Talgo trains sat idle in a Milwaukee facility now heading to Nigeria

Ricardo Torres, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Fri, January 21, 2022

Talgo Inc. quality control employee Mary Slottke walks past coach train cars in the process of being built at Talgo Inc. in 2011. Talgo was retained to build trains for Amtrak's Hiawatha line after a $810 million federal stimulus grant to establish a Madison-to-Milwaukee line.

The train cars were supposed to run on a rail stretching from Milwaukee to Madison, but now they're heading to Nigeria.

Lagos Gov. Babajide Sanwo Olu toured the Talgo facility in Milwaukee with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson earlier this week.

“A train is not something you can just go on the shelf and pick up. We are very lucky to get brand new trains," Sanwo Olu said.

Talgo, a Spanish train-maker with a US headquarters in Seattle, built the two 10-car high speed trains that have been sitting idle for years in Milwaukee. The trains plan to be shipped to Lagos within the next two months.

Johnson welcomed Sanwo Olu to Milwaukee, but he would have preferred to have found a use for the trains in Wisconsin.

"It is a little bittersweet," Johnson said in a statement. "I am sending my congratulations to the Governor of Lagos State in Nigeria, but also a little disappointed that we missed out on the opportunity to have those train sets operating here in Milwaukee and in Wisconsin."

Sanwo Olu said the trains will provide a "source of livelihood for our citizens" by helping move people to jobs and around the state.

"It is about ensuring that we can build our economy; people can move from one location to another and businesses can grow," Sanwo Olu said in a statement.

With a population of roughly 27 million people, Lagos is one of the largest cities in Africa.

According to the release, there are about 6 million individuals in Lagos with daily transportation needs.

The Talgo trains will run on the Lagos Metro Red Line which is about 23 miles long with 11 stations. The red line is expected to be operational by the end of 2022 with roughly 500,000 daily passengers.

"For us, it is important that our trains are utilized," Antonio Perez, Talgo USA CEO and president, said. "It doesn’t make any good for the trains that we built to be stored and kept without passengers riding them."

In 2009, Wisconsin received $810 million in federal stimulus grant to establish a Milwaukee-to-Madison high speed rail line using Talgo trains under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. The project was killed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker defeated Doyle in 2010.

Talgo sued the state and in 2015, the state settled for $60 million.

In 2014, the Michigan Department of Transportation issued a request for proposals for ready-to-operate trains that can reach speeds of 110 mph. It was thought the trains in Milwaukee could go to Michigan but no deal was ever finalized.

Later in 2014, two high-speed Talgo trains were sent to Beech Grove, Ind. but those trains were not part of the 2009 deal.

Op-Ed: Anti-vaccine patients vent anger on healthcare workers like me. It takes a toll on care


Venktesh Ramnath
Thu, January 20, 2022,

As hospital workers risk their lives to fight the pandemic, some COVID-skeptic patients and families vehemently claim that healthcare workers are "poisoning" and "punishing" people. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

As a pulmonary and critical care physician in Southern California treating hospitalized patients with COVID-19, I am noticing a rising tension. Beyond just being overwhelmed, we are now part of the collateral damage.

I recently asked a security guard to accompany me and an ICU nurse to meet the family of an unvaccinated 42-year-old firefighter who refused to accept that COVID-19 caused his respiratory failure. Adamantly refusing intubation despite worsening over weeks, it was only when his oxygen levels precipitously dropped and he complained of excruciating breathlessness that he accepted a breathing tube.

A dozen irate family members and friends now demanded answers. Because of visitation restrictions to limit contagion, they awaited me in lawn chairs outside the hospital. Through my N95 mask, I tried to explain in simple terms what was happening to their loved one. They hectored with incessant questions about test results, accusations of mistreatment and demands for therapies like vitamins, ivermectin and sedatives.

Warning repeatedly “not to lie,” they recorded me with their camera phones. I tiptoed through a minefield of distrust. My careful medical explanations and efforts to connect empathically never landed. After 45 minutes, the three of us walked back into the hospital. The nurse, an ICU veteran of 20 years, sighed and said: “I can’t believe they attacked you like that.”

Once it would have been unbelievable, but it’s becoming all too common. Endless months of rancor from COVID-skeptic patients and their families takes a psychological toll on front-line healthcare professionals. I’m seeing a new casualty: Worn down, many practitioners are compromising long-standing practice norms.

Among patients who disbelieve the experts about COVID-19, there is a familiar pattern. They get sick. They end up in the hospital with severe COVID-19 illness. They initially demonstrate a nonplussed defiance, which morphs into utter helplessness when they progressively worsen.

