qualified experts. Review our editorial policy to learn more about our process for producing accurate, current and balanced content.
‘People are happier in a walkable neighborhood’: the US community that banned cars
Oliver Milman in Tempe, Arizona – October 11, 2023
If you were to imagine the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the modern US, it would be difficult to conceive such a thing sprouting from the environs of Phoenix, Arizona – a sprawling, concrete incursion into a brutal desert environment that is sometimes derided as the least sustainable city in the country.
But it is here that such a neighborhood, called Culdesac, has taken root. On a 17-acre site that once contained a car body shop and some largely derelict buildings, an unusual experiment has emerged that invites Americans to live in a way that is rare outside of fleeting experiences of college, Disneyland or trips to Europe: a walkable, human-scale community devoid of cars.
Culdesac ushered in its first 36 residents earlier this year and will eventually house around 1,000 people when the full 760 units, arranged in two and three-story buildings, are completed by 2025. In an almost startling departure from the US norm, residents are provided no parking for cars and are encouraged to get rid of them. The apartments are also mixed in with amenities, such as a grocery store, restaurant, yoga studio and bicycle shop, that are usually separated from housing by strict city zoning laws.
Neighborhoods of this ilk can be found in cities such as New York City and San Francisco but are often prohibitively expensive due to their allure, as well as stiff opposition to new apartment developments. The $170m Culdesac project shows “we can build walkable neighborhoods successfully in the US in [the] 2020s,” according to Ryan Johnson, the 40-year-old who co-founded the company with Jeff Berens, a former McKinsey consultant.
Johnson has the mien of a tech founder, with his company logo T-shirt and fashionable glasses, and was part of the founding team of OpenDoor, an online real estate business. But his enthusiasm for car-free living was born, he said, from living and traveling in countries such as Hungary, Japan and South Africa. Originally from the “classically sprawly” part of Phoenix, Johnson once had an SUV but has been car-free for 13 years. Instead, he has a collection of more than 60 ebikes, although he said he has stopped acquiring them as he is running out of storage space.
“Today in the US we only build two kinds of housing: single family homes that are lonely and have a painful commute, or we build these mid-rise projects with double loaded corridors and people mostly just walk to their car and that makes people know fewer of their neighbors,” said Johnson.
“We look back nostalgically at college, because it’s the only time most people have lived in a walkable neighborhood. People are happier and healthier, and even wealthier when they’re living in a walkable neighborhood.”
Culdesac is not only different in substance, but also style. The development’s buildings are a Mediterranean sugar-cube white accented with ochre, and are clustered together intimately to create inviting courtyards for social gatherings and paved – not asphalt – “paseos”, a word used in Spanish-speaking parts of the US south-west to denote plazas or walkways for strolling.
Importantly, such an arrangement provides relieving shade from the scorching sun – temperatures in these walkways have been measured at 90F (32C) on days when the pavement outside Culdesac is 120F (48C), the developer claims. The architects call the structures “fabric buildings” that form shared public realm, rather than charmless, utilitarian boxes situated next to a huge, baking car park.
“It’s positively European, somewhere between Mykonos and Ibiza,” said Jeff Speck, a city planner and urban designer who took a tour of Culdesac earlier this year. “It is amazing how much the urbanism improves, both in terms of experience and efficiency, when you don’t need to store automobiles.”
There is a small car park, although only for visitors, some disgorged by Waymo, the fleet of Google-owned driverless taxis that eerily cruise around Phoenix with their large cameras and disembodied voices to reassure passengers. To calm any nerves about making the leap to being car-free, Culdesac has struck deals to offer money off Lyft, the ride-sharing service, and free trips on the light rail that runs past the buildings, as well as on-site electric scooters. The first 200 residents to move in will be getting ebikes, too.
Such a place is an oddity, Speck points out, because of a car-centric ethos that permeates US culture and city planning. Over the past century, huge highways have been plowed through the heart of US cities, obliterating and dislocating communities – disproportionately those of color – leaving behind a stew of air pollution.
