Health

A decision by India’s Supreme Court to reject Novartis AG’s bid to patent a version of one cancer drug could lead to more exports of cheap medicine from that country to “poor people across the developing world,” the BBC writes.

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Patent Ruling In India Could Boost Exports Of Cheap Medicine To Third World

More than two hundred people gathered for the annual Choose Respect Rally today on the capitol steps.

Juneau’s was just one of 143 such rallies happening across Alaska. Governor Parnell was in Palmer, and Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan led the capital city event.

It’s the Parnell’s administration goal to reduce sexual assault and domestic violence, support victims of abuse and to get as many people involved as possible in the choose Respect campaign.

“Three years later, how are we doing? Well, we certainly have not ended the epidemic of sexual assault and violence in the state of Alaska. But we knew this was going to be generational undertaking. So we’re making progress but it will take years. As for the second goal, giving voice and hope to those that have been abused. We think we’re getting pretty close. There is power and healing in doing this for our citizens.”

The Reverend Phil Campbell of Northern Lights United Church participated in the march.  The church works in in partnership with AWARE to reduce sexual violence.

“It is both to state the obvious and to name something too often unsaid– It is males that commit most the acts of sexual violence and abuse. As men we need to face this, to change what it means to be male, to disentangle it from some distorted notion of macho dominance and to declare our intention to part of the solution, rather than remaining part of the problem even if it is by our silence rather than active engagement.”

Congressmen Don Young also spoke to the crowd, highlighting the connection between alcohol and violence.

Juneau’s Choose Respect march ended at the future site of the downtown Walter Sobeloff Center, where the lack of respect for Native women in the Violence Against Women Act became the topic.

Congress recently reauthorized the federal law, called VAWA for short.  While it grants tribal courts jurisdiction over non-Natives in domestic violence crimes in Indian Country, in Alaska, that applies only to Metlakatla, the only Indian reservation in the state.  Many Native groups do not believe the act sufficiently protects Alaska Native women.

In an open letter to Governor Sean Parnell, a group of concerned citizens urge Parnell to work with Alaska’s congressional delegation to fix the law.

Jessie Reinhardt and Ishmael Hope were representing the group.

“We just wanted to make a direct, but still respectful and courteous statement, about just how Alaska Native women, Alaska Native Tribes should be included in the Violence Against Women Act.”

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski worked to insert language in the legislation to make sure Metlakatla would be treated like Lower 48 reservations.  Reinhardt says that doesn’t help other Alaska Native women.

“When VAWA was reauthorized, it excluded Alaska Native tribes from issuing Civil Protection Orders. And that’s really important in southeast as well as other villages throughout Alaska…Murkowski, unfortunately, went in and put language in the VAWA act that has the words “Indian Country.” So whenever you use those words you’re excluding Alaska tribes, except for Metlakatla. So most of Alaska tribes do not have Indian country.”

The letter says the new Violence Against Women Act “singles out Alaska Natives for discriminatory treatment” because of what the group calls the “Murkowski Fix.”

The group requests the state of Alaska work with Alaska tribes and the delegation for civil protections of Alaska Native women.

The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, or SEARHC, is closing down its residential drug and alcohol treatment program. The closure was announced Tuesday and comes after massive reductions in federal funding, also known as sequestration.

The Bill Brady Healing Center has existed in its current form since 1996. About 50 patients graduate from the 40-day program every year.

“I know that April 30 is our last day,” said Dave Johnson, who has been a residential manager at the Healing Center for about four-and-a-half years.

When Johnson clocked out at 2 o’clock Monday afternoon, he was told to return at 4 for a mandatory meeting. That’s when SEARHC officials broke the news that the center would close in about a month’s time.

“When it was first told to us, I was bitter, and I was angry,” he said. “Last night I couldn’t sleep. And today, I woke up and I feel a lot better. There’s two ways to look at it. You can look at it as a total negative, but there’s another way to look at it as, another door is going to open.”

Johnson is one of about 22 people who work at the Healing Center. In a statement released Wednesday, SEARHC says some of the employees will be reassigned. Others will be furloughed — a temporary, unpaid leave, basically — and others will be let go completely.

The closure will save SEARHC about $1.5 million every year. The money will chip away at a funding cut of more than $3.5 million, imposed by sequestration — the name given to cuts that automatically kicked in on March 1, when Congress failed to agree on a federal budget.

