NASA is weighing the risk of adding astronauts to the first flight of its new megarocket, designed to eventually send crews to Mars.

The space agency’s human exploration chief said Friday that his boss and the Trump administration asked for the feasibility study. The objective is to see what it would take to speed up a manned mission; under the current plan, astronauts wouldn’t climb aboard until 2021— at best.

The Space Launch System, known as SLS, will be the most powerful rocket when it flies.

Adding crew would delay mission

NASA is shooting for an unmanned test flight late next year. Putting people on board would delay the mission and require extra money. The space agency’s William Gerstenmaier said if adding astronauts postpones the first flight beyond 2019, it would probably be better to stick with the original plan.

Under that plan, Gerstenmaier said, nearly three years are needed between an unmanned flight test and a crewed mission to make launch platform changes at Kennedy Space Center.

“We recognize this will be an increased risk” to put astronauts on the initial flight, Gerstenmaier said.

Astronauts are taking part in the study, which will weigh the extra risk against the benefits.

Risk to astronauts an important consideration

On Thursday, an independent safety panel cautioned that NASA needs a compelling reason to put astronauts on the initial flight, given the risk. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel was formed in the wake of the Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts in a countdown test 50 years ago last month.

The capsule that will carry the astronauts — NASA’s new Orion — already has flown on a space demo. Containing memorabilia and toys but no people, the capsule was launched into an extremely long orbit of Earth in 2014 by a Delta IV rocket, and splashed down into the Pacific.

NASA normally prefers testing rockets without people, although for the inaugural space shuttle flight in 1981, two pilots were on board. A small crew of two also is planned for the 2021 SLS mission, which could fly to the vicinity of the moon.

‘Pros and cons’

An inaugural flight with astronauts would grab more attention. But Gerstenmaier said the public aspect won’t be taken into consideration.

 “There are pros and cons both ways, and it’s hard to judge that [public] aspect,” he told reporters. “But I look at it more kind of matter-of-factly. What do I gain technically by putting crew on?”

NASA expects to issue its report in about a month.
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From: MeNeedIt

Republicans in the U.S. Congress are working to overhaul the nation’s health care laws in their effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, considered by some to be one of former President Barack Obama’s most significant legislative achievements.

U.S. media outlets reported details Friday of potential replacements for the health care law, frequently referred to as Obamacare. The details were obtained from draft legislation circulating among lobbyists and congressional staff.

One proposal would cap the amount of money the federal government gives to states for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, which was expanded under Obama. The Washington Post reported that another idea gaining traction would allow those who gained access to Medicaid when the program was expanded to keep their benefits, while additional enrollees would be excluded.  

End to subsidies

The Republicans’ draft would end income-based tax subsidies to help individuals purchase health insurance. It also calls for tax credits of up to $4,000 for people 60 years or older, but would allow insurers to increase the rates they charge older people.

The Associated Press reported that Republican governors from seven states want Medicaid to change from an open-ended federal entitlement to a program designed by each state, within a financial limit. Ohio Governor John Kasich leads the group, which is said to be concerned that a new law could shift high health care costs from Washington to the states.

Public opinion surveys indicate a broad majority of Americans oppose repealing the health care law unless lawmakers can come up with an acceptable substitute plan.

President Donald Trump, along with many Republicans in Congress, campaigned on a pledge to repeal Obamacare, but the party’s lawmakers have since faced complaints that simply abandoning Obamacare would leave millions of Americans without any protection against high-cost medical emergencies. Republicans say they expect to decide on a replacement for the present law in the coming weeks.

Vice President Mike Pence, painting the legislative situation in dramatic terms, said Friday that “America’s Obamacare nightmare is about to end.”

Pledge, but no details

“President Trump and I want every American to have access to quality and affordable health insurance,” Pence said, “which is why we’re designing a better law that lowers the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government.” He did not, however, give details of the “better law.”

Congressional committees are still working on the new bills under consideration, and the proposals will still face a period of debate in the full Congress.

Democratic lawmakers argue the existing law has helped slow the rise in Americans’ health care spending and brought coverage to the poor. They also note the current plan guarantees insurance for people with long-standing health problems, to whom insurers often had denied coverage in the past.

Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, when they had majority control of both houses of Congress. Republicans have opposed the law since its passage, and they tried more than 50 times unsuccessfully to repeal it during the Obama administration. Trump’s party argues that prices are too high for Affordable Care Act insurance coverage, and that individual states should have more control than the federal government over the issue.