A 43-year-old woman insisted “it’s just the flu” right up until she was begging to be intubated when oxygen masks failed to alleviate the panic caused by low oxygen levels. I pleaded with a 40-year-old man to accept my recommendations for care, only to have him grip my hand, look squarely in my eyes and say: “Feel my grip? I am strong. I am a man. Let me push through this.” (He went on to accept intubation but died several weeks later.)

Navigating the Kubler-Ross stages of traumatic grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — has always been part of providing critical care. But it’s a different challenge when patients are being wheeled into the hospital because of their deep denial of what we do know about the pandemic. It’s a different challenge when their family and friends conflate their misgivings about the science with our sincere efforts to help.

Incredulous families summarily deny that COVID-19 (and absence of vaccination) could be responsible for the critical illnesses I see every day. Patients and their relatives vehemently claim that healthcare workers and hospitals are “poisoning” and “punishing,” as if part of an Orwellian plot, leading to belligerent, abusive behaviors against staff.

Many providers have become inured to uninformed rebuffs of medical recommendations, including vaccination. Educational efforts have devolved into counterproductive debates.

Far from “heroes” or even compassionate advocates for health, providers are viewed as biased technicians with dubious motives locking loved ones behind hospital doors.

One response to this emotional onslaught is, understandably, attrition. Most veteran ICU nursing staff where I work have left, replaced by temporary assignment nurses from across the country. Some physicians who have become ostracized by the very communities they serve now contemplate nonclinical work or early retirement.

Among those of us still in the trenches, some medical professionals are now breaking traditional practice norms. Providers are resorting to less evidence-based practices, desperate to help and also to avoid another conflict. By opening the door to “try everything,” they have become unwitting supporters of anti-science movements, placing additional stress on others who promote well-established, proven practices.

Another understandable but disappointing strategy is to avoid tough prognostic conversations. Providers may avoid a confrontation with someone by not relaying the bad news about where a patient’s deteriorating condition is headed. This perpetuates false hopes of recovery and can leave patients clamoring for more and more treatment — which the provider knows would only amplify and prolong suffering, and which would detract attention from patients with higher probabilities of improvement.

There are no simple solutions, but there are many pieces to the puzzle: We healthcare providers must set realistic expectations early and throughout hospitalization. Hospitals must provide more palliative care, social work and other supportive services for patients and families. More and better public health messaging must combat medical misinformation. Medical systems and healthcare workers need more resources, more security, more public belief that we are all on the same side against a common viral enemy.

And to my colleagues who have been on the front lines: I am with you. If you need to step away, we understand and we thank you for everything you’ve done to carry us through this pandemic. Those of you who can come to work again tomorrow, please do, because we need you — not only to fight the virus, but also to uphold the principle that we share to do no harm.

Venktesh Ramnath is medical director of critical care and telemedicine outreach at UC San Diego Health.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Intel’s $20 Billion Ohio Chip Hub Will Be World’s Largest


Ian King
Fri, January 21, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp. plans to spend $20 billion on a chipmaking hub on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, which the company expects to grow to be the world’s biggest semiconductor-manufacturing site.

The chipmaker will begin construction of two fabrication plants on a 1,000-acre site in the town of New Albany, which it expects to be operational by 2025, Intel said Friday. The plan will rely on the most advanced technologies and result in an increased American share of the global chip supply chain, the company said.

The project will be the largest single private-sector company investment ever in Ohio, according to the governor, and will generate more than 20,000 jobs in the state, including 3,000 direct Intel positions earning an average of $135,000 a year, plus benefits.

For Intel, the move is a step toward regaining its manufacturing prowess, something the long-dominant processor maker has lost in recent years. Intel shares rose 1.9% in New York on Friday morning.

Intel Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger has been vocal about the need to build more chip factories in the U.S. and Europe, areas where manufacturing of the vital electronic components has declined precipitously. He’s argued that a rebalancing of production is needed to reverse the industry’s increasing concentration in East Asia.

Gelsinger has pointed to the pandemic-induced supply-chain crunch and increasing geopolitical tension between China and the U.S. as evidence that Western governments need to find cash to persuade chipmakers to relocate.

Intel is committing to building in Ohio using its own funds and hoping that the U.S. federal government will deliver on planned resources aimed at supporting an expansion of semiconductor manufacturing, Gelsinger said in an interview. Congress is currently considering funding of the CHIPs Act, a proposal to offer about $50 billion in incentives to companies willing to locate chip production in the U.S.

“We are putting our chips on the table,” he said. A build-out of the new Ohio location “will go bigger and faster with the support of the CHIPs Act.”

The Biden administration and Congress have struggled for more than a year to ease a semiconductor shortage gripping a wide range of U.S. industries, with few tangible results for those efforts. Even as he’s taken a hit for all the broader supply-chain troubles across the economy, President Joe Biden has been slow to press for passage of legislation called the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which includes CHIPs. But he and other officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, have emphasized the overall need to boost domestic output.

