Times staff,LA Times•October 11, 2020
The Lakers are once again NBA champions.
With their 106-93 win over the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday, the Lakers won their 17th championship, tying the Boston Celtics for the most titles by an NBA team.
Here are some of the best images taken by longtime Los Angeles Times photographer Wally Skalij.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Move over, national coin and Clorox wipes shortages.
There’s a new coronavirus pandemic shortage of the nation’s most popular pizza topping.
Small pizza shops across the nation are reporting higher prices for pepperoni, according to Bloomberg, which found a South Dakota shop is paying $4.12 a pound compared to $2.87 in January 2019.
Emily, a New York City pizza shop, is paying $6 a pound, up from $4 earlier this year, chef and co-owner Matthew Hyland told Bloomberg.
“It’s an American right to have pepperoni on pizza,” Hyland told Bloomberg. “Pepperoni is such a huge part of pizza it’s important to us that we keep it accessible.”
The small pizza restaurants said they weren’t passing the higher costs along to customers at this time.
According to Bloomberg, larg pizza chains including Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars and Papa John’s haven’t experienced shortages or price increases as they buy ingredients with long-term contracts.
In June, Papa John’s even introduced a new Shaq-a-Roni pizza, the pizza giant’s largest slices to date. Shaquille O’Neal, a Papa John’s board member and franchise owner, came up with for the 16-inch extra-large pizza that sells for $12 and has 66 pepperoni per pie.
But consumers have seen higher prices increase this year at the grocery store on many staples amid the pandemic, which shut down many restaurants.
Perishable items have been more popular with consumers buying more meat, seafood, fruits, dairy and vegetables as more people stay home to eat.
COVID-19 and panic buying caused various shortages, including hand sanitizer, toilet paper, disinfecting wipes, meat and yeast.
Contributing: Joe Taschler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTy
It took over a year, but Bugatti’s 304-mph record has finally been broken. There’s a new top-speed champion as of October 19, 2020, and it’s made by a company few people have heard about. Does the name SSC ring a bell? How about Tuatara? Nope?
Now that it snagged the speed crown from Bugatti, odds are you’ll hear a lot more about this Washington-based firm and about the record-breaking machines it designs and builds.
While the Chiron could go faster, test pilot Andy Wallace said the Chiron was still accelerating, Bugatti has made it clear it’s done chasing speed records. Sweden-based Koenigsegg could try stealing the crown one final time.
It confirmed the Jesko Absolute is the fastest car it will ever build, though it hasn’t had the chance to test it on the track yet. Although 330 mph is theoretically possible, finding a road long enough to test it on is easier said than done.
Coral Murphy USA TODAY Oct. 15, 2020
A cybersecurity attack on Barnes & Noble exposed customers personal information, including transaction history and email addresses.
The company sent an email notifying customers of the data breach, which they were aware of since Oct. 10. The bookstore chain clarified customers’ financial information, such as payment card information, was not among the exposed data, said the report.
“While we do not know if any personal information was exposed as a result of the attack, we do retain in the impacted systems your billing and shipping addresses, your email address and your telephone number if you have supplied these,” reads the email from Barnes & Noble.
This comes after Barnes & Noble experienced a Nook e-reader book access outage for days. “We are continuing to experience a systems failure that is interrupting NOOK content,” reads a service alert in the Barnes & Noble Support page.
The bookstore chain alerted customers that they may receive unsolicited emails due to the cyberattack.
“Barnes & Noble customers that may have been impacted should be on high alert,” said Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder of password management provider Keeper Security. “In addition to keeping a close eye on emails, Barnes & Noble customers whose information may have been compromised in this attack should ramp up their personal cybersecurity protections.”
Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) include parasitic, bacterial, and viral diseases that cause illness and disability in more than 1 billion people worldwide. This group of diseases includes onchocerciasis (river blindness), Guinea worm disease, lymphatic filariasis (LF, or elephantiasis, a leading cause of avoidable disability), and trachoma (the leading infectious cause of blindness), as well as more than a dozen other diseases.