The health care law has enabled 20 million previously uninsured Americans to obtain coverage, but it has been plagued by difficulties, including rising premiums and some large private insurers’ decisions to leave the system.
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From: MeNeedIt

The Librarian of Congress wants to upgrade its technology to make the eclectic mix of materials from books and photos to sheet music and baseball cards – available to people around the world. Carla Hayden became the new director of the world’s largest library five months ago, becoming the first woman and the first African-American to hold the job. VOA’s Deborah Block tells us more about the professional librarian and her plans to improve the prestigious national library in Washington, D.C.
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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. companies led by tech firms Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft have criticized the Trump administration’s decision to revoke Obama administration guidance that allowed transgender public school students to use the bathroom of their choice.

Their statements evoked the opposition expressed by many businesses last year when North Carolina passed a law forcing transgenders to use public restrooms matching their gender assigned at birth.

The resulting boycotts have cost North Carolina more than $560 million in economic activity, according to the online magazine Facing South.

Role for business

Companies lacked the same opportunity to protest with their dollars in this instance, since the Trump administration action pertains to schools, but still signaled they stood with the Obama policy of using the federal government to expand transgender civil rights.

“It’s ultimately going to come down to the business community to stop it because it’s so bad for business,” said Christopher Gergen, chief executive of Forward Impact, an entrepreneurial organization in Raleigh, North Carolina.

In unveiling the new direction Wednesday, Trump administration officials argued that transgender policies should be an issue for the states to decide.

“The action taken by the administration is troubling and goes against all that we believe in,” Yahoo said in a statement.

Social conservatives have hailed the decision by the Justice and Education departments to defer transgender bathroom policies to the states, calling it a victory for privacy and traditional values.

But companies have tried to persuade state and local governments to side with transgender people.

“We support efforts toward greater acceptance, not less, and we strongly believe that transgender students should be treated as equals,” Apple said in a statement.

Microsoft President Brad Smith looked to history as a guide, referencing the date that the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, when President Abraham Lincoln declared freedom for slaves.

“Since Jan. 1, 1863, the federal government has played a vital role in protecting the rights of all Americans. Let’s not stop now,” Smith said on Twitter.

Rights rollback ‘is wrong’

Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey joined other tech firms criticizing the Trump administration’s position.

“Rolling back rights for transgender students is wrong,” Dorsey said in a tweet Thursday. “Twitter and Square stand with the LGBTQ community, always.”

In response to the North Carolina law, companies such as Deutsche Bank and PayPal canceled expansion plans, costing the state jobs.

By invoking states’ rights, the Trump administration is potentially emboldening legislatures in other states that are considering laws similar to North Carolina’s HB2.
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From: MeNeedIt

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has predicted that Zimbabwe will be the country hardest hit by the invasion of armyworms in southern Africa. Farmers are already taking serious losses.

The Gokwe and Zhombe areas in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province are among the most affected by an invasion of the fall armyworms. Armyworms are a type of moth capable of destroying entire crops in a matter of weeks.  It is the first time the insect has hit southern Africa, and seven countries confirmed an outbreak of the fall armyworm, which FAO says is more destructive and more difficult to control than the African armyworm.

The fall armyworm thrives during the rainy season, particularly after periods of prolonged drought – which is the case in southern Africa. The Zimbabwean government said earlier this month that it deployed teams to spray pesticides.

But farmer Violet Mloyi is close to tears as she talks about how she watched armyworms devour her maize crop. Most of it was gone in three days.

She says she feels very much pained looking at her field. She says she invested a lot of money in the crop and was looking forward to a great harvest since it is raining this year. But now she see herself as someone facing hunger again.

Mloyi says she has no idea what brought this worm to her field.  When asking around about the menace, she says some advised her to use pesticides, others said to just spray soil over the plants. She says she did that, and it actually got worse.

Country already facing shortages

FAO says up to 130,000 hectares of crops could be destroyed in Zimbabwe. The armyworm is targeting mainly corn and maize – the country’s staple crop. That is a serious concern as Zimbabwe is already struggling with food shortages. It was one of the African countries hardest hit by an El-Nino-induced drought during the 2015/2016 growing season.

Diversification has helped some small farmers.

Armyworms destroyed Catherine Komazana’s maize crop but for not all is lost. She is part of a program funded by Britain’s Department for International Development that teaches farmers, especially women, to raise livestock.

“Apart from maize, we sell goats. Poultry, we sell…. We got rabbits. We use them for our meals. I have rapoko [finger millet], sorghum, sesame….”