“I want other cities and states to be able to make announcements like the one being made here today,” Biden said Friday at the White House, with Gelsinger by his side. “And that’s why I want to see Congress pass this bill right away and get it to my desk.”

Gelsinger said Intel chose the location from among 30 to 40 prospective sites. The state was competitive in the incentives and other support it’s willing to offer, he said. The availability of potential employees from local universities, military veterans and the relatively cheap cost of labor at a time of wage inflation were also factors, he said. State officials haven’t disclosed the incentives offered to Intel to land the project.

Adding Ohio to its list of locations -- an area not traditionally an area associated with the technology industry -- supports the greater geographical diversity that Gelsinger has championed. Intel is also looking at sites in Germany, Italy and France for new factories, test and assembly plants, and research and design centers, Bloomberg has reported.

Putting some of Intel’s billions of dollars in capital expenditure to work in a new location for the company -- it currently has plants in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico -- may help bolster Gelsinger’s appeal for taxpayer money. That in turn will help cushion some of the drag on profitability caused by his ambitious plans to muscle in on the business of outsourced chipmaking, an area dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. Gelsinger has called his approach the “IDM 2.0” strategy, building on Intel’s integrated device manufacturing model.

This year Intel’s CEO has budgeted a record amount of spending on new factories and equipment. But, highlighting the massive and growing cost of state-of-the-art chipmaking, TSMC and Samsung are planning to raise the stakes even higher.

TSMC has set aside more than $40 billion for capital expenditures this year. That compares with Intel’s plan to spend up to $28 billion. South Korea’s Samsung will likely announce its plans on Jan. 27 in its earnings release. Analysts, on average, predict a company wide budget of about $36 billion.

“We continue to view Intel’s investment in U.S. production as a costly but necessary part of their IDM 2.0 strategy,” Wells Fargo & Co. analyst Aaron Rakers said in a note to clients. “We expect investors to be focused on the gross margin implications of what appears to be a significantly increasing capital intensity at Intel over the coming years.”

Intel’s gross margin, the percentage of sales remaining after deducting the cost of production, has narrowed to well below the 60% level that it had delivered for years, an indication of its former dominance of the industry. Gelsinger has said that’s because the company is in “investment mode” and he predicted that the indicator would expand again when the chipmaker returns to technology leadership.

VMware Staff Blast Hire of AWS Manager Who Faced Probe



Joe Williams
Thu, January 20, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- VMware Inc. employees are sharply criticizing the company’s decision to hire a former Amazon Web Services executive who was subject to an internal investigation over alleged discriminatory comments.

VMware told staff on Tuesday that Joshua Burgin, a former general manager at Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud unit, would join as a senior leader in the Palo Alto, California-based company’s developer and application platform division, known internally as DAP. He is slated to report to general manager Ajay Patel.

“A diverse candidate slate was met while conducting a thorough and rigorous interview process for this position,” Patel wrote in an internal announcement to employees. “The process included internal and external candidates, including multiple women who were targeted in the search for this role and part of the interview process.”

Burgin worked at AWS for more than seven years before departing in December. In 2019, he faced an internal investigation over alleged discriminatory comments made to a Black female employee. The inquiry led to a recommendation that Burgin be fired, the news site Protocol reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Amazon told the news outlet it “conducted a thorough investigation” into the allegations and “took what we believe was the appropriate corrective action.” Burgin remained at the company after the inquiry.

The announcement of Burgin’s hire at VMware spurred an immediate blowback from employees, who questioned why the software company would choose to extend an offer to an individual who had been subject to such an investigation in an earlier role, according to screenshots of companywide chat messages viewed by Bloomberg.

“It is insulting that he is hired despite our claim to want to improve DE&I,” an employee wrote, referring to diversity, equality and inclusion efforts. “It is insulting that he would be presented to us as someone who has a commitment to these initiatives as if we might not find out.”

In statement, a VMware spokesperson said the company “cannot comment specifically about Joshua’s prior experience at AWS.”

“We conducted due diligence that included extensive interviews with former colleagues, as we do with new senior-level hires. Through this process, it became apparent that Joshua treats everyone with respect and has a strong, demonstrated commitment to building inclusive and well-represented teams,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

Burgin couldn’t be reach for comment. VMware spun off Nov. 1 as an independent company from Dell Technologies Inc.

The staff pushback was so severe to the hiring announcement that VMware held an all-hands call Thursday to address the complaints, said people familiar with the incident, who asked not to be identified talking about internal company discussions. Employees weren’t allowed to ask questions verbally on the call, which lasted about an hour. Instead, VMware required that questions be submitted in writing. Following that discussion, a second, unpublicized, call was held that eventually grew to roughly 80 employees as workers shared the link with one another, the people said.

