Patriots

With the Patriots currently sitting at the underside of the AFC East with a 3-10 record, each Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf are feeling the warmth.

The Patriots weren't expected to return near competing in 2024, but New England has regressed in several areas this season – including the defensive side of the ball, discipline and late-game execution.

Mayo, who’s within the midst of his first yr as an NFL head coach, declined a matter asked Monday about whether Robert Kraft had told him he could be back for a second season.

“My main focus was just really getting this team ready for the game this week… “I’m not going to get caught up in any of that stuff. … “Now I’m dancing a little bit again, but my focus is on the guys in this room, the coaches on this team and winning this game that’s in front of us.”

While Mayo has received a variety of criticism in recent months, New England's de facto GM in Wolf can also be chargeable for the Patriots' personnel.

Even though New England entered last offseason with a ton of cap space, the Patriots were hoping to land several free agents like Calvin Ridley, while signings like KJ Osborn and Chukwuma Okorafor were massive failures.

Add within the lackluster results of several 2024 draft picks like Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker, and New England still has a protracted method to go in its rebuild — even when Drake Maye looks like the true deal at quarterback.

But despite concerns about Mayo's growing pains and Wolf's offseason mistakes, the MMQB's Albert Breer is amongst those that don't expect Kraft to maneuver up from either after the top of the 2024 season.

“I don’t believe that CEOs are judged based on one-year snapshots” Breer said of Wolf during his recent appearance on NBC Sports Boston's Sports Sundayadded: “I just think there are too many ups and downs in recruiting. For example, in the draft there is a good year and a bad year – that applies to everyone in the NFL. It’s too hard to judge a guy based on one draft or one free agent period, and I think you need to give him more time.”

Beyond the necessity for more patience as New England rebuilds, Breer acknowledged that New England's clearinghouse with its coaching staff and front office would also reflect poorly on Kraft.

For Breer, it's the same situation to the Cowboys after owner Jerry Jones named Jason Garrett to guide Dallas as head coach.

“I also think there's this element, and I think this goes for Jerod Mayo as well: sometimes it's hard for owners to admit they were wrong,” Breer said. “The owners here have invested a lot in Jerod Mayo. They invested in him as a player, they invested in him as an assistant coach, they basically kicked out the greatest coach of all time to hand the job to Jerod Mayo.

“I saw this in Dallas with Jerry Jones: One of the reasons he was so reluctant to let go of Jason Garrett is because he viewed Jason Garrett as his creation. I think there's a similar dynamic here. I don't think Kraft wants to be wrong about Jerod Mayo. I don’t think they want to be wrong about Eliot Wolf either.”

The optics could be bad for Kraft if he fired Mayo after one season – especially after that named the previous linebacker as Bill Belichick's successor “five years ago.”

Still, the Patriots must grapple with the very best path forward in 2025 and beyond because the team looks to expand on a number of the promise Maye demonstrated this fall.

Celtics

Grant Williams crashed into Jayson Tatum at full speed late within the fourth quarter of the Celtics' win over Charlotte on Friday night.

Williams was ejected from the sport after being cautioned for a Flagrant 2 foul. He told reporters that the act was not premeditated; Celtics Forward Jaylen Brown disagrees.

“I don't know what it was about. I think that spoke for itself,” Brown said. “I don’t know if Grant missed JT, I don’t know what that was. This just wasn't a basketball game. Grant knows better.”

Celtics guard Derrick White also said that the 6-foot-1, 220-pound Williams should know higher than to run into people at full speed while dribbling a basketball.

“Like JB just said, he obviously didn’t want the ball,” White said. “He’s just too big to do something like that and he knows that, but JB has always supported us and we know that and we’ve always supported JT.”

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, who said earlier this week that he would really like to see the NBA fight again, said he liked the physicality of the sport.

He also said he liked the response from Tatum, who was affected by actions that resulted in flagrant fouls for 2 different Hornets players. LaMelo Ball received a Flagrant 1 for contact he made with Tatum while contesting a 3-point shot attempt.

“I'm glad he's okay. What I liked most is that he jumped up straight away. He wasn't lying around. It didn’t really bother him,” Mazzulla said. “He went straight up, went to the free throw line and did his business. I don't like the fact that he did it. I'm glad he's okay, but I'm even more glad he responded. Just get up, keep going, next game. And the team responded well too, so kudos to them.

“I just liked the way JT handled it. It was great. If you get hit like that, you'll pop right back up. Big deal.”

Brown said there was no place in the sport for Williams' behavior Friday night.