These roads have primarily served a sprawling suburbia, comprised almost entirely of single family homes with spacious back yards where car driving is often the only option to get anywhere. This car dependence has been reinforced by zoning laws that not only separate residential from commercial developments, but require copious parking spots added for every new construction. “The result is a nation in which we are all ruthlessly separated from most of our daily needs and also from each other,” Speck said.
Culdesac can be seen, then, as not only a model for more climate-friendly housing – transportation is the US’s largest source of planet-heating emissions and, studies have shown, fuels more of the pollution causing the climate crisis – but as a way of somehow stitching back together communities that have become physically, socially and politically riven, lacking a “third place” to congregate other than dislocated homes and workplaces.
Culdesac residents have “this shared thing of living without a car” and can have the sort of chance encounters that foster social cohesion, according to Johnson, who himself lives in one of the airy apartments. “When we started, people said: ‘What are you doing? You’re not going to get permission to build that. The demand’s not going to be there,’” he said. “And instead, we got unanimous approval, and there’s a lot of demand, and it’s open. Residents love it.”
Vanessa Fox, a 32-year-old who moved into Culdesac with her husky dog in May, had always wanted to live in a walkable place only to find such options unaffordable. For her, Culdesac provided a sense of community without having to rely on a car every time she left her apartment. “For some, cars equal freedom, but for me, it’s a restriction,” she said. “Freedom is being able to just simply walk out and access places.”
Speck said that he expects closer relationships to form among residents. “We will soon have Culdesac babies,” he predicted.
Fox admits, though, that some of her family and friends consider her decision to go car-free to be somewhat of an oddity. The New York subway and railroad tycoons of yore may have found international fame, but in the US, the car now reigns supreme.
Around nine in 10 Americans own a car, with only a tenth of people using public transport – which is typically underfunded and has suffered badly since the Covid pandemic – on even a weekly basis. Even Joe Biden’s administration, which has talked of reconnecting communities and acting on climate change, is enthusiastically pushing hundreds of billions of dollars to building new highways.
Driving to places is so established as a basic norm that deviation from it can seem not only strange, as evidenced by a lack of pedestrian infrastructure that has contributed to a surge in people dying from being hit by cars in recent years, but even somewhat sinister. People walking late at night, particularly if they are Black, are regularly accosted by police – in June, the city of Kaplan, Louisiana, even introduced a curfew for people walking or riding bikes, but not for car drivers.
If neighborhoods like Culdesac are to become more commonplace, then, cities will not only have to alter their planning codes, but there will also have to be a cultural switch from the ideal of a large suburban home with an enormous car in the driveway. Some US billionaires havedreams of creating new utopian cities that have such elements, although urban planning experts point out it would be better for the environment if existing cities just became denser and less car-centric.
Johnson, who said he is planning to bring the Culdesac concept to other cities, is upbeat about this. “This is something that the majority of the US wants, so they can work all over the country,” he said. “We have heard from cities and residents all over the country that they want more of this, and this is something that we want to build more.”
“Every trend begins with a one-off,” Speck said. “True proliferation will be dependent upon our cities improving their transit and micro-mobility systems. But for those cities that offer a decent alternative to driving, there is a great fit immediately. Government officials should be asking themselves whether their cities are Culdesac-ready.”
This is the first in a new series, The alternatives, looking at governments and communities around the world who are trying out new ideas for low carbon living
Are terrorists trying to cross the U.S. southern border? Here are the facts.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez – October 11, 2023
Washington — Concerns about whether known or suspected terrorists are exploiting the migration crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border to enter the country have intensified following the brutal terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel over the weekend.
Republican lawmakers, GOP White House hopefuls and conservative media figures have argued that the Biden administration’s border policies have given terrorists an easier way to enter the U.S. and harm Americans. On Monday, former President Donald Trump claimed that the “same people” who killed or abducted more than 1,000 civilians in Israel are coming across the southern border separating the U.S. and Mexico, offering no evidence to support his assertion.
