Report on Science: By Gary P. Salamone/Editor-in-Chief on Assignment
HHS Secretary’s Consumer Advisory Lacked Impact on WGA Staff and Food Handlers
OLYMPIC VALLEY, CA (CONTINENTAL NEWS SERVICE)—At the Annual Meeting of the Western Governors Association near Lake Tahoe, one woman registered frustration that, at the meeting venue, “mosquitoes are everywhere.” In fact, mosquitoes bit one individual on the face, hand and neck, that individual just sitting in the lobby of the hotel. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra spoke at the Governors’ invitation on the Department’s priorities to improve health-care access across the U.S., but he did not address access to defenses against mosquito-borne disease. Instead, he raised awareness of the avian flu.
Although pasteurization kills the virus when present in milk, he reported that 20 percent of the milk produced in the U.S. contains genetic material from the virus, and that concerns public-health officials. After all, the research shows that the so-called bird flu is potentially infectious because use of the most-common method of pasteurization—heating milk at 181 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 or 20 seconds, known as flash pasteurization—does not entirely inactivate the virus, though it substantially reduces levels of the virus in the milk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that six subtypes of bird flu have infected people, causing acute respiratory illness, and that human infections can occur due to inhalation of virus droplets or dust in the air and when the virus otherwise gets into the individual’s eyes, nose or mouth, such as when the individual touches something that has the virus on it and then touches the mouth, nose or eyes. Currently, the Department Secretary said, the U.S. has counted three cases of bird-flu infection, and he suggested that it is more likely for the bird flu to jump from cows to pigs, then to humans, than to jump directly from cows to humans. If this particular report from the Western Governors’ Annual Meeting stopped here, this report would be incomplete, however.
Indeed, a reception was held during the meeting period on an open-air terrace adjacent to the hotel, where Western Governors Association staff members, not the Governors’ own staff members, managed one of multiple dispersed food tables providing edible items for guests. When the two women managing a food table containing a tray of bread and meat left the table unattended, did the WGA Press Secretary furnish them back-up? No, his back was turned away from the uncovered tray of bread and meat that was exposed to flies and, yes, mosquitoes, and he was busy trying to persuade that the written announcement of an “All Attendee Reception,” which was coupled with a verbal announcement by Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon for all in attendance to join the Reception and a personal invitation from one of his staff for a Continental News Service interviewer to meet the Governor at the Reception, instead meant that the Media was not invited and must leave the terrace. Consequently, it was the Media interviewer who, in effect, covered for the two women who had abandoned their post. It was suggested to him that he had to do their jobs for them. What transpired next was that a bird landed on the uncovered tray, contaminating the food with bacteria, if not the avian virus; the Media interviewer raised an alert; and the WGA Press Secretary momentarily suspended his conversation with the Media interviewer to scare away the bird, since he was closer to the food tray. But did he say that now the tray must be removed due to contamination by the bird? No, he did not even restore the cloth covering to the tray to prevent further contamination (Continued on page 7)
4 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • NOVEMBER 30, 2024
(Continued from page 4)
preparatory to removal. Nor did he excuse himself to make a phone call for food handlers to remove the tray. It remained available for guests to fill their white plates, and he returned to his conversation with the Media interviewer. It should be noted that some guests were observed filling plates before the bird landed on the uncovered tray of food.
What are the signs of avian influenza in birds? The American Veterinary Medical Association informs, “Most wild birds don’t get sick from HPAI [Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza], but can still circulate and carry the viruses wherever they migrate.” The signs of avian influenza in pet birds and backyard flocks is a different story, those signs including sudden death with no prior signs, low energy or appetite, purple discoloration or swelling of various body parts, reduced egg production or soft-shelled or misshapen eggs, nasal discharge/coughing/or sneezing, and lack of coordination.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories, following an investigation by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and rapid disease detection by the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, has confirmed the existence of Highly-Pathogenic Avian Influenza (Bird Flu), first in three dairies in California and 30 dairy cows (September 4), then 44 (October 1), next 55 (October 3), later 82 (October 7), later yet 96 (October 9), now 100 dairies (October 11), while the California Department of Public Health has confirmed six human cases of Bird Flu in California. Since 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has detected the bird flu in more than 200 mammals.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture, to address the spread to 44 dairies in the state by October 1, 2024, instituted early detection and isolation of sick cows, upgraded bio-security, cow care, and employee precautions, and the Department says most infected dairy cattle can fully recover from the infection within a matter of a few weeks. As part of employee precautions, the California Department of Public Health advises use efface shields or safety goggles (eye protection), N95 masks (respirators), and other personal-protective equipment, including gloves, when working with materials or animals that are infected or potentially infected with the bird-flu virus.
