Paradise News

Tag: General News

  • Better weather forecasts key to battling billion-dollar disasters, experts tell House panel

    Experts told representatives Wednesday that supporting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to improve weather models and predictions is crucial to saving lives and lowering recovery costs. 

    The U.S. was hit by 28 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in 2023, making the costs related to helping communities recover from natural disasters the highest on record, according to NOAA. 

    Chairman Max Miller (R-Ohio) told the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Environment subcommittee that natural disasters impact a wide variety of people and businesses, from farmers in Ohio to large manufacturing plants.

    “It’s easy to see that weather data doesn’t just help determine the day’s clothing,” Miller said. “It enhances our national economy and security by assisting long term decision-making. There are serious economic and humanitarian implications to not being able to predict weather correctly or precisely, and we cannot afford to let the United States fall behind on the world stage.”

    The U.S. has a unique challenge in predicting weather. Its weather events are more varied, frequent and intense than that of any other nation, according to Scott Weaver, CEO of CLIMET Consulting. 

    The U.S. has experienced over 8,000 deaths and $2.5 trillion in economic losses from extreme weather events since 1980, with $1 trillion of those losses coming from the last seven years. While the wide range of issues can make prediction efforts difficult, the U.S. can still do more to improve, Weaver said.

    The U.S. has the opportunity to be the global leader in meteorological science and services, but to do that requires “coordinating a thriving research and applications enterprise to finally begin to bend the curve in the nation’s annual weather disaster losses,” Weaver said.

    Congress could help this effort by not tacking on new responsibilities that fail to add value to the NOAA and by following a budgeting process, allowing the agency to plan a time-constrained annual budget, Kevin Petty, Aeris CEO, said.

    For the NOAA’s part, the agency should create a clear and concise weather forecast improvement strategy, evaluate its current structure, consider building an independent team for modeling and develop more partnerships in the private sector, the science and technology innovation company head suggested.

    Factors like a changing climate and population growth make it essential that the NOAA lean on outside companies to achieve its goals in observing, computing, modeling and delivering information about the weather, Petty told the committee.

    Ranking Member Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) said that as extreme weather worsens, it is crucial to ensure people are appropriately informed. 

    “The dangers and damage associated with severe storms cannot be stopped entirely, but they can be mitigated, including by providing the impacted communities with appropriate warnings,” Ross said. “The integration of timely, accurate weather information with effective and accessible communication is essential to our goal of protecting American lives and property.”

    Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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  • American Muslims can depend on halal food

    Hands reaching for food during iftar meal for Ramadan (© Boontoom Sae-Kor/Shutterstock)
    People reach for a variety of dishes during an iftar meal for Ramadan. (© Boontoom Sae-Kor/Shutterstock)

    As Ramadan approaches, observant Muslims throughout the United States can easily find halal food to serve at their iftar meals as well as the rest of the year.

    Islamic dietary restrictions forbid consumption of certain foods and regulate how animals may be slaughtered and foods made to ensure purity. (The Arabic word halal means permitted by the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.)

    Islamic Services of America halal certification logo (© Islamic Services of America)
    Following certification, vendors can affix a symbol of compliance on food and product packaging, such as this one. (© Islamic Services of America)

    In the U.S., certification organizations such as USA Halal Chamber of Commerce and Islamic Services of America check that foods and products claiming to be produced with halal practices meet the requirements. Once a product is certified, its maker affixes a compliance symbol on the packaging.

    “Halal industry experts exist everywhere and not just in Muslim-majority countries,” said Timothy Hyatt, vice president of Islamic Services of America. “Our existence since the mid-1970s shows that the USA is well versed and experienced in the halal industry and recognized as far as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.”

    Based in Iowa, Hyatt’s organization certifies flavors, syrups, grains, chemicals and processing aids as halal for clients in North America, Europe and China. (Those clients sell their products to food processors and other industry supply chains.) The organization also certifies some finished retail goods — from meat and poultry to cosmetics and vitamins.

    Maryland-based USA Halal Chamber of Commerce began certifying meat and poultry, beverages, snacks, chemicals and cosmetics in 1997. The organization is experienced in certifying just about every kind of halal product that might be sold on supermarket shelves, said Aly Ghanim, its quality manager.

