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Wednesday August 3, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday August 3, 2016 CDC issues historic travelÊwarning over Miami ZikaÊoutbreak The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an unprecedented travel warning Monday, advisingÊpregnant women and their partners not to travel to a small community just north of downtown Miami,Êwhere Zika is actively circulating. This is the first time the CDC has warned people not to travel to anÊAmerican neighborhood for fear of catching an infectious disease, according to agency spokesman TomÊSkinner. The warning came after 10 additional people in Florida were found to have been infected with Zika virusÊafter being bitten by local mosquitoes, bringing the total to 14.Ê Florida Gov. Rick Scott and CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden announced the development in separate newsÊconferences Monday. The new cases were found by door-to-door surveys of 200 people in their homesÊand businesses, and they were identified by urine and blood samples that tested positive for the virus or anÊantibody.Ê Late last week, Florida state health officials confirmed that fourÊpeople had contracted Zika from mosquitoes in theÊsame 150-square-meter area. It's a mixed-use development with upscale asÊwell as economically stressed businesses and homes, whichÊFrieden said complicates mosquito control efforts. (Source: CNN)Êhttp://www.cnn.com/2016/08/01/health/cdc-miami-florida-zika-travel-warning/ USA, Canada, Zika, Virus, mosquito, welcome, center, centre, migration, Brazil, Olympics

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday August 3, 2016

With Zika outbreak in Florida, Congress plays political games

The Centers for Disease Control did a remarkable thing Monday. For the first time in its history, it issued a travel warning over health conditions in the continental United States. What led the federal medical experts to take such a step? Local transmission of the Zika virus in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Thursday June 30, 2016 Stephen Colbert: Rio Olympics Are 'Massive Catastrophe' With the Summer Olympics in complete disarray, Stephen Colbert examined the mess in Rio: "I am pumped for the Rio games. They are less than two months away É or never," Colbert said. JustÊyesterday, Rio's acting governor warned 'The Olympics could be a big failure,' which is actually an improvement because until yesterday, it looked like a massive catastrophe," Colbert said. "The Olympics are in real trouble: Many of the venues are still unfinished, possibly because over $10 billion dollars in construction contracts went to just five firms, all of which are already under investigation for price fixing and kickbacks, and this has already led to top executives being jailed or charged. Though on the plus side for those executives, the prisons won't be completed until 2036.Ó Colbert also pointed to Brazil's ballooning violent crime rate and a police force strapped by budget shortfalls as reasons why this year's Olympics could be a nightmare. "But corruption and crime aren't the only thing plaguing the Olympics: There is also actual plague," Colbert said. "Because fear over the Zika virus, which can cause birth defects, has led some athletes to stay home, and others to take special precautions like freezing their sperm.Ó Colbert then added some more reasons why the Rio Olympics might be doomed, from a heavily polluted Guanabara Bay, the site of some racing events, to the jaguar that was killed at an Olympics torch ceremony. "I believe that species of jaguar was the Spotted South American Metaphor," Colbert said. (Source: Rolling Stone)Êhttp://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/stephen-colbert-rio-olympics-are-massive-catastrophe-20160629 World, International, Rio, de Janeiro, Dilma Rousseff, Rio, Brazil, Olymp

June 30, 2016

The warning is straightforward. Among the precautions: Pregnant women should avoid the area. The transmission, health officials say, was likely via mosquito, while most of the previous mainland U.S. cases were linked to travel to Latin America or Puerto Rico, where the virus is more prevalent, or to having unprotected sex with an infected person.

That the virus is now mosquito-borne in the U.S. is alarming enough. Worse, six of the 10 newly discovered cases were people who had no symptoms — they were discovered during a door-to-door canvass conducted by the Florida health department.

Contrast the CDC’s response with that of Congress, which so far has done little more than play politics with the health and lives of Americans. The Obama administration sought $1.9 billion from Congress to combat the spread of the virus and to develop a vaccine, among other responses.

By the time congressional Republicans were down with it, the budget was whittled down to $1.1 billion, and included money set aside to fight the Ebola virus. They they also added some poison pills, including restrictions on access to birth control as part of their continuing attack on Planned Parenthood, and loosening some environmentally necessary guidelines on pesticide use.

So Democrats in the Senate blocked the measure and everyone went on holiday. Meanwhile, the Obama administration redirected more than $500 million to the fight against Zika, and has already spent about half of that. (Source: Los Angeles Times)

 

Friday August 24, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday August 24, 2012

Corporate Quebec braces for the worst

The hangover from the 1995 sovereignty referendum was not pretty for Montreal. Half a year after a vote that brought Canada to within a sliver of possible breakup, Quebec’s biggest city was left badly shredded.

Its 11% unemployment rate was the highest in urban North America. Residential real estate prices were falling. The vacancy rate for downtown office towers topped 20%. Companies like Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. continued their slow head-office exodus. One Toronto property broker trying to drum up business ran ads in Montreal newspapers that read: “When the road leads you away from Montreal to Toronto, we’ll be at the other end to make you feel right at home.”

There were larger pan-Canadian consequences too, of course. Amid the constitutional crisis, lenders demanded higher interest rates to hold Canada’s debt. That November the dollar fell a cent and a half as post-referendum optimism vanished amid a realization that Canada’s unity problem remained unsolved.

Today, nine years of Liberal Party rule have restored a certain level of stability to the city and to the province as the federalist party wooed private enterprise and buried unity disagreements with Ottawa. But as Quebecers get set to vote again Sept. 4, the corporate world is bracing for change.

“It’s the first time in my life that I sense from the business community a concern this large about the result of an election and the aftermath,” said Yves-Thomas Dorval, head of the Conseil du Patronat, Quebec’s largest business lobby. “There is a lot of worry that the climate for reinvestment won’t be the same.” (Source: Financial Post)