On the first call, Patel acknowledged the AWS investigation, but told employees he wasn’t able to discuss specifics due to legal reasons, the people said. Patel also told employees that VMware was unaware of the allegations against Burgin when it first offered him the job. Once it was brought to the company’s attention, VMware halted the offer, conducted additional background checks and held conversations with several “character witnesses,” including “at least four women,” the people said.

Patel urged employees to give Burgin a chance, stressing his strong commitment to diversity and inclusion issues. Executives, including Patel and vice president Craig McLuckie, also said they would “stake their reputation” on the hire, according to the people.

“I understand that there will be a bias to expect the worst and am not going to ask you to take what we say at face value,” McLuckie wrote in a companywide chat responding to employees. “At the end of a very extensive process we feel he is the right person to lead the team.”

However, Patel also told employees that should the company decide to continue to move forward with Burgin’s hire, he would release in 10 days protocols to address employee concerns, one of the people said.

That didn’t satisfy employees, who continued to vent about the hiring decision.

“The repeat statement of ‘We need to give him a chance and let the process work’ is discouraging,” another employee wrote in the companywide chat. “I don’t know if Joshua will work out or not. But I now feel very strongly that our current leadership has failed us.”

LGBTQ dating ban at BYU probed in federal investigation




 Lorenzo Larios, left, and Danny Niemann chant "gay rights" as they join a student protest outside the student center at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah on March 4, 2020. The U.S. Department of Education has opened a civil-rights investigation into how LGBTQ students are disciplined at Brigham Young University, a private religious school. The complaint under investigation came after the school said it would still enforce a ban on same-sex dating even after that section was removed from the written version of the school's honor code, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. 

(Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File)More


Thu, January 20, 2022, 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The U.S. Department of Education has opened a civil-rights investigation into how LGBTQ students are disciplined at Brigham Young University, a private religious school.

The complaint under investigation came after the school said it would still enforce a ban on same-sex dating even after that section was removed from the written version of the school's honor code, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Students can be punished for holding hands or kissing someone of the same sex, harsher discipline than that faced by heterosexual couples at the school operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

BYU removed its written ban on “homosexual behavior,” in early 2020, prompting students to publicly come out as members of the LGBTQ community. But the school clarified a few weeks later that same-sex dating is still prohibited, even if it's no longer expressly written in the honor code. It also bans things such as alcohol consumption, beards and piercings.

Students protested the apparent reversal, saying they felt tricked into coming out. The federal investigation from the department's Office for Civil Rights started late last year under Title IX, the law that protects against discrimination on the basis of sex in schools.

A university spokeswoman acknowledged the investigation but said in a statement that BYU is within its rights to enforce the church’s policies against same-sex relationships and does not anticipate any further action.

“BYU is exempt from application of Title IX rules that conflict with the religious tenets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Carri Jenkins said in a statement.

The church has softened its approach in recent years but maintains doctrinal opposition to same-sex marriage and sex outside of marriage.

A Department of Education spokesperson confirmed an investigation was opened in October, but declined to comment further. As a private religious school, BYU does have religious exemptions from Title IX related to sexuality and gender expression.

Federal scrutiny like this is rare at church-owned schools, and typically happens only in places where there are believed to be potential systemic or serious issues, said Michael Austin, a BYU graduate and vice president at the University of Evansville, a private Methodist school in Indiana.


 A protester joins several hundred students gathered near The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints church headquarters on March 6, 2020, in Salt Lake City, to show their displeasure with a letter that week that clarified that "same-sex romantic behavior" is not allowed on campus at BYU. The U.S. Department of Education has opened a civil-rights investigation into how LGBTQ students are disciplined at Brigham Young University, a private religious school. The complaint under investigation came after the school said it would still enforce a ban on same-sex dating even after that section was removed from the written version of the school's honor code, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

“It’s really significant that investigators are stepping in now,” he told the newspaper. The new investigation appears to be about whether those exemptions allow faith-based discipline for LGBTQ students even if the behavior is not directly related to education or expressly prohibited in its written honor code.

The school’s president argued those exemptions do apply, and everyone who attends or works at BYU agrees to follow the honor code and “‘voluntarily commit to conduct their lives in accordance with the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ,’” according to a letter Kevin Worthen wrote to the Department of Education in November 2021.

In a response obtained by the Tribune, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights affirmed the school does have some religious exemptions but the department had to investigate whether the complaint it received falls under those exemptions.

LGBTQ rights have been a major issue in recent years at the school located in Provo, Utah. A lawsuit filed by several students last year alleges discrimination, with one recent graduate who is a lesbian alleging she lost her job at the school because she didn’t look “feminine enough” to her boss.