There has been a marked increase in Border Patrol apprehensions of individuals with matches on the U.S. terror watchlist over the past two years. But they represent a tiny fraction of all migrants processed along the southern border. Such incidents are more common along the U.S.-Canada border, and not all those on the watchlist are suspected terrorists.
Still, there are valid concerns about whether the U.S. has sufficient tools to ensure it detains all national security threats, including those entering the country clandestinely.
“Are terrorists flooding across the border? Probably not,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former Department of Homeland Security official under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “But at the same time, it is true that the large number of people arriving does have national security implications.”
Here’s what we know about this issue, based on government data, reports and policy:
A spike in terror watchlist hits along the U.S.-Mexico border
When Border Patrol apprehends individuals, it is supposed to run criminal and national security screenings on them. The process includes checking names against the Terrorist Screening Data Set, or TSDS, an FBI system that tracks known or suspected terrorists as well as their affiliates.
Border Patrol apprehensions of individuals on the FBI’s terrorism watchlist have increased sharply in recent years as the number of overall crossings recorded by the agency along the U.S.-Mexico border has soared to record levels.
In fiscal year 2023, Border Patrol reported apprehending 151 migrants with positive terrorism watchlist matches who entered the U.S. illegally along the southern border, an all-time high for the region that eclipsed the previous record of 98 set in fiscal year 2022, government figures show. In fiscal year 2021, the agency reported just 15 such apprehensions.
When including those processed at official ports of entry, there were 227 terror database hits with individuals processed along the southern border in fiscal year 2023.
Insurance companies are raising premiums to offset costs of extreme weather events — these maps reveal the most vulnerable states
Sara Klimek – October 11, 2023
Being a homeowner in 2023 is already challenging, from a high cost of living to a lack of affordable housing in the real estate market. But thanks to extreme weather events, owning (and insuring) a home is becoming even more expensive.
When an individual purchases insurance, the company bets on the idea that it will make more money off the deal than it will pay out. But in an unstable climate in which severe weather events are becoming more and more common, insurance companies are in a losing battle. To offset the costs, the companies raise the premiums, meaning that homeowners will pay more for policies than ever before.
A set of maps created by Axios with data from a First Street Foundation study reveals that about 12 million properties across the country should expect possibly higher insurance premiums because of flooding, 24 million because of possible wind damage, and about 4.4 million because of wildfire risk. Areas with the most flood, wildfire, and wind risk are expected to see the highest bumps — including vulnerable states like the Carolinas, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and California.
About 640,000 of these price hikes are expected to impact those with delinquent mortgages, increasing the risk of default.
Many insurance companies across the United States have announced that they will be increasing their rates — or backing out of insuring policyholders altogether because of the higher risk proposed by climate change.
Farmers Insurance joined three other insurance companies in announcing that it will not offer policies to residents living in Florida as of July 2023. Similarly, State Farm announced it would not cover new policyholders in California, which has made it more difficult for homeowners to find insurance — let alone affordable policies.
However, the rate hikes (and impending danger of human-caused weather events) have not discouraged some from flocking to disaster-prone areas; Redfin reported a 103% increase in immigration to these areas between 2019 and 2020, as Bloomberg reported.
Some states have instituted policies to cap rate hikes to stop insurance hikes. The California state law, for example, forbids private insurance companies from raising rates more than 7% annually — but public insurance companies do not share the same standard.
California also announced that it will allow companies to factor climate risks into policy prices, which was made to prevent companies from leaving the state. However, there is very little protection for homeowners on these price hikes otherwise.
Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
Newly released emails spark GOP demand for “full blown audit” of deepening Sarah Sanders scandal
Tatyana Tandanpolie – October 11, 2023
Sarah Huckabee Sanders Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images
New public records have sparked additional questions about when Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office intended to use Republican Party funds to reimburse the state for a $19,000 lectern purchased in June with a government credit card. Records released this week, obtained by The Associated Press, show that the Arkansas GOP paid for the lectern in September but the words “to be reimbursed” were added to the original invoice later. The undated reimbursement notice has only fueled weeks of scrutiny in the state over the purchase.