“I thought Grant and JT were friends,” Brown said. “I do not think so.”

Brown agreed with Mazzulla's sentiments that sustained physical challenges can bring teams closer together.

“I think this brings out the side of our team that we need,” Brown said. “I think this adds another dimension to our team and that is what we need if we want to continue winning games at a high level. You need a little edge, a little liveliness, a little fight in you. I welcome that too. I agree with Joe.”

Hundreds of business plants with toxic pollutants are in operation The path of Hurricane Milton en path to Florida, lower than two weeks later Hurricane Helene flooded communities across the Southeast.

Milton, which is predicted to make landfall as a serious hurricane late on October ninth, is Pressure on boat and spa factories along Florida's west-central coast, together with the rubber, plastic and fiberglass manufacturers that offer them. Many of those facilities devour tens of 1000’s of registered pollutants annually, including toluene, Styrene and other chemicals known to cause adversarial effects on the central nervous system through prolonged exposure.

Further inland, along the Interstate 4 and Interstate 75 corridors and their feeder roads, there are a whole bunch more manufacturers that use and store hazardous chemicals on-site. And many are in the best way of the storm's fierce winds heavy rain.

Helene heavy rain End of September 2024 flooded industrial sites across the southeast. A decommissioned nuclear power plant south of Cedar Key, Floridawas flooded by the storm surge from Helene.

In disasters like these, industrial damage can spread for days, and residents may not learn in regards to the release of toxic chemicals into the water or air until days or even weeks later. in the event that they even discover.

Nevertheless, pollutant releases often occur.

After Hurricane Ian flooded Florida's west coast in 2022, runoff spilled containing hundreds of thousands of gallons of sewage in addition to hazardous materials from damaged storage tanks and native fertilizer mining facilities visible from spaceand spills over the coastal wetlands into the Gulf of Mexico. A 12 months earlier, Hurricane Ida triggered More than 2,000 reported chemical accidents.

During Hurricane Harvey in 2017, floodwaters inundated chemical plants near Houston. Some caught fire when the cooling systems failedLarge amounts of pollutants are released into the air. emergency services and residents, Those who didn't know what risks they could be exposed blamed the chemicals to cause respiratory diseases.

Many sorts of Toxins can spread, settle and alter the long-term health and environmental safety of surrounding communities – often without residents being aware of it. Our team from Environment sociologists And Anthropologists has mapped hazardous industrial sites across the country and matched them with maps of projected hurricane impacts to assist communities hold nearby facilities accountable.

Major Gulf Coast polluters are at grave risk.”

The risks posed by industrial facilities are most evident on the U.S. Gulf Coast, where there are numerous large petrochemical complexes Are bundled at risk. These refineries, factories and storage facilities are sometimes built along rivers or bays to permit easy accessibility for shipping.

But these rivers may cause storm surges, which may raise the ocean several feet during hurricanes. Helene's storm surge was over 10 feet above the bottom in Big Bend, Florida 6 feet in Tampa Bay. With Milton, meteorologists warn of 1 10 to fifteen foot storm surge and Tampa Bay.

A recent study found evidence of this two to thrice more pollution fewer releases during hurricanes within the Gulf of Mexico than during normal weather from 2005 to 2020.

The impacts of those pollutant emissions disproportionately affect low-income communities and other people of color, further exacerbating the situation Environmental health risks.

Why residents may not know in regards to the release of toxic substances

The statistics are disturbing, but they receive little attention. This is because hazardous releases remain largely invisible resulting from limited disclosure requirements and little public information. Even Emergency responders They often don't know exactly which dangerous chemicals they can be confronted with in emergency situations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires major polluters to file paperwork just very general information about chemicals and risks on site of their Risk management plans. Partly large areas Fuel storage facilitiesFor example, those that transport liquefied natural gas are usually not even obliged to accomplish that.

These risk management plans describe “worst case” scenarios and needs to be publicly available. But in point of fact we’re and others found them difficult accessible, heavily edited and housed in federal reading rooms with limited access. The reason for that is local officials and national scientific review panels The secrecy often serves to guard the facilities from terrorist attacks.

Adding to this opacity is the proven fact that many states, including those within the Gulf, are lifting restrictions on the discharge of pollutants when declaring emergencies. Meanwhile, real-time incident notifications are provided by the National Response Center – the federal government’s final repository for all chemical discharges into the environment – ​​typically with a delay of every week or more,

We consider this limited public information in regards to the increasing chemical threats posed by our changing climate needs to be on the front page every hurricane season. Communities should concentrate on the risks related to housing vulnerable industrial infrastructure, especially as rising global temperatures increase the danger of utmost rainfall events strong hurricanes.