Even if cattle show no symptoms, the virus can be found in milk and mammary tissue. Symptoms may include a decrease in consumption of feed, together with a decrease in rumination, and such respiratory signs as clear nasal discharge and acute drop in milk production. Secretary Becerra provided a consumer advisory, but, downplaying the threat, did not mention that those cows severely affected may exhibit thicker, concentrated, colostrum-like milk or produce no milk whatsoever; may eliminate abnormal tacky or loose feces; or suffer from lethargy, dehydration, and fever.
The Internet site, webmd.com elaborates on bovine colostrum milk, explaining that it has not been well-studied and any associated health benefits have not been clarified and warning that bovine colostrum milk contains saturated fat that is typically removed before human consumption, that it cannot be ingested by vegans, that those who have dairy allergies will also be allergic to bovine colostrum, that those having lactose intolerance may experience a stronger reaction to bovine colostrum than to cow’s milk, and that bovine colostrum contains the hormone estrogen, which may negatively impact the .development of breast, ovarian, or prostate cancer.
At the Media-Registration station for the WGA meeting, it was observed upon arrival that some media credentials had not been claimed. The following day, on which the incident was recorded, no other members of the Media were observed. The WGA has staff that self-report discussions during its meeting sessions and decisions taken, serving to incentivize many Media outlets not to send their own observers or reporters to cover proceedings themselves. An E-mail report was filed with Assistant HHS Secretary for Public Affairs Jeffrey Nesbit on June 13 at 2:58 PM, but no response was subsequently received.
CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • NOVEMBER 30, 2024 7
Now Available:
The 92-page e-book, The Mayorkas Maginot Line—the So-Called ‘Patriot Media’, like Michael Moore’s film, Roger and Me, finds the self-styled “Patriot Media”—the Talkers, Not Doers, radio and TV talk-show hosts—as unresponsive in the conversation they started on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ open U.S. borders as General Motors Chairman Roger Smith was in the conversation his executive decisions started in the City of Flint, Michigan. American opinion leaders’ unresponsiveness raises questions as to whether a post-mortem is in order or whether smelling salts would suffice. But remember, their audiences demonstrate such blind loyalty to them that if the opinion leaders are not roused to public-spirited action to secure U.S. borders, not mere talk, their audiences are not likely to be influenced, go-fund-you or go-fund-me campaign, either; in short, to act independent of their direction and exercise their Constitutional right to petition the White House to secure U.S. borders. With terror-watch suspects, foreign saboteurs, undocumented-alien criminals, plain-clothes enemy soldiers, human traffickers, and drug peddlers having the run of the U.S. and another 9/11 terrorist attack forecast, the self-styled “Patriot Media” refuses to discuss the threat directly with the Biden-Harris Administration and attaches no urgency whatsoever to securing U.S. borders now. Still, when somewhat revived from their unresponsiveness, the Talkers, Not Doers, Network “assure” that change will come more than 2 months after the election and value being complimented as “the Honorable,” “The Great One,” “Our Leader,” “A Great American,” “a Thomas Paine,” “a Paul Revere,” “a Patriot,” and “a real Constitutionalist,” though not particularly an advocate of petitioning government for redress of grievances. Who are these individuals who hold themselves in such high esteem and what distracts them from public-spirited—no, patriotic—citizenship? What can be the future of a country populated by influential citizens who won’t talk to each other? The correspondence the book contains not only reveals their identities, but reflects appeals to diverse organizational elites, and those others the reader certainly expected to act in defense of the U.S. have yet to show any signs of interest or life.