A microbiologist with CDC’s NTD Elimination and Control Laboratory Team processes a blood sample using a multiplex machine, which can diagnose multiple diseases with a single sample. Credit: D. Snyder / CDC Foundation
As the world recognizes the first annual World NTD Day, we want to share what we are doing towards meeting the ambitious goals that will be set forth in the World Health Organizationexternal icon (WHO)’s NTD 2030 Roadmap and beat NTDs. For good.
Collectively, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States Agency for International Developmentexternal icon (USAID), and our partners have made tremendous progress towards global NTD goals. Thanks in large part to an approach that involves periodic distribution of safe and effective antibiotics (mass drug administration, or MDA) and other low-cost interventions such as water filters and bed nets, many countries are approaching nationwide elimination. Recent accomplishments include:
But the job is not done.New tech for NTD goals
Being able to accurately determine where NTDs are still present—and detect them should they come back—is critical to achieving and sustaining control and elimination. Without accurate and reliable diagnostics, countries are hobbled in their fight against these diseases.
Lymphatic filariasis
In 2018, when a CDC lab scientist uncovered a design flaw in an LF test that resulted in some infected people having negative tests, the manufacturer moved quickly to fix the problem and get the improved test back into the field. This further bolstered the collective drive to pioneer better diagnostics. With better, faster tests, in-country experts will be emboldened in their NTD elimination efforts.
As countries move to eliminate LF and other NTDs, new tools—and the capacity to effectively use them—are needed to help make the best decisions about what interventions are needed and to monitor diseases after elimination so that any reappearance can be dealt with swiftly.
Onchocerciasis
CDC is currently working with partners to validate new testing methods for onchocerciasis. With these new methods, CDC and its partners will pinpoint remaining areas where onchocerciasis is still active and then take appropriate, strategic steps to interrupt transmission.
CDC developed a new blood-based test for trachoma to measure progress towards elimination of blinding trachoma, an NTD that affects approximately 84 million people worldwide and can lead to blindness when people are repeatedly infected. Credit: S. Elder / CDC
Multiplex immunoassay
CDC’s recently developed multiplex immunoassay can detect antibodies to more than 30 different viral, bacterial, and parasitic disease agents from just a single small blood sample. This allows CDC to obtain critical public health information for a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. With these data, we are developing new strategies for identifying disease hotspots and targeting public health interventions to affected communities.
Trachoma
Programmatic decisions about where to focus trachoma elimination efforts are currently based on clinical eye exams. As countries reach elimination targets, simple, low-cost tools are needed to make sure trachoma does not return. Laboratory scientists at CDC have developed a low-cost rapid test that can detect antibodies to trachoma in blood. This test will help CDC and its partners monitor the impact of trachoma elimination programs and provide early warnings about where new transmission is happening. When we know where trachoma is spreading, we and our partners can step in and stop it.Building international capacity to combat NTDs
Laboratory technicians in Tanzania prepare filter paper blood spots that will be used to test blood samples for multiple parasitic diseases. CDC works with countries to strengthen the quality, reliability, and comparability of laboratory results used for decision making by NTD control and elimination programs. Credit: K. Won / CDC
If you’ve ever found yourself nervously trying to wield a confusing and expensive power tool, you may already know that advanced tools are useless when left in untrained hands. They’re wasted.
To ensure that countries are equipped to combat NTDs, an important component of CDC’s NTD program is the development of a skilled international workforce capable of integrating new technologies into their nations’ NTD elimination efforts and training others. CDC experts have traveled across the globe to boost this capacity.
These efforts empower countries to wage effective NTD elimination campaigns.NTD elimination requires collaboration
Alongside its partners—including the WHO, USAID, other US government agencies, NGOs, health departments, and clinics—CDC is forging ahead with the development of new tools that make NTD elimination a realistic goal. A reachable goal. With better tools comes the promise of better health for the millions of people worldwide still living under the threat of NTDs. For good.
Nabin Paudyal Co-Founder, Siplikan Media Group – Culled from Nabin’s Article
Health problems are becoming more common than ever in the world today. This probably has to do with both progress in medical science, because of which it has been easy to diagnose health problems, and also people’s lifestyle, which is becoming increasingly unhealthy.