Rita Gasura, a Ministry of Agriculture official in Zhombe, says farmers need to be vigilant.

“We are advising farmers to use chemicals to spray the armyworm and to scout their fields every day so that they use the chemicals early before the crops are destroyed by the armyworm. I can say almost 40 percent of crops [were] affected by the armyworm,” Gasura said.

That figure might increase as farmers in the area say they have no money to buy chemicals as many are still trying to recover lost earnings from two years of drought.

Making matters worse, continuing rains allow the armyworm to thrive.
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From: MeNeedIt

The U.S. was declared measles-free 15 years ago, thanks to the development of a reliable vaccine against that virus, but many American doctors now are worried that could change, because so many parents are opposed to having their children inoculated against disease. VOA’s Carol Pearson has more.
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From: MeNeedIt

Leprosy, despite its horrible reputation, is a very curable disease. But there are still more than 200,000 cases reported every year, most of them in India, Indonesia, Brazil, and parts of Africa. To fully understand the disease, doctors and archaeologists are examining the skeletons of people who had the disease hundreds of years ago. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

President Donald Trump on Thursday spoke favorably about a potentially export-boosting border adjustment tax being pushed by Republicans in the U.S. Congress, but did not specifically endorse it.

Trump, who has lashed out at U.S. companies who have moved operations to countries like Mexico, has previously sent mixed signals on the proposal at the heart of a Republican plan to overhaul the tax code for the first time in more than 30 years.

“It could lead to a lot more jobs in the United States,” Trump told Reuters in an interview, using his most positive language to date on the proposal.

Trump sent conflicting signals about his position on the border adjustment tax in separate media interviews in January, saying in one interview that it was “too complicated” and in another that it was still on the table.

“I certainly support a form of tax on the border,” he told Reuters on Thursday. “What is going to happen is companies are going to come back here, they’re going to build their factories and they’re going to create a lot of jobs and there’s no tax.”

The Mexican peso weakened slightly against the U.S. dollar immediately after Trump’s comments and was last trading at 19.68 per dollar. Earlier on Thursday, the Mexican currency hit its strongest level since Trump’s Nov. 8 election victory.

Trump also said his administration will tackle tax reform legislation after dealing with Obamacare, the health insurance system that has raised the ire of Republicans since it was put in place by his predecessor, President Barack Obama, in 2010.

Earlier on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steven told CNBC the Trump administration aimed to formulate a tax plan with support from the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Senate and pass it before August.

Business Divided

Trump spoke to Reuters after meeting with more than 20 chief executives of major U.S. companies to discuss ways to return manufacturing jobs to the United States, which was one of the linchpins of his presidential campaign.

A border adjustment has emerged as the most controversial segment of the House Republican tax reform blueprint.

The provision, which would exempt U.S. export revenues from federal taxes but impose an implicit 20 percent tax on imports, is vital to the House plan because it would raise more than $1 trillion in revenues to help pay for a corporate tax cut.

But it has divided American business.

Critics say it could fuel higher inflation, with retailers, oil refiners and automakers among those warning of higher prices for consumer goods if the measure passes.

But the proposal is music to the ears of many exporters, including U.S.-based multinational corporations, who have urged Congress to make it a part of comprehensive tax reform.

Advocates of the border adjustment tax say it would cause the already strong U.S. dollar to rise, neutralizing upward pressure on import prices.

Lawmakers and corporate lobbyists say the measure could die in Congress, potentially jeopardizing the prospects for tax reform, without Trump’s explicit endorsement.
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From: MeNeedIt

A small study in 16 people with severe anorexia has found that implanting stimulation electrodes into the brains of patients could ease their anxiety and help them gain weight.

Researchers found that in extreme cases of the eating disorder, the technique, known as deep brain stimulation (DBS), swiftly helped many of those studied reduce symptoms of either anxiety or depression, and improved their quality of life.

A few months later, the improved psychological symptoms began to lead to changes in weight, the researchers said, with the average body mass index (BMI) of the group increasing to 17.3, “a rise of 3.5 points” over the course of the study.

Anorexia is a serious eating disorder that affects about 0.5 percent of people worldwide, the majority of them teenage girls. Patients have persistent concerns about their weight, shape and size, and starve themselves to maintain a low weight.

Chronic anorexia can be fatal, and in many cases causes severe health problems including weak bones and muscles, sexual problems, infertility, heart problems and seizures.

The scientists who led this study, published Friday in The Lancet Psychiatry, said their results suggested deep brain stimulation — which involves implanting electrodes to stimulate brain areas that control dysfunctional behaviors — might alter the brain circuits that drive anorexia.

