Status of imprisoned Chinese blogger unknown five days after scheduled release

Zhang Zhan, 40, seen here in a screen capture of a video uploaded to YouTube on May 14, 2020, the same day she was arrested on charges relating to her coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic from Wuhan. Screen capture courtesy YouTube/video

May 16 (UPI) -- The status and location of a Chinese blogger who was imprisoned for her coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak remained unknown Thursday, five days after she was to be released from a Shanghai prison, raising worries about her safety.

Zhang Zhan, 40, had spent four years in a Chinese prison following her conviction in December 2020 for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" with her early coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak from Wuhan, ground zero of the pandemic.

She was to be released from Shanghai Women's Prison on Monday, but no one has heard from her since, leading some to describe her as having been "disappeared."

"Day 5: it's poignant that #ZhangZhan, who inspires us to fight for transparency and the right to information, has been 'disappeared' and her family silenced once again," Jane Wang, a Chinese activist based in Britain who has been advocating for Zhang's release, said Thursday on X.

Wang initially publicized that there had been no confirmation that Zhang had left the prison as expected on Monday.

She said they should have either heard from her or her family by Monday night concerning her release.

"Instead, we are left wondering where she is, how she is doing physically and mentally, what's happened to her family and what the future holds for her," Wang said.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday said the Biden administration is "deeply concerned" over reports of Zhang's disappearance and urged the People's Republic of China to respect her human rights.

"The United States has repeatedly expressed our serious concerns about the arbitrary nature of her detention and authorities' mistreatment of her," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Zhang was arrested May 14, 2020, the same day she posted her final video of hundreds she had shared on social media, including YouTube, detailing the situation in Wuhan amid the pandemic and China's repressive response to it.

As she was serving her sentence, there were doubts raised that she would be released when the time came, with Reporters Without Borders stating last month that journalists detained for their work in China are often surveilled after release and banned from traveling abroad.

The non-government international journalism advocate said that she had undergone hunger strikes during her imprisonment in defense of her innocence, which resulted in her nearly dying. Authorities ended up force feeding her nasally with a tube, it said.

China has jailed more than prisoners and press freedom advocates than any other country with at least 119 detainees, RSF said, and is ranked 179th out of 180 countries in its 2023 world press freedom index.

ICJ: Israel rejects South African claims Rafah offensive is final phase of plan to wipe out Gaza


Israel's legal team (L-R) Gilad Noam, Tamar Kaplan Tourgeman and Avigail Frisch Ben Avraham on Friday rebutted arguments by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that Israel's offensive on Rafah was the final step in the "destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian people." South Africa is seeking to persuade the court to order Israel to immediately halt its military operation in the city in southern Gaza. 

Photo by Lina Seig/EPA-EFE


May 17 (UPI) -- Israeli government lawyers opened day two of a South African bid to persuade the International Court of Justice to order it to halt its "genocidal" offensive on Rafah with a strong rebuttal, arguing that the military campaign would prove the savior of the Palestinian people.

Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam told the court in The Hague that South Africa's premise that the offensive on the southern city was the final step of the "destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian people" turned reality on its head and that the truth was their future depended on escaping the clutches of Hamas.

"South Africa warns this court that, 'if Rafah falls, so too does Gaza.' Once again, however, the reality is exactly the opposite," said Noam.

"Only by bringing down Hamas's military stronghold in Rafah will Palestinians be liberated from the clenched grip of the murderous terrorist regime and the road to peace and prosperity may finally be paved."

South Africa also had an "ulterior motive" for seeking an Israeli pullback from Rafah, Noam alleged, saying the aim was to hand "a military advantage to its ally Hamas, which it does not want to see defeated."

Israeli Foreign Ministry principal deputy legal adviser Tamar Kaplan Tourgeman said that Israel was defending itself against Hamas and accused South Africa of "distorting statements" by Israeli leaders to "show genocidal intent that is simply not there".

She also rejected claims Israel had shuttered the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings, the two main routes linking southern Gaza with the outside world.

"This is blatantly untrue. The truth is that Israel allows and facilitates the provision of more and more humanitarian aid through a number of crossings on a daily basis."

