DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Poliovirus found in Brooklyn and Queens sewage, New York health officials say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Kathy Hochul has extended the state of emergency declared in response to the spread of poliovirus after sewage tested positive in Brooklyn and Queens. The New York State Department of Health, in a statement Tuesday, said the sewage sample that tested positive in Brooklyn and Queens is genetically linked to the virus that paralyzed an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County over the summer. A total of 70 sewage samples have tested positive for poliovirus in the New York City metropolitan area so far, according to New York state health officials. More than 28,000 doses of polio vaccine have been administered since July in Rockland, Orange, Sullivan and Nassau countries, according to state health officials. State, national, and global health authorities believe the poliovirus found in New York originated from a country that still uses the oral polio vaccine.

☆ Vermont town employee quietly lowered fluoride in water for nearly 4 years
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-08 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

And, he said, he doesn’t think the state’s recommended level of fluoride is warranted right now. “For a single person to unilaterally make the decision that this public health benefit might not be warranted is inappropriate. “Fluoride, again, is one of the most successful and important public health measures that has ever been undertaken in this country,” Knowles said. The mineral was first added to public water in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1945. In sparsely populated and largely rural Vermont, 29 of the 465 public water systems voluntarily fluoridate, and just over half of residents served by a public system get fluoridated water, according to the Vermont Department of Health.

“After years of neglect, Jackson’s water system finally reached a breaking point this summer, leaving tens of thousands of people without any running water for weeks. Lumumba said Monday that his administration intends to cooperate with federal officials. In late 2019, the state Health Department notified the EPA about concerns with the city’s water system. An inspection by the EPA raised alarms about problems, including not having enough properly credentialed staff members at the city’s water treatment plants. Mark Chalos, an attorney who filed the most recent class-action lawsuit, said many Jacksonians remain suspicious of the city’s water quality.

A second decomposed body found this week in the home of former Rhode Island mayor Susan Menard, who was identified as the other body, has been identified as her boyfriend, authorities said Friday. Daniel Grabowski also died in Menard’s Woonsocket home, according to a statement from the Office of the State Medical Examiners at the Rhode Island Department of Health. Authorities identified Menard's body earlier this week as one of the two dead in the house. Menard died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, officials said Friday. Mayor Susan Menard of Woonsocket, R.I., at her desk at City Hall on Oct. 19, 2005.

☆ Montana accepting transgender birth certificate changes
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

(AP) — The state health department has restored the ability for transgender people to apply to correct the gender marker on their Montana birth certificate after a judge blocked enforcement of a law that would have required them to have surgery first. The gender designation forms are available on the department’s website. Montana is required to process the applications after District Judge Michel Moses issued a temporary injunction against enforcing a state law that would have required transgender residents to have undergone a surgical procedure before changing the sex on their birth certificate. However, the state did not begin accepting applications and instead passed a rule saying that nobody could change the sex on their birth record unless there was a clerical error. No applications requesting a gender designation change had been returned to the state Vital Records department as of mid-day Thursday, Ebelt said.

☆ Woman who took raccoon to North Dakota bar is charged
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: 1 min

MADDOCK, N.D. — A woman who brought a wild raccoon into a North Dakota bar, which prompted state health officials to issue a warning about potential rabies exposure, is facing criminal charges. Christensen was arrested last week after authorities found her and the raccoon by serving several search warrants in and around Maddock. Christensen said her family found the raccoon on the side of a road about three months ago and named it Rocky. She said they were nursing the animal back to health with plans to release it back into the wild. It’s illegal under North Dakota Board of Animal Health laws to keep a wild raccoon.

☆ Woman who brought raccoon to North Dakota bar is charged
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Decomposed body found in home confirmed to be that of a former Rhode Island mayor, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Marlene Lenthang Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

One of two bodies found in a severe state of decomposition in the home of former Rhode Island mayor Susan Menard earlier this week has been confirmed to be her, state health officials confirmed. Menard was Woonsocket’s longest serving mayor in office from 1995 to 2009, according to the city’s website. Mayor Susan Menard of Woonsocket, R.I., at her desk at City Hall on Oct. 19, 2005. News of Menard’s death comes shortly after the death of her brother Robert Miller, who worked as a toxicologist for the Rhode Island Department of Health for 30 years. Baldelli-Hunt said Menard was not only the longest serving mayor in the city's history, she was also only the second elected female mayor in the history of Rhode Island.

"I Will Teach You To Be Rich" author Ramit Sethi just released a new journal to use alongside his bestselling book. Understanding what I want for my 'rich life' motivated me to save moreBecause I spent my childhood moving around between different cities and countries, I used to think of buying a home as a major life goal. In the journal, Sethi writes, "One of my favorite invisible scripts is that you 'must' own a house. I combed through my budget and found an extra $100 in savingsIn the past, I've made the mistake of trying to make too big of a change in my budget to start saving. The journal helped me understand that it's definitely not too late to start saving for my "rich life" — and I don't have to wait to start living my "rich life" either.

☆ Montana defies order on transgender birth certificates
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

— Just hours after a Montana judge blocked health officials from enforcing a state rule that would prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificate, the Republican-run state on Thursday said it would defy the order. District Court Judge Michael Moses chided attorneys for the state during a hearing in Billings for circumventing his April order that temporarily blocked a 2021 Montana law that made it harder to change birth certificates. Moses said there was no question that state officials violated his earlier order by creating the new rule. ACLU attorney Malita Picasso expressed dismay with the agency’s stance and said officials should immediately start processing requests for birth certificate changes. State officials denied that the new rule preventing birth certificate changes was adopted in bad faith.

☆ Trans Floridians sue to block Medicaid rule excluding gender-affirming care
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-07 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Advocacy groups sued Wednesday to block a new Florida rule that bars Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming health care, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration adopted the rule last month after it issued a report that claimed gender-affirming procedures have the “potential for harmful long term affects.” The rule took effect Aug. 21. in the lawsuit, said the new Medicaid rule will prevent her and her husband, Joshua, from being able to access puberty-blocking medication prescribed by K.F.’s doctors. They are also represented by two health advocacy groups, the Florida Health Justice Project and the National Health Law Program. Accredited medical groups — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association — say gender-affirming medical care is safe and medically necessary.

One of two state agencies responsible for pushing out millions of dollars in federal infrastructure funds said it could be at least mid-to-late 2023 before any allocations roll out. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, a Democrat, has said the price tag to overhaul the city’s water infrastructure could balloon into the billions. This year, the Mississippi Legislature created a $450 million water infrastructure funding program with money the state received through the Congressional Covid relief package that passed in 2021. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is administering the Clean Water State Revolving Fund program. Sam Mozee, director of the Mississippi Urban Research Center at Jackson State University, says his team is tracking what happens with funding going forward.

☆ The hidden side effect of overturning Roe v. Wade
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-12 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Which means that, to a large extent, we won't know how the court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is actually the health and wellbeing of women and children. We could maybe look at all pregnancy-related emergency department visits, or look at changes in miscarriage and abortion numbers before and after. But even in the days of Roe, some states — including California — refused to provide abortion data to the CDC. Abortion data, like abortions themselves, have largely been subjected to a political debate over rights, at the expense of actual knowledge. They need numbers, they need facts, they need stories."

Search resuls for: "State Health"

13 mentions found