SEARHC CEO Charles Clement says the organization has dealt with short-term funding problems before. But he calls sequestration “the new normal.”

“For all intents and purposes, it looks like the sequestration is going to be a permanent reality,” Clement said.

He says that means the organization can’t tighten the belt for six months and ride out the storm. At Bill Brady, SEARHC is still figuring out who will lose their job outright, and who will be moved to other parts of SEARHC.

Clement says the dozen or so patients currently in the program will be seen through to completion in mid-April, and then staff will have two weeks to wrap up loose ends and close the doors.

This latest round of budget cuts comes after SEARHC spent a year digging out from a $4 million deficit. Clement says the organization just got back to breaking even when sequestration hit.

And with the new $3.5 million hit, conversations continue among upper management on how to continue digging out of the hole.

“They’re a combination between these sort of financial conversations and these subjective value conversations,” he said. “We’re sort of working it through the best we can, considering that for all intents and purposes, we’re being held over a barrel that we have to make these decisions on a very short time frame.”

Back to Dave Johnson, the residential manager at Bill Brady Healing Center.

“My heart is telling me to go back to Angoon,” Johnson said.

The 32-year-old grew up in the Admiralty Island community. For nearly five years, he says he’s been part of a team that helps complete strangers heal. And as he tries to heal from the sudden end to all of that, he says it’s a good reason to be close to his family.

“I wouldn’t say I’m at peace. You’re seeing the cover. There’s a lot … I’m really in shock, mainly,” he said. “This was the best job I’ve ever had. I can honestly say that.”

By now we know that not every food is what it seems.

Beef might be horse meat, and tuna might be much cheaper escolar. Extra virgin olive oil is often nothing of the kind.

But if you really want to get paranoid, peek into the USP Food Fraud Database. It’s a searchable trove of humankind’s ceaseless efforts to swindle, hoodwink and defraud with food, worldwide.

That’s where I learned that hucksters sometimes use Sudan red dye to amp up paprika, which in its natural state is often a demure reddish brown. Sudan red is a potent carcinogen, banned for use in food worldwide. Eek!

Spices, milk and vegetable oils are the most common fraudulent foodstuffs, according to Markus Lipp, senior director of food standards for US Pharmacopeia. “If I go to India, I may find there is completely fake milk on the market,” Lipp told The Salt. “Milk that never saw a cow.”

The nonprofit organization makes its living by establishing industry standards for pharmaceuticals and foods. The food fraud database first launched in 2010, but a big upgrade in January added reports from scholarly journals and the media in 2011 and 2012. The list now includes about 2,000 foods. The goal is to be useful to regulators and purchasers, but since the database is free, we civilians can snoop around in it, too.

Price is clearly a driver of deception. Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice, and efforts to fake it date back to the ancient Greeks. The USP database lists 109 phony saffron substitutes, including marigold flowers, corn silk, gypsum, chalk and strands of cotton or plastic thread.

To a lay person, the cost savings involved in some of these food scams seem hardly worth the effort. Or maybe it’s just that the margins in the food industry can be so razor-thin that even a tiny profit margin is enough to encourage fakery.

Take clouding agents, for example. They’re used to give juices, jams and sports drinks an appealing cloudy appearance. Palm oil, which is cheap and food safe, is frequently used. But the database details problems with palm oil being replaced by phthalates in Taiwan. Those are chemicals used in plastic manufacturing — they’re not meant for human consumption — and there’s concern that they could interfere with human hormones.

That kind of substitution may not be a concern in the United States. But we do have to deal with “maple” syrup that has no relationship to a tree, and watered-down lemon juice. Juices including apple and pomegranate are particularly vulnerable to fraud, Lipp says, and can be faked entirely with water, sugar and citric acid.

Food fraud sleuths can report incidents to the database.

“Everyone in the supply chain needs to work together and share information and maintain vigilance,” Lipp says. “We cannot relinquish the safety of our food to adulterers.”

See Original Story

Food Fraud Database Lets Us All Play Detective

A move to reduce funding for a new sex trafficking investigation unit has one high-profile critic: Alaska First Lady Sandy Parnell.

Parnell appeared in front of the Senate finance committee on Saturday to ask them to reconsider the State Trooper budget. It was her first time testifying before legislators.

Legislators stripped the $827,200 allocation from the governor’s budget because the troopers did not investigate any trafficking crimes last year. The first lady found that reasoning wanting.