South Africa, which already has a case before the ICJ in The Hague alleging genocide by Israel in Gaza, opened its latest bid Thursday by accusing Israel of escalating its campaign of annihilation against the Palestinians and calling Rafah "the final stand" in a plan to "wipe Gaza from the face of the Earth" that was on the verge of being realized.

The urgent application by Pretoria requests the court to order Israel to "immediately withdraw and cease its military operations" in the Rafah governate "due to the continuing annihilation of the Palestinian people, with over 35,000 now killed and most of Gaza reduced to rubble".

It argues an all-out assault on Rafah would breach the clause of the 1948 Genocide Convention which prohibits "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

The seven-member South African and international legal team upgraded the application it initially submitted May 10 from a request seeking to stop the Rafah offensive to an effort to halt all Israeli military operations in Gaza.

South Africa also asked the court to order Israel to immediately "ensure and facilitate unimpeded access" for UN and other humanitarian officials, fact-finding missions, investigators and journalists.

"Evidence of appalling crimes and atrocities is literally being destroyed and bulldozed, in effect wiping the slate clean for those who've committed these crimes and making a mockery of justice," said barrister Vaughan Lowe KC.

Max du Plessis, a lawyer for South Africa, said Israel's declared "safe zones" to which people are being urged to relocate from Rafah were far from being places of safety.

"There is nothing humanitarian about these humanitarian zones," he said. "Israel's genocide of Palestinians continues through military attacks and man-made starvation."

The hearing ended with the court requesting written clarification from Israel regarding existing humanitarian conditions in designated evacuation zones.

Judge Georg Nolte said the court wanted to know about al-Mawasi, north of Rafah, in particular, and how Israel would ensure safe passage to the zones, as well as the provision of shelter, food, water and other humanitarian aid and assistance to all those who opt to relocate.

Israel has until 4 p.m. Saturday to comply.

Study links ultra-processed foods to slightly higher risk of premature death

By Dennis Thompson,

 HealthDay News
MAY 9, 2024 / 

Those who ate the most ultra-processed foods -- an average of seven servings a day -- had a 4% higher risk of death overall, and a 9% higher risk of death from causes other than cancer or heart disease. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

People who eat large amounts of ultra-processed foods have a slightly higher risk of premature death than those who mostly shun the industrially produced eats, a new 30-year study says.

Those who ate the most ultra-processed foods -- an average of seven servings a day -- had a 4% higher risk of death overall, and a 9% higher risk of death from causes other than cancer or heart disease.

These higher risks of death "were mainly driven by meat/poultry/seafood based ready-to-eat products, sugar and artificially sweetened beverages, dairy based desserts, and ultra-processed breakfast foods," wrote the team led by senior researcher Mingyang Song, an associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

Ultra-processed foods are made mostly from substances extracted from whole foods, like saturated fats, starches and added sugars. They also contain a wide variety of additives to make them more tasty, attractive and shelf-stable, including colors, emulsifiers, flavors and stabilizers.

Examples include packaged baked goods, sugary cereals, ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat products, and deli cold cuts, researchers said.

Mounting evidence has linked these foods to higher risks of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancer, researchers said. However, few long-term studies have examined these products' links to a person's overall risk of death.

For this study, researchers tracked the long-term health of nearly 75,000 female registered nurses and nearly 40,000 male health professionals.

Both groups took part in separate health studies that ran from the mid-1980s to 2018. Every two years, participants provided information on their health and lifestyle habits, and every four years they completed a detailed food questionnaire.

During an average 34-year follow-up period, researchers identified more than 48,000 deaths.

Although increased consumption of ultra-processed foods was linked to a higher risk of death, researchers noted that the association became less pronounced after they took a person's overall dietary quality into account.

The study found that dietary quality had a greater influence on risk of early death than did consumption of ultra-processed foods.

That could mean that eating lots of healthy whole foods might offset the detrimental effects of ultra-processed chow, researchers said.

"The findings provide support for limiting consumption of certain types of ultra-processed food for long term health," the team concluded, adding that "future studies are warranted to improve the classification of ultra-processed foods and confirm our findings in other populations."

In an editorial accompanying the study, experts pointed out that recommendations to avoid ultra-processed foods might give the idea that certain whole but unhealthy foods like red meat are fine to eat often.

The study and editorial appear in the BMJ.