The principal causes for common health issues are unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, environmental degradation, high stress levels and genetics. While in the past, communicable ailments were the major issues, non-communicable diseases are the primary issues today.
Below, we discuss the most prevalent health issues in the world today along with their symptoms, causes and preventive measures.
Cancer remains one of the major health concerns of the 21st century. Its occurrence has been increasing with modernization and advancement perhaps due to environmental deterioration and increased exposure to chemicals and radiation.
While there’s no particular cause of cancer, various risk factors contribute to the genesis of particular kinds of cancer. Tobacco and smoking, obesity, alcoholism, too much sun exposure and radiation are among the common risk factors, while genetics also plays a pivotal role with increased risk among siblings and relatives.
Various infections like Hepatitis B virus and Human Papilloma virus are also among the progenitors of cancer. Prostate cancer and breast cancer are the most common cancers in males and females respectively.
While a number of anticancer drugs, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery are used in treating cancer, complete treatment is still far off for many neoplasms. Hence, early detection of cancer is crucial.
Regular screening for cancer, lifestyle modifications like regular exercise, healthy diet, quitting smoking and tobacco are the preventive measures.
Diabetes is a chronic condition associated with abnormally high blood glucose levels: fasting blood sugar level greater than 110 mg/dl, random blood glucose level greater than 200 mg/dl.
Blood glucose level is maintained in normal range of 70-110 mg/dl by insulin, a hormone secreted by β cells of pancreas. Any abnormality that causes damage of β cells, and thus little or no insulin, contributes to pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes commonly seen in children and youth. Type 2 diabetes however results when body cells become resistant to action of insulin and it commonly affects older people.
Diabetes leads to many acute and chronic complications affecting almost all parts of the body – brain (stroke, cognitive impairment), eye (retinopathy, glaucoma), heart (heart attack, congestive heart failure), nerves (peripheral neuropathy), ear (hearing impairment), skin (increased risk of infections). It thus remains one of the most debilitating diseases.
Preventive measures include lifestyle modifications like regular exercise, inclusion of fiber-rich whole grains, nuts, vegetables and fruits in diet, maintaining normal weight and regular checkup.
Treatment regimen for type 1 and type 2 diabetes differ in that type 1 diabetes treatment includes insulin while type 2 diabetes are cured by sulfonylureas (glibenclamide, glipizide), meglitinides (repaglinide), biguanides (metformin), thiazolidinediones (pioglitazone).
Heart diseases like myocardial infarction, angina, and heart failure have been associated with a high fatality rate, killing more people than all forms of cancer combined in the United States.
Smoking, high-fat diet, lack of exercise and sedentary lifestyle are the common causes, while other body conditions add fuel to the fire aggravating the disease. Atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension and infections are common culprits.
Hence, preventive measures like putting an end to smoking, minimizing salt intake, regular physical exercise, consuming a diet low in fat and having regular health checkups will do a lot in reducing your risk for heart diseases.
Renal failure remains one of the main global medical concerns. Kidney disease is assessed by measurement of GFR, which is the ability of kidneys to filter blood. Normal value of GFR is 125ml/min and by definition decrease in GFR is kidney failure.
Causes of acute kidney injury include pre-renal causes like dehydration, blood loss and shock; renal causes include infections of kidney; obstruction to urine flow falls under post-renal causes.
When kidneys don’t function for more than 3 months, it’s called chronic kidney disease, unlike acute kidney injury which is acute in onset. Symptoms include reduced urine volume, nausea, loss of appetite, muscle cramps, etc.
Guidelines for kidney disease prevention include reduced protein intake, salt restriction, adequate fluid intake, cessation of smoking and maintaining normal body weight. Supplements like Forskolin really help in weight loss. Since kidney failure is mostly caused by diabetes and hypertension, treatment strategies include control of blood glucose level and blood pressure by necessary hypoglycemic and anti-hypertensive drugs. Kidney transplant is reserved for serious cases.