The institution has also banned protests near its large letter “Y” posted on a mountainside after protesters lit the letter with rainbow colors. Last fall, a top-ranking church leader publicly criticized faculty members and students who challenge the faith’s teachings on same-sex marriage.

Conflicts between nursing home residents are often chalked up to dementia – the real problem is inadequate care and neglect

Eilon Caspi, Assistant Research Professor of Health, Intervention, and Policy, University of Connecticut

Fri, January 21, 2022

Conflicts between residents with dementia occur often in long-term care settings. CasarsaGuru/E+ via Getty Images

Frank Piccolo was a beloved high school chemistry teacher in Ontario, Canada, until his retirement in 1998. “His trademark was to greet all of his students at the door at the start of class to make sure everyone felt welcomed there,” wrote a former student. “He had extensive knowledge of his subject matter, passion for his craft, and empathy for his students.”

But after Frank’s retirement, he developed dementia. When his condition declined, his family moved him to a Toronto nursing home. One evening in 2012, another resident – a woman with dementia – entered Frank’s bedroom. She hit Frank repeatedly in the head and face with a wooden activity board. Staff found Frank slumped over in his wheelchair, drenched in blood. He died three months later.

The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care investigated. It found that the woman had a history of pushing, hitting and throwing objects at staff and other residents. But the nursing home didn’t address the woman’s behavioral expressions for weeks before the attack on Piccolo, the agency determined. “There were no interventions implemented, no strategies developed,” the report stated.

Frank Piccolo and his wife, Theresa, traveling together in Italy in 2001. 

Theresa Piccolo, CC BY-NC-ND

As a gerontologist and dementia behavior specialist, I’ve written a book on preventing these incidents. I also co-directed, with dementia care expert Judy Berry, a documentary on the phenomenon called “Fighting for Dignity.” The film sheds light on the emotional trauma experienced by family members of residents harmed during these episodes in U.S. long-term care homes.
Reporting and stigmatizing

Resident-to-resident incidents are defined by researchers as “negative, aggressive and intrusive verbal, physical, material and sexual interactions between residents” that can cause “psychological distress and physical harm in the recipient.”

These incidents are prevalent in U.S. nursing homes. But they are largely overlooked by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency overseeing care in approximately 15,000 nursing homes across the country. Consequently, such incidents remain untracked, understudied and largely unaddressed.

An elderly man with severe injuries, including cut marks and bruises, across his face and forehead.

These interactions don’t just result in injuries and deaths among residents. They also leave behind devastated families who then must fight for answers and accountability from nursing homes.

Making matters worse, government reports, research studies and media coverage commonly describe these episodes with words that stigmatize people with dementia. Researchers, public officials and journalists tend to label the incidents as “abuse,” “violence” and “aggression.” They call a resident involved in an incident a “perpetrator” or an “aggressor.” News outlets described the attack on Piccolo by the woman with dementia as “aggressive” or “violent.” And when reporting on the phenomenon in Canada, the Toronto Star called it “abuse.”

Getting to the root of the real problem

Most incidents, however, do not constitute abuse. A growing body of evidence suggests the true cause of these injuries and deaths is inadequate care and neglect on the part of care homes. Specifically, there is a lack of the specialized care that people with dementia require.

Two of every three residents involved in these incidents have dementia. One study found that the rate of these episodes was nearly three times higher in dementia care homes than in other long-term care homes. A recent study also found an association between residency in a dementia care home and higher rates of injurious or fatal interactions between residents.

But for these residents, the conflicts occur mostly when their emotional, medical and other needs are not met. When they reach a breaking point in frustration related to the unmet need, they may push or hit another resident. My research in the U.S. and Canada has shown that “push-fall” episodes constitute nearly half of fatal incidents.

Another U.S. study found that as residents’ cognitive functioning declined, they faced a greater likelihood of injury in these incidents. Those with advanced dementia were more susceptible to inadvertently “getting in harm’s way,” by saying or doing things that trigger angry reactions in other residents.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that what it calls “aggression” between residents is not abuse. Instead, the CDC noted that these episodes may result when care homes fail to prevent them by taking adequate action. And a study on fatal incidents in U.S. nursing homes has shown that many residents were “deemed to lack cognitive capacity to be held accountable for their actions.”

How incidents often occur

In one study, researchers examined situational triggers among residents with cognitive impairments. The strongest triggers involved personal space and possessions. Examples include taking or touching a resident’s belongings or food, or unwanted entries into their bedroom or bathroom. The most prevalent triggering event was someone being too close to a resident’s body.

That study also found that crowded spaces and interpersonal stressors, such as two residents claiming the same dining room seat, could lead to these episodes. My own work and a different Canadian study came to similar conclusions.