Nationwide risk mapping to boost awareness

To help communities understand their risks, our team at the brand new Center for Coastal futures and adaptive resilience examines how industrial communities in flood-prone areas across the country can higher adapt to such threats, each socially and technologically.

Our interactive map shows where increased future flood risks could inundate the foremost polluters we discover using EPAs Inventory of toxic releases.

There are several hotspots within the United States with clusters of flood-prone polluters. The largest include the Ship Channel in Houston, the waterfront steel industry in Chicago and the ports in Los Angeles and New York/New Jersey.

But there can be major concerns in less obvious places, as Helene revealed. Inland, particularly within the mountains, runoff can quickly turn normally calm rivers into rapidly rising torrents. The French Broad River in Asheville, North Carolina rose about 12 feet during Helene and in 12 hours set a brand new flood stage record.

When hurricanes and tropical storms head toward the U.S., our interactive maps show where the largest polluters are positioned within the storm's projected impact cone. The maps discover dangerous, flood-prone facilities right down to the address, anywhere within the country.

Knowledge is step one

Knowing where these sites are positioned is just step one. Often it’s as much as the communities themselves, a lot of them already overexposed and historically underservedto boost concerns and call for strategies to mitigate the health, economic and environmental risks which will arise from industrial sites prone to flooding and other damage.

These discussions cannot wait until disaster strikes. When communities understand where these risks might lie, they’ll take motion now to construct a safer future.

Local News

Attorney General Andrea Campbell is asking the general public for “patience” as she waits for the discharge of a years-old report into clergy sexual abuse within the dioceses of Worcester, Fall River and Springfield.

During an appearance on Boston Public Radio On Tuesday, Campbell was pressed by anchors Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about why the report wasn't released. It was accomplished in fall 2021 under then-Attorney General Maura Healey, in line with New England Public Media.

“It’s up to the courts to decide whether it can be released or not,” Campbell said. “That’s all I can say.”

The report included quite a few sources, including grand jury proceedings.

“You have to be careful with a grand jury, which is normally secret, of course, and there is a particular way that these proceedings are run,” Campbell said. “Then to make it public you have to get permission if not all parties agree to release it. It’s currently before the courts.”

The timeframe for release is as much as the courts, she said.

“I take allegations of sexual abuse – you know, I'm a mother of two boys – very seriously, from whomever,” the attorney general said. “In this particular case, I inherited a completed report that was sitting there. And now I'm doing what I can to see what we can do in terms of publishing. But other than that, it's not my fault personally. It has to go through a process, and that process now involves the court. And when it’s over, people will know where we end up.”

Abuse survivors and advocates said New England Public Media Last 12 months they announced they were being interviewed by the attorney general's office in fall 2021 for a report on the dioceses of Worcester, Fall River and Springfield.

In 2003, a report by then-Attorney General Tom Reilly examined widespread clergy sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. finally that probably greater than 1,000 victims were affected over a period of 60 years.

“It is important to create an official public record of events,” Reilly wrote within the introduction to Report 2003. “The abuse of children was so massive and so prolonged that it bordered on the unbelievable. This report will confirm to all who read it now and in the future that this tragedy was real.”

On Boston Public Radio, Campbell wouldn’t deny or confirm Braude and Eagan's query about whether the three dioceses were the parties that objected to the discharge of the newest report.

“I don’t know if I can even say that,” she said.

Hundreds of commercial plants with toxic pollutants are in operation The path of Hurricane Milton en path to Florida, lower than two weeks later Hurricane Helene flooded communities across the Southeast.

Milton, which is predicted to make landfall as a serious hurricane late on October ninth, is Pressure on boat and spa factories along Florida's west-central coast, together with the rubber, plastic and fiberglass manufacturers that offer them. Many of those facilities eat tens of hundreds of registered pollutants every year, including toluene, Styrene and other chemicals known to cause hostile effects on the central nervous system through prolonged exposure.

Further inland, along the Interstate 4 and Interstate 75 corridors and their feeder roads, there are lots of more manufacturers that use and store hazardous chemicals on-site. And many are in the best way of the storm's fierce winds heavy rain.

Helene heavy rain End of September 2024 flooded industrial sites across the southeast. A decommissioned nuclear power plant south of Cedar Key, Floridawas flooded by the storm surge from Helene.

In disasters like these, industrial damage can spread for days, and residents may not learn concerning the release of toxic chemicals into the water or air until days or even weeks later. in the event that they even discover.