Alzheimer’s disease affects cognitive function of the brain, and is more common in females than in males. In males, another brain disease—Parkinson disease—is more common.
While the exact cause of Alzheimer disease remains unknown, its widely known that advancing age and family history are common risk factors along with obesity, hypertension and Down syndrome among others.
Pathophysiology involves accumulation of senile plaques or beta-amyloid plaques and formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) ultimately leading to loss of neurons and synapses necessary for cognitive functions of the body.
Treatment therapy includes only symptomatic therapies–cholinesterase inhibitors. Drugs are used according to symptoms, like antidepressants for depression and for agitation, sleep disorders, etc. Routine physical exercise will have effect on disease progression as increased cardiorespiratory fitness has been shown to slow disease progression.
While a healthy person can fight influenza on his/her own, immunocompromised people, especially children, old, pregnant women, and people with conditions like diabetes and hypertension are at increased risk of developing potentially fatal pneumonia.
Increased incidence and death toll due to swine flu (H1N1 virus) led the WHO to declare the first flu pandemic in 41 years on June 11, 2009. It affected all continents except Antarctica in 2009-2010 season and has been regular problem since then, though luckily mortality rate has been similar to usual flu.
With complications like pneumonia, influenza poses a serious threat especially to above mentioned risk groups. Preemptive vaccination is the most effective way to prevent disease while regular washing of hands, preventing unnecessary touching of nose and mouth and wearing masks are also to be followed.
Two antiviral agents, Zanamavir and Oseltamavir, are effective drugs to reduce the effects of swine flu, with newer drugs under study. There is evidence, however, of drug resistance due to excessive and indiscriminate use. Hence, necessary precautions and prevention are the most efficient way to save oneself from falling victim to the influenza virus.
Stroke or cerebrovascular accident is a condition potentially caused when blood supply to brain is interrupted thus leading to death of brain cells. It may be caused by ischemia– due to blocked artery—or it can be hemorrhagic—due to bursting of blood vessel.
Risk factors include obesity, physical inactivity, hypertension and diabetes, while genetics also plays a role. Since it can lead to a number of complications like paralysis of contralateral sides of the body, loss of cognitive function, emotional problems and abnormal behaviors, and also due to the fact that treatment for any disease of the brain is complicated, one ought to have adequate knowledge about stroke, about its risk factors in general and everyone should develop healthy lifestyle.
AIDS, having originated from chimpanzees, is already a global pandemic. About 37 million people are living with HIV AIDS with 17 million unaware of the fact they have the virus in their body. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region with 25.8 million victims there, with significant number of them being children due to mother-to-child transmission either during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding.
Transmitted through body fluids–blood, semen, breast milk, vaginal fluid, rectal fluids—it can be prevented if transmission of fluids can be avoided. Hence, safe blood transfusion, safe sex, limiting the number of sexual partners, getting tested and treated for other STDs are the effective preventive measures.
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) helps HIV infected people to minimize virus load and stop progression of disease thus, reducing risk of transmission to other people as well. Antiretroviral therapy is provided to pregnant mother to minimize risk of transmission to child while new born child should also receive the treatment for 6 weeks. As a post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), it is also used in cases possibly exposed to HIV as in breakage of barrier during sex, exposure to virus in health workers, etc.
Ex-Mexico army chief arrested in LA on drugs, money charges
By Associated Press
8:58pm Oct 16, 2020
Former Mexican defence secretary General Salvador Cienfuegos, who led the country’s army for six years under ex-President Enrique Peña Nieto, has been arrested on drug trafficking and money laundering charges at Los Angeles International Airport, US and Mexican sources said yesterday.
Two people with knowledge of the arrest said Mr Cienfuegos was taken into custody on a US Drug Enforcement Administration warrant.
One of the people said the warrant was for drug trafficking and money laundering charges. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the case publicly.
Former Mexican defence secretary General Salvador Cienfuegos has been arrested on drug trafficking and money laundering charges at Los Angeles International Airport. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
READ MORE: Mexican woman shot dead while making ‘kidnapping’ TikTok video
The DEA declined to comment last night.
