The U.S. Department of Agriculture
announced a proposal last month to change its guidelines for the
WIC program (officially known as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children), which is the federal supplemental nutrition program that provides food for poor women and children. Recipients will get less milk, cheese and eggs and will get more fruit, vegetables and whole-grain bread.
Nutritionists like the change, but the dairy and egg industry doesn't.
The Des Moines (Iowa) Register said:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, says the fruits and vegetables would provide poor women and children with badly needed nutrients. Cutting back on eggs and dairy products would reduce the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in the program and prevent the addition of fruits and vegetables from costing taxpayers more money, the department says.
The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News explains what the change might look like for WIC recipients.
Read the National Dairy Council's concern about the changes.
Longer School Years
Gannett News Service found that states are experimenting with longer school years. It is, in part, a response to the fact that some other countries require students to spend up to a full month longer in school each year than the U.S. does. In a 12-year education, that would be 12 months of extra classwork -- equal to three extra semesters of schooling. Gannett News Service reports:
Massachusetts is paying for longer days at 10 schools this year. Minnesota is considering whether to add five weeks to the school calendar. A smattering of schools nationwide, including schools in Iowa, North Carolina and California, already have increased the time some students spend in class.
Veterans Suffering Stress
There may be good news inside a new story showing the depth of mental problems caused by war. The good news may be that soldiers are seeking help.
The Associated Press says:
More than one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical treatment from the Veterans Health Administration report symptoms of stress or other mental disorders -- a tenfold increase in the last 18 months, according to an agency study.
The dramatic jump in cases -- coming as more troops face multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan -- has triggered concern among some veterans groups that the agency may not be able to meet the demand. They say veterans have had to deal with long waits for doctor appointments, staffing shortages and lack of equipment at medical centers run by the Veterans Affairs Department.
Contributing to the higher levels of stress are the long and often repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, troops also face unpredictable daily attacks and roadside bombings as they battle the stubborn insurgency.
The VA provides some resources:
Feds Lift Airlines Liquids Ban
The feds now say that, as of today, you can take your Starbucks, lip gloss and perfume onboard again. Here's the story from USA Today.
The two major news items are:
- Travelers may now carry through security checkpoints travel-size toiletries (3 ounces or less) that fit comfortably in ONE, QUART-SIZE, clear plastic, zip-top bag.
- After clearing security, travelers can now bring beverages and other items purchased in the secure boarding area on-board aircraft.
At the checkpoint, travelers will be asked to remove the zip-top bag of liquids and place it in a bin or on the conveyor belt. X-raying separately will allow TSA security officers to more easily examine the declared items.
Anthrax Attacks: Five Years Later
It seems nearly impossible to me that five years after five Americans were killed in mailed anthrax attacks, there are still no arrests -- and now the FBI says that much of what it had believed about the attacks is not true.
In the last five years, the FBI and Postal Service have conducted 9,142 interviews, issued more than 6,000 subpoenas and executed 67 search warrants in the investigation. They now believe earlier premises about the source of the anthrax were wrong.
The Washington Post said:
The FBI says it remains optimistic that it will find whoever killed five people -- two of them from the Washington area -- in a series of bioterrorism-by-mail attacks that rocked a nation still in shock from the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes. The bureau has assigned fresh leadership to the case -- Special Agent Ed Montooth -- and retains a full-time investigative force of 17 agents and 10 postal inspectors. "There is confidence the case will be solved," said Joseph Persichini Jr., acting assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington field office.
The prevailing views about the anthrax powder, meanwhile, have been coalescing among a small group of scientists and FBI officials over several years but rarely have been discussed publicly. In interviews and a recently published scientific article, law enforcement authorities have acknowledged that much of the conventional wisdom about the attacks turned out to be wrong.
Specifically, law enforcement authorities have refuted the widely reported claim that the anthrax spores had been "weaponized" -- specially treated or processed to allow them to disperse more easily. They also have rejected reports that the powder was milled, or ground, to create finer particles that can penetrate deeply into the lungs. Such processing or additives might have suggested that the maker had access to the recipes of biological weapons made by the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.
In fact, the anthrax powder used in the 2001 attacks had no additives, writes Douglas J. Beecher, a scientist in the FBI laboratory's Hazardous Materials Response Unit, in an article in the science journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
The first anthrax-filled letters were postmarked Sept. 18, 2001, and went to media organizations in New York and Florida.
Then a second round of letters was mailed to Sen. Tom Daschle on Oct. 9, 2001 and then, in November 2001, another was sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy. Those letters passed through the Trenton, N.J., and the Washington, D.C., post offices. The FBI believes that the letters came from the same source.
After a staffer opened the letter to Sen. Daschle, authorities shut down the entire Hart Senate Office Building for a few months.
In all, more than 20 people contracted inhalation anthrax, and five eventually died.
CBS reported that the U.S. Postal Service now tests envelopes for anthrax, but still does not test packages or large envelopes.
For a while, businesses, including media companies, were going through elaborate measures to check incoming mail for anthrax. I suspect everyone has gotten lax again, don't you?
The Centers for Disease Contron and Prevention has a site on how to spot suspicious mail.
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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
