Source: Energy Security In The United States, Congressional Budget Office

Different regions source their electricity differently. In percentage of 2009 electricity production by region, the West relied most heavily on wind power versus any of the seven other regions, while the North Central and Great Lakes regions leaned most on coal. Nuclear power to generate electricity was most prevalent in the Northeast, and natural gas in Florida.

Source: Energy Security In The United States, Congressional Budget Office

Whereas U.S. consumers have some protection against sharp electricity price spikes because of diverse sources, the same is not true in the transportation sector, says the CBO report.

Source: Energy Security In The United States, Congressional Budget Office

The report says that among policy options elected leaders can examine more closely to limit consumer vulnerability to transportation energy price spikes, one is to increase transit in major metro regions and raise the gas tax. CBO warns that rail transit carries especially high infrastructure costs versus expanded bus service, and that in any event, broader transit adoption in metro regions depends heavily on door-to-door travel times and service reliability. CBO also suggests policymakers consider how to develop greater incentives for telecommuting and urban density although both have been slow to truly take hold in many U.S. metro regions.

The report also mentions further subsidies for research and development of alternative fuels to power passenger vehicles but says that whole endeavor involves “significant uncertainties” around economic feasibility and implementation. Reaching into the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve is also an option, but that would likely be counteracted by a tightening of oil supply to the U.S. from major producer nations, says CBO.

What is LFTB?
LFTB is a beef product produced by Beef Products International, Inc. (BPI) since 1991, created through a process that takes ground beef trimmings left over from beef processing plants, then heats them and sends them through a centrifuge to separate the meat from the fat. This extracted meat substance is then treated with a puff of ammonium hydroxide in a USDA-approved process designed to kill dangerous microbes, specifically E. coli 0157:H7 and salmonella. The resulting product is flash frozen into blocks later used as an inexpensive 95% lean beef additive that can be substituted for up to 15% of any ground beef product in the U.S. without being labeled.

Ammonium chloride approved by FDA in 70s, widely used in consumer food products
According to the CRS report, the use of ammonium hydroxide as an antimicrobial agent has been accepted practice since the FDA designated it as a “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) substance in the 1970s. It is used in the production of numerous foods: baked goods, dairy products, chocolates, pudding, breakfast cereals, eggs, fish, sports drinks, beer and meat.

The CRS report emphasized industry’s safe response to increased market demand for lean ground beef.

The meat industry saw media sensationalism as a campaign of misinformation to undermine a product used for more than ten years to supplement lean beef supplies used in ground beef. Ground beef is the most popularly consumed beef item among American consumers, and consumers have increasingly demanded lean ground beef. USDA approved the process that Beef Products, Inc. (BPI), the primary producer of LFTB, uses to produce LFTB, and USDA continues to affirm that LFTB is a safe, nutritious beef product.

The recent controversy
While LFTB has received some press coverage in the past, the recent controversy began with a story by ABC News on March 7, 2012, reporting that “70% of the ground beef (bought) at the supermarket contains… ‘pink slime.’” The story featured a former USDA scientist, Gerald Zirnstein, referred to by ABC News as a “whistleblower,” who along with a fellow retired USDA scientist, Carl Custer, “warned against using what the industry calls ‘lean finely textured beef,’ widely known now as ‘pink slime,’ but their government bosses overruled them.” “It’s economic fraud,” Zirnstein told ABC News. “It’s not fresh ground beef. … It’s a cheap substitute being added in.” Zirnstein originally coined the term “pink slime” in 2002 in an internal USDA memo.

This ABC story followed another published just two days before on the online news site, The Daily, that said the USDA was continuing the “purchase of so-called pink slime for school lunches,” a move that made “no sense, according to two former microbiologists (Zirnstein and Custer) at the Food Safety Inspection Service.” The Daily reported that the USDA had “plans to buy 7 million pounds of Lean Beef Trimmings from BPI in the coming months for the national school lunch program.”

In mid-March the USDA announced that it would allow school districts to choose whether or not to purchase ground beef with LFTB, following a social media uproar. Schools will decide on their ground beef purchases for next year this spring. The prices they pay for ground beef either with or without LFTB will depend on market prices at the time of the purchase.

LFTB Production Declines
BPI has announced that it will be closing three of its four plants by the end of this month, cutting its daily production of LFTB by more than half. About 650 jobs will be lost in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kansas; and Waterloo, Iowa. Manufacturers of products similar to LFTB, like Cargill, which produces finely textured beef, have also announced they’ll be scaling back its production.