Mexico’s Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, wrote on his Twitter account that US Ambassador Christopher Landau had informed him of the retired general’s arrest and that Mr Cienfuegos had a right to receive consular assistance.
A senior Mexican official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to give details of the case, said Mr Cienfuegos was arrested when he arrived at the Los Angeles airport with his family.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
The 17 SDGs are integrated—that is, they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Through the pledge to Leave No One Behind, countries have committed to fast-track progress for those furthest behind first. That is why the SDGs are designed to bring the world to several life-changing ‘zeros’, including zero poverty, hunger, AIDS and discrimination against women and girls.
Everyone is needed to reach these ambitious targets. The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve the SDGs in every context.
What is UNDP’s role?
As the lead UN development agency, UNDP is well-placed to help implement the Goals through our work in some 170 countries and territories.
We support countries in achieving the SDGs through integrated solutions. Today’s complex challenges—from stemming the spread of disease to preventing conflict—cannot be tackled neatly in isolation. For UNDP, this means focusing on systems, root causes and connections between challenges—not just thematic sectors—to build solutions that respond to people’s daily realities.
Our track record working across the Goals provides us with a valuable experience and proven policy expertise to ensure we all reach the targets set out in the SDGs by 2030. But we cannot do this alone.
Achieving the SDGs requires the partnership of governments, private sector, civil society and citizens alike to make sure we leave a better planet for future generations.
A shiny wonder of Afro-European art-pop, Mr. Manager is the second release by the inspired duo of French composer/producer Hector Zazou and Congolese singer Bony Bikaye. Initially released in 1985 by Belgian imprint Crammed Discs, the label now offers up a deluxe reissue of this lost gem, expanding its original track list with nine more songs from the same sessions.
Following the cult success, Zazou Bikaye’s fascinating 1983 collaboration with analog synth duo CY1, Noir et Blanc, the two musicians assembled a similarly eclectic cast that included horn and woodwind players, percussionists, a guitarist, and backing vocalists to accompany Zazou’s electronic compositions and Bikaye’s increasingly wild vocal performances. A five-song version of Mr. Manager appeared in 1985, receiving due acclaim and garnering some international attention, though the sessions that bore this material lasted well into 1986, with most of the other tracks remaining unreleased until now.
An Afro-beat-funk hybrid that encompasses avant-garde pop, electronic programming, and inventive vocals, Mr. Manager remains a shockingly fresh and progressive listen 35 years later. In spite of its attention to detail, a sense of immediacy and spontaneity informs the whole endeavor from the joyous “Nostalgie” to the vivid call-and-response of “Nakangi,” the latter of which benefits from a fascinating cacophony of quirky drum machines, abstract digital noises, and a thrilling soprano sax part courtesy of daring Frenchman Philippe de la Croix Herpin.
Other songs are almost surreal in their balance of aching tenderness and eerie abstraction, like “Signorina”e and the enchanting “Soki Akei,” which features some of Bikaye’s most daring vocals. Likewise, his strangely affected delivery on “Viva la Musica” breathes and stutters in a way that sounds almost like a backward tape effect. Between Zazou’s offbeat arrangements and Bikaye’s fearless vocals, every track feels like an adventure with surprises around every corner.
Whether New York was taking notice of Zazou Bikaye or vice versa, it’s not hard to make a sonic parallel to some of Talking Heads’ and Arthur Russell’s mid-80s adventures, though Bikaye’s soukous/avant-pop influence makes this much more of a wildcard. There is much to unpack among Mr. Manager’s wealth of treasures and nearly all of it is exciting.
Business Insider
Tyler Sonnemaker October 13, 2020
A California appeals court heard arguments on Tuesday from Uber and Lyft as they appeal a recent ruling that would force the companies to reclassify drivers as employees.
A lower court determined in August that Uber and Lyft drivers are employees, not contractors, under the state’s gig work law, AB-5, but delayed enforcing the ruling while the companies appeal it.
Uber, Lyft, and other gig companies have fought AB-5 aggressively, pouring more than $180 million into a ballot measure aimed at California voters that would permanently exempt them from the law.
