A disease once on its way to oblivion apparently is on the rise -- and headed this way, say health officials locally and nationwide. So forget rumors you might have heard about vaccinations and make sure you and your children have had one.
That's the message coming this week from health officials about a resurgence in cases of measles nationwide.
The Centers for Disease Control reported this month that measles has reached a 20-year high, and a big reason for the increase is a decrease in the number of people being vaccinated, especially children.
Pitt County Health Director John Morrow told The Daily Reflector that with measles' virtual disappearance in years past, parents today are not aware of its potentially terrible effects.
That's one reason they might not worry much about making sure their children receive the vaccine that would protect them.
Morrow also cited a report that originated in England years ago as another reason for the decline in vaccinations. The report suggested that some of the ingredients in the vaccine could cause other childhood illnesses, including autism.
The researcher behind this report had falsified data, Morrow said, but by the time that became broadly known the rumor that the vaccine was harmful had "gone viral."
As a result, the threat of a measles comeback today is real. In the last five months, measles has caused more U.S. illnesses than in any entire year since 1996, said the CDC. The disease spreads easily through the air and in a closed room infected droplets can linger for up to two hours after a sick person leaves.
There have been 16 outbreaks producing 397 cases of the highly contagious respiratory disease in 20 states, including nearby Virginia and Tennessee ...
So vigilance and awareness are in order to head it off, and it's certainly not too soon to vaccinate any who need protection from this unwanted visitor from the past.
Let's just hope it's not too late.
The Daily Reflector, Greenville, N.C.
America needs immigration reform. Polls show a large majority of Americans want immigration reform.
That reform, to be worthy of the name, must include a clear path to citizenship -- or, at the very least, legal status -- for the more than 11 million human beings who now live in this country without benefit of proper paperwork. A recent Pew Research Center poll puts the number of Americans who favor a path to full citizenship at 76 percent.
But because he was considered insufficiently hostile to just that kind of reform, the second-ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives was thrown out of office Tuesday, June 10, by a handful of voters in Virginia.
So even though none of Utah's Republican members of Congress currently faces a challenge from their right wing, our own delegates are even more unlikely than they were before to push through an immigration reform bill this year.
Which means it may never happen at all.
Rep. Eric Cantor, House majority leader and widely considered the heir apparent to Speaker John Boehner, lost his primary election to a hitherto unknown economics professor who overcame the incumbent's huge advantage in money and name recognition by accusing him of, among other things, being in favor of "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants.
It wasn't true. If anything, Cantor bore a lot of the credit -- or blame -- for bottling up the Senate-passed immigration reform bill that includes a path to citizenship. That bill had a lot of bipartisan support, including from Utah's Orrin Hatch.
But that wasn't any deterrent to the right wing echo chamber and its talk radio ringmasters whose screeching helped get Cantor bounced.
It is apparently what Utah Republicans such as Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Rep. Chris Stewart fear when they resist the entreaties of such mainstream stalwarts as the Utah Farm Bureau, Utah Restaurant Association and Utah Manufacturers Association. Those groups, and others, met with the congressmen last week to explain how a lack of reform hurts businesses, consumers and the whole of the state economy.
They rang up a big No Sale for their efforts. Stewart basically brushed the groups off by telling them he didn't see that his constituents really cared that much. Which may be true.
Immigration is one of those issues where a vast majority, who favor one path of action but don't feel vehemently about, lose out to a much smaller, but more vocal, fringe.
That fringe ended one political career Tuesday in Virginia. Making sure they don't go next now becomes the priority of other Republicans. Including, sadly, most of them in Utah.
The Salt Lake Tribune
It's general knowledge that standards for policymaking in Congress have sunk to abysmal lows.
The executive branch of government isn't doing much to set a better example.
The most recent case in point was President Barack Obama's plan for helping college students struggling to repay their debt.
Obama used his presumed executive authority to expand an existing program that eases the repayment burden for college student loans.
That's not such a shocking idea -- the program Obama expanded was signed into law by President George W. Bush. And students definitely could use some help in repaying loans in an economy that has yet to raise wage levels.