Other research shows that when residents are bored or lack meaningful activity, they become involved in harmful interactions. Evenings and weekends can be particularly dangerous, with fewer organized activities and fewer staff members and managers present. Conflicts between roommates are also common and harmful.

Residents with dementia who are meaningfully engaged in activities are less likely to become involved in harmful incidents with other residents. Morsa Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images

A growing body of research suggests that most incidents between residents are preventable. A major risk factor, for example, is lack of adequate supervision, which often occurs when staff are assigned to caring for too many residents with dementia. One U.S. study found that higher caseloads among nurses’ aides were associated with higher incident rates.

And with poor staffing levels in up to half of U.S. nursing homes, staff members do not witness many incidents. In fact, one study found that staff members missed the majority of unwanted bedroom entries by residents with severe dementia.
Residents with dementia are not to blame

In most of these situations, the person with dementia does not intend to injure or kill another resident. Individuals with dementia live with a serious cognitive disability. And they often must do it while being forced to share small living spaces with many other residents.

Their behavioral expressions are often attempts to cope with frustrating and frightening situations in their social and physical environments. They are typically the result of unmet human needs paired with cognitive processing limitations.

Understanding the role of dementia is important. But seeing a resident’s brain disease as the main cause of incidents is inaccurate and unhelpful. That view ignores external factors that can lead to these incidents but are outside of the residents’ control.

Frank’s wife, Theresa, didn’t blame the woman who injured her husband or the staff. She blamed the for-profit company operating the nursing home. Despite its revenue of $2 billion in the year before the incident, it failed in its “duty to protect” Piccolo. “They did not keep my husband safe as they are required to do,” she said.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Eilon Caspi, University of Connecticut.

Read more:

Why the holidays are a prime time for elder abuse, and what you can do to thwart it

Webcams in nursing home rooms may deter elder abuse – but are they ethical?

I am a founding member and board member of Elder Voice Family Advocates in Minnesota.

I worked in reproductive healthcare, and ‘abortion’ is not a dirty word | Opinion



Monica Skoko Rodriguez
Thu, January 20, 2022

A dear friend called me out of the blue a few years ago. As a born and bred millennial, I know that a phone call without advance warning means something serious. On this phone call, she told me she was pregnant and asked me if I thought she should have an abortion.

At the time, I was working as a nurse for Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida (PPSENFL) helping to provide dignified abortion access to patients. I started blabbing about the safety of abortions. I got on my soapbox about how the movies get it all wrong — the majority of patients are incredibly confident in their decisions and that most abortions are either induced at home after consultation with a physician or take just a few minutes in a simple procedure.

I mentioned the hundreds of abortions I had assisted on and that not one had required care that wasn’t easily managed in clinic. I even threw in the trite statement that pregnancy is far riskier than abortion. I rambled that abortion will not affect fertility in the future nor the health of future pregnancies, nor will it increase risks of getting cancer — all these being frequent enough questions I had gotten from patients.

My friend stopped me during this dissertation and asked again, directly, if she should have an abortion. I answered with a question. “Do you want a child right now?”

Her “no” came swiftly and resolutely but her voice wavered with a follow up.

“But is it bad for me to have an abortion?”

This question shattered me. The existence of her question did not mean that she was unsure of what she wanted for herself, her future and her health, but that she was unsure that the world we live in would allow her to want it.
Lawmakers chipping away

Jan. 22, 2022, marks the 49th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that ruled a pregnant person has the liberty to decide to have an abortion without excessive restriction, and yet here we are half a century later fighting about what that means. When I began working in reproductive health, I imagined a United States where the protections guaranteed by this decision were the floor, not a ceiling. I thought of myself working toward making reproductive healthcare more affordable and accessible and less stigmatized. This year, conservative lawmakers are resolved to chip away at the rights of patients to have autonomy over their bodies and their healthcare until the entire justice system caves in around us.

At PPSENFL, abortion nurses worked intake, procedure room or recovery room. We all rotated but recovery was my favorite by far because most patients would come out of the procedure room bathed in a glow of relief. Relief from the physical representation of a traumatic event. Relief that they can prioritize the children they currently have and attend school plays or pay for ballet lessons instead of taking on another job. In many cases, it meant they would still continue to struggle to make ends meet without figuring out how to feed one more mouth. I would see relief that they drove hours or flew to Miami and were able to access care.

Many times though, the relief had no tear-inducing story of difficult choices. The story was simply that a person wanted an abortion and got one because that is their right.
No caveats needed

We must roar as loudly as we can to deafen the stigma anti-abortion zealots have concocted and we need to shout as often as we can that abortion is healthcare and should be made unrestrictedly and equitably available, and fully funded.