This week, a legislative panel is expected to vote on Republican state Sen. Jimmy Hickey’s request for an audit of the lectern’s purchase. An email about the reimbursement notice was among a number of other documents related to the lectern that were released to AP through a Freedom of Information Act request. Hickey told AP that the email “further indicates the need for a full blown audit to get all the facts.” The custom lectern was bought for $19,029.95 and the Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state for the purchase on Sept. 14. Sanders’ office called the use of a state credit card for the transaction an accounting error.
Sanders has said she welcomes the audit but has also dismissed questions about the purchase, and her office acknowledged the addition of the reimbursement note. “A note was added to the receipt so that it would accurately reflect that the state was being reimbursed for the podium with private funding the governor raised for her inauguration and the check was properly dated,” Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Sanders’ office, told AP, dubbing questions about the invoice “nothing more than a manufactured controversy.”
Breast cancer rates are rising. But more women are surviving too
Julia Manchester – October 11, 2023
(The Hill) – Tammy Moyle’s annual mammogram in March was clean. But then she discovered a small lump a few months later. The diagnosis came in August. It was early-stage invasive lobular carcinoma, an aggressive form of breast cancer that’s treatable if caught early enough.
Because it was caught so early, the 45-year-old mother of three said doctors told her there’s a 96 percent cure rate. She will need 12 weeks of chemotherapy, and will also be taking an infusion drug called Herceptin for the next nine months.
“If I had to get cancer, like God forbid anyone ever gets cancer, but if I had to get cancer, I feel like this is the time to have it. You know, we have so many advancements. I feel really hopeful about my outcome,” Moyle said.
Moyle’s experience captures both the exasperation and optimism in the battle against breast cancer. While rates continue to creep up year-on-year, particularly among younger women, evolutions in diagnostics and treatment mean breast cancer patients face far better prospects than ever before.
Rapid drug development, personalized screening recommendations, targeted therapies and new treatments like immunotherapies have all helped women diagnosed with early stage and even metastatic breast cancer.
“We’re increasingly more specific, personalized, individualized about the type of treatment that we can offer patients and the lines of treatment that they can have,” said Elizabeth Comen, a breast oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Breast cancer accounts for 31 percent of all cancers in women, the most common type, according to the American Cancer Society. Nearly 300,000 women will likely be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023. It will likely kill about 43,000 of them.
Despite the scientific advances, declines in mortality have slowed in recent years, and incidence rates have been slowly increasing by about 0.5 percent per year since the mid-2000s, according to the American Cancer Society.
This rise in diagnoses is due in part to more women having obesity, having fewer children, or having their first baby after age 30, the organization said. It may also be because of lower rates of screening.
While a breast cancer diagnosis is rare for women under 40, it is the leading cause of all cancer deaths in women between the ages of 20 and 49. And the diagnoses among those younger women are rising.
“There’s definitely a stigma around breast cancer like you don’t need to worry about it until you’re 40 or over, but that’s definitely not the case,” said Brianna Osofisan, 26, who was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer when she was 21 years old and heading into her senior year of college.
“It was definitely very unexpected, especially being a senior in college and trying to figure out my plans after graduation and then having to deal with the weekly doctor appointments and treatment on top of that,” she said.
A study published in JAMA Network Open in August showed all cancers are on the rise for younger women, particularly those younger than 50.
“This is not just because we’re screening women earlier because frankly, we don’t have guidelines for screening women earlier. They are being diagnosed more and they are being diagnosed with more aggressive cancers,” Comen said. “I cannot more passionately or emphatically state that this is an area of research that absolutely must improve. We need to address this unmet need.”
William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, noted the risk of breast cancer is significantly higher among older women, and while the absolute numbers of younger women being diagnosed are relatively low, they are undeniably increasing.
“We’re seeing similar trends in other cancers, colorectal cancer, for example, too. So there is something going on, which is increasing cancer in younger patients,” Dahut said.
Screening mammograms are only recommended for women between the ages of 40 and 74. Experts say there isn’t enough evidence of benefit or cost effectiveness in screening women younger than 40. There are also concerns over potential harms of screening, including the psychological toll of false positives.