Nevertheless, pollutant releases often occur.

After Hurricane Ian flooded Florida's west coast in 2022, runoff spilled containing thousands and thousands of gallons of sewage in addition to hazardous materials from damaged storage tanks and native fertilizer mining facilities visible from spaceand spills over the coastal wetlands into the Gulf of Mexico. A 12 months earlier, Hurricane Ida triggered More than 2,000 reported chemical accidents.

During Hurricane Harvey in 2017, floodwaters inundated chemical plants near Houston. Some caught fire when the cooling systems failedLarge amounts of pollutants are released into the air. emergency services and residents, Those who didn't know what risks they could be exposed blamed the chemicals to cause respiratory diseases.

Many varieties of Toxins can spread, settle and alter the long-term health and environmental safety of surrounding communities – often without residents being aware of it. Our team from Environment sociologists And Anthropologists has mapped hazardous industrial sites across the country and matched them with predicted hurricane impact maps to assist communities hold nearby facilities accountable.

Major Gulf Coast polluters are at grave risk.”

The risks posed by industrial facilities are most evident on the U.S. Gulf Coast, where there are numerous large petrochemical complexes Are bundled in peril. These refineries, factories and storage facilities are sometimes built along rivers or bays to permit easy accessibility for shipping.

But these rivers may also cause storm surges, which may raise the ocean several meters during hurricanes. Helene's storm surge was over 10 feet above the bottom in Big Bend, Florida 6 feet in Tampa Bay. With Milton, meteorologists warn of 1 10 to fifteen foot storm surge in Tampa Bay.

A recent study found evidence of this two to thrice more pollution fewer releases during hurricanes within the Gulf of Mexico than during normal weather from 2005 to 2020.

The impacts of those pollutant emissions disproportionately affect low-income communities and folks of color, further exacerbating the situation Environmental health risks.

Why residents may not know concerning the release of toxic substances

The statistics are disturbing, but they receive little attention. This is because hazardous releases remain largely invisible as a consequence of limited disclosure requirements and little public information. Even Emergency responders They often don't know exactly which dangerous chemicals they might be confronted with in emergency situations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires major polluters to file paperwork just very general information about chemicals and risks on site of their Risk management plans. Partly large areas Fuel storage facilitiesFor example, those that transport liquefied natural gas will not be even obliged to accomplish that.

These risk management plans describe “worst case” scenarios and ought to be publicly available. But in point of fact we’re and others found them difficult accessible, heavily edited and housed in federal reading rooms with limited access. The reason for that is local officials and national scientific review panels The secrecy often serves to guard the facilities from terrorist attacks.

Adding to this opacity is the indisputable fact that many states, including those within the Gulf, are lifting restrictions on the discharge of pollutants when declaring emergencies. Meanwhile, real-time incident notifications are provided by the National Response Center – the federal government’s final repository for all chemical discharges into the environment – ​​typically with a delay of every week or more,

We imagine this limited public information concerning the increasing chemical threats posed by our changing climate ought to be on the front page every hurricane season. Communities should pay attention to the risks related to housing vulnerable industrial infrastructure, especially as rising global temperatures increase the chance of utmost rainfall events strong hurricanes.

Nationwide risk mapping to boost awareness

To help communities understand their risks, our team at the brand new Center for Coastal futures and adaptive resilience examines how industrial communities in flood-prone areas across the country can higher adapt to such threats, each socially and technologically.

Our interactive map shows where increased future flood risks could flood the key polluters we discover using EPAs Inventory of toxic releases.

There are several hotspots within the United States with clusters of flood-prone polluters. The largest include the Ship Channel in Houston, the waterfront steel industry in Chicago and the ports in Los Angeles and New York/New Jersey.

But as Helene revealed, there can be big concerns in less obvious places. Inland, particularly within the mountains, runoff can quickly turn normally calm rivers into rapidly rising torrents. The French Broad River in Asheville, North Carolina rose about 12 feet during Helene and in 12 hours set a brand new flood stage record.

When hurricanes and tropical storms head toward the U.S., our interactive maps show where the largest polluters are positioned within the storm's projected impact cone. The maps discover dangerous, flood-prone facilities right down to the address, anywhere within the country.

Knowledge is step one

Knowing where these sites are positioned is just step one. Often it’s as much as the communities themselves, lots of them already overexposed and historically underservedto boost concerns and call for strategies to mitigate the health, economic and environmental risks that will arise from industrial sites liable to flooding and other damage.

These discussions cannot wait until disaster strikes. When communities understand where these risks might lie, they will take motion now to construct a safer future.

