Category: News

For the first time in nearly a century, the travertine walls of the Duluth City Hall building in Minnesota will be properly cleaned and restored to their former glory.

The Duluth News Tribune reports that the City of Duluth architect Tari Rayala is leading a major restoration project in cleaning the building’s walls. Since the city hall opened in 1928, the walls, once vibrant and pristine white, have slowly decayed after decades of indoor smoking, indoor heating, and skin oils from people touching the walls. The walls now look worn, dingy, and jaundiced.

The travertine cleaning work began last month after the Duluth City Council approved of $107,000 in funding in April. The cleaning is expected to wrap up by the end of the month.

The contractor responsible for the project, Premium Plant Services, works at night using an innovative technique invented by Sponge Jet, a company based in New Hampshire. Representative from both companies were in Duluth last week observing the work.

“I’m very pleased,” said Ted Valoria, Sponge Jet’s Vice President for North America.

The process involves delivering aluminum oxide particles wrapped in small dry sponges to the travertine walls via an air hose that projects air at 40 pounds per square inch.

“In historical preservation, it’s called ‘micro-abrasion,'” Valoria said, who pointed out that since the technique was invented 27 years ago it has been used in more than 100 countries, in buildings as illustrious as the White House and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

“The workmanship is truly professional,” she continued, complimenting the project crew. “They’ve got an appreciation for the finesse that’s required.”

The city hall is part of a prominent city district that houses the Federal Building and the St. Louis County Courthouse. Rayala hopes that the restoration work on City Hall will motivate the other buildings to follow suit.

“Once they see what we’ve done,” Rayala said, “they’ll be copying us.”

With a demand in the United States at about 0.85 million tons every year, travertine is one of the most popular natural stone building materials in the country.

Sweepstakes scams destroyed the life of Terry Liddell’s father. For the past three years, the man’s life has been unbearable. Not only has he lost all of his savings, but the stress of such a situation nearly destroyed his relationship with Terry.

“It’s about losing my father to a bunch of scammers,” Liddell said. “Somebody that I love and care about [being] taken advantage of like that, and mentally destroyed over money. They just took him to the cleaners every way they could.”

The terrible saga began when Oscar Liddell received a mailer telling him he’d won $3 million and a new BMW. Sometimes, sweepstakes ask that participants submit a photo, video or essay about the brand, products or services to increase the number of people interacting with the brand, thereby deepening the connection. This sweepstakes, though, said he had to pay fees and insurance to receive his grand prize. The thing is, legitimate sweepstakes never ask for money.

Liddell bought in. Then, he bought in again. And again. Over and over he continued to send money, hoping for the payout.

At the time, Liddell lived alone, and the widower’s son lived a distance away. The con artists starting mining his information, and right off the bat, found that he was lonely and vulnerable. They asked for a little bit of his family background, and within a week, they began calling up to six times a day and sending bags of mail, hoping to wring him out for literally all he was worth.

No one could get through to Liddell. His son tried to convince him that he was being conned, and when that didn’t work, his pastor, the sheriffs, and his accountant all tried, and failed.

Ultimately, the scammers took more than $100,000 from Liddell, and even isolated him from the outside world.

“They were then able to call his telephone carrier and change the passwords to his account, and they blocked all calls that were NOT coming from them, so he couldn’t contact his family,” U.S. Postal Inspector R. Ronald Mayhew Jr. said.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, any indication that a participant has to do anything with money is a sign of a scam, be it in the form of a money wire, or the deposit of a check sent by the scammers. Another indicator that a sweepstakes is really a scam is a lack of entry. People can’t win sweepstakes if they don’t enter. If a con artist claims a person has won a contest that they didn’t enter, it’s a scam.

“If anyone gets anything out of this interview, convince your elderly NOT to fall for the contest,” said Terry Liddell. “There is no prize. It’s a scam. They just want your money.”

According to a new study, the prescription of antipsychotic drugs among adolescents is on the rise, but the diagnosis of mental disorders is not. In other words, more adolescents are taking antipsychotic drugs without having been diagnosed with a mental disorder warranting such medication.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, analyzed trends between 2006 and 2010 using data from thousands of prescriptions. It found that the percentage of teens using medications increased over time, with the highest rates of usage being amongst teens ages 13 to 18. In 2006, about 1.1% of the group used drugs, while 1.19% used them in 2010.

The study also found that about 60% of those between the ages of one and six, 56.7% of those between the ages of seven and 12, 62% of those between the ages of 13 and 18, and 67.1% of those between ages 19 and 24, who were all taking the drugs, had no inpatient nor outpatient claim indicating a mental disorder diagnosis.