What is disconcerting is the sloppy way the administration implemented the change. "We don't actually know the costs yet," said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. "We'll figure that out on the back end."
Is that any way to run the government?
The amount of outstanding student loans soared past the trillion-dollar mark several years ago, an amount greater than either credit card debt or auto loan debt.
In Nebraska, the average student owes $26,473 at graduation, according to the Project on Student Debt.
The default rate for college loans is higher than for credit cards or other types of debt, despite the fact that not even declaring bankruptcy will erase a student loan. Currently, almost 15 percent of college students default on their loans within three years of entering repayment.
The Pay as You Earn program expanded by Obama could help an additional 5 million students by requiring them to pay no more than 10 percent of their monthly income to student loans. After 20 years, the remainder of the loan would be forgiven.
The program could help a student with $55,000 in debt reduce the payment from $541 a month under a traditional 10-year schedule to $146, assuming an income of $35,000 a year, under the Pay as You Earn plan, according to "The Student Loan Ranger" blog.
It's no secret that salary levels in some fields are so low that it would take half a lifetime or more to repay a college loan.
Good advice for any college student taking out a loan is thinking ahead to how they can repay it.
That's the adult, responsible way to make these decisions.
Now we just need to get federal officials to take that advice, as the national debt climbs past $17.5 trillion.
Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star
It has become perfectly clear that President Barack Obama's goal is to shut down coal-fired power plants -- whether doing so is essential in battling climate change or not. If he is successful, tens of millions of American families will pay much higher electric bills. And hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs, all to allow Obama to get his way.
Obama's schedule for wrecking the coal industry and driving up electricity prices has been obvious. First, his Environmental Protection Agency adopted rules effectively banning construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States. He did that against the will of the people, as expressed by a majority of members of the Senate, who refused to vote in favor of his "cap and trade" scheme.
Utilities quickly revealed plans to close hundreds of older coal-fired power stations. Most will be replaced with natural gas facilities. Then, late last month, Obama decided to administer the coup de grace. The EPA revealed new rules that will make it virtually impossible to operate existing coal-fired power plants.
Even Obama's administration admits that will drive electric bills up by 20-30 percent for many Americans. More objective analysts say bills may go up by double that amount or more. Business analysts say the president's agenda will cost the nation at least 500,000 jobs.
If technology existed to retrofit coal-burning power plants to comply with EPA limits, things would be different. But it does not. And that is part of Obama's plan. While he has been throwing away billions of dollars on so-called "alternative" energy such as solar power, Obama has been slashing federal funding for coal research. It is all part of a plan, one certainly crafted more carefully than many White House initiatives, such as foreign policy.
Unless Democrat members of the Senate begin representing their constituents, Obama will win in his vendetta against coal -- while tens of millions of Americans lose.
Minot (N.D.) Daily News
At the same time that Congress is considering whether to relax work rules for freight haulers, a truck driver's lack of sleep is being blamed for the highway crash that injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed Connecticut resident James "Jimmy Mack" McNair.
Wal-Mart trucker Kevin Roper apparently failed to slow for traffic ahead on the New Jersey Turnpike and then swerved to avoid a crash.
Instead, his rig smashed into the back of Morgan's chauffeured limo bus, killing comedian McNair and injuring Morgan and three others.
Authorities said that Roper hadn't slept for more than 24 hours before the accident.
This comes at a time when a proposed change to federal regulations would effectively let drivers put in as many as 82 hours a week behind the wheel.
The change is backed by the trucking industry and opposed by safety advocates and the Obama administration.
An amendment that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee, sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, would repeal a requirement that drivers take a 34-hour break, including no driving from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on two consecutive days.
"This regulation dumps concentrated amounts of commercial traffic onto the highway system at 5:01 a.m. Monday, when people are trying to get to their offices and their businesses ... and deliver children to schools," says Phil Byrd, chairman of the American Trucking Associations.
The senator and trucking industry officials said it is safer for truckers to drive at night when there is less traffic.
Those who oppose the change point out that nearly 4,000 people die in large truck crashes each year, and driver fatigue is a leading factor, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Do you want to share the road with a tired trucker? We didn't think so.
New Britain (Conn.) Herald