The companies argue reclassifying drivers as employees will reduce their flexibility, while proponents of AB-5 say Uber and Lyft’s business models rely on underpaying drivers and skirting labor laws.
A California appeals court heard oral arguments Tuesday from Uber, Lyft, and the state over whether a lower court reached the right conclusion in August when it ruled that the companies’ drivers are employees under the state’s gig work law, AB-5.
Judges from California’s first district Court of Appeal pressed lawyers for Uber and Lyft over drivers’ wages and autonomy, and questioned the companies’ arguments that AB-5 would require them to reduce drivers’ flexibility, according to The Washington Post and The New York Times reporter Kate Conger.
The judges also asked a lawyer for the state about potential harms to Uber and Lyft and drivers’ preferences around their employment status, according to reports.
The landmark case could fundamentally alter the contractor-based business model that Uber and Lyft have relied on, and the companies are aggressively fighting the law in court and via a ballot measure that California voters will decide on in November.
AB-5, which went into effect at the beginning of this year, allows companies to treat workers as independent contractors instead of employees only if workers meet three criteria: they’re “free from the control and direction” of the company; they perform work “outside the usual course” of the company’s business; and they’re “customarily engaged” in their own independent business.
California state and city attorneys general sued Uber and Lyft in May over their refusal to comply with the law, arguing that ride-hailing drivers don’t pass that test. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman sided with the state in August, ruling that Uber and Lyft must reclassify drivers as employees, but the ruling was stayed by Schulman and again by the appellate court while the companies appeal.
In Tuesday’s oral arguments, Uber lawyer Theodore Boutrous Jr. argued the ruling would cause “irreparable harm” and that “Uber would have to turn into a different company” and cut jobs if the ruling is upheld, The Washington Post reported.
But according to Conger, Judge Brown questioned Uber on that claim, asking what part of AB-5 would require the company to reduce drivers’ flexibility.
Uber and Lyft have focused heavily on flexibility in their opposition to the law, citing drivers’ alleged preference to work as contractors, but critics of the business model say it allows the companies to cut costs by depriving drivers of protections like minimum wage, health insurance, and unemployment insurance that other California workers are entitled to.
Matthew Goldberg, a lawyer from the San Francisco city attorney’s office, responded to a question about drivers’ preferences by saying “employees should not have the right to work without those underlying benefits. … You are not permitted to work for less than the minimum wage, even if you want to.”
When pressed by the judges on potential harms to Uber and Lyft, Goldberg responded that every other company follows the law and so Uber and Lyft should have to as well, The New York Times’ Kate Conger tweeted. He also said Uber and Lyft were causing harm to drivers: “This is dollars and wages and money that is being stolen from drivers by virtue of the misclassification.”
Uber and Lyft have repeatedly claimed that the law doesn’t apply to them in the first place — an argument Lyft lawyer Rohit Singla brought up again Tuesday, while Boutrous cited changes Uber has made to its app that should exempt its drivers, according to The Washington Post.
But the judges appeared skeptical, Conger reported, pointing out that Uber still sets the base fare for drivers.
They also cast doubt on Lyft’s claim that underpayment of drivers’ wages isn’t irreparable harm, according to The Washington Post, with one asking: “Are you suggesting that the specter of thousands of individual claims for back wages is something that is insignificant and something that need not be considered in balancing the appropriateness of an injunction at this point?”
California’s Labor Commission brought a separate lawsuit against Uber and Lyft over the same issue in August, alleging they’ve been committing wage theft by classifying drivers as contractors.
Uber and Lyft have sought to head off a potential loss in court by pouring more than $180 million into a ballot measure, Proposition 22, that would exempt ride-hail and food delivery workers from AB-5. That’s the most money ever used to back a ballot measure in the state, according to Ballotpedia.
Uber and Lyft also came under fire earlier this week after SF Gate reported that the companies indirectly funded ballot guides sent to California voters urging them to vote for Proposition 22 by falsely claiming to be affiliated with Sen. Bernie Sanders and other “progressive” groups.
Both Sen. Sanders and the California Democratic Party have opposed the measure.