It contained lots of of business plants with toxic pollutants The path of Hurricane Helene because the mighty storm flooded communities across the Southeast End of September 2024.

Near the coast and into Georgia, Helene swept over paper mills, fertilizer plants and oil and gas deposits. Paper factories are one in all them The most polluting industry on the planet – some with hundreds of kilos of lead on site from previous production processes.

Florida officials reported that a decommissioned nuclear power plant south of Cedar Key experienced a storm surge of as much as 12 feet, flooding buildings and an industrial wastewater pond. Spent nuclear fuel stored at the positioning, which also flooded during Hurricane Idalia in 2023Was believed to make certainBloomberg reported.

Further inland, the storm weakened greater than a foot of rain at industrial sites within the Carolinas and Tennessee, some near waterways, that quickly flooded Runoff from the mountains.

In disasters like these, industrial damage can spread for days, and residents may not learn concerning the release of toxic chemicals into the water or air until days or even weeks later. in the event that they even discover.

Nevertheless, pollutant releases often occur.

After Hurricane Ian flooded Florida's west coast in 2022, runoff spilled containing thousands and thousands of gallons of sewage in addition to hazardous materials from damaged storage tanks and native fertilizer mining facilities visible from spaceand spills over the coastal wetlands into the Gulf of Mexico. A yr earlier, Hurricane Ida triggered More than 2,000 reported chemical accidents.

During Hurricane Harvey in 2017, floodwaters inundated chemical plants near Houston. Some caught fire when the cooling systems failedLarge amounts of pollutants are released into the air. emergency services and residents, Those who didn't know what risks they is likely to be exposed blamed the chemicals to cause respiratory diseases.

Many kinds of Toxins can spread, settle and alter the long-term health and environmental safety of surrounding communities – often without residents being aware of it. Our team from Environment sociologists And Anthropologists has mapped hazardous industrial sites across the country and matched them with maps of projected hurricane impacts to assist communities hold nearby facilities accountable.

Petrochemical complexes within the Gulf are at great risk

The risks posed by industrial facilities are most evident on the U.S. Gulf Coast, where there are lots of large petrochemical complexes Are bundled in peril. These refineries, factories and storage facilities are sometimes built along rivers or bays to permit easy accessibility for shipping.

But these rivers can even cause storm surges, which might raise the ocean several feet during hurricanes. Helene's storm surge was over 10 feet above the bottom in Big Bend, Florida 6 feet tall in Tampa Bay.

A recent study found evidence of this two to thrice more pollution fewer releases during hurricanes within the Gulf of Mexico than during normal weather from 2005 to 2020.

The impacts of those pollutant emissions disproportionately affect low-income communities and other people of color, further exacerbating the situation Environmental health risks.

Why residents may not know concerning the release of toxic substances

The statistics are disturbing, but they receive little attention. This is because hazardous releases remain largely invisible as a result of limited disclosure requirements and little public information. Even Emergency responders They often don't know exactly which dangerous chemicals they will probably be confronted with in emergency situations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires major polluters to file paperwork just very general information about chemicals and risks on site of their Risk management plans. Partly large areas Fuel storage facilitiesFor example, those that transport liquefied natural gas aren’t even obliged to achieve this.

These risk management plans describe “worst case” scenarios and must be publicly available. But in point of fact we’re and others found them difficult accessible, heavily edited and housed in federal reading rooms with limited access. The reason for that is local officials and national scientific review panels The secrecy often serves to guard the facilities from terrorist attacks.

Adding to this opacity is the undeniable fact that many states, including those within the Gulf, are lifting restrictions on the discharge of pollutants when declaring emergencies. Meanwhile, real-time incident notifications are provided by the National Response Center – the federal government’s final repository for all chemical discharges into the environment – ​​typically with a delay of per week or more,

We consider this limited public information concerning the increasing chemical threats posed by our changing climate must be on the front page every hurricane season. Communities should pay attention to the risks related to housing vulnerable industrial infrastructure, especially as rising global temperatures increase the danger of utmost rainfall events strong hurricanes.

Nationwide risk mapping to lift awareness

To help communities understand their risks, our team at the brand new Center for Coastal futures and adaptive resilience examines how industrial communities in flood-prone areas across the country can higher adapt to such threats, each socially and technologically.

Our interactive map shows where increased future flood risks could inundate the main polluters we discover using EPAs Inventory of toxic releases.

There are several hotspots within the United States with clusters of flood-prone polluters. The largest include the Ship Channel in Houston, the waterfront steel industry in Chicago and the ports in Los Angeles and New York/New Jersey.