More information

Harvard Medical School has more about ultraprocessed foods.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Biden administration racial educational equity actions mark desegregation anniversary


 President Joe Biden speaks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., on Friday, May 17, 2024. Biden delivered remarks at an NAACP event marking the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education at the Museum. Photo by Al Drago/UPI | License Photo

May 17 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden laid out new actions Friday to advance racial and educational equity on the 70th anniversary of the historic U.S. Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education decision that outlawed racially segregated schools.

These actions include $20 million in new magnet school grants in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas intended to further desegregate schools. Biden's 2025 budget request includes $139 million for magnet school programs.

A new technical assistance center will be established to help states and school districts provide more equitable and adequate funding approaches, according to the White House.

A new report from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights will be released providing fresh data on equal access to math and science courses.

New efforts are also being made to better preserve African American history, including preserving historic sites and protecting and increasing access to literature.

The White House said in a statement that the release of additional funding and resources will "support school diversity and advance the goal that all students have access to a world-class education."

"The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring the educational success of every child, and to address racial segregation in our schools that leads to worse educational outcomes for children, including through investments in local efforts to increase diversity and equal opportunity," the White House statement said.

Biden on Thursday met with Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of Oliver Brown and Leola Brown Montgomery, the namesake plaintiffs in the case, Thursday to commemorate the anniversary.

Biden then on Friday delivered remarks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

Biden recalled the work Black lawyer and civil rights advocate Lewis L. Redding, who represented Claymont families in the 1952 Belton vs. Gebhart case.

"One of the cases that led to the landmark [Brown vs. Board] decision was in my home state of Delaware," said Biden, who was a third grader in Claymont at the time. "They just wanted a simple proposition, they wanted their kids to be treated with dignity and respect."

Belton vs. Gepbhart was one of five cases that would be combined into Brown vs. Board. Redding's arguments in that case and others in Delaware laid the legal groundwork for Brown, Biden said.

After Brown, the school desegregation that followed led to a 30% increase in graduation rates for Black students and a 22% increase for Latino students, according to the White House.

Biden on Friday also touted $16 billion worth of investments under his administration in historically Black colleges and universities. The investments have helped build student housing, study climate science, create health research labs and more.

The White House said that during the Biden administration more than $300 million is being invested in programs that increase school diversity.

The Department of Education under Biden also issued a new rule for Charter School applicants that the schools would not negatively affect community desegregation efforts where proposed charter schools would be located.

As it marked the 70th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, the White House noted research showing "that racial achievement gaps are strongly associated with school segregation, in turn because schools with high concentrations of Black and Latino students receive fewer resources."

That rapid desegregation trend in the 1960s and 1970s was reversed in the past two decades when both racial and economic segregation increased, the White House said.

"For example, segregation between white and Black students is up 64% since 1988, while segregation by economic status has grown by 50% since 1991," the White House statement said.

Biden administration brings HCBU investment to $16 billion
By Mark Moran


Morehouse College graduating seniors wave to family members before President Barack Obama delivers their commencement address on May 19, 2013, in Atlanta. Total investments in HBCUs has brought the total to $16 billion.

 UPI/David Tulis | License Photo

May 16 (UPI) -- Ths Biden administration announced a record investment in historically Black colleges and Universities Thursday, bringing the total support to more than $16 billion.

"These historic funding levels demonstrate the Administration's ongoing commitment to HBCUs, which serve as an engine for upward economic mobility in our country," a press release from the White House said. "The Administration is also focused on work to ensure HBCUs have the resources to provide a high-quality postsecondary education."

HBCUs have been an important part of the educational landscape for 180 years, the White House said, and despite the fact that only 3% of U.S. colleges and universities are HBCUs, they play an "important role in supporting the economic mobility of African Americans," the White House said.

Forty-percent of Black engineers, 50% of all Black teachers, 70% of all Black doctors and dentists, 80% of all Black judges, and the first woman and Black Vice President of the United States are HBCU alumni.

"As a proud graduate of Howard University, I know firsthand that our HBCUs are centers of academic excellence," Vice President Kamala Harris said. "For generations, these anchors of our communities have played a pivotal role in building and contributing to America's leadership at home and abroad.

HBCUs support nearly five times more students than Ivy League schools in helping people transition from the bottom 40% in U.S. household income to the top 60%, according to social mobility research by the United Negro College Fund.