    USA Halal’s certification is recognized worldwide. Most of those seeking its services are U.S. manufacturers and food processors, but it also attracts clients in Canada, Mexico and Europe.

    Raw lamb leg with spices and herbs on marble cutting board (© Anna Pustynnikova/Shutterstock)
    This raw lamb leg with spices and herbs qualifies for halal certification. (© Anna Pustynnikova/Shutterstock)

    How it works

    Islamic Services of America’s quality assurance team reviews ingredients and production flowcharts for compliance and conducts facility audits. If a producer passes, its facilities and products can be advertised as halal for a year, until its next inspection.

    Certification usually takes 30 days but could take longer for more complex products, Hyatt said. While common standards exist within Islamic law, some countries have different standards. For products headed to those markets, Islamic Services takes additional compliance steps.

    USA Halal’s inspection reports are reviewed by a committee, which adds some time, but its process is generally similar, Ghanim said.

    “Services like us become more essential because you want whoever is receiving the final product … to be confident that these products are indeed what they say they are,” Ghanim said.

    A version of this story was previously published April 8, 2021.



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  • Epic Debate: America First Vs. Pro-Ukraine War


    Debaters tackle the pressing issue: Should the U.S. continue to fund and provide operational support to Ukraine?

    Zero Hedge hosts a debate between Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and former Congressman Joe Walsh, in a discussion over whether the US should be involved in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

    Via Zero Hedge:

    ZeroHedge presents the latest debate in our series aimed at bringing live, long-form discussions on controversial topics back into the ideologically-siloed and echo-chambered media landscape.

    We hope you enjoy this debate which pits two (one current, one former) members of Congressagainst each other — Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and former Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois — for an in-depth discussion on the war in Ukraine and the role America should play now and in the future.X Spaces influencer Mario Nawfal will moderate the debate in-person, which will stream live on ZeroHedge, Rumble and X.

    • Save 40% on DNA Force Plus NOW! Try it today and see why so many listeners have made it an essential part of their daily routine!

    They will try to answer the question: Should the U.S. continue to fund and provide operational support to Ukraine?

    To illustrate their divide: Walsh, the former Illinoisan Rep, has hailed Biden’s Ukraine policy as “one of the greatest defenses of freedom… ever put on the world’s stage” while the Wisconsinite Senator believes Ukraine “can’t win” and that it and the U.S. must pursue a negotiated settlement.

    Healthy debate is sorely lacking on Capitol Hill, where it’s most needed. For bucking this trend, we have tremendous respect for both Johnson and Walsh and are looking forward to a civil exchange of ideas. We urge more elected officials to follow the Walsh-Johnson example.



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  • How UniJos NASU Members Lost N178m To Union Executives In Land Fraud – Witnesses

    Witnesses in the trial of Kassam Kopte and Yakubu Zwalnan, former Chairman and Secretary, University of Jos Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) of Education and Associated Institution, narrated how the duo allegedly lured union members into fraudulent land deals and defrauded them of their life savings in the process.

    The witnesses gave their own side of the story on Wednesday before Justice S.P Gang of the Plateau State High Court sitting in Jos.

    The two accused persons are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on three-count charges bordering on criminal breach of trust and conspiracy to defraud union members to the tune of N178m.

    According to EFCC, the alleged offence contravenes Section 97 of the Penal Code Laws of Plateau State, and punishable under the same Law.

    However, during the court session, Dakup L. Jacob, a lecturer in the University of Jos, who happens to be the Second Prosecution Witness (PW2), narrated how he also got defrauded.

    According to him, Kopte and Zalwan defrauded him of the sum of N448 being the total cost of two plots of land he chose to buy.

    He said: “My Lord, in 2012, they advertised plots of land to the university community, I subscribed for four plots of land. Two were shown to me, while the remaining two I have no idea about. And the two I was shown have no title documents for me to claim them as mine. No evidence to call them mine.

    “I paid for the two plots through direct lodgments into the NASU plots of land account they gave us, while the remaining two are to be deducted from my salary. I have a photocopy of the evidence of payments because the originals are with the union.”

    The third Prosecution Witness (PW3), James W. Jangfa, also narrated his own ordeal, saying he lost a total of N896 to the two defendants, being the total cost of five plots of land he was deceived into buying by the duo.

