Ring of Fire’s top news from the past week.
Video Rewind
Duke Energy Coal Ash Spill Pollutes NC River
On Monday afternoon, Duke Energy reported that the company spilled between 50,000 to 82,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River in North Carolina. “Initial indications are that 22 million gallons of coal ash could already be in the Dan River headed toward the downstream communities of Eden and Danville,” the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) reports.
JPMorgan Agrees to $615M Settlement for Bad Mortgages
On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to settle claims that is defrauded the government when it underwrote sub-standard mortgage loans for $614 million. The lawsuit alleged that JPMorgan, for more than a decade, approved and insured loans that failed to pass eligibility requirements for insurance by the Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Testosterone Therapies May Be Causing Heart Attacks
A new study from the journal PLOS One found that prescription testosterone therapies may increase the risk of heart attack. Prescriptions for testosterone therapies have been rapidly increasing in recent years. This new study, in addition to one published in JAMA last year, has finally prompted the FDA to investigate the possible dangers associated with the product.
The GOP is Wrong: ACA Will not Kill 2.5 Million Jobs
When the Congressional Budget Office released a report indicating that the Affordable Care Act will supposedly cut 2.5 million jobs over the next decade, Republicans had a field day. But in their excitement, they failed to read closely the CBO report and the Right greatly misinterpreted the wording of the report.
The conservatives thought they had some substantial political firepower against President Obama and the ACA. But their celebration was short-lived as many outlets pointed out the mistake and said that the number of labor hours cut under the ACA is the equivalent of 2.5 million jobs. It’s an accumulation of hours, not 2.5 million people losing their jobs.
Study: Foodborne Bacteria Could Trigger Multiple Sclerosis
Researchers from the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York have found that a common strain of foodborne bacteria found on raw meat and poultry may be involved with the development of multiple sclerosis (MS). It was discovered that certain strains of the Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) bacteria produces a toxin that affects the same type of cells in the body that multiple sclerosis targets, announced the team at a recent American Society of Microbiology’s 2014 ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting.
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Joshua is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. You can follow him on Twitter @Joshual33.