The Biden administration said the investments in HBCUs are an example of its commitment to investing in advancing racial equality, educational excellence and economic opportunity.

Aside from the standard educational opportunities, the administration said its investment is yielding results in many areas, and offered as one example a 5-year, $90 million investment in a first-of-its-kind HBCU-led University Affiliated Research Center, led by Howard University. The facility will focus on autonomous Air Force technology missions.

The White House also called HBCUs "engines for upward mobility" and a CEA report published Thursday shows that HBCU enrollment has positive effects on bachelor's degree completion and household income later in life.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced awards totaling $5.5 million for HBCUs to improve the production of affordable housing, bolster Black homeownership, advance the use of renewable energy, and serve the infrastructure needs of underserved communities.

HBCUs have achieved this success despite chronic underfunding, the White House said.

Biden signs memorandum for new environmental protections in Antarctic


Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, NASA and other research organizations have discovered two seafloor troughs that could allow warm ocean water to reach the base of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica's largest and most rapidly thinning glacier. President Joe Biden on Friday signed a national security memorandum that provides new policies regarding the Antarctic region, particularly in climate change research. Photo by NASA/UPI


May 17 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Friday signed a memorandum updating United States policy on the Antarctic region in an effort to protect it from the effects of climate change.

The national security memorandum replaces the 1994 policy on Arctic and Antarctic regions and establishes key objectives by which the United States will lead and participate in activities through the Antarctic Treaty System.

The new policy has four primary objectives:Protect the "relatively unspoiled" Antarctic environment and related ecosystems
Preserve and pursue opportunities for scientific research and understand Antarctica's relationship to climate change
Maintain the Antarctic as a region of peaceful international cooperation
Ensure the protection of living resources and ecosystems in the region

"We remain vigilant against actions by countries that could threaten U.S. national interests by bringing international discord to the Antarctic region," the White House said in a statement.

"The United States, represented by the Department of State at ATS bodies, will work with international partners through the ATS to promote peace and science in the region, and promote international cooperation while safeguarding U.S. national interests."

The U.S. National Science Foundation manages three year-round Antarctic research facilities.

The foundation collaborates with other federal science agencies on research in aeronomy and astrophysics, ecology, atmospheric sciences, biology and medicine, geology and geophysics, glaciology, ocean and climate systems, and living marine resources.

Research conducted by the United States and other countries continues to demonstrate the damages of global climate change on the Antarctic region, including through ocean warming and acidification, ozone depletion, rising sea levels, and air and water pollution.

American research also has revealed the risks and uncertainties of climate "tipping points" such as the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet.

The United States said it will continue to encourage countries to set "ambitious" 2035 nationally determined contributions under the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and establish a system of protected marine areas in the Antarctic.

The updated policy builds on the Biden-Harris administration's commitment to modernize outdated climate and environmental policies, according to the White House.

Puerto Rican legislator gets 8 years in prison for bribery, kickback scheme

May 17 (UPI) -- A judge on Friday sentenced a Puerto Rican legislator and her husband for their roles in a multi-year theft, bribery and kickback scheme to defraud the commonwealth.

María Milagros Charbonier-Laureano, also known as Tata, a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, received eight years in prison. Her husband, Orlando Montes-Rivera, received four years and nine months, according to the Justice Department.

Charbonier-Laureano received one of the largest sentences imposed on a public figure in Puerto Rico.

She also was sentenced to two years of supervised release and 120 hours of community service.

Her lawyer, Francisco Rebollo, said Friday that he will appeal her sentencing.

"Although we do not agree with the sentence. However, we have to recognize that it is a considered sentence. The court had a broad domain of the disputes and although it does not have my agreement, it has my respect," Rebollo said in a statement.

A jury in January convicted the couple of one count of conspiracy; two counts of theft, bribery, and kickbacks concerning programs receiving federal funds; six counts of honest services wire fraud; and two counts of money laundering.

Charabonier-Laureano also was convicted of obstruction of justice for deleting data on her cellphone that was relevant to the case.

According to court documents, Charbonier-Laureano, her husband, and her assistant, Frances Acevedo-Ceballos executed a scheme from early 2017 until July 2020 to fraudulently inflate Acevedo-Ceballos' salary in exchange for a portion of the salary.