“There’s a general consensus that great caution should be exercised with antipsychotic drugs,” said lead author Mark Olfson. “This raises concerns about whether the right caution is taken.”

The reason medical professionals aren’t using the right amount of caution before prescribing antipsychotic drugs could possibly be because rates of mental disorders are quite high amongst children. According to federal statistics, one in five children either currently has, or has had, a seriously debilitating mental disorder.

However, researchers feel that in cases where there are diagnosed mental disorders, the antipsychotic drugs are being used to treat unapproved conditions, such as depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which doctors are known to prescribe antipsychotics for.

Olfson said that doctors do this because the drugs provide “fast relief” for behaviors in children that are often tough to manage. When in tough spots, both doctors and parents are willing to use the drugs in ways that haven’t been approved.

“There’s been concern that these medications have been overused, particularly in young children,” said Olfson. “Guidelines and clinical wisdom suggest that you really should be using a high degree of caution and only using them when other treatments have failed, as a last resort.”

Researchers from the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience have just developed a new method for analyzing proteins found in animal venom, and the results have been shocking: while a small drop of venom from a predatory cone snail could easily kill a person within minutes, the toxins within the venom hold proteins, called peptides, which could provide the foundations for drugs that would treat a variety of medical conditions.

The snail in question is one of 700 cone snails in Australia and is called the Conus episcopatus, Tech Times reports. This mollusk uses its venom to “immobilize its prey, which includes other snails, fish, and worms” and the venom itself contains “an extraordinary cocktail of compounds with medicinal properties.”

One researcher stated that scientists have long been aware of the powerful chemicals contained in the venom of cone snails, but up until this new analysis method was implemented, Business Insider states that it has been impossible to see the peptide molecules so closely.

The Conus episcopatus uses its venom to anesthetize its victims before killing them, so it isn’t surprising that the peptides inside the venom are expected to be used in drugs to treat pain and cancer.

But the Conus episcopatus isn’t the only cone snail with healing powers…

Live Mint recently reported that two scientists in another research group discovered a possible cure for insomnia in the venom of the Conus araneaosus. This cone snail is found on the coastline of southeast India and Sri Lanka, and the predatory snail uses its venom to sedate its prey before killing it.

After researchers isolated and purified a handful of peptides, these chemicals were injected into mice. Within minutes of the injection, one peptide called “ar3J” put the mice to sleep for about two hours; a double dosage resulted in a five-hour nap.

By treating the serious problem of sleep deprivation, which results from sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea, a variety of other medical problems will likely decrease. Sleep apnea sufferers, for example, are three times as likely to develop heart disease if they’re unable to find an effective treatment.

It could be a while before any snail venom peptides are used in drugs for humans, but it definitely seems like Mother Nature has plenty of good surprises up her sleeve.

Unmarried women are now influencing the U.S. fertility rate more than ever before since we started keeping track of it.

According to a July 10 Wall Street Journal report, the national fertility rate is actually on the rise for the first time in seven years. However, it’s mostly married women who are having babies these days — and these women are occupying a shrinking share of the population of potential mothers.

The fertility data for 2014, released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), thus shows a widening discrepancy between married and unmarried women in America. While married women continue to have children year after year, unmarried women are having fewer — or none at all.

This matters because unmarried women, who now make up the majority of women of childbearing age, are what the U.S. will rely on to drive its sagging fertility rate. While most women of this age were married two decades ago, 58% of this age group today aren’t. The average woman will have her first child after she reaches 25 years of age, although women are usually at their peak fertility between 20 and 24 years of age.

“It’s really what the unmarried segment is doing that is going to drive the overall rate,” said Sally Curtin, a demographer and health statistician for the CDC.

In good news, however, the CDC found that the teen birthrate fell to a historic low in 2014. According to the Washington Times, the rate of teen pregnancy in the U.S. has dropped an incredible 61% since 1991. There are now approximately 24.2 births per 1,000 teens.

“This is spectacular news — proof again that teens can, and often do, make good decisions,” said Sarah S. Brown, chief executive of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

So no, teenagers do not make up a significant portion of unmarried women who give birth. However, with the U.S. fertility rate stubbornly remaining below the optimal rate for population stability, it will increasingly be unmarried women who will determine what happens to the number of babies born across the country.

Considered a wise man and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin promoted the value of sleep when he famously wrote, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man health, wealthy, and wise.” Unfortunately, people simply aren’t getting enough sleep these days, as insomnia and a whole host of other sleep disorders continue to plague society.