But as Helene revealed, there may also be big concerns in less obvious places. Inland, particularly within the mountains, runoff can quickly turn normally calm rivers into rapidly rising torrents. The French Broad River in Asheville, North Carolina rose about 12 feet during Helene and in 12 hours set a brand new flood stage record.

When hurricanes and tropical storms head toward the U.S., our interactive maps View now where the most important polluters are positioned within the storm's projected impact cone. The maps discover dangerous, flood-prone facilities right down to the address, anywhere within the country.

Knowledge is step one

Knowing where these sites are positioned is just step one. Often it’s as much as the communities themselves, lots of them already overexposed and historically underservedto lift concerns and call for strategies to mitigate the health, economic and environmental risks which will arise from industrial sites prone to flooding and other damage.

These discussions cannot wait until disaster strikes. When communities understand where these risks might lie, they’ll take motion now to construct a safer future.

LOS ALTOS – Authorities on Monday released a sketch and outline of a suspect wanted in reference to an attack on an elderly man last week in Los Altos.

The suspect is a 20- to 40-year-old white male, 6 feet tall and 180 kilos, with a slim to average construct, Los Altos police said in a news release. He was last seen wearing a long-sleeved shirt, pants and possibly a baseball cap.

According to police, the sketch and outline were created with the help of a witness.

The attack occurred sometime within the late morning to afternoon on September 16 near the Foothill Expressway and Interstate 280. Police haven’t released a motive for the attack.

The victim, an 89-year-old Los Altos resident, was taken to an area hospital with head injuries. He is now recovering at home.

“The Los Altos Police Department wishes the victim and his family the best as they process this traumatic experience,” police said.

Anyone with information in regards to the case can contact police at 650-947-2770 or the anonymous tip line at 650-947-2774.

Check back later for updates.

Originally published: September 23, 2024 at 18:01

Nineteen-year-old US Army Pvt. David Lewis set out along with his unit from Fort Dix on a 50-mile hike on February 5, 1976. On that bitterly cold day, he collapsed and died. Autopsy samples unexpectedly returned a positive result for a H1N1 swine flu virus.

Viral disease surveillance at Fort Dix identified an extra 13 cases amongst recruits hospitalized for respiratory illnesses. Additional serum antibody testing revealed that over 200 recruits were infected but not hospitalized with the virus. latest swine strain H1N1.

Alarm bells immediately rang within the epidemiological community: Could Pvt. Lewis' death from H1N1 swine flu be a harbinger of one other global pandemic, just like the terrible H1N1 swine flu pandemic of 1918, by which a an estimated 50 million people worldwide?

The US government reacted quickly. On March 24, 1976, President Gerald Ford announced a plan to “vaccinate every man, woman and child in the United States.” On October 1, 1976 Mass vaccination campaign began.

Meanwhile, the initial small outbreak at Fort Dix had quickly subsided, and there had been no latest cases on the bottom since February. Army Col. Frank Top, who led the investigation into the virus at Fort Dix, later told me, “We had shown pretty conclusively that (the virus) had not crossed over anywhere else but Fort Dix… it disappeared.”

Nevertheless, biomedical scientists world wide are concerned about this outbreak and the huge crash vaccination program within the United States. began research and development programs for H1N1 swine flu vaccines in their very own countries. At the start of the 1976/77 winter season, the world was waiting for – and preparing for – an H1N1 swine flu pandemic that never got here.

But that wasn't the tip of the story. an experienced infectious disease epidemiologistI claim that it unintended consequences of this seemingly prudent but ultimately unnecessary preparations.

What was strange concerning the Russian H1N1 flu pandemic?

In an epidemiological twist, a brand new pandemic influenza virus emerged, nevertheless it was not the expected H1N1 swine virus.

In November 1977, Russian health officials reported that a human, not a swine, strain of H1N1 flu had been discovered in Moscow. By the tip of the month, the disease had been reported throughout the USSR and soon all around the world.

Compared to other varieties of flu this pandemic was strangeFirst, the fatality rate was low, about one-third that of most flu viruses. Second, it repeatedly infected only people under the age of 26. Finally, unlike other newly emerged pandemic flu viruses prior to now, the virus didn’t displace the already dominant H3N2 subtype that caused the seasonal flu this yr. Instead, the 2 flu viruses – the brand new H1N1 and the long-standing H3N2 – circulated alongside one another.