Over the course of the scheme, Charbonier-Laureano inflated her assistant's salary from $800 on a bi-weekly basis to nearly $2,900. Acevedo-Ceballos agreed to kick back approximately $1,500 every pay period to Charbonier-Laureano and Montes-Rivera.

After learning of an investigation into her office and that a warrant had been obtained for her cellphone, Charbonier-Laureano began deleting nearly all call log entries, WhatsApp messages, and iMessages on the phone.

Acevedo-Ceballos was sentenced in February to three years and one month in prison after pleading guilty to bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

Pro-Palestinian protestors attempt to seize buildings at Penn, Chicago universities


May 18 (UPI) -- Police in Philadelphia and Chicago ended attempts by pro-Palestinian protesters to take over buildings at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago Friday.

Protestors gathered around 8 p.m. Friday in the University City area of West Philadelphia and entered Penn's Fisher-Bennett Hall at Walnut and 34th streets local media reported.

Penn Gaza Solidarity members said they intended to occupy the university building before police arrived.

University police and Philadelphia Police stopped the attempted takeover and arrested several protesters, some of whom fought with police.

University officials said 19 people were arrested, including six Penn students.

A dozen of those arrested received citations for failing to follow police commands and disperse, while another seven remained in custody on felony charges, including one for assaulting a police officer.

A university spokesperson said police officers found tools for picking locks and homemade metal shields.

Exits were secured with barbed wire and zip ties and barricaded with desks and metal chairs, while newspaper and cardboard covered windows.

The protestors also used bike racks and metal chairs to create makeshift barriers to block the outside entrances.

Shortly before the attempted takeover at Penn, pro-Palestinian protestors briefly occupied the Institute of Politics building at the University of Chicago's campus in Hyde Park.



Some protesters wore face masks, goggles and helmets as they surrounded the building at about 5 p.m. and used chairs to barricade entrances on one side.

The protesters sprayed paint on security cameras and hung a banner listing demands, which include the university divesting itself of any investments in entities supporting or doing business in Israel.

Another banner declared "bring the intifada home," the Chicago Tribute reported.

University and Chicago police cleared the building by 6 p.m. There is no indication of how many protesters, if any, were arrested.

The attempted takeover happened during the start of the university's alumni weekend.

Protesters included students and alumni, one of whom identified himself as a member of a group calling itself the University of Chicago Alumni for Palestine.

The attempted takeover happened during the university's alumni weekend, and protesters included students and alumni, one of whom identified himself as a member of a group calling itself the University of Chicago alumni for Palestine.

12 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested for occupying vacant building near UC Berkeley


Image of a previous student encampment continues to occupy the area in front of Sproul Hall at the University of California Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California on May 2. An off-campus protest led to 12 arrests on Thursday. 

Photo by John G. Mabanglo/EPA-EFE

May 17 (UPI) -- Authorities arrested 12 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had occupied a vacant building near the University of California Berkeley campus.

Campus police and officers from other law enforcement agencies made the arrests Thursday night and used force to remove others who were not arrested from Anna Head Hall, which is officially off campus but owned by the university.

The university said it believed up to 20 people had occupied the building before law enforcement either removed or arrested them.

University of California Vice Chancellor Dan Mougulof said potential charges could include trespassing, vandalism and destruction of property.

"We are treating this as what it is, and it's a crime scene," he said.

Some protesters entered the building while squeezing through holes in the fencing surrounding the structure, but most demonstrators crowded a grass area outside to erect signs and spray paint slogans on the building.

The university said the building, which was barricaded after a fire years ago, remains unsafe.

No injuries were reported during the protests or the arrests.

The university said the group that occupied the building was different from protesters who erected encampments near Sproul Plaza on campus several weeks ago before they were taken down after an agreement between protesters and university officials.

More than 19,000 University of California teaching assistants, researchers, tutors and other student workers represented by the United Auto Workers Union earlier this week approved plans for a strike over the university's response to the protests at its various campuses that could begin as early as Friday.

The union, Local 4811, authorized the strike on Thursday, accusing the university of "intimidation and retaliation" over their free speech rights.

Colorado ballot initiative seeks right to taxpayer-funded abortions


Anti-abortion protesters demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court a year after the court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling in 2022. File photo by Annabelle Gordon/UPI | License Photo

May 18 (UPI) -- A ballot initiative seeking to make abortion a right and requiring taxpayer funding through state and local health insurance plans qualifies for inclusion on Colorado's Nov. 5 ballot.