The scary part? Things keep getting worse.

A recent article published in the New Yorker revealed startling information about how and why both children and adults are sleeping less and less. This phenomenon has been documented for over 100 years.

Over the last 50 years, sleep duration on work nights has continued to drop, falling from eight-and-a-half hours to slightly under seven, according to Charles Czeisler, chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. While 31% of people sleep less than six hours a night, 69% report insufficient sleep. Lisa Matricciani, a sleep researcher at the University of South Australia, reviewed sleep data from children from 1905 to 2008 and found that children have lost roughly a minute of sleep each year.

So what happens when people don’t get enough sleep? The consequences can be fatal.

According to Harvard neurologist and sleep medicine physician Josna Adusumilli, those who sleep six hours a night — the average amount of time Americans sleep — for twelve consecutive days cognitively and physically perform the same way as someone who has been awake for 24 hours straight.

The same effect can been seen by those who sleep four hours each night for six consecutive days. When person goes without sleep for 24 hours, their performance is nearly indistinguishable from someone with a blood alcohol content of 0.1%. Simply put, “normal” amounts of sleep deprivation can make you perform as if you were drunk — and not in a fun way.

Slightly more than 30% of Americans sleep six or less hours a night, meaning at least one-third of the population is unknowingly suffering from serious sleep deprivation. Without sleep, the human body literally begins to fall apart. Sleep deprivation has been linked to a whole slew of physical and mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, weight gain, memory loss, increased risk of cancer, and a buildup of proteins in the brain that is commonly associated with Alzheimer’s.

For example, those who suffer from untreated cases of sleep apnea — a sleep disorder that causes breathing to repeatedly stop — face a risk of stroke that is four times higher than those who receive treatment or aren’t afflicted.

Studies are now trying to discover whether there is a link between consumption of avocado and soybean oil and reduced arthritis pain. About 51.2 million Americans say that they have been diagnosed with arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, gout of fibromyalgia. If a study could find a way to reduce the pain these patients are experiencing, it could be a saving grace for many.

The hypothesis is that a supplement made from avocado and soybean oil could drastically reduce pain from arthritis with no side effects. However, these studies have had mixed results. Many short term studies found that a French avocado-soy-oil combination can reduce pain for three to six months. However, longer term studies show that it was no better.

Osteoarthritis, one form of many under the umbrella term arthritis, is characterized by the breakdown of cartilage. That cartilage is supposed to cushion the body’s joints so that they move slowly. But once that breakdown happens, the harsh movement of joints against each other causes pain. The medications that are currently prescribed to treat osteoarthritis can result in other health issues, including ulcers, heart attacks, and strokes.

Dr. Theodosakis, one of the studies’ authors who is also a clinical associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, says that eating avocados or soybeans does not have the same effect, as the supplements concentrate the beneficial parts, making them more powerful. The supplement has not been tested in a clinical trial.

Doctors say it isn’t harmful or a bad idea to try a supplement to see if it helps an individual, but there just is not enough evidence across a wide-range, long-term study to say that the supplements in this scenario will reduce pain. There are currently no other drugs that specifically target arthritis with no side effects, and many doctors say that their research will continue in order to hopefully find a new method.

In sharp contrast to past generations, few teens are now spending their summer vacations working paid jobs.

A study released June 23 by the Pew Research Center found that teen summer employment dropped to just 31.6% last summer. For younger teens, aged 16 and 17, summer employment was only 20% — less than half what it was as recently as 2000. Older teens, aged 18 and 19, fared better at 43.6%. But that’s still almost 20 percentage points below the 62.6% average of 2000.

It’s not surprising that teen employment figures have fallen during the most recent recessions, since overall employment has too. But what is surprising is that the teen job market failed to rebound after both the 1990-91 and 2007-09 recessions. Between 1948 (which is as far back as the data goes) and 1990, teen employment rose in healthy economies and fell as the economy contracted. But the most recent figures represent only a small gain compared to the lowest post-recession point of 29.6%, reached in 2010-11.

Employment isn’t equal across racial and social groups, either. White teens are far more likely to land summer jobs than their black, Hispanic or Asian peers; a rough estimate of last summer’s employment demographics indicate that about 84.2% of teen job holders were white.

Challenges for Job-Seeking Teens
Why is it that fewer teens are finding jobs? While the Pew Study didn’t attempt to give a definitive answer, it did float a few suggestions.

