Chevron Fire And Gas Prices: Richmond Refinery Blaze May Impact Cost At The Pump

A major fire at one of the country’s biggest oil refineries that sent scores of people to hospitals with breathing problems will push gas prices above $4 a gallon on the West Coast, analysts said Tuesday.

The fire, which sent plumes of black smoke over the San Francisco Bay area, erupted Monday evening in the massive Chevron refinery about 10 miles northeast of San Francisco.

It was out early Tuesday, although officials were still conducting a controlled burn.

The West Coast is particularly vulnerable to spikes in gasoline prices because it’s not well-connected to the refineries along the Gulf Coast, where most of the country’s refining capacity is located, analysts say.

Chevron’s refinery is particularly big and important to the market, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.

It produces about 150,000 barrels of gasoline a day – 16 percent of the West Coast’s daily gasoline consumption of 963,000 barrels, according to Kloza.

With inventories of gasoline in the region already low compared with the rest of the country, pump prices in California and elsewhere on the West Coast will soon average more than $4 per gallon, Kloza said.

“It’s a very key refinery,” he said.

Chevron spokesman Lloyd Avram said he did not have an update on when the refinery could be restarted and declined to comment on what kind of impact the shutdown might have on the gasoline market.

Price Futures Group oil analyst Phil Flynn said pictures of the fire suggested it would not be back on line soon.

Flynn predicted motorists would see higher prices at the pump almost immediately. …

via Chevron Fire And Gas Prices: Richmond Refinery Blaze May Impact Cost At The Pump (PHOTOS, VIDEO).

Mordor. A controlled burn of our money.

Dozens of people complaining about breathing problems headed to local emergency rooms.

At the press conference, refinery general manager Nigel Hearne offered an apology to residents and said the priority is extinguishing the blaze.

The Chevron Richmond Refinery is one the largest in the United States – processing up to 240,000 barrels of crude oil a day, according to the company’s website.

In 2006, there was an explosion at this plant that sent hundreds of people to the hospital. There were also incidents in 1999 and 2007.

via Inautonews

 

 

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Facebook’s first real-cash gambling app launched

A real-money gambling app has been launched on Facebook – the social network’s first.

Developed by London-based online gambling operator Gamesys, the Bingo Friendzy app allows users aged 18 and over to play games for cash prizes.

Facebook said only its UK members would be able to view the app.

The website’s largest gaming partner, Zynga, said it also planned to introduce real-money gambling versions of its games next year.

A Facebook spokeswoman stressed Bingo Friendzy was not a joint venture, saying the game had been developed entirely by Gamesys.

“Real money gaming is a popular and well-regulated activity in the UK, and we are allowing a partner to offer their games to adult users on the Facebook platform in a safe and controlled manner,” she told the BBC.

Facebook intends to use age-gating technology to ensure under-18s and “vulnerable people” are unable to access the app.

The social network typically takes a 30% cut of transactions on its network, but would not confirm if that was the case with this title, saying it was “commercially sensitive information”. …

via BBC News – Facebook’s first real-cash gambling app launched.

Fake IDs part of ‘fantasy life,’ Florida man tells police

 

A man arrested with a stash of fake military, law enforcement and medical paraphernalia — including badges and uniforms — has told investigators he “lives in a fantasy world,” a police official said Tuesday. But authorities still aren’t convinced the man, Roy Antigua, 52, is telling the truth. They intend to dig deeper to make sure nothing more sinister was at hand, New Port Richey Police Chief James Steffens said.

“Best case scenario: fantasy gone wild. Worst case scenario, you can draw your own conclusion,” Steffens said.

“I’d be very surprised and relieved if I was proven wrong, but there’s just too much here,” he said.

Police arrested Antigua in the coastal Florida city of New Port Richey August 1 for a traffic offense and parole violation. An officer noticed that the identification card Antigua provided seemed strange and had plastic where it shouldn’t have been. This launched the investigation that led to the stash, Steffens said.

The materials found in Antigua’s two homes and Cadillac Escalade included diplomatic license plates and dozens of fake identification cards from the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Defense, CIA and NASA.

The suspect also had access badges to hospitals around Florida, doctor and nurse scrubs, a respiratory technician badge, police blue lights and access stickers to Coast Guard bases around Florida, Steffens said. It was unclear if the badges and access stickers would have allowed Antigua entry into any restricted areas. During questioning, Antigua admitted that he had fabricated most of the credentials and items that police seized, Steffens said. The only legitimate identification was a badge identifying Antigua as a member of the Coast Guard auxiliary, a volunteer group. Antigua has denied any criminal wrongdoing, Steffens said.

“His explanation is that he was remorseful and this is his personal collection that he lives in a fantasy world and he wishes that he were these people,” Steffens said.