    He said: “My Lord, I subscribed for five plots of land. I paid for three while the other two were to be deducted from my salary. Three plots of lands were shown to me and I accepted, while I was shown another two in a valley which I rejected.

    “Of the total lands, my Lord, none has a document to back it up even after we paid for land title fees and other formalities. So technically, my Lord, I can’t claim any of the land because it has no paper document to back them up.”

    Meanwhile prior to these two witnesses, on Tuesday, the first Prosecution Witness (PW1), Bitrus Ayuba, told the court that he lost N448 to the two accused persons in the fraudulent land purchase.

    “As at that time my Lord, in one of our meetings, they advertised plots of land to us, stating that all interested persons should indicate his or her interest and that he or she would get it.

    “We asked them the price of a plot of land and they told us it was N170,000 (One hundred and seventy thousand naira). I then showed interest and paid the sum of N340,000 (Three hundred and forty thousand naira) for two plots of land.

    “After a while, they told us again to pay the sum of N54,000 (Fifty-four thousand naira) for land title documents and I paid for the two plots I paid for earlier,” he stated.

    All the evidence of payments made by the witnesses were admitted exhibits in court by Justice Gang after scaling stiff objections from D.G Dashe and I.P Gyang, counsels to the first and second defendants, respectively.

    The presiding judge adjourned the matter till 14th and 15 May 2024 for continuation of trial.

    How UniJos NASU Members Lost N178m To Union Executives In Land Fraud – Witnesses is first published on The Whistler Newspaper

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  • Fact Check: Can social media platform outages impact U.S. elections? Not likely, experts say

    It’s Election Day in November 2024. Across the U.S., voters are heading to the polls. And major social media platforms are not working. 

    The scenario could alarm voters and draw news organizations’ attention. But would it affect voting? 

    A similar incident played out March 5, when Meta platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Threads stopped working worldwide for about two hours. The outages happened on Super Tuesday, when voters in 16 states and one territory were casting their ballots in the presidential primary. 

    DownDetector, a website that tracks outages using methods including user-submitted reports, said that more than 500,000 Facebook outages and 79,000 Instagram outages were reported around 10:30 a.m Eastern Time. 

    The issue appeared to be resolved and access restored within a few hours.

    X users speculated that the outages were linked to the election, nefarious — and possibly a trial run for a bigger incident in November. 

    “All major socials went down and regained at almost the exact same time,” read one X post with more than 39,000 views as of March 5. “#cyberattack or practice run for the 2024 election? It is no coincidence that this happened on Super Tuesday, because there are no coincidences.”

    Roger Stone, a Republican political consultant in Florida who advised former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, suggested the outage might have benefitted Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley. 

    “Facebook and Instagram — two of the most powerful communication tools for grassroots politics in America — suddenly stops working on #SuperTuesday, while all of Haley’s ads in print, radio, and television remain intact,” Stone wrote. “How convenient.” 

    Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, dropped out of the presidential race the next day. During the primary season, the Trump campaign or his super political action committee backers have bought radio ads, television spots and text message and direct mail advertising.

    Another X post that racked up more than 1.7 million views questioned whether the outages were a “practice run for November,” when the general election will take place.

    Federal officials told reporters on Super Tuesday that they knew of no link between the outage and that day’s elections.

    Local and state election officials in Alabama, California, Colorado, North Carolina and Texas told us that the Meta outages did not affect voting.

    Many election officials told us that they communicate with voters on their websites or by opt-in text messages and emails. In North Carolina, officials sent an emergency robocall to correct misinformation about voting instructions.

    Super Tuesday voters leave a polling location Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Mount Holly, N.C. (AP)

    What caused Meta platform outages on Super Tuesday?

    White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a March 5 press briefing that the White House was “not aware of any specific malicious cyberactivity,” she said. “Or any specific nexus as it relates to today’s election.”

    A U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official made a similar statement in a briefing with reporters.

    Meta spokesperson Andy Stone posted on X that “a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services.” PolitiFact contacted Meta for additional details and was directed to Stone’s statement. (PolitiFact has a fact-checking partnership with Meta.