Organizers of Initiative 89 obtained and submitted more than enough valid signatures to include the proposed change to the Colorado Constitution on the general election ballot, the Colorado Secretary of State's office announced Friday.

Organizers submitted 159,930 valid signatures to place the measure on the ballot, which requires 55% of affirming votes to become law.

Colorado requires 125,000 registered Colorado voters, including at least 2% in each of the state's 35 Senate districts, to sign a petition to place an initiative on a general election ballot.

Initiative 89 would change the Colorado Constitution to recognize the right to abortion, prohibit the state or local units from interfering with that right and require abortion coverage through health insurance plans for employees of state and local units of government and those who are enrolled in state and local unit insurance programs.

The Colorado Constitution bans state funding of abortions and has for the past 40 years.

Other than the ban on state funding for abortions and requiring parents be notified at least 48 hours before a minor undergoes an abortion procedure, Colorado doesn't interfere with a woman's ability to get an abortion.

Voters in 1984 approved a ballot initiative that prohibits state funding of abortions through Medicaid or including abortion coverage in health insurance plans for state workers.

Colorado joins Maryland, Florida, South Dakota and New York in including abortion measures on the November state ballots.

Organizers in six other states are trying to get abortion proposals on respective state ballots.

The ballot initiatives come two years after the Supreme Court ruled the federal government has no right to regulate abortion and remanded the matter to individual states in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling in 2022.

THIRD WORLD U$A"; CHILD LABOR

Labor Department investigating Alabama poultry plant for employing minors

By Ehren Wynder

May 18 (UPI) -- Federal authorities are investigating the use of underage workers at an Alabama poultry plant owned by the same firm found responsible for the death of a 16-year-old worker in Mississippi.

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Labor on May 7 filed a lawsuit against Mar Jac Poultry to halt production of goods allegedly tainted with child labor through Mary 31.

The department said it found several minors as young as 16 unlawfully employed at the company's Jasper, Ala., facility.

The factory employs 1,000 people and is the largest employer in Walker County.

According to court documents, the Labor Department's investigation into Mar Jac's Jasper facility began with a complaint in March. Investigators earlier this month said they found at least four minors working the plant in "oppressive" conditions.

The minors reportedly were cutting and deboning poultry carcasses and had been working in the facility for months

Some of them were Guatamalan and attended a local high school. They started their shifts at 11 p.m. and worked from Sunday through Thursday, according to investigators.

Mar Jac's attorneys denied the company knowingly hired underage workers and said the minors acquired employment through forged documents that lied about their age.

The company argued some of the workers were not performing jobs prohibited by federal regulations and that it fired employees when it learned they were underage.

This is not Mar Jac's first dealing with child labor violations. The Labor Department, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in January found the company liable for the death of a 16-year-old at one of its Mississippi plants.

The family of 16-year-old Duvan Perez previously filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company after Perez was killed by a machine he was cleaning.

Mar Jac had contested OSHA's conclusions in the case and argued there were no "errors committed by its safety or human resources employees."

The company claimed Perez had stolen the identity of a 32-year-old man to gain employment at the Mississippi plant and that it relied on a staffing firm to fill positions at the factory.

Mar Jac said it was applying additional scrutiny to IDs in the hiring process in response to the Mississippi incident.

Federal law does not explicitly prohibit minors from working in slaughterhouses. Minors working with or near dangerous machinery, however, is prohibited, Labor Department regulations state.

Alabama's labor law allows for 14- and 15-year-olds to work after they've received an eligibility form from their school.

State Rep. Susan Dubose, R-Hoover, has proposed removing the eligibility requirement, but the measure did not pass before the most recent legislative session ended.

The National Chicken Council, a trade group to which Mar Jac belongs, said it has "zero tolerance" for hiring underage workers.

"Our members have recently come together to form a Task Force to Prevent Child Labor, to treat this issue as non-competitive and to foster collaboration through the sharing of best practices that aid in the prevention of minors from gaining employment," NCC spokesperson Tom Super said in a statement.

Super, however, acknowledged that even when all required government screenings are implemented, some minors can slip through the cracks, and these issues are not unique the the poultry industry.