“I’m not accepting that it’s a fantasy at this point,” Steffens said. “I think there’s something here. We just have to figure out what it was and deal with it.” …

Since a news conference Monday about Antigua’s arrest, authorities have received more than 100 tips, Steffens said. Many came them from residents who said they had encounters with Antigua passing himself off as a law enforcement officer or member of the military. Steffens said he does not yet know if the tips are legitimate, but he said he had one such encounter himself. Steffens said he met Antigua during a memorial service in May. The man was wearing the blue uniform of a lieutenant commander of the U.S. Coast Guard, Steffens said.

“I never even raised an eyebrow,” Steffens said of the encounter.

Authorities have confirmed Antigua is not in the Coast Guard. He last worked for a health care company, Steffens said.

While Steffens said investigators from his department plan to pursue the case further, one law enforcement agency has bowed out. The U.S. Secret Service said it is not concerned about one of the man’s patches, which contains references to the agency and Air Force One. The patch isn’t a real Secret Service item, and Antigua doesn’t appear to be a threat to President Barack Obama, said John Joyce, special agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Tampa.

“Nothing that we saw by either interviewing him or by what he had in his possession, we felt had anything to do with our protective mission,” Joyce said.

via Fake IDs part of ‘fantasy life,’ Florida man tells police – CNN.com.

CNN READER Mercedes Collapse COMMENT:

About 10 years ago there was a one-paragraph article in the Indianapolis newspaper.  A young man from the Middle East had been killed in a car wreck.  Police were confused, since there were four well-worn passports from four different countries in his glove compartment, all with his picture, but all with different names.  This happened in Plainfield, on the far west side of Indy, near the largest mosque in the US.That was it.  End of story.  Huh, that’s weird.  I guess he collected passports.  He was probably just living a fantasy life.

Florida, of course. Halloween is awesome.

Website warned over MMR claims

A website offering parents advice on vaccines has been ordered to remove information about the MMR jab after claiming it could be linked to autism. Babyjabs.co.uk said the three-in-one jab may be causing “up to 10%” of autism in children in the UK. But the Advertising Standards Authority ruled the claim was misleading and must not appear again, after getting a complaint.

The website was also told not to repeat other claims it made about MMR. These included the suggestion that “most experts now agree the large rise in autism has been caused partly by increased diagnosis, but also by a real increase in the number of children with autism”.

Another claim said the vaccine-strain measles virus had been found in the gut and brain of some autistic children, which supports many parents’ belief that the MMR vaccine caused autism in their children. Defending the claims, Babyjabs referred to a study from 2002 which concluded it could not be ruled out that there were some children who had an increased risk of autism if they were vaccinated.

The website, which promotes single vaccines, also cited The Truth About Vaccines, a book written by Babyjab medical director Dr Richard Halvorsen, which made similar claims.

In the judgement, the ASA noted that the website made clear that the original allegations of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism by Andrew Wakefield was “strongly rejected” by government and the medical establishment. But it said consumers were likely to infer from the website’s claims that the vaccine might have played a role in the “increase” of the number of children with autism.

via BBC News – Website warned over MMR claims.

We must be allowed to kill your children without you doing any complaining or alarming of others. I’m sure you understand. This is a $33.8 billion/yr business. And yes, of course, we were the ones who complained. Sincerely, Big Pfizer

The Natural News had this to say in 2011:

Japan halts vaccines from Pfizer, Sanofi after deaths of four children

The deaths just keep mounting all across the world: Children are collapsing into comas and then dying, just minutes after receiving combination vaccines that have been deceptively marketed as “completely safe.” Last year, Australia temporarily banned flu vaccines in children after they were found to have caused vomiting, fevers and seizures (
http://www.naturalnews.com/029586_Australia_vaccines.html
).

Today the damage from vaccines is emerging in Japan, where the health ministry has suspended the use of vaccines from Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis following the deaths of four children there who died within minutes after receiving these vaccine shots.

All four children received combination vaccines, where multiple shots are combined into one high-potency injection. MMR is another example of a combination vaccine shot that combines vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella. There is very strong evidence that vaccines are far more dangerous when given in combination than when given one at a time (
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=608256A446123276E4E72A5351322186
). (
http://www.naturalnews.com/030678_MMR_vaccine_brain_damage.html
)

The great vaccine damage cover-up

What will now happen in Japan is that a group of vaccine safety experts will meet to discuss the vaccines, and no doubt most of the members of that group will be paid off by Big Pharma. Within a day or two, a statement will be issued that states there is “no causal relationship exists between vaccines and child deaths” and the vaccine program will continue as usual. The ongoing deaths of children will be ignored or explained away as “mere coincidence.”