One is simply that fewer low-skill, entry-level jobs are now available to teens. Underemployment (referring to the phenomenon of workers taking jobs they are overqualified for) is rampant, with even many college graduates taking entry-level positions before moving on to more permanent careers. Recent figures show that by age 35, a full 25% of workers have had five or more jobs.

Longer school years, with high schools often starting up prior to Labor Day, may also make it difficult for teens to find jobs over summer vacation.

And finally, it appears that increasing numbers of teens are taking unpaid internships either to fulfill graduation requirements or round out their college graduations, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not account for such unpaid work in its employment data.

Thomas Kenny, a 25-year-old from Birmingham, England, not only cheated on his long-term partner — but also accidentally impregnated his mistress. He did everything he could to avoid taking responsibility and paying child support, going so far as to pressure his mistress into getting an abortion, which she decided not to do.

When the local Child Support Agency finally ordered him to take a DNA test to prove he had to pay up, Kenny hatched a scheme so absurd that it could have appeared on a late night sitcom.

He sent a lookalike to take his paternity test for him.

“You wished her to have an abortion which she declined and then in December 2012, when you knew you were the father of her forthcoming child, you decided to deny paternity. As a result of that she and the child were forced to undergo DNA testing. On 24 June 2013 you were required to provide a DNA sample to a doctor,” said Judge Philip Parker QC, according to the Birmingham Mail. “One way or another you sent someone in your place. The effect of what you did was to seek to avoid payments to the child that was genuinely yours. You are plainly the author of your own misfortunes.”

As most boneheaded schemers are, Kenny was eventually caught. The truth came out after Kenny’s girlfriend, who was the mother of his first two children, was also subjected to a DNA test.

Though zany the scheme may be, it is not totally unbelievable that someone who already supported two children with limited income would do whatever he thought possible to avoid paying child support. It is expensive, after all. In the United States, 18% of a father’s gross monthly income is allocated for child support collection if there is one child, generally speaking. The average amount of child support due in 2011 was $6,050 per year (or about $500 per month), which can be a serious amount of money, depending on one’s financial circumstances. This, however, does not excuse his actions, of course.

“He is obviously a young man who has made a big mistake,” his lawyer, Heidi Kubik, said. “He is a man who has been under enormous pressure and stress and has spent a number of months contemplating the prospect of going to custody.”

Kenny was sentenced to six months, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay £885 in compensation and £500 costs.

“I know you are said to be the loving father of two children by your long standing relationship but this case shows you were prepared to disown a child of your own for financial gain,” said Judge Parker. “Morally you can not sink lower than that.”

Depression is a bigger problem for the Latino community than many might think, and according to a new study, the Internet is making things worse for teens.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Latinos are a high-risk group for depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. NAMI reports that women and Latinos are more likely to experience a major depressive episode, while the Common Wealth Fund Survey also found that Latino girls exhibited more depressive symptoms than African American or white girls.

While there are many problems that can trigger depression, a new review published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that cyberbullying on social media is strongly linked to depression amongst teenagers. Michele Hamm, a researcher in pediatrics at the University of Alberta, and her team reviewed studies on cyberbullying and social media. Although each study looked at different health outcomes, and sometimes defined cyberbullying differently, there was one finding that stood out.

“There were consistent associations between exposure to cyberbullying and increased likelihood of depression,” Hamm told Live Science.

Of the 36 studies reviewed, 10 examined the link between social media victimization and depression. Each found a connection.

However, these studies didn’t prove that the bullying actually causes the depression, as it’s possible that depressed teens are just easier targets for bullies, but one study in particular found that cyberbullying preceded teens’ depression, suggesting a causal relationship. Most troubling of all, the researchers found that the more cyber bullies harassed a teen, the more severe his or her symptoms of depression.

Combating cyberbullying isn’t easy, either. More often than not, people don’t speak up. Over 80% of depressed individuals don’t seek out professional help. At the same time, 95% of teenage, social media users who’ve witnessed cruel behavior online say they’ve seen others ignoring the problem — more than half (55%) of whom say they see this frequently. Worse, 66% of teens who’ve witnessed cyber bullying say they’ve seen others join in, and 21% say they even contributed to the problem. In other words, both victims, and bystanders don’t take any form of action when the problem arises.

“Kids really are hesitant to tell anyone when cyberbullying occurs,” said Hamm. “There seems to be a common fear that if they tell their parents, for example, they’ll lose their Internet access.”

For this reason, it’s crucial that parents respond carefully if their teens are being cyberbullied.

“Parents need to address that this is happening and that the Internet and social media is here,” said Hamm. “It’s an important part of their kids’ lives. But it needs to be a whole team approach.”