Lawn sprinklers expose Utah kids to water contaminated with E. coli

By Ernie Mundell, HealthDay News
MAY 10, 2024 / 

In total, 13 kids averaging just 4 years of age were infected during late July of last year in an unidentified Utah city, according to a report. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

Happily jumping around lawn sprinklers or playing with garden hoses on a hot summer day: An idyllic childhood scene.

Not so for a bunch of kids in Utah, who all got serious E. coli illnesses from the contaminated water they were exposed to.

In total, 13 kids averaging just 4 years of age were infected during late July of last year in an unidentified Utah city, according to a report led by BreAnne Osborn of the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.

In seven of the 13 cases, E. coli illness was so severe that children needed to be hospitalized. Two of those kids developed a life-threatening kidney condition that's sometimes linked to E. coli, called hemolytic uremic syndrome.

Related

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Luckily, all of the children eventually recovered.

Parents may not realize that bacteria like E. coli can lurk in sprinkler water, but "municipal irrigation water systems are underrecognized possible sources of waterborne illnesses," Osborn's team said.

The Utah outbreak began when six kids came down with E. coli between July 22 and 30, 2023, and those cases expanded to 13 upon further investigation in the local area. The last case of E. coli connected to this outbreak emerged a month later, on Aug. 31, the report's authors said.

Questionnaires circulated among parents found that 12 of the 13 ill children reported being exposed to water meant for lawns and gardens (not tap water) during the week before symptom onset.

This included "playing with hose water (five), inflatable lawn water toys (three), and water tables (two); drinking (two); and running through sprinklers (one)," the researchers said.

Public health announcements regarding the dangers eventually helped bring an end to the outbreak.

People may not realize it, but in many municipalities across the United States, the hygiene standards for tap water are much stricter than those meant for landscape irrigation.

In Utah, for example, irrigation water "systems are not intended for drinking or recreation, [and] are not monitored or tested for water quality," Osborn's team said.

E.coli can get into water reservoirs via feces, and "avian, ruminant [ie., deer, cattle], and human fecal markers were detected" in water samples conducted after the outbreak.

Because of this, "educating residents of communities with these irrigation systems about the risks of playing in or drinking untreated water" is crucial to preventing illness outbreaks, they said.

The findings were reported Thursday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

A second chance for new antibiotic agent

Biochemistry

RUHR-UNIVERSITY BOCHUM

 

IMAGE: 

MORE AND MORE BACTERIA ARE DEVELOPING RESISTANCE TO ANTIBIOTICS. RESEARCHERS ARE THEREFORE LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVE ACTIVE INGREDIENTS.

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CREDIT: © RUB, MARQUARD

Significant attempts 20 years ago

The study focused on the protein peptide deformylase (PDF). Involved in protein maturation processes in cells, PDF is essential for the survival of bacteria. However, it’s found in both bacteria and human cells. “Some 20 years ago, significant attempts were made to combat PDF with antibiotic agents,” Raphael Stoll points out. “Yet, the original drug candidate, i.e. actinonin, had to be discarded for several reasons. One of the problems faced was the newly discovered human PDF, which was potentially associated with side effects. Still, further research was carried out to generate modified active compounds,” Hendrik Kirschner adds. As part of his doctoral thesis, he examined PDF in detail in the current study and analysed it from the perspective of structural biology using biomolecular nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. These techniques enabled him to obtain a 3D structure resolved at the smallest detail. “This is the result of many years of collaborating with our colleague Professor Eckhard Hofmann,” Raphael Stoll says.

Active molecule is adapted and made more selective

“We can use these techniques to visualize surfaces and binding pockets of biomolecules and show that the binding of molecule to this protein is not static, but dynamic,” Hendrik Kirschner explains. The researchers noticed that there are two different binding orientations in the protein for a modified drug molecule: In addition to the orientation that is also present in human PDF, there’s another one that should, in principle, exclusively occur in bacterial PDF. “This prompts us to modify the drug molecule so that it favours the second binding orientation,” Raphael Stoll says. As a result, the antibiotic molecule could be rendered more selective. “It could provide this drug candidate with a second chance,” Hendrik Kirschner concludes.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

DOI

10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c02382 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Toward More Selective Antibiotic Inhibitors: A Structural View of the Complexed Binding Pocket of E. coli Peptide Deformylase