Success against tremors

DBS is already used to target brain circuits involved in Parkinson’s disease and tremors and has been shown to be very effective in reducing symptoms.

In this trial, 16 women aged between 21 and 57 who had had anorexia for an average of 18 years and were severely underweight — with an average body mass index of 13.8 — were selected. They were chosen because all other treatments had not worked and their lives were at risk from the disorder. A healthy range for BMI is 18.5 to 24.9.

Comparing brain scans from before and after the treatment, the researchers found there were changes in regions linked to anorexia, suggesting the DBS was able to directly affect the related brain circuits. This included less activity in the putamen, thalamus and cerebellum among other areas, the scientists said, and more activity in the peripheral cortical areas, which are also linked to social perception and behavior.

Andres Lozano, a professor at Canada’s University of Toronto who led the study, said that while the results showed some early promise, more research would be needed.

“Anorexia remains the psychiatric disorder with the highest mortality rate, and there is an urgent need to develop safe, effective, evidence-driven treatments that are informed by a growing understanding of brain circuitry,” he said.
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From: MeNeedIt

SpaceX made good on a 250-mile-high delivery at the International Space Station on Thursday, after fixing a navigation problem that held up the shipment a day.

Everything went smoothly the second time around as the station astronauts captured the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship as the two craft sailed over Australia. On Wednesday, a GPS system error prevented the capsule from coming too close.

The Dragon — loaded with 5,500 pounds of supplies — rocketed away Sunday from NASA’s historic moon pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Now leased by SpaceX, the pad had been idle since the close of the shuttle program almost six years ago.

The station’s six-person crew will accept another shipment Friday, this one from the Russians.

Given the Dragon’s delayed arrival — liftoff also occurred a day late — the astronauts were under orders to open the capsule as soon as possible to retrieve sensitive science experiments.

“Sorry about the delays,” Mission Control radioed. “Now the real work starts.”

“Congratulations Dragon on a successful journey from Earth and now welcome on board,” said French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who used the station’s big robot arm to grab the capsule.

At the top of the crew’s unloading list: 40 mice that are part of a wound-healing experiment. Before the flight, researchers made small wounds in the animals’ femurs then applied a new type of bandaging. Scientists want to see how quickly the wounds heal in weightlessness.

Other newly arrived research: highly infectious MRSA bacteria, triple-contained so it doesn’t get loose up there; stem cells; and instruments for studying lightning and the Earth’s ozone layer.

Besides France’s Pesquet, the space station is home to two Americans and three Russians.
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From: MeNeedIt

Activists are urging Unilever, a major investor in Myanmar, to speak out against the country’s treatment of its Rohingya minority, which the U.N. has said may be called “crimes against humanity.”

More than 10,000 people have joined the Facebook group for the campaign, known by the #WeAreAllRohingyaNow, and hundreds have signed on. A letter sent this week to Unilever CEO Paul Polman asked the company to clarify its stance on the Rohingya.

“Silence in the face of genocide, whilst doing business, is simply not an option,” said Britain-based campaign organizer Jamila Hanan. “Multinational corporations must start to speak out. They must be obliged to use their power and influence to help bring about a more just society in the regions in which they operate.”

Unilever did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Citizenship rights

Rights groups accuse the Myanmar army of burning homes, mass killings and rape in their sweeping counterinsurgency campaign in Rakhine state, where most of the estimated 1 million Rohingya live.

The Muslim Rohingya have long faced systematic discrimination in Myanmar, a majority-Buddhist country. Most do not have citizenship and are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even when they’ve lived in Myanmar for generations. The #WeAreAllRohingyaNow group is seeking a restoration of citizenship rights denied to the Rohingya by a military government in 1982.

Hanan says the group chose to target Unilever because it has been responsive to activists in the past. 

Advocate for social responsibility

Unilever, with some $55 billion in revenue last year, is one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies. Billions across the world buy Unilever-made Dove soap, Lipton tea, and Hellmann’s mayonnaise.

The company’s first factory in Myanmar opened in 2013. It now manufactures food and shampoo near Yangon.

Polman is a major advocate for corporate social responsibility and has won dozens of awards in eight years at Unilever’s helm. He recently signed an open letter to the U.N. citing concerns about Myanmar’s military offensives in Rakhine State, but not on behalf of Unilever, which has kept silent on the country’s politics.
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From: MeNeedIt

Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis planned to open this year’s State of the City speech by thanking Caterpillar Inc. for its longtime commitment to the central Illinois town, declaring “We wouldn’t be Peoria without Caterpillar.”