Now, the writer, also author of The Constitutional Mechanic, set out, not to lead or gain credit for starting a public-spirited, grassroots campaign, but simply to help stimulate and join such a campaign, one effective in causing the U.S. constitutional engine to fire reliably on all cylinders.
By Gary P. Salamone/Editor-in-Chief
Continental Features/
Continental News Service
News Beat: Statements of the Justice Department Special Counsels
*The U.S. Department of Justice released a statement, one-half-year-plus into his assignment, by Special Counsel Jack Smith, announcing, “Today, an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J. Trump with felony violations of our national-security laws, as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice.”
*The U.S. Department of Justice released no statement, one-half-year-plus into his assignment, by Robert K. Hur, the Special Counsel investigating President Joseph R. Biden for the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents.
* * * * * *
What’s next after Communist Chinese police stations in the U.S.? Communist Chinese forts inside the U.S., next to American military installations?
President George Washington wanted British-held forts on U.S. territory vacated, and he pushed again for British withdrawal from U.S. territory during negotiations on the Jay Treaty, the British pulling out by June, 1796, according to treaty provisions.
Finally, details about the Campaign…
Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest ….” But this is also an appeal to intellect.
In your self-interest, do this for yourself, your family, your community and your country:
The Secure Borders “I’ve Called! Have you?” Campaign
Of course, you wouldn’t want total strangers crashing a young son or daughter’s birthday party.
Are we to avoid a surprise attack like that on Israel?
The American Governors’ Border Strike Force and the National Sheriffs’ Association work to ensure total strangers don’t crash U.S. borders and that terrorists, foreign saboteurs, and enemy soldiers don’t invade our neighborhoods and communities.
Please urge your family and associates to support them: write www.whitehouse/contact or with that phone in your hand, dial (202) 456-1111 (Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday 11 AM-3 PM Eastern Standard Time); tell the White House that secure borders mean what we expect … terror-free and fentanyl-free, safe and peaceful towns and communities.
Tip: If you don’t want to wait to speak to a volunteer operator at the White House, please complete the Webform listed.
You can also post a lawn sign showing your support for secure U.S. borders. Thank you.
I’ve called. When will you?
- * * * * * *
One suggested definition of “unsung hero” is “a person who has achieved great things or committed acts of bravery or self-sacrifice, yet is not celebrated or recognized.” One list of unsung heroes includes such individuals as Tenzing Norgay, Virginia Apgar, Rosalind Franklin, Bayard Rustin, Alexander Fleming, Mildred and Richard Loving, Alexander Mackenzie, Louis Braille, and Sarah Breedlove. Now, those mentioned are not, by definition, “unsung,” but they are often forgotten and not fully appreciated. Those servants of mankind not listed here certainly appear as “unsung,” so who are some of these “unsung heroes”?
By the way, these individuals are not listed as “trending unsung heroes,” either. Far from being an exhaustive list, we might include George Washington, the Liberator of Boston and his country from British interference; Harriet Tubman, abolitionist and conductor on the Underground Railroad; Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves and restored the Union of states; Clara Barton, the Civil War’s “Angel of the Battlefield” and the founder of the American Red Cross; agricultural researcher George Washington Carver; Eleanor Roosevelt, human-rights and civil-rights champion; the Lord Jesus Christ, who healed the sick and lame, who fed the hungry, who rehabilitated the possessed, and who died for the sins of the world to offer the redeemed eternal life; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., non-violent civil-rights leader; and, among others, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, founder of the Missionaries of Charity.
- * * * * * * * * *
One unsound public policy often compensates for another ill-advised public policy, and, so the Obama Administration, for one, compensated for the social engineering of abortion that has destroyed the worker-to-retiree ratio in our Social Security program, through an attempt to throw open the country’s borders to illegal immigration, not only to camouflage that policy failure, but to increase the ratio of workers to retirees and pad the vote totals of Mr. Obama’s political party.
Editor’s Note: There is more sense in designating Democrat-dominated States as red states and Republican-dominated states as blue states. Can the reader who likes to use labels understand why?