“Abortion” is not a dirty word. Abortion does not need to be followed by caveats, explanations or shame. Everyone knows and loves someone who has had an abortion. From an aunt of mine who was secretly bused into the city in the 60’s and met in an alley by a stranger, to my friend who had projected society’s unfounded puritanism onto her bodily autonomy — may we continue to love them and continue to fight against those who refuse to respect or acknowledge the privilege and right of their decisions.

Monica Skoko Rodriguez is a former Planned Parenthood nurse and holds a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in nursing practice from Duke University. She is the executive director of the Miami-Dade County Commission for Women and a board member of Ruth’s List Miami.

Cannabis CBD Might Be Highly Effective at Preventing COVID


Neel V. Patel
Fri, January 21, 2022

Unsplash

From the outset of the pandemic, the prospect that weed might be used to fight COVID-19 was tantalizing. After all, many people across the planet were getting high to pass the time during lockdown, and there is a long history of governments shunning the idea that cannabis might have health benefits, research be damned.

Still, the FDA and other health authorities were quick to say as far back as April 2020 there was no science to back up claims that weed was going to be useful in warding off the deadly disease.

That may have been premature. New, peer-reviewed research published Thursday in Science Advances suggests the popular non-psychoactive compound in cannabis known as cannabidiol, or CBD, can help prevent the novel coronavirus from replicating in human cells, reducing the chances of a full-blown infection. Another arm of the study also found that real-world patients who were prescribed CBD experienced lower rates of COVID-19.

Weed and Seven Benadryl: The Wild Lengths COVID Docs Are Taking to Get Sleep

“We just wanted to know if CBD would affect the immune system,” Marsha Rosner, a cancer biologist and expert in cell stress at the University of Chicago and a senior author of the new study, said in a statement. “No one in their right mind would have ever thought that it blocked viral replication, but that’s what it did.”

Rosner and her colleagues don’t yet recommend consuming CBD products—nor do they believe CBD could be a substitute for vaccination (still by far the best way to protect yourself). But the authors do advocate launching clinical trials soon to more rigorously probe whether it could be used as an additional therapeutic to prevent or slow down breakthrough COVID, an especially urgent task in light of the Omicron variant’s seemingly relentless spread.

In the first part of the study, authors exposed human lung cells in the lab to CBD for a couple hours before exposing the same cells to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). They found that while the virus was still able to enter the cells, CBD inhibited the virus from hijacking the human cell machinery to replicate its own viral genome—an essential step for an infection to spread. The authors believe CBD boosts the production of an antiviral cell protein and other host cell responses that basically put a lockdown on gene replication.

The effects were the same in tests of two other types of human cells, for three different SARS-CoV-2 variants altogether (unfortunately big variants like Omicron and Delta were not tested). The team also treated live mice with CBD for a week before exposing them to COVID-19, and witnessed the same suppression of infection.

The second part of the study was a survey of 1,212 human patients who’ve been prescribed an oral CBD solution for the treatment of epilepsy, and showed only 6.2 percent had returned positive tests for COVID-19, compared to 8.9 percent of similar patients not taking CBD. Among patients who reported taking CBD the day they went in for a COVID-19 test, only 4.9 tested positive, compared to 9 percent in the control group.

Could There Be a Non-Vaccine COVID Cure?

But don’t go making plans to stock up on weed gummies or other cannabis products to protect yourself from COVID. Rosner specifically emphasized that “the commercially available CBD powder we looked at, which was off the shelf and something you could order online, was sometimes surprisingly of high purity but also of inconsistent quality.”

Still, it’s becoming less and less tenable to oppose deeper study of the relationship between cannabis and COVID. The new findings come just a week after Canadian researchers published their own study finding that other cannabis compounds exhibited anti-COVID effects as well.

“We are very eager to see some clinical trials on this subject get off the ground,” Rosner said. “Especially as we are seeing that the pandemic is still nowhere near the end, determining whether this generally safe, well-tolerated, and non-psychoactive cannabinoid might have antiviral effects against COVID-19 is of critical importance.”

Buffett Eyes Largest Wind Power Project Ever In U.S.


Thu, January 20, 2022

Warren Buffett’s investment firm Berkshire Hathaway has proposed a plan for a renewable energy project comprising wind and solar power that would cost $3.9 billion to build.

The Wind Prime project, according to BloombergNEF analyst Ethan Zindler, stands to potentially be the single largest wind project ever built in the United States. However, Zindler told Bloomberg, there have been such massive projects before that had never gotten to the finish line, so “there’s a long way to go for this project.”

The Wind PRIME project will include over 5 GW of wind power and some 50 MW of solar power, to be built in Iowa, Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary MidAmerican Energy said in a statement.

The capacity of the project would be enough to power some 600,000 households, according to Bloomberg.

“Iowa is a renewable energy leader, thanks in large part to MidAmerican Energy’s proven track record of clean energy commitments and investments that are a true competitive advantage for our state,” said Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.

