Governor McAuliffe Signs SB381 Transferring Homeland Security Responsibilities to the Secretary of Public Safety

English: Seal of the United States Department of Homeland Security. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today at the Virginia Department of Emergency Management’s Emergency Operations Center, Governor McAuliffe signed SB381, which transfers the responsibility for overseeing and coordinating efforts to strengthen homeland security from the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security to the Secretary of Public Safety. The legislation renames the secretariats the Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs and the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security, and enables Virginia to better prepare for, evaluate, and respond to emergencies and disasters.

The Governor’s office, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran, and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Admiral John Harvey worked closely with a bipartisan coalition in the General Assembly to develop this legislation, which originated from recommendations from the Joint Legislative and Review Committee (JLARC). The bill, patroned by Senators Lynwood Lewis and Bryce Reeves, and its companion bill, HB730, patroned by Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, passed with unanimous support through both chambers of the General Assembly.

“This legislation streamlines Virginia’s ability to keep our communities safe by putting our homeland security planning and preparedness functions in the same place as our emergency and disaster response functions,” said Governor McAuliffe as he signed the bill. “This important shift also adds new homeland security duties to strengthen the critical preparedness work you all perform here, and is in line with my commitment to making Virginia government work better for the people of the Commonwealth.”  

Under the new law, the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security is charged with:

• Assigning planning responsibilities among state agencies and local jurisdictions to elevate the state of readiness in Virginia;
• Integrating the state homeland security strategy into the Secure Commonwealth Plan;
• Developing the annual Commonwealth Threat Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Report;
• Ensuring development and implementation of plans for protecting public critical infrastructure;
• Directing the Va. Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) to assist localities and state agencies to develop top quality, realistic disaster plans; and

Directing VDEM to oversee all shelter, evacuation, traffic, and refuge of last resort plans to ensure they will work when our citizens need them.

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Virginia Partners with National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils to Bring Multi-Million Dollar Youth Fitness Campaign to Virginia

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Governor Terry McAuliffe, First lady Dorothy McAuliffe, and Fitness Icon Jake Steinfeld Open National Fitness Challenge Nominations for Elementary and Middle Schools in Virginia

Richmond, VA –Governor Terry McAuliffe, First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe, and Jake Steinfeld, Chair of the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils announced today their collaboration to combat childhood obesity in Virginia. Steinfeld, who has been a national leader in promoting health and wellness among children, is partnering with Virginia to bring the National Champion Schoolscampaign to the Commonwealth, which encourages innovation in the field of youth fitness by awarding fitness centers to elementary and middle schools. The nomination process opens today atwww.natgovfit.org and will run through the end of May.  Three Virginia schools, selected by the National Foundation, will be deemed National Champion Schools and will each be awarded a $100,000 state-of-the-art Live Positively^TM Fitness Centers for their efforts. 

“The First Lady and I are honored to partner with Jake Steinfeld to bring the National Champion Schools campaign to Virginia,” said Governor Terry McAuliffe. “Childhood obesity is a pressing problem in Virginia as well as the rest of the country, it affects the health of our communities, and can impact our state’s economic future. This opportunity will provide our elementary and middle schools with the additional tools that they need to create innovative fitness programs.  By working together, we can prevent chronic disease, improve the lives of our young people, and ensure that our economy and communities remain strong.”

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our children here in Virginia,” added Mrs. McAuliffe.  “They will learn about the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle in an environment of fun and fitness.  Our students need exercise to grow and develop, to achieve academically, and to thrive in the workforce.  Through this campaign, we hope to give them the opportunities they need to succeed and achieve their dreams.”

The National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils program will make its way into all 50 states in the coming years.  What sets it apart from other initiatives is that it does not rely on taxpayer dollars or state funding.  Each fitness center is financed through a public/private sector partnership with companies like The Coca-Cola Company.  The National Foundation’s goal is to build a nation of the fittest, healthiest kids in the world.

“Our National Champion Schools campaign has been well received all around the country and I’m looking forward to working with Governor and Mrs. McAuliffe to make this campaign a great success in Virginia,” said Jake Steinfeld. “I’ve always said that academics and fitness go hand in hand and by giving schools the tools, we can build strong bodies and minds while boosting confidence, self-esteem, and focus in the classroom. Our children are our most precious resource and by providing them with a strong foundation in health and fitness, we can feel confident that they’ll excel beyond their wildest dreams.”