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Over the years, Continental Features/Continental News Service (and its original parent company Inkslinger’s Review) never published a mission statement. We simply honored commitments readers noticed we valued in the pages of Continental Newstime magazine and other publications of CF/CNS. Whether news is breaking in the national (U.S.) or world arena, regardless of the subject matter–defense, business and trade, national security, international relations, public finance, environmental policy, Constitutional liberty, traditional civil rights, social-welfare programs, labor-management disputes, the progression of U.S. Supreme Court decisions–the Continental News Service specializes in covering the unreported and under-reported U.S. and world news. In fact, one observer wrote that we report “both national and international issues which newspapers and magazines usually treat too generally or, despite their importance, not at all…” And CF/CNS has interviewed many prominent public figures formerly and/or presently on the national political scene.
Dear reader, you yourself might wonder why CF/CNS does not jump on the bandwagon of any politician in the U.S. Our editorials and commentary discuss both public policies which have merit and those of which we disapprove, while not endorsing the candidacy of any politician. (But that does not mean that CF/CNS does not point out when leaders have been misrepresented or denied a fair hearing.) Actually, there are at least 3 reasons for this position. One, the Continental News Service and Continental Newstime magazine thereby maintain our journalistic objectivity. Two, we easily recall the sense of betrayal we and other Americans experienced after placing the public’s trust in various Administrations, only to be rewarded with revelations of political scandal OR violation of public law. Three, we dedicate ourselves seriously, anyway, to the principle of constitutionalism, a government based on written, rights-based, non-discriminatory objective laws, not government based on the self-interested, momentary and arbitrary will of any man or group. Yes, our position squares with that of Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and America’s other Founding Fathers–and, indeed, with that of America’s forefathers generally. As a result, the outcome of our efforts, here at CF/CNS, is a newsmagazine that satisfies a wide variety of reader needs and interests.
* * * * * * * * *
Publisher’s Note:
The Continental News Service division of CF/CNS, during its 39 years of operation, has conducted investigative reports into the level of non-cooperation with the FCC’s Keep America Connected initiative during the coronavirus public-health emergency, the funeral-home industry; the market-research industry; the adequacy of Congressionally-authorized food-stamp allotments (periodically); gas-pump price gouging and fuel smuggling; service deficiencies in Employment Department programs; non-Bible-based churches’ insistence on tithing despite their ineligibility for tithing; school-tutoring programs; the CIA’s MKULTRA “program”; the consumer abuses perpetrated by non-profit organizations which operate contests/games/sweepstakes; DUI classroom instruction that notoriously fails to rehabilitate drinking drivers; the unanticipated consequences of various media organizations’ abandonment of toll-free telephone numbers; evidence that the overseas-based Association of Christian Journalists has been infiltrated by the Putin regime in Russia; and the cancer-research activities of Fort Detrick, Maryland…Yes, Continental News follows, and inspects, news developments and events near and far in defense of the public interest.
For example, Continental News has exposed un-elected government in a Northern California city, yes even in the United States of America. The city council continues to deny all manner of ethnic groups their Constitutionally-protected right to vote and right to elect their public officials. The council willfully violates California Government Code Section 36512, also, by appointing members in lieu of election when the law specifically prohibits doing so if a majority or more of council members will have been appointed. All have been appointed. We continue to press for elections in this American city.
Bring an extra sandwich to school for a child-in-need
So that no child sits alone during recess, hungry and with no energy to play, or, as a result, operates academically-disadvantaged compared to other students, the Continental News Service is advancing a promotional campaign that encourages more food-secure people to aid food-insecure households. Where free or reduced-price National School Lunch Program meals still leave schoolchildren hungry later in the day and where schools have made no provision, or even where schools have made provision, for food pantries or kids’ cafes, we urge the food-secure, whether parent or child, to take these steps:
Parents, add a healthy packaged food item in your child’s lunch for sharing with a child-in-need.
Take an aseptic cartoon of juice to school for a child-in-need.
Buy an extra packaged sandwich and treat someone new at school.
Order an extra sandwich or food item from the school-based food pantry/kids’ café and treat a new friend at school.
Parents, include a child-in-need in your plans when packing your son or daughter’s store-bought, packaged lunch items for school.
Take an extra store-bought, packaged sandwich to school for someone new.