Ann Patridge, an oncologist and founder of Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Program for Young Adults with Breast Cancer, said America will likely move toward population-based screening for cancer predisposing genes.
However, that carries its own complications — such as forcing young women to decide whether to remove their ovaries or breast based on statistical guesses about their chances of getting cancer. And even if they are high risk, those prevention options are likely not going to be palatable for young women.
There’s a growing group of experts and advocates who want more research into lowering the recommended age of breast cancer screenings.
The recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for women to start mammograms at 40 is only a draft, and was released earlier this year. Prior to that, USPSTF called for women with an average risk of breast cancer to begin screening at age 50.
Tari King, chief of the division of breast surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said she was happy to see the recommended age lowered to 40, but highlighted that some women need to start even earlier.
“What we need to recognize is that if the first time that you’re talking to your doctor about your breast cancer risk is at the age of 40, that’s probably too late,” King said.
King said younger women should have conversations with their primary care doctors or OB-GYNs about topics like family history of breast cancer and lifestyle habits that could be putting them at increased risk. Providers can then use that information to help determine whether starting screening earlier would be beneficial.
“Getting risk assessments early will allow us to identify women who may actually need to start screening before the age of 40,” King said.
Experts said there are different clinical considerations for younger women than older women, particularly around fertility.
But preserving the ability of a young woman to have children isn’t always an option.
Lourdes Monje, who was diagnosed at 25 years-old and is living with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, said she is going through chemical menopause, so can’t become pregnant.
“When you become pregnant, your body produces a ton of estrogen and that’s the last thing that we would want to do for my type of cancer because my cancer feeds on estrogen,” she said.
Patients with metastatic cancer cannot currently be cured, but there have been new drugs approved and new clinical trials, so when one treatment stops working, they can move to another. Eventually though, they will likely exhaust options.
Monje said that her diagnosis and treatment has shifted her own perspective on what’s next in life.
“Even though my doctor told me what side effects to expect, I don’t think I was quite prepared for the emotional part of it,” she said. “I process my emotions very differently than I used to and I think that was very hard for me to deal with because I felt like I didn’t know myself for a long time.”
There have also been research advances into the genetics of cancer, though the field is still evolving. Genetic counseling and genetic testing can help identify a person’s risk, and whether they have the breast cancer gene (BRCA) and other gene mutations.
Alejandra Campoverdi decided to get tested for the BRCA gene because of her family history. Her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and two aunts were all diagnosed with breast cancer.
“When I came up positive, it wasn’t a huge surprise but I realized there was something I could do preventative about it,” said Campoverdi, who was 38 at the time.
She went on to have a double mastectomy, during which doctors caught an early-stage, non-invasive breast cancer. Campoverdi said the experience led to her work in breast cancer advocacy, particularly focused on the Latino community.
Campoverdi noted how there is a lack of Spanish-language material on breast cancer prevention or advocacy in the space targeted toward Latinas, despite breast cancer being the leading cause of death for Hispanic women, according to the Mayo Clinic.
She has since co-produced a documentary on BCRA and hereditary cancer and launched the Latinx and BRCA initiative at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Experts and survivors strongly encourage women of all ages, particularly young women less familiar with breast cancer prevention, to get into the regular habit of practicing self-exams.
“For an average risk young woman, we recommend sticking to physical exam and being aware of one’s breast health and how one’s breasts feel, and to bring any concerning signs and symptoms…to medical attention,” Partridge said.
Among the signs and symptoms to look out for: breast lumps that get bigger or don’t go away with a menstrual cycle, discolored/bloody nipple discharge, skin rash/dimpling, or a lump in the underarm.
However, some younger women who were eventually diagnosed with breast cancer say that they felt their concerns were often brushed off by their medical providers.
Meghan McCallum was 32 when she was first diagnosed in 2019. She suspected something was off after a self-examination that year, but it took until Christmas to get an official diagnosis.