Here the story takes one other turn. Microbiologist Peter Palese applied, which at the moment was a latest technique called RNA oligonucleotide mapping to check the genetic makeup of the brand new Russian flu virus, H1N1. He and his colleagues grew the virus within the lab after which used RNA-cutting enzymes to cut the viral genome into a whole lot of pieces. By distributing the chopped RNA in two dimensions based on size and electrical charge, the RNA fragments created a singular, fingerprint-like patch map.

To Palese's great surprise, it turned out that this “new” virus was essentially similar to older human influenza H1N1 strains which became extinct within the early Nineteen Fifties.

So the 1977 Russian flu virus was actually a strain that had disappeared from the planet 1 / 4 century earlier after which someway got here back into circulation. This explained why it only affected younger people—older people had already been infected and turn out to be immune when the virus was circulating in its earlier form a long time ago.

But how could the older variety turn out to be extinct again?

Refining the timeline of a resurrected virus

Despite its name, the Russian flu probably didn’t begin in Russia. The first published reports of the virus got here from Russia, but later reports from China provided evidence that it had first been detected months earlier, in May and June 1977. within the Chinese port city of Tientsin.

In 2010, scientists used detailed genetic studies on several samples of the 1977 virus to determine the date of their earliest common ancestorThese “molecular clock” data suggest that the virus first infected humans a full yr earlier, in April or May 1976.

So the most effective evidence is that the Russian flu of 1977 actually occurred – or slightly “reoccurred” – in or near Tientsin, China, within the spring of 1976.

A frozen laboratory virus

Was it only a coincidence that inside a couple of months of Private Lewis' death from swine flu H1N1, a previously extinct strain of influenza H1N1 suddenly reappeared within the population?

For years, influenza virologists world wide used freezers to store flu viruses, including people who had turn out to be extinct within the wild. Fear of a brand new H1N1 swine flu pandemic within the United States in 1976 had sparked a world Increase in research into H1N1 viruses and vaccinesThe accidental release of certainly one of these stockpiled viruses would have been entirely possible in any country conducting H1N1 research, including China, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and doubtless other countries.

Years after the disease re-emerged, microbiologist Palese recalled personal conversations he had had with Chi-Ming Chu, the leading Chinese flu expert. Palese wrote in 2004 that “the introduction of the H1N1 virus in 1977 is now considered Result of vaccine trials in the Far East “Several thousand military recruits will be infected with the live H1N1 virus.”

Although it is just not known exactly how such an accidental release could have occurred during a vaccine trial, there are two possibilities. First, scientists could have used the resurrected H1N1 virus as a starting material for the event of a live, subdued H1N1 vaccine. If the virus had not been sufficiently weakened within the vaccine, it might have been transmissible from individual to individual. Another possibility is that researchers used the live, resurrected virus to check the immunity provided by conventional H1N1 vaccines and it unintentionally escaped from the research setting.

Whatever the precise mechanism of release, the mix of the precise location and timing of the pandemic's origin and the status of Chu and Palese as highly credible sources strongly suggests that the Russian flu virus originated from an accidental release in China.

A sobering history lesson

The resurgence of an extinct but dangerous human-adapted H1N1 virus occurred because the world scrambled to stop what was regarded as an imminent outbreak of a swine flu pandemic. People were so anxious about the opportunity of a brand new pandemic that they inadvertently triggered one. It was a pandemic that could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m not attempting to assign blame here. Rather, my most important argument is that within the epidemiological fog of 1976, when fear of an impending pandemic was growing worldwide, a research unit in any country could have unintentionally released the resurrected virus that may later be called the Russian flu. In the worldwide rush to stop a possible latest pandemic of H1N1 swine flu from Fort Dix through research and vaccination, accidents could have happened anywhere.

Of course, biosecurity facilities and policies have improved dramatically during the last half century. But at the identical time, there was an equally dramatic Proliferation of high-security laboratories world wide.

Overreaction. Unintended consequences. Worsening of the situation. Self-fulfilling prophecy. There are a wide range of terms to explain how the most effective intentions can go awry. The world remains to be reeling from COVID-19 and now faces latest threats from the cross-species spread of avian influenza viruses, mpoxviruses and other viruses. It is critical that we respond quickly to those latest threats to stop one other global disease outbreak. Quickly, but not too quickly, as history shows.

State lawmakers have rejected a bill introduced by a Santa Clara County senator that may have given some inmates serving life sentences without the potential for parole for murder a likelihood at release.

Senator Dave Cortese, a Democrat from San Jose, authored SB 94 in 2022 in hopes of allowing inmates convicted of murder committed before June 5, 1990, and who’ve already served no less than 25 years of their sentence, to be eligible for parole.