    (Clip from YouTube.)

    Elections officials and experts said the outages did not impact voting

    Many local and state election officials use multiple social media platforms to communicate with voters and the media on election days. Government officials post information about voting hours, turnout, the counting process and voter problems or misinformation. Some are playful – Harris Votes in Texas posted a video of what voting looks like during rodeo season (in cowboy boots, of course.)

    But social media is not the only way election officials communicate with voters. Local elections offices typically have websites where information is posted, such as voting site locations.

    Derek Bowens, Durham County, North Carolina’s elections director, told PolitiFact that the Meta outages didn’t affect Super Tuesday voting. Even if all social media platforms went down on Election Day, Durham County has a notification system through its emergency management department that it could use to send voting updates to the public. 

    “There is always a backup to the backup,” Bowens said. 

    Justin D. Grantham, clerk and recorder in Fremont County, Colorado, said if all social media platforms were disrupted for all of Election Day, clerks would use TV and radio to deliver messages to voters.

    “It would change our tactics, but not our communication with our constituents,” Grantham said.

    Dressed as Superman and holding a “Vote!” flag, artist David Alcantar jogs past a polling site, March 5, 2024, in San Antonio. The flag and costume are part of an art project to encourage voting. (AP)

    Mara Suttmann-Lea, a Connecticut College assistant professor of politics, wrote in a 2021 paper that county election websites are “by far the most commonly available resource for voters across jurisdictions.” 

    The social media outages probably affected campaigns’ digital ads, said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a group advocating for voting access. And the secretary of state ran digital ads letting people know what types of identification they needed to vote. 

    “A number of us who work on voting rights talked about how we ran into so many people yesterday while shopping for groceries or picking up kids at school who had no idea it was Election Day,” Gutierrez said. “The outage may have prevented some people from hearing about the election or kept people from getting reminders to go vote, but it’s hard to imagine it had any significant impact.”

    Lillian Govus, spokesperson for North Carolina’s Buncombe County, said primary turnout was higher than in 2020, so the county has no indication that the outage impacted access.

    “At the end of the day, if social media or power went down, we’d vote exactly like I did when I voted for the first time in 1998: on a ballot machine that used a touchscreen for selections and without any social media platform competing for my attention,” Govus said.

    RELATED: All of our fact-checks about elections



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  • Warriors make statement with massive win over Bucks

    SAN FRANCISCO — At full strength for the first time since finding their identity, the Warriors levied their full wrath.

    Against the caliber of team that has given the Warriors fits this year, Golden State put together its finest half of the season and avoided the type of second-half collapse that has spoiled so many of their games. They recorded a season-high 13 blocks, assisted on 37 of their 51 baskets, and tilted the game to their preferred pace.

    Steve Kerr had his full complement of options, and practically everyone in his 11-man rotation contributed to hand Milwaukee its first loss since the All-Star break. Steph Curry (29 points) and Jonathan Kuminga led the Warriors’ scoring effort. Rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis was a force on both ends and Chris Paul dished nine assists off the bench.

    The Warriors (33-28) delivered their most impressive win of the season, a 125-90 thumping. At least for one game, they were every bit as fearsome as the true title contender sharing the court with them.

    “I really didn’t see any bad shots tonight,” Kerr said postgame. “There were no agendas, it was just let’s go play basketball. Move the ball, throw it to the first guy who’s open, put a lot of pressure on the defense that way…I thought it was a great offensive performance, and it was really keyed by simple decision-making and passing.”

    The Bucks presented this year’s Warriors group the opportunity to prove something they haven’t yet: the ability to hang with the league’s elite teams.

    Milwaukee, who entered a perfect 6-0 since the All-Star break, are one of the league’s championship favorites even with Khris Middleton injured. Against the Bucks, Celtics, Timberwolves, Thunder and Nuggets — the NBA’s top five teams — Golden State was 2-11. The Warriors’ 13-25 record against winning teams was the worst among any team in the Western Conference playoff picture.

    On Wednesday, they made their track record against the game’s best irrelevant. The Warriors have accrued more championship DNA than any other team, but at some point this year, they’ll have to consistently rise to the occasion — like they did in Chase Center.