“The reason given for cutting the funding, however, is exactly why the funding is needed: Because sex trafficking is a hidden crime that must be unearthed by investigators,” said Parnell. “Its victims do not self-report.”

Parnell added that right now, state troopers have limited experience in recognizing the signs of sex trafficking. She said sex trafficking cases are especially difficult to recognize, and that victims may not even realize what’s happening to them.

“The girls’ identification and cell phones are taken. They are physically threatened and abused,” said Parnell. “And sadly, the girls have bonded with their captors.”

Reducing sex trafficking has been a key issue for both the governor and first lady as part of the “Choose Respect” initiative.

The Senate finance committee is currently reviewing the operating budget and is slated to consider changes to it this week. Money for the sex trafficking unit was included in the House version, and any differences between the two documents will have to be reconciled.

The recent reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act had many applauding its new protections for LGBT victims and illegal immigrants.

All three members of Alaska’s Congressional delegation supported the bill.

One of the reauthorization’s new, more controversial provisions – granting tribal courts jurisdiction over non natives for domestic violence crimes committed in Indian Country – has reopened a long-simmering debate about tribal power in Alaska.

Myron Naneng is the president of the Association of Village Council Presidents. He says tribes in the Lower 48 are celebrating the new authority they’ve won.

But not in Alaska because, Naneng says, the state does not recognize tribal powers:

“It’s the state’s position that anyone who moves through the villages who’s not a tribal member should not be handled by a local tribal court. But we move into urban areas ourselves, and we’re subject to state courts.”

The federal government still recognizes Alaska tribes, even though most relinquished aboriginal rights and territory, known as Indian Country, when Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Residents in Metlakata opted out of ANCSA. Metlakatla is the only reservation in the state, and the only federally recognized Indian County in Alaska.

Senator Lisa Murkowski inserted an amendment in the Violence Against Women Act that, she says, was clearly designed to ensure Metlakatla’s increased court jurisdiction:

“It was very clear that it was designed to be implemented in Indian Country. In Alaska, the only Indian Country, the only reservation, is Metlakatla. So I wanted to make sure that Metlakatla was going to be treated similarly to all other reservations, to all other land in Indian Country.”

But there’s been push back from Naneng and others who say more should have been done to make sure the new provision applied to all Alaska tribes.

Senator Murkowski says the Violence Against Women Act was not the place to hash out territorial disputes. And to the tribes who were looking to gain increased rights, she says that conversation can be had at a later time.

“I think there are some who saw this as an opportunity to gain an inch, and then build on it from there.”

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the state’s lack of Indian County in 1998. Senator Murksowski says Congress would need to amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to create Indian Country.

John Havelock was the Alaska Attorney General when the Native Claims Settlement Act passed. He says the Act was described as an alternative to what at the time was considered failing reservation system and was not designed to take away tribal authority.

“There was not any side discussion of tribal authority. In fact I think a lot of people assumed that the village corporation system would replace any tribal jurisdiction. But when you think about it and look at it, you say, well wait a minute.”

Mike Geraghty is the current Attorney General for Alaska.

“The state’s position is that we’re in favor of the law as it currently exists and the jurisdiction the tribal courts already have.”

Geraghty says state courts have jurisdiction over the entire state.

“These people, whether they’re members or not members of a tribe, are also citizens of the State of Alaska. They have Constitutional rights under the state constitution.”

In Indian Country, tribal courts have sole jurisdiction within the designated boundaries and state courts have none.

“I’m not in favor of disrupting that balance, and creating, you know 229 checkerboard, 229 tribal court jurisdictions. Where the physical boundaries would be, who knows.”

Because there are not defined borders like the reservation system has. Geraghty says the state cooperates with tribal courts on issues under the Indian Child Welfare Act and child support cases. It also recognizes and enforces protective orders from certain tribal courts.

Senator Murkowski says the state needs to be pushed on the issue of tribal jurisdiction … that the state has for too long feared relinquishing any authority to the tribes.

She says she’s introducing a plan that would “cross deputize” village public safety officers. It would allow them to hand out punishments throughout a village.

“Fines, or forfeiture, or fines, or community service, or even banishment, and it gives them that authority. This is something we’ve tried to get the state to come around on. I think we’ve made huge progress.”

The plan is being reviewed by both tribal leaders and state officials.

And in Murkowski’s eyes, it gives the state a chance to see there is nothing to fear in granting tribes more authority.