“After two years of negotiations and over a dozen amendments considered, I am incredibly disappointed that SB 94 was not given the opportunity to be heard and the amendments were not brought to a vote by the full House,” Cortese said in an announcement. “The bill was not brought to court like those it would have helped.”

The bill faced opposition from victims' rights and law enforcement groups in addition to Republican lawmakers.

“Far too often here in Sacramento we hear about the rights of criminals while the rights of victims are trampled upon,” said Rep. Juan Alanis, a Modesto Republican and former sheriff's sergeant, in an announcement. “I am proud that we were able to help prevent the wounds of victims and their families from being reopened for such gruesome crimes as murder and rape by releasing criminals who were rightly sentenced to life in prison.”

The bill was supported by the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which called it “a modest reform that allows judges to reconsider rulings that are at least 25 years old.”

Had the law been passed and enacted, the convicted murderers would have been in a position to ask a judge to scale back their sentence to 25 years or life, with consideration for parole. The law wouldn’t have applied to people convicted of premeditated murder of a police officer on duty or certain sex offenses at the side of manslaughter.

This quickly caused a stir amongst victims' rights activists like Vanetta Perdue. The woman from North Carolina almost lost her life in 1982 when her violent husband, who was separated from her mother, broke into their house near Monterey, doused Perdue's mother with gasoline and set her on fire. She died and left her children to die together with her within the flames. A 12 months ago, she spoke out against the law on the State Capitol in Sacramento, saying: “Life without parole is exactly what it should be.”

During the legislative session that ended on Saturday, the bill didn’t receive the vital variety of votes and was placed on the “inactive” file.

Cortese was unavailable for comment Monday. But in his statement late last week, he said he remained concerned about inconsistencies in the prevailing law, which supplies some notorious inmates the chance to use for parole while others who were minorly involved in a deadly crime don't get the possibility. SB 94 followed a series of criminal justice reform measures pushed by the state's Democrats in recent times.

“We must continue the conversation and re-engage with the racist, inconsistent and harmful sentencing that has disproportionately impacted Californians for over twenty years and will continue to wreak havoc until it is fixed,” Cortese said in an announcement.

But Sen. Kelly Seyarto, a Republican from Murrieta and vice chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, said the bill “would have been devastating to public safety and victims' rights,” and lots of of Cortese's fellow Democrats, who’ve overwhelming majorities within the House, agreed. “We know that when voters come together and demand to be heard, even the overwhelming majority must take it seriously and listen to the will of the people.”

Originally published: September 2, 2024 at 3:40 p.m.

Gardena police have made the biggest single seizure of illegal explosives in California's recent history as a part of a crackdown on the possession and sale of illegal fireworks, police said Wednesday, urging residents to report any suspected illegal pyrotechnic activity.

Gardena police seized greater than 75 tons of illegal fireworks, greater than double the previous record of 32 tons seized from a South Los Angeles warehouse in 2021.

“This investigation is a critical part of our comprehensive plan to enforce the fireworks ban,” Gardena Police Lt. Christopher Cuff told reporters at a press conference Wednesday morning.

The fireworks, believed to be imported from China, were discovered stacked in boxes at a industrial warehouse within the 17000 block of Vermont Avenue and seized in a raid on June 21. Details of what led investigators to the warehouse weren’t released, but officials said they were cracking down on fireworks as a part of a comprehensive plan led by Gardena Police Chief Mike Saffell.

“The goal of our fireworks plan is to improve the quality of life for the residents of the City of Gardena, especially our seniors, our veterans and our pets, to ensure the safety of the community,” Cuff told reporters.

The 75 tons of illegal fireworks, which Cal Fire called an “extraordinary quantity,” had an estimated value of $7 million to $10 million and included 10 kilos of homemade explosives and a pair of,000 illegal explosive devices. With assistance from Cal Fire, Hawthorne Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, over 153 pallets of the fireworks were loaded and transported in stable condition to a fire-safe storage facility.

“It took five 53-foot trailers and a 40-foot tractor-trailer to transport all of the fireworks,” Cuff added.

The final destination and disposal of this stuff haven’t yet been determined, the Cal Fire Office of the State Fire Marshal said in a press release. The office is chargeable for destroying the illegal fireworks once they’re confiscated.

Three suspects – 44-year-old Alejandro Rodriguez of Wilmington, 30-year-old Natalie Navarro of Carson and 25-year-old Daniel Gudino of Wilmington – were arrested and charged with suspicion of possession of explosives and other weapons violations. All three were later released on bail, in line with jail records.

City News Service contributed to this report.