    The Warriors elevated their play in the first quarter, which began with a fast-paced, playoff-level intensity. Jonathan Kuminga hunted his mismatch — the bigger Brook Lopez — and the Warriors geared their defense to hounding ball-handlers other than Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. Curry hit Draymond Green with a hit-ahead pass for a transition bucket after a make and Brandin Podziemski was active on defense and pursuing loose balls. Amid the up-and-down action, Green picked up a technical foul.

    Curry began the game 4-for-4 with 10 points, sending the Bucks to a timeout by draining a pull-up jumper from 32 feet out. As the Bucks headed to their bench, Curry mimed a golf swing.

    Precise ball movement allowed the Warriors to shoot 65.4% from the floor in a 40-32 winning first quarter.

    Chris Paul led a second-unit surge, building an 18-point lead and maintaining a double-digit cushion — one that persisted through a standing ovation for Bob Myers, the former general manager back in Chase Center for the first time since leaving the organization.

    Green blocked a Bobby Portis corner 3, igniting a fast break that ended in one of several Kuminga dunks. Even Klay Thompson rose up for a transition jam.

    Golden State canned 12 of its first 19 3-pointers, earning their biggest halftime lead of the year. Three days after scoring 88 points in Boston, they dropped 78.

    Yet the Warriors followed up their sharpest half by getting stuck between gears. After everything for the Warriors fell, nothing did. After they took care of the ball, the Bucks’ ball pressure overwhelmed them.

    Golden State managed five points in the first six minutes of the third quarter, seeing their 20-point lead trimmed to six. But when all momentum flipped to the Bucks, Trayce Jackson-Davis came to the rescue. The rookie center blocked Antetokounmpo twice on the same possession, then finished an alley-oop from Curry on the other end. Moments later, Jackson-Davis swatted Antetokounmpo again before dunking off a gorgeous pocket pass from Paul.

    Golden State Warriors' Trayce Jackson-Davis (32) blocks a shot to Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) in the fourth quarter of a NBA game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
    Golden State Warriors’ Trayce Jackson-Davis (32) blocks a shot to Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) in the fourth quarter of a NBA game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

    Jackson-Davis had studied some of Blake Griffin’s battles against Antetokounmpo, taking note of how he sat on the two-time MVP’s spin move and otherwise giving him space. The homework paid off.

    “Never faced anyone like him before,” Jackson-Davis said postgame. “Have length like that, as fast as he is, as explosive.”

    The Warriors’ depth won out in the end. With Antetokounmpo resting for two minutes to start the final frame, Golden State stretched its lead back to 20. Moses Moody played tenacious on-ball defense on Lillard, freezing out Milwaukee’s offensive engine. Jackson-Davis slammed another putback dunk and Green sank back-to-back 3-pointers to ignite the Chase Center crowd.

    The 35-point win, Golden State’s largest margin of victory of the year, looked just like the type of Warriors victory Myers had seen hundreds of times. Like proof of the Warriors’ championship window stubbornly staying ajar.

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  • Film Review: Lift – The Seattle Medium

    Comedian and comic actor Kevin Hart tries to ditch his funny, smart-mouth persona to play a suave international thief in “Lift,” streaming on Netflix.

    By Dwight Brown, Film Critic for DwightBrownInk.com and NNPA News Wire

    Any film that begins with an elaborate, broad daylight heist deserves viewers’ attention. It’s what comes between that intro and the film’s adrenalin-pumping final hour that may give Netflix audiences reasons to take a refrigerator break.

    Comedian and comic actor Kevin Hart tries to ditch his funny, smart-mouth persona to play a suave international thief. Hart showed he can stretch from his comic roots in the drama The Upside. But can he, with the aid of action film director F. Gary Gray (The Fate of the Furious), handle an Idris Elba type role in a film that should have Ocean’s Eleven-style intrigue? We shall see.

    Cyrus (Hart) and his band of sophisticated thieves are in Venice, Italy at an auction where they intend to swindle away a famous NFT artwork (a/k/a Non-fungible token, or a digital asset stored on a blockchain that represents content or even physical items). Its creator is the very popular AI artist named N8 (Jacob Batalon, Spider Man: No Way Home). An Interpol agent named Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Belle) and her boss Huxley (Sam Worthington, Avatar) surveil the nattily dressed dude who tries to outbid everyone for the AI images.