It’s been that way for decades in Peoria and in other company towns across the United States. A major employer provided generations of locals with jobs and gave the cities a central identity, while executives helped keep cultural institutions, Rotary clubs and higher-end housing markets healthy.

Now many of those midsize communities are looking for a new identity as more companies trade their longtime hometowns for major cities with easier access to global markets and to the lifestyle talented young workers want, with public transit, nightlife and trendy restaurants.

Caterpillar’s recent decision to move 300 top headquarters jobs to the Chicago area made Peoria the latest city with a vacuum to fill. In 2014, Decatur, Illinois, lost Archer Daniels Midland to Chicago after 40 years in the town. ConAgra Foods moved 1,000 jobs last year from Omaha to Chicago.

Jobs follow the people

Some companies also are leaving suburban areas for downtowns, though the suburbs are still a popular choice. General Electric is moving its executives from a suburban campus in Fairfield, Connecticut, to downtown Boston, and McDonald’s said last year it will relocate downtown Chicago from a sprawling headquarters in suburban Oak Brook.

A study by the virtual think tank CityObservatory.org found the number of jobs located within three miles of the city center grew by nearly 2 percent between 2011 and 2014, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Center city jobs grew slightly faster than those in the periphery in one recent seven-year period, a reversal from much of the past several decades.

“I don’t know that I’d call it a trend yet but it certainly is becoming one,” said Tom Murphy, a former Pittsburgh mayor and senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute. “Maybe for the first time in history, rather than having people follow where jobs are … we’re beginning to see jobs following people instead.”

By a 2-to-1 margin, young college graduates are now choosing a place to live first, then finding a job, said Joe Cortright, director of CityObservatory.org.

For companies recruiting top talent, “the biggest competitive advantage is to be in the city,” Cortright said.

Urban-rural divide grows

The change is adding to the divide between urban and smaller communities in the U.S., especially in the Midwest, which is beset with sagging manufacturing industries.

“We joke about that there’s the great state of Chicago, and then there’s the rest of Illinois,” said Bishop Harold Dawson Jr., a lifelong Peoria resident and pastor of New Life Christian Church.

Like many locals, Dawson can rattle off a list of relatives whose livelihoods in Peoria have depended on Caterpillar. The company, known as CAT for short, established its first plant in Peoria in 1909 and employs more than 12,000 workers in the area, even after several layoffs.

The city of about 110,000 has been trying to breathe more life into its downtown and a scenic stretch along the Illinois River. But while new restaurants, coffee shops and apartments are opening, Ardis acknowledged few people would call the area dynamic. And parts of the city’s core are seeing growing poverty.

The headquarters move has been a blow to the city’s collective morale.

“There is emotion around” the decision, said Jeff Griffin, president of the Peoria Area Chamber. “Peoria is not unique in that tragedy across the country.”

Shift to small businesses

Griffin said he and his counterpart in Omaha talked recently about the importance of diversifying the local economy, relying on small business rather than large corporations.

“Part of the big challenge is leadership needs to recognize the rules have changed,” Murphy said. “They need to think about how they build their cities and the amenities they offer, and be really clear about what their competitive advantages are today, not what they were 100 years ago.”

A city should perhaps think about spending on public transit rather than highways, he said.

Improving the atmosphere of downtown seems to be helping some midsize cities recoup from the loss of major businesses, urban experts say.

Finding a new identity

In Greenville, South Carolina, where the decline of the textile industry left a huge gap in the economy, leadership arranged to remove a four-lane bridge that obstructed the view of a scenic waterfall, and added trees and cafes and sidewalks. A downtown that was once “dead” is now “beautiful and hugely successful,” Murphy said. In addition to drawing tourists, the city has a booming advanced manufacturing industry, anchored by companies such as BMW.

But other places, such as Decatur, are struggling to find a new identity. The city has the second-highest unemployment rate in Illinois, and Moody’s Analytics warns the lack of jobs could push the city back into recession.

Across the Midwest and Northeast in particular, a number of midsize cities are facing “big challenges,” Cortright said.

“What do we do with the Peorias?” he added. “I don’t’ think we know what the answer to that is.”

Peoria has a growing health care industry and is home to other companies such as Maui Jim sunglasses and Bump Box, a monthly delivery of skincare and other products for pregnant women.

Ardis said the city just has to find more.

“We’re not just going to roll over and play dead,” he said.
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From: MeNeedIt