“I had a gut feeling,” McCallum said. “I felt confident in my knowing that something wasn’t right with body. That was just the very beginning of what ended up being a very unfortunately long process of getting a correct diagnosis.”
Most doctors told McCallum she was too young to have breast cancer, or likely had a benign breast tumor known as a fibroadenoma.
“It took a lot of visits and calling out doctors again and again to be taken seriously to get a correct diagnosis,” she said. “There were all of these things that I just had never experienced before and I didn’t have the self-advocacy tool in my toolbelt to really think about this from that lens of maybe my doctors are wrong and what if this is actually cancer.”
While much of the advocacy around breast cancer continues to focus on older patients, more groups are geared toward younger generations.
Osofisan, Monje, and McCallum are part of the Young Survival Coalition, an international organization aimed at supporting people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40.
“Now that I’m in it, I do meet a lot more people and I also meet a lot of young people who had a similar situation to me,” Monje said. “One of the first things I had trouble with was finding people like me, but that’s how I wound up at Young Survival Coalition.”
While genetic testing and screening can help, sometimes a cancer diagnosis comes seemingly out of nowhere.
Elissa Kalver, 36, was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer when she was 34, shortly before her daughter’s first birthday.
Kalver said she has no family history, and nothing showed up on genetic screenings. She even had a breast exam just two months before ultimately finding a lump. Things moved quickly after that, and tests showed the cancer had spread.
“So I’ve had cancer on my breasts and my lymph nodes, my liver, my spine, my brain,” Kalver said.
Kalver said she struggled with feeling powerless. So during an early round of chemotherapy, she started a national nonprofit called We Got This, which is a gift registry and marketplace for people with cancer.
She said she is often asked why her cancer wasn’t caught earlier, before it metastasized.
“I think a lot of that mentality is a bit toxic, because one, it is kind of blaming me. Like, no, I couldn’t find it earlier. You know, I went to tons of doctors, they knew something was wrong, but nothing led to [cancer,]” Kalver said.
Her cancer was so metastasized that she suspects it was spreading undetected for at least a year.
“In hindsight, there’s nothing more I could have done, other than if I like had a crystal ball to push to get a mammogram. But, like, how would I have known that at 34?”
Kalver said she wants to increase awareness of late-stage breast cancers. Breast Cancer Awareness Month each October puts a public focus on prevention and making sure women conduct self-exams. But she said there’s not as much attention on what happens if you’re already too late.
“And when what happens, like to me, which is kind of the worst case scenario … then, you know, not just pounding sand but having solutions too,” she said. “You know, I don’t want to just accept that I have stage four cancer and I’m gonna die. You know, there’s a lot of solutions for what I have. And I’m really lucky that they exist.”
Josh Hawley Offers World’s Most Offensive Idea for How to Help Israel
Edith Olmsted – October 10, 2023
Republican Senator Josh Hawley is offering the world’s most hairbrained pitch on how to help Israel: simply redirect funds from Ukraine to Israel instead.
Hawley posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday saying, “Israel is facing an existential threat,” using the tragedy there to further his own political agenda of defunding U.S. aid to Ukraine.
Fighting broke out on Saturday when Hamas launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel, killing over 900 Israelis. The Israeli government has responded by declaring a total siege of Gaza, home to two million Palestinians and what has been described as the world’s largest open-air prison. About 770 Palestinians have already been killed in retribution, and the death toll is expected to keep rising.
On Monday, Senator Mitch McConnell was among several bipartisan lawmakers who pushed for a spending package that would link aid for Israel with support for Ukraine and Taiwan. The hope is to convince Ukraine aid skeptics, like Hawley, to continue supporting the country as support diminishes in the GOP-controlled House. On both sides of the aisle, the deaths of Palestinians and Israelis have already become a political tool.
Meanwhile, some are saying that it’s not clear that Israel requires immediate U.S. funding. Congressional aides have said that Israel already has the resources to wage a weeks-long campaign of violence in Gaza and use its Iron Dome system to defend itself, and can then tap into more than $5 billion made available by Pentagon drawdown authority.