Retailers Discontinue Carrying LFTB
Since the controversy began in March a number of major retail grocery chains have decided to no longer sell ground beef that contains LFTB. This group includes Safeway, SuperValu, Food Lion, BI-LO/Winn Dixie, Hy-Vee and Giant. Walmart and Sam’s Club have also announced they will offer customers a choice of beef without the additive. None of these chains have expressed food safety concerns over the product, however.

Rising Beef Prices
Due to an unusually small number of domestic cattle, beef prices were already at record high levels when the controversy began. Analysts expect the discontinued use of LFTB by so many retailers and school districts, and the subsequent need to replace the additive with 90% lean beef trimmings, will likely drive prices up even further.

WSU experts beg to differ with anti-’Pink Slime’ campaign
Experts from Washington State University have said they think the hubbub over the use of LFTB is unfounded. “The product is perfectly safe,” said Dr. Karen Killinger, assistant professor in the school of food science and consumer food safety specialist. “I think it boils down to a consumer perception, or media portrayal issue.” She was not alone in her opinion. Michael Costello is a food safety technician at WSU. He said the CRS report seemed to be accurate in its assessment of the consequences of the media’s portrayal of LFTB.

“I expect it in the food industry though,” Costello said. These sorts of controversies occasionally occur, he said. In the end, though, said Costello, it just winds up costing the consumer more money and hurting the industry. “The name, ‘pink slime,’ it just caught on. It became a good buzz word,” he said. “Lean, finely textured beef. Pink slime. Which would you rather eat?”

Labeling will not include term ‘pink slime’
Regaining consumer demand is now the primary goal for the flailing industry. BPI has announced its interest in labeling, simply to put the minds of customers at ease. The CRS report quoted BPI as saying, “We believe USDA’s decision to allow companies to voluntarily include information on their label regarding LFTB content will be an important first step in restoring consumer confidence in their ground beef… we feel this development will allow more customers to provide options to consumers and pave the way for BPI’s lean beef to reestablish its place in the market.”

The sentiment was mirrored by the director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Caroline Smith Dewaal. “We don’t have a concern about its safety, but it certainly has captured a lot of attention…..the level of consumer concern shows that more information is needed, and so labeling would be appropriate,” Smith Dewaal said in an article distributed by the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association.

The USDA has announced that several companies have requested ground beef that includes LFTB be labeled. The USDA has approved the labels, on a voluntary basis. There has also been legislation introduced to Congress to require the labeling of products that contain LFTB. For now though, consumers looking for labels on their meat should not expect to see the term ‘pink slime’ on packaging the next time they go shopping, though. The USDA has said that the labels voluntarily applied to the ground beef that retailers like Walmart intend to sell will read: “Contains Lean Finely Textured Beef,” “Contains Finely Textured Beef” or “Contains Lean Beef Derived from Beef Trimmings.”

Unintended consequences for food safety?
Little disagreement has arisen that consumers should have clear information on what they’re buying, but the effect of the controversy on the beef industry, specifically on producers of LFTB and similar products, is clear. Total production has declined by about 70 percent. The irony in all of this, Costello says, is that the recent wave of alarm about LFTB could actually lead to ground beef being less safe, not more. “Historically, the LFTB additive is not going to be the source of a food-borne illness,” said Costello. “The other beef that it’s being added to is far more likely to wind up making people sick.”

A stipulated order of dismissal in a related civil case orders all funds in two of his accounts to be returned to his mother Christiane Raffard, now 82. According to a restitution agreement cited by Raffard and county officials, Downer had removed at least another $85,000 from the joint account for the care of Raffard. It has mostly now been returned to her under the civil settlement; but he still owes her $13,750, according to the agreement. His sentence requires the restitution be fully repaid within five years of his release. He had spent about $16,000 altogether from her nest egg funds before his accounts were frozen following the engagement by Raffard of an attorney for her civil action. Snohomish County prosecuted Downer on behalf of the state in the criminal case. He had no previous criminal record.

The affidavit of probable cause prepared by county prosecutors for charging him with felony theft says that according to Everett Police Department reports Downer without his mother’s permission made expenditures to benefit himself only from a retirement account he helped her open at Bank of America. Among unallowed personal expenditures he made from the account established to care for his mother were purchases at Poulsbo RV, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Everett West Marine, Port of Everett Marina, Lowe’s, Target, Half Price Books, and Scuttlebutt Brewing Co. in Everett. Raffard told