“MidAmerican’s Wind PRIME is a commitment and investment on a whole new level, cementing Iowa’s clean energy leadership for many years to come.”

MidAmerican Energy said in its statement that since 2014 it had invested some $14 billion in Iowa renewable energy projects. Now, besides the $4-billion wind-and-solar combo, the company also plans to invest in feasibility studies on other low-carbon energy technology, including carbon capture, energy storage, and modular nuclear reactors.

Wind power is already a significant energy source in Iowa, contributing over 40 percent of the state’s total energy output in 2019. As of the same year, Iowa’s nameplate wind power capacity stood at close to 10 GW.

Wind power in Iowa is also already a big business for Berkshire Hathaway—and Buffett himself noted how wind power had made the electricity bills of the company’s customers in Iowa much lower than those for electricity supplied by competitors.

“The extraordinary differential between our rates and theirs is largely the result of our huge accomplishments in converting wind into electricity,” Buffett said back in 2020, as quoted by Forbes.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

"It's the most horrifying thing that can happen to you as a musher": Truck strike kills and injures sled dogs in Willow


Zachariah Hughes, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
Fri, January 21, 2022, 7:47 AM·4 min read

Jan. 21—UPDATE: On Friday morning, Foucher wrote on Facebook that her dog Felicity had returned home.

Jaye Foucher doesn't know the name of the man whose truck ran through her dog-team, severing the gangline and dragging half the animals four or five truck-lengths up the Parks Highway before coming to a stop.

The collision was a series of accidents, leaving one dog dead, several injured, another loose, and Foucher distraught, reconciling with the lengthy and uncertain road to recovery ahead.

"I'm definitely running on fumes. I haven't really been able to eat. I'm shattered," Foucher said on Thursday. "I'm just kind of alternating between numb and devastated. It's the most horrifying thing that can happen to you as a musher."

She was on a training run early Wednesday afternoon in Willow, about a mile from where she and her team have been staying this winter, mushing the same trails they've been using since the fall. A snowmachine trail beside the highway was buried under thick snow sloughed off by recent road plowing that made it hard for her dogs to run.

"They thought it was a little too deep and decided the road looked much more appealing to them," Foucher said.

She called them back, trying to get them off the highway. A pickup truck hauling a flat snowmachine trailer was heading toward them. Foucher frantically waved her arms at the driver to get him to stop or swerve.

"I don't know how he didn't see us," she said. "He just kept barreling toward the team full blast."

She estimates the vehicle was moving at 50 miles per hour when it tore through her line of dogs.

In the aftermath, Foucher said the older couple in the truck helped her regain control of her animals, as did another driver and other mushers who happened upon the accident. One dog was killed instantly. Others were badly injured and Foucher was desperate to get them to the nearest emergency veterinarian, an hour away, as fast as she could.

"I was also pretty hysterical," she said.

In the commotion, she did not get the name or information of the driver, assuming he would stick around until the Alaska State Troopers arrived at the scene. She left to bring her dogs to the animal clinic.

"We have no idea who the driver of the truck was. I really wish they would come forward," Foucher said.

An online report from the Department of Public Safety said the driver stayed to help after the accident. Alaska State Troopers had not released the name of the driver as of Thursday evening, and spokesman Austin McDaniel said no citation or charges had been filed. It wasn't clear from his response whether troopers spoke with the vehicle owner.

Foucher was running the 11 dogs she'd planned on mushing in the upcoming Willow 300 race next week. Seven were released from the veterinary clinic on Wednesday evening, some totally unharmed and three or four with minor injuries. Two more underwent surgery overnight and remain in serious condition, including one of her main leaders, who's tail had to be amputated and faces an uncertain mushing future. Another leader, Noddy, died at the scene. As of Thursday afternoon, a 35-pound cream-colored dog named Felicity is still loose.

"(I'm) just praying she finds her way to someone's kennel in Willow," Foucher said.

At her dog yard on Thursday, there was a pile of straw and food bowl beside the front door in case Felicity came back. Foucher worked hard to control raw feelings recounting Wednesday's tragedy, but broke into tears as pointed out an empty dog house belonging to Noddy.

She is still processing what the accident means for a race season she'd long planned out. A former rock musician who lives in New Hampshire, Foucher relocated her team to Alaska to train for a rookie run at this year's Iditarod.

"I'm just taking it a day at a time," she said.

Donations have poured into the clinic where her dogs are being treated to cover their care. A friend set up a Go Fund Me to help pay for the future costs she'll incur as her dogs are further rehabilitated. Someone in her native New Hampshire even sent a DoorDash delivery of coffee and donuts to the veterinary techs taking care of her team.

"I'm floored and really touched," Foucher said.

Daily News photographer Emily Mesner contributed to this story from the Mat-Su.