    Cyrus is confident he can pull off this caper because his international crew specializes in identity fraud, money laundering and thievery: Camila the pilot (Úrsula Corberó), Mi-Sun the hacker (Yun Jee Kim), Magnus a safecracker (Billy Magnussen), Luke the engineer (Viveik Kalra) and Denton a master of disguises (Vincent D’Onofrio). It’s a great surprise when someone blackmails the gang into a mission to thwart a possible disaster masterminded by a crimelord ecoterrorist (Jean Reno). What’s on the line? $500M in gold!

    The premise has merit. The director has a filmography (The Italian Job) that shows he can make this project work. What about the script? Screenwriter Daniel Kunka is fine with outlining events, far less accomplished with establishing three-dimensional characters, memorable dialogue and a storyline not burdened with unnecessary backstories. A lot of the film’s wrinkles and glaring mistakes could have been ironed out in a table read where the cast and crew aired their opinions. However, there’s plenty of evidence from what’s on the screen that that kind of fine-tuning never happened.

    Starting the film in picturesque Venice (cinematographer Bernhard Jasper) and ending with steady doses of action was a smart choice. Shooting so many interiors (production design Dominic Watkins, Dolittle) and exteriors in funky ways that telegraph the use of green screen trickery, was not so smart. Brawls inside a jet look particularly fake.

    Gray’s direction is decent, but you wish he’d taken more time to develop a heady, intricate, death-defying crime thriller style. Something in the vein of Guy Ritchie’s

    Snatch or Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eight. The lack of clever slights of hand, or cheeky dialogue makes Lift look like it came off an assembly line.

    Hart is funny. Cyrus is meant to be debonair. Either hire someone like Elba for the role, or let Hart bring the cray cray his fans love. He seems too reigned in. Mbatha-Raw is very adept at making her character more than what’s on the page. Still these two leads lack chemistry, when they should set the screen on fire. Worthington is suitable as the Interpol stiff. D’Onofrio is fine. French actor Jean Reno plays the villain quite well with a believable sneer.

    Thankfully for streaming fans, who’ve waited one full hour for the movie to find its footing, Lift eventually dials up the clashes, chases, fights and skirmishes until it ends at 1h 47m.

    If you’ve never met a heist movie you didn’t like, and that’s a low bar, pull up a chair and indulge. Visit Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.

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  • FDA finds lead contamination in certain ground cinnamon products, asks manufacturers to voluntarily recall items

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found elevated levels of lead in six brands of ground cinnamon spice, months after the agency recalled lead-contaminated applesauce pouches last fall.

    The FDA on Wednesday said the six brands of ground cinnamon contained lead at levels potentially unsafe for people, especially people, if they have prolonged exposure. 

    The products are sold under the names Marcum, MK, La Fiesta, Swad, Supreme Tradition and El Chilar and are sold at retailers including Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Patel Brothers and Save A Lot, the FDA said.

    The agency advised consumers to throw away and not buy these products, and manufacturers were also asked to voluntarily recall the items.

    “Removing the ground cinnamon products in this alert from the market will prevent them from contributing elevated amounts of lead to the diets of children,” the FDA said. 

    Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores have removed the cinnamon from their store shelves and customers can return the products for a refund, a spokesperson for Dollar Tree and Family Dollar told The Associated Press.

    No illnesses or adverse events have been reported regarding the products, the FDA noted. 

    The recall comes months after the FDA announced WanaBana USA had voluntarily recalled three applesauce brands due to reports of elevated levels of lead. This was discovered after routine blood screenings of children showed a spike in blood lead levels. 

    The contamination was linked to applesauce pouches produced in Ecuador and sold in U.S. supermarkets, on Amazon and in stores like the Dollar Tree. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February reported 468 cases across 44 states. 

    Lead is a neurotoxin, and there’s scientific consensus that there’s no safe level of lead in humans, especially in young children. The FDA monitors foods for lead levels, though the U.S. government does not limit these levels in products, the AP noted. 

    The recall last fall prompted FDA officials to launch a “targeted survey” of cinnamon products sold in discount stores, the AP added. 

    Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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  • Watch: Journalist Exposes Secret Migrant Trafficking Operation at San Diego Hotel


    James O’Keefe poses as pest control to infiltrate Ramada Inn migrant compound, assaulted by security guards.

    Journalist James O’Keefe was assaulted by security guards after infiltrating a secret illegal alien shelter at a Ramada Inn paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.

    After Eagles Point Security refused to let him investigate Ramada San Diego as a journalist, O’Keefe disguised himself as pest control to gain access to the hotel which had apparently been converted to a “secret migrant compound.”

    While investigating the converted migrant shelter, O’Keefe spoke with a bus driver who’d been transporting the aliens to the hotel, who claimed, “not even the migrants know why they are coming here.”

    “I don’t understand how it all works. It’s just me doing my job,” the bus driver said.

    While inside, O’Keefe discovered a whiteboard with the names of organizations involved in the secret human trafficking operation, including the Catholic Charities Dioceses of San Diego, the University of California San Diego and the California Department of Social Services.

    The screenshot, which included individual names and phone numbers, was removed on X

    The NGO workers were also unwilling to let the illegal aliens, many of which were identified as Chinese, leave the hotel for the buses once they saw O’Keefe and his team investigating.

    O’Keefe later caught up with one of the Chinese migrants who took an Uber out of the hotel, and admitted he was sheltered at the hotel for free after illegally crossing the border.

    Blue city Democrats have resorted to dealing with the untenable visibility of the migrant crisis by putting them up in hotels, airports, and illegal apartment buildings in backdoor deals with NGOs and slumlords.

    Meanwhile Joe Biden has been dealing with the migrant crisis optics in his own corrupt way, secretly flying hundreds of thousands of them for years INTO the country to dozens of airports across the country to be transported to sanctuary cities.

    Follow Jamie White on X | Truth | Gab | Gettr | Minds



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  • Kogi, Plateau, 4 Others Record Highest Human Rights Violation Complaints In February – NHRC

    The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has disclosed that it recorded its highest human rights complaints for February from North Central Nigeria, comprising Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, and Plateau states.

    The Senior Human Rights Adviser to the NHRC Executive Secretary, Hilary Ogbonna, revealed this on Wednesday in Abuja at the commission’s 2nd edition of its monthly dashboard on human rights.

    The commission had earlier said that its monthly dashboard provides an overview of current human rights violations which the NHRC has collated across the 36 States of the federation including the FCT.

    Ogbonna explained that while there were 1,484 complaints received by the commission in February across Nigeria, North Central recorded 481 complaints.

    Ogbonna said the commission recorded 138 complaints from the North West geopolitical zone, 393 from North East, 179 from South-West, and 146 from South-East while the South South geopolitical zone had 149 complaints.

    Ogbonna further noted that there were 550 complaints on child rights while 339 of them had to do with child abandonment.

    Reasons for such abandonment were attributed to multidimensional poverty, among other factors.

    Also, 370 domestic violence and assault complaints were recorded by the commission, among others.

    Speaking at the event, the NHRC Executive Secretary, Dr. Tony Ojukwu, said in line with the commission’s mission of promoting and protecting human rights, the dashboard helps relevant stakeholders to develop ways to address existing human rights issues.

    “The January dashboard which we presented last month revealed some interesting facts about the prevalence of domestic violence which had the highest percentage. The Feb. dashboard which will be presented to us shortly will reveal some interesting dimensional shifts of violations revealing another category of victims who are worst hit by the data generated for the month.

    “The February 2024 Dashboard is a graphic representation of the state of human rights in the country. Beyond being indicting, it rather presents itself as a guide and a measurement of our progress to realizing the human rights of every Nigerian. It provides information that will trigger a chain of multi-faceted actions on tackling insecurity, poverty, and inequalities in Nigeria. For instance, the upsurge in violence, killings and kidnappings recorded in February should concern every arm of our government.

    “The dashboard will also galvanize good collaboration between the commission, our partners, and all human rights actors in data sharing and open up spaces for interventions in particular areas of interest towards the advancement of the course of human rights in Nigeria,” he said.

    Kogi, Plateau, 4 Others Record Highest Human Rights Violation Complaints In February – NHRC is first published on The Whistler Newspaper

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