Buy a child-in-need lunch today.
Give a child-in-need a non-perishable, healthy packaged food item late in the school day for that child’s dinner, or afternoon or evening snack.
The Continental News Service, either independently or with partnering groups, continues to brainstorm to raise awareness and sensitivity and provide the food-secure with other ideas for meeting the child hunger crisis in their communities.
**Tampering with the Social Security Payroll Tax
The Continental News Service opposed reducing the Payroll Tax when the Obama Administration moved to do so as a means of stimulating the U.S. economy, and we oppose such payroll-tax manipulation by the Trump Administration. Again speaking editorially, Continental News notes that radio and other talk-show hosts who have lamented the state of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds demonstrate obliviousness to the impact on those Trust Funds of a payroll-tax reduction in the name of stimulating the economy. No, other means must be found to stimulate the U.S. economy. We already have an imbalance between retirees and other beneficiaries, on the one hand, and worker contributions, on the other hand. If anything, the Trust Funds must be strengthened, not depleted further.
Gary P. Salamone/Editor-in-Chief
Continental Features/Continental News Service
Something to Think About
In the words of the song, we may know the way to San Jose, but, despite NASA’s far-reaching probes into the Universe, mankind has not located the Heavenly Kingdom that Almighty God has promised His followers. The Biblical clues are that it is not found downward and it is not found straying right or left, so what are we left with, not counting on the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Way and to lead us?
When we plan a 30-degree trajectory from the straight and narrow, not deviating to the right or left, we don’t find Paradise. When we plan a 90-degree trajectory or a 145-degree trajectory, we don’t find Heaven, either. When we plan a trajectory lower, greater or in between, we still don’t reach the Heavenly Kingdom on our own.
The fact of the matter is that Almighty God’s Heavenly Kingdom is a spiritual place that our earthly senses are not equipped to detect, much less reach, without accepting the offer of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, to lead us there.
View from a “Citizen on the Street”
One of our patrons suggested that Continental Features/Continental News Service offer a variation of the “Letter to the Editor” opportunity for reader input, and we were immediately on the same wavelength because we believe that many an individual adult, because of his or her unique vantage point in society or government, has some best contribution he or she can make to public-policy making. It does not matter whether you are contacting us from Taiwan, China, the Ukraine, Rwanda, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Argentina, or anywhere else on the planet. We are interested in your striking a statesman-like posture, so to speak. Simply fill out the Webform under the Contact tab above. That way patrons need not worry about drafting a well-crafted “Letter to the Editor.” Just a simple, well-thought-out idea for improving a government policy or program anywhere on Earth will do. If you are ordering, or already have placed an order in, Continental Newstime general-interest newsmagazine or the Country Neighbor Edition and if we think your idea meets the above-mentioned requirement, stimulating thoughtful dialogue and best practices around the world, CF/CNS will print your “Citizen on the Street” viewpoint in whichever edition you have ordered.
One reader favors withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, even the military advisors still trying to whip national forces into shape after almost two decades of effort, and placing those American soldiers withdrawn, estimated to number up to 12,000, on the U.S.-Mexican frontier to establish border security.
The national debate orchestrated on not a few issues distorts the facts. The issue is not whether the U.S. proceeds to “begin constructing a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.” After all, Americans, at a minimum, can access Internet photos of the wall that currently exists on some portions of that border. Official government reports measure in excess of 650 miles of barriers of one kind or another on the U.S.-Mexican border. While some portions of the “fenced border” are inadequate for preventing all forms of illegal entry into the U.S., there are 352.8 miles of pedestrian or primary fencing, 36 miles of secondary fencing behind pedestrian or primary fencing, and 299.8 miles of vehicle-barrier fencing. As a result, the actual issue, instead, is whether the U.S. moves to “continue, or extend, and strengthen the existing wall the full length of the 1,900-mile-plus U.S.-Mexican border.” And it is not Mr. Trump’s wall; it’s the American people’s wall.
Continental Features/Continental News Service
501 W. Broadway, Plaza A, PMB# 265, San Diego, CA 92101
(858) 492-8696
Copyright © 2023 Continental Features/Continental News Service – All Rights Reserved.