How many coincidences does it take to make a pattern? If you’re one of the brainwashed vaccine zealots, there is never a pattern. ALL deaths are automatically considered “coincidence,” no matter how many occur or how frequently they appear. A true scientist, of course, would observe the pattern and realize there is a cause-and-effect phenomenon taking place. But then again, vaccine zealots are nothing like real scientists. They are propagandists.

Learn more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/031616_vaccines_Japan.html#ixzz22vjJlpeI

My wild and irresponsible theory is that they are far more advanced than anyone suspects and the vaccines contain genetic weapons. If your child has the super genes to become a powerful healthy future leader who will threaten the system, the vaccine will kill them instantly.

 

Scientists ‘close to breast cancer cure’ after British researchers find a way to stop tumours growing

British scientists are close to a ‘potential cure’ for most breast cancer cases. They have developed a way to stop tumours growing and spreading, which could save millions of lives every year.

Researchers say the new technique could be used to produce a drug to tackle the disease in as little as two years. Breast cancer kills 12,000 British women every year, more than a quarter of those diagnosed with it.

Scientists have previously focused on how to prevent tumours from forming, but the new research has found key molecules called microRNAs which the cancer manipulates to spread around the body.

Breast cancer cells ‘switch off’ these molecules, allowing the cancer to spread unchecked to other parts of the body.

This spread is responsible for 90 per cent of deaths from breast cancer and the team which made the breakthrough is working on a drug to stop this fatal process. One of the scientists, Dr Justin Stebbing, senior lecturer and consultant medical oncologist at Imperial College, London, said: ‘This is a potential cure for breast cancer. There are no drugs as yet but they should be available in a couple of years.

‘This is a step on the way to it. It helps us understand the way breast cancer cells grow and divide. If we understand this, we understand how to stop it.’

The researchers from Imperial College and James Watson Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories in New York found the role of the female hormone oestrogen in the spread of cancer was key.

Of the 45,500 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year, around two thirds are oestrogen positive. This means the cancer cells rely on it to grow.

The tiny microRNA molecules control oestrogen activity but in breast cancer cells they are switched off, allowing oestrogen to fuel the cancer spread. Thus stopping this ‘switching off ‘ process permanently could halt the cancer altogether, the scientists claim. Dr Stebbing said that is the reason women on so-called wonder drugs such as Tamoxifen, which blocks oestrogen, see impressive results at first – but around half of them relapse.

‘The way to cure breast cancer or any cancer is by fundamental understanding of what turns cells on and off, stopping the way tumours grow’, he said. ‘We can use these microRNAs as a new treatment and make them do what current drugs don’t do. This only applies in oestrogen positive breast cancer but this could save millions of lives.’

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers.

via Scientists ‘close to breast cancer cure’ after British researchers find a way to stop tumours growing | Mail Online.

This story above was from August 2009. Here we are “a couple of years” later in August 2012 … so where’s the cure? Did they intend to say ‘a couple of lightyears’, perhaps?

What are the current safest most effective treatments for breast cancer?

Here are some things you should know and do:

1. Lower stress and depression.  Stress fuels breast cancer metastasis to bone. Natural beta blockers are: Passion flower (consult a doctor), Chamomile (green) tea, L-arginine amino acid (consult a doctor), pomegranate juice. Meditate daily. Get enough sleep.Exercise early in the day, not at night. Keep a regular schedule.
2. Get your breasts out in the sun. With vitamin D from the sun, “breast tissues produce their own cancer-fighting compound (calcitriol) that destroys breast cancer tumors”.
3. View cancer not as a disease caused by mutation, but as a survival mechanism in response to an attack. The body’s cancer defense is related to inflammation and is a last attempt to survive after the rest of the immune system fails. The body creates cancer cells, keeps them alive and helps them spread for a reason. They keep deadly substances away from the lymph, blood, heart, brain and other vital organs. If the defense works, the cancer vanishes naturally. Now that you know this, it is clear that you must remove whatever is causing your body’s cancer defense reaction. In this polluted world, that can be a challenge, but you CAN do it. Not everything causes cancer. Give up alcohol and smoking for a start.

The best real cures for breast cancer could be to completely stop drinking alcohol. Even a little. Stop Hormone Replacement Therapy, too.

Critically ill uninsured Americans still at risk of being turned away from hospitals despite law

Kathy Fackelmann – Despite a twenty-five year old law that bans “patient dumping” the practice continues to put uninsured Americans at risk, according to a national team of researchers led by a professor at the George Washington School of Public Health and Health Services. Patient dumping is the practice of turning away or transferring uninsured patients with emergency medical conditions.