Physical education, physical activity and exercise are shown to help prevent and treat more than 40 chronic diseases, enhance individual health and quality of life and reduce health care costs.  In schools, studies show that physical activity and fitness improves academic achievement, increases confidence and self-esteem, reduces discipline problems, cuts absenteeism and fosters better interpersonal relationships.

For more information about the National Foundation or to download a nomination form, visitwww.natgovfit.org.

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Representatives from Across the Commonwealth Urge the General Assembly to Close the Coverage Gap

Terry McAuliffe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Senate Finance committee had a special hearing on Tuesday to listen to the input from citizens and groups around the Commonwealth on the budget that was put forward by Governor Terry McAuliffe. Listed below is a compilation of quotes from a few of the individuals and groups that will recap the impact that closing the coverage gap will have across the state.

“I know that with an issue like healthcare or Medicaid, it’s easy to get lost in the politics of the issue and lose sight of what this is really about. This isn’t about politics AND it isn’t a partisan issue. This is about the real lives of real people who live in our community and who are struggling to deal with hardship and adversity that most people would be hard pressed to even imagine, let alone deal with in their own lives.” – Lori Piper | former business executive

“The faith community is deeply connected to people in need of health care. They are involved in faith based hospital systems, clinics and other charitable health services. People of faith help low income families when they are struggling with unforeseen illness or when illness has devastated their already limited financial resources. People of faith believe that life is precious and sacred and that individuals are called to care for one another. Healthcare access is a moral imperative. To deny access to those least among is to ignore our moral obligation. Please work toward closing the coverage gap without delay.” – Robin Gahan | Director of Programs for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

“Medicaid expansion is the right thing to do.  It will improve our population’s health, support our state’s economy, and reduce the impact on our healthcare system of caring for the uninsured.  Too many have suffered for too long without access to health insurance.  Now is the time to remedy this.” – Mark Ryan, MD and Kate Tulenko, MD | National Physicians Alliance Board of Directors Members

"To oppose the expansion of Medicaid, regardless of the facts, is to deny hard-working Virginians like me the opportunity to have health care to have a better life. Without access to quality, affordable care, I am at risk of a life of disability and dependency, when I could be living a life of independence and productivity." - Roslyn Gadley | home care provider from Alexandria, VA

"Medicaid Expansion would literally be a life-saver for me and for tens of thousands of other home care workers. We work hard caring for seniors and people with disabilities, and we love what we do. But we can't afford health insurance for ourselves and our families... As a cancer survivor, I call on the General Assembly to work with the Governor to expand Medicaid so that every Virginian can lead a long, healthy, and successful life." - Thomasine Wilson | home care provider from Richmond, VA

“It is important that you meet and understand the needs of the real people this issue affects.  That is why Governor McAuliffe has been traveling throughout the Commonwealth visiting the places these folks live.  He wanted to hear firsthand the impact of not providing coverage, either through the expansion of Medicaid or the Marketplace plan the Senate is proposing. Every day that we fail to address this issue it is costing the Commonwealth not only in terms of financial loss, but more importantly the loss of health and peace of mind for the people you took an oath to serve.  I hope we can count on you to lay politics aside and do the right thing.  Now is the time.” – Kay Crane | CEO of Piedmont Access to Health Services, Inc. (PATHS)

“So many of the people I have come into contact with as a Certified Application Counselor have been thrilled to have affordable insurance for once in their life. I cannot tell you how disheartening it is to tell someone they fall into the coverage gap and there is nothing that can be done until Virginia extends coverage to them. Please set aside politics and do the right thing for hundreds of thousands of Virginians.  Close the coverage gap!” – Robin Tyler | Certified Application Counselor with Central Virginia Health Services

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Governor McAuliffe Signs Caboose Budget Bill

English: Photo of the Virginia State Capitol before renovations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe released the following statement today after signing House Bill 5001, the Caboose Budget Bill, which funds state government through the remainder of this fiscal year:

“Today I signed a budget bill that funds state government for the remainder of the year, and proves that Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly are capable of working together to get things done for the Virginians who sent them to Richmond.

“This budget is the product of earnest negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly, with whom I was pleased to work to ensure that a final product came to my desk that I could sign.

“This budget is a compromise – it is not perfect. Today I signed it over reservations that I have expressed to Republicans and Democrats in the legislature about spending over $300 million on a new General Assembly building at a time when some legislators continue to refuse to use our own tax dollars to close the health care coverage gap.

“As negotiations on the next biennial budget move forward, I hope those legislators will recognize the message their actions send to 400,000 Virginians who need access to health care, not a new building for 140 state legislators.

“The bill I signed today is proof that the General Assembly is capable of negotiating and passing a budget that reflects the varied values and political views of its members and their constituents. There is no reason that the House and Senate cannot bring that same approach to the biennial budget I introduced last week. The sooner the General Assembly puts politics aside and negotiates a way forward, the sooner we can end this gridlock, close the health care coverage gap and give Virginians the budget they deserve.”

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United States to Ban Raw Meat Sales, Following Joint Agency Decision

 (2006) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Dr. Mercola

Based on past conditioning, the latest developments in the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) fight to provide Americans with the safest foods possible may not come as such a great surprise.

What started as a ban on raw milk to protect consumer health quickly escalated when the federal health authorities realized just how deadly and polluted American meats are. After all, raw meat, whether beef, pork, or poultry, is actually responsible for a vast majority of food-borne illnesses. 

For example, virtually every E. coli infection can be traced back to the unsanitary conditions in which food-producing animals are being raised, processed, transported, stored, and ultimately sold for human consumption.

As a result, the FDA and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will be joining forces to assure "undisputable safety" of all meats sold to Americans. And the only feasible way to assure pathogen-free meats, the agencies claim, is to ban raw meat sales. The joint agency agenda is reportedly slated to take effect as early as next year, at which point all meats sold within the US will be pre-cooked.

The FDA and USDA fully realize Americans are becoming more dependent on federal parenting as each year passes, and the rules will ensure nearly all foods Americans eat are irradiated, fumigated, and cooked for our safety.

Raw Meats Pegged as 'Prime Culprits' in Foodborne Disease

Most of the meats you buy in your local grocery store come from animals raised on massive industrial farming arrangements, aptly called "confined animal feeding operations" (CAFOs).  Based on the massive amounts of antibiotics used to keep these animals alive in such conditions, one might also call them "confined antibiotic feeding operations".

Over 26,000 Americans die each year from antibiotic resistant infections, a small price to pay for our indulgence of CAFO meats.

Covered in feces and urine, dehydrated, and often sickly, these animals are then slaughtered using mechanized tools and procedures that convey this infection-loaded excreta into the final meat product. 

Dr. Shiv Chopra has discussed this sickening reality in my newsletter on a number of occasions. Dr. Shiv Chopra was a drug company insider and also worked for what is now Health Canada -- the Canadian equivalent of the FDA – for 35 years.

The food and food-contaminant combination that causes the most harm to human health is campylobacter in poultry, which sickens more than 600,000 people and costs the US an estimated $1.3 billion a year. In second place is toxoplasma in pork, costing society another $1.2 billion annually.  

Despite the obvious reality of foodborne illness, very little was actually known about which foods are the most risky, until a report1 from the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute revealed the pathogen-food combinations most likely to make you sick. The report, issued in 2011, showed that the data overwhelmingly pointed to tainted meats as the prime culprits.

Realizing that pasteurization of animal products such as milk falls way short of protecting human health, the FDA and USDA have now decided to tackle the number one source of costly foodborne illness, namely raw meats. According to a confidential source within the newly created joint agency taskforce:

"If people are careless enough to drink raw milk straight from a cow's udder, they're probably too ignorant to purchasing raw meat.  We've decided to just go ahead and cook everything. Americans won't be trusted with any raw meats or dairy products going forward." 

"We believe that, in the end, most Americans will appreciate these efforts to keep them safe, and will come to embrace the added convenience of pasteurized- and other pre-cooked meats the current highly processed food diet controlled by our federal government.  We will also ensure additional subsidies are added for the CAFO industries to pay for this critical security measure."

Farm-to-Consumer Sales to Be Eliminated

As an extra measure, all animals will be tagged with transmitters to ensure no direct farm-to-consumer sales will occur. While this may sound drastic to some, it's certainly not new. Tagging of livestock for traceability purposes is already part and parcel of the USDA's Animal Disease Traceability Framework program,2 which regulates interstate sales of livestock.

Food processors have managed to reduce a farmers share of the goods they sell to just 7% of the retail price.  This also ensures the continued erosion of the small family farms, where dangerous practices of selling direct to consumer may occur.   

The final rule on this program was issued on January 9, 2013. The rule became effective on March 11, 2013. Four years ago, farmers criticized the plan as "draconian" in scope,3 warning it was just another scheme to control the livestock industry and favoring multinational meat packers. Little did they (or anyone else, for that matter) realize this program would become a key tool for banning the sale of raw meat altogether.

Commercial Pre-Cooking Guidelines for Safer Meats

As described in documentation4 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), precooking substantially reduces the bacterial content of raw meats and other trimmings. (Meat trimmings, which are particularly prone to pathogenic contamination must already undergo both precooking and a second heat treatment.)

Other changes under consideration include a health claim on foods processed with the fumigant sulfuryl fluoride, indicating its benefit to dental health. As recently discussed by FluorideAlert.org,6 an amendment to the Farm Bill orders the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ignore its previous ruling7 that fluoride left in food treated with sulfuryl fluoride is unsafe for consumers. 

The FDA, which oversees health claims on food labels, is currently reviewing the application to ensure the health message complies with labeling requirements.

FDA/USDA Plan for Safeguarding Children and Elderly

There are even rumors of closed-door discussions about premasticated meat products, aimed at young children and the elderly, both of which have been identified as groups most likely to choke to death on solid meats. 

According to the National Safety Council, choking accounts for an estimated 2,500 deaths each year in the US,8 and children under the age of three are at greatest risk. A 2010 study published in the journal Maternal & Child Nutrition9 discusses the health benefits of premasticated foods on child health.

According to previous studies, 63 percent of Chinese university students received premasticated food as infants, suggesting there may be sufficient societal acceptance of such foodstuffs, despite cross-cultural studies failing to show any significant prevalence of this practice in the West. The study also raises questions about the safety of infant exposure to another person's saliva (typically the mother's). 

Clearly, in the case of mass produced foods, such concerns would be superfluous, as the premastication would be done by mechanical means, employing a pharmaceutical grade digestive enzyme solution, guaranteed to be void of any potential pathogens associated with human saliva.

Burgeoning Sales of Breast Milk Spawns New Regulatory Considerations

Breast milk is also being reevaluated for safety, following an emerging trend of lactating mothers selling their milk. The practice started gaining traction several years ago, and I initially wrote about this novel opportunity back in 2011. Nursing women can earn upwards of $1,200 a month from selling their excess breast milk. Many simply pair up online via Craigslist and other classified sites.

It was really only a matter of time before the pasteurization issue would crop up, seeing how there's virtually no difference between raw cow's milk and raw breast milk. Both contain live enzymes and bacteria. While the FDA has yet to take a stand against breast milk when the baby is nursing at the breast, it claims there are significant health risks involved when milk is expelled from the breast, and then consumed from a bottle without undergoing pasteurization. As previously stated by the La Leche League:10

"Health care providers and researchers have expressed concern that the casual exchange of human milk could be a potential route of transmission for drugs and viruses."

It's still unclear when the FDA will publish its proposed rule on human milk consumption, but I wouldn't be surprised if it will be modeled after human milk banks such as the Human Milk Banking Association of North America,11 which pasteurizes all donated breast milk prior to distribution.

The Real Power Is in Your Hands... For Now

I’ve often stated that if every American decided to not purchase food that comes from CAFOs, the entire system would collapse overnight. If this wasn't an April Fool's joke, the implementation of a nationwide ban on raw meat would have permanently closed this window of opportunity for change. Fortunately, sourcing your foods from a local farmer is still one of your best bets to ensure you're getting wholesome food, and I would encourage you to do so, to strenghten the availability of a truly sustainable food supply. The following organizations can help you locate farm-fresh foods in your local area:

1. Local Harvest -- This Web site will help you find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
2. Farmers' Markets-- A national listing of farmers' markets.
3. Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals -- The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
4. Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) -- CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.
5. FoodRoutes -- The FoodRoutes "Find Good Food" map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSAs, and markets near you.

Happy April Fool's Day!

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