The study, which appears in the August issue of Health Affairs, suggests that hospitals still practice “patient dumping” which is in violation of the law. The researchers investigate and present five case studies of patients who had been denied care or transferred in an unstable condition to Denver Health, a large, urban safety-net hospital. The researchers conclude not only that such “patient dumping” occurs under the current interpretation and enforcement of the law but that Denver Health is hardly alone.

“Federal and state investigators must do a better job of identifying violators of the law and enforcing the ban on patient dumping,” says Sara Rosenbaum, lead author of the study and the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services in Washington, D.C. “If we do not start aggressively enforcing the law, millions of uninsured Americans will continue to get no care at all or incomplete care,” she said.

In Denver, and in communities around the nation, the cost of treating millions of Americans without insurance has been rising. This in-depth study of the law and individual cases suggests not-for-profit and for-profit hospitals engage in this practice—which adds to the burden shouldered by the hospital of last resort—often public hospitals that already care for many patients without the means or insurance to pay for their own care.

The researchers looked at the legal interpretation and enforcement of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a 1986 law that requires hospitals to provide appropriate medical screening and stabilizing care to uninsured patients with emergency conditions. In addition, the researchers analyzed case studies that actually occurred at Denver Health and illustrate the type of violations that commonly occur.

Rosenbaum and colleagues looked at existing lawsuits and a 2003 rule issued under the George W. Bush administration to clarify the law’s implementation. They concluded that court rulings, regulations and other factors have allowed hospitals to skirt the intent of the law. For example, the 2003 regulations say that patients have to arrive at a “dedicated emergency department” and that EMALTA does not apply when a critically ill patient shows up in another department.

In addition, the researchers say that even outright violators of the law are rarely identified or penalized. The end result: Public hospitals like Denver Health often get patients who are uninsured and diverted or transferred in a medical emergency. The researchers highlight five real-life examples of such potential violations, including a 64-year old who was transferred 350 miles to Denver Health even though the local hospitals had the capacity to treat the woman’s life-threatening condition.

In order to stop this practice, the federal government must develop a more effective system for reporting non-compliance with the law, the authors say. They also argue that federal and state regulators must establish clearer standards to make it easier for hospitals to avoid violations. And they say a simplified reporting system, one that shifts responsibility from patients and hospitals to enforcement agencies, would go a long way to help curb the practice of “patient dumping.”

via Critically ill uninsured Americans still at risk of being turned away from hospitals despite law.

Strawberries Could Help Protect Against Damage From Ultraviolet Radiation, Cell Study Suggests

Besides being chock full of essential nutrients like vitamins A, C and B, new lab research suggests strawberries might also, in the future, play a part in protecting against dangerous UV rays.

Spanish and Italian researchers found that putting strawberry extract on skin cells helped to protect the cells from UVA damage.

The researchers speculated that the protective powers may lie in strawberries’ anthocyanins (previously linked with adecreased diabetes risk), which are what make strawberries red.

“These compounds have important anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-tumour properties and are capable of modulating enzymatic processes,” study researcher Sara Tulipani of the University of Barcelona, said in a statement. However, “we have not yet found a direct relationship between their presence and photoprotective properties.”

“At the moment the results act as the basis for future studies evaluating the ‘bioavailability’ and ‘bioactivity’ of anthocyanins in the dermis and epidermis layers of the human skin, whether by adding them to formulations for external use or by ingesting the fruit itself,” Tulipani added.

In the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry study, researchers added strawberry extract in different doses — 0.05 milligrams per milliliter, 0.25 milligrams per milliliter and 0.5 milligrams per milliliter — to skin cell cultures. They also had a control extract added to the skin cell cultures.

Then, the researchers exposed those skin cell cultures to ultraviolet light that is equivalent to 90 minutes of mid-day sun in the summertime.

The study authors found that adding the strawberry extract, especially at the highest dose, to the skin cell cultures seemed to help decrease DNA damage and help to preserve the cells’ survival, compared with the controls.

It’s important to note that the findings are only in skin cell cultures, and not in actual humans — more research will be needed to tell if strawberries will actually be viable as a skin protectant (and in what form).

… Read more

Best device that sucks… Spider, snake and other venom out of bites

During my camping trip, while sleeping, I got a painful bite on my Achilles tendon. That was several days ago. Today it is a red dot with a white circle, surrounded by a slowly growing red rash. My doctor thinks it was a spider. Could have been a tic. To remove the venom I’m trying the Sawyer Extractor.
It is definitely pulling out fluids. Hopefully the venom as well. Great tool for your camping and first aid supplies. It was only about $18 at REI. The pain and itch are gone after a few minutes use. I wish I would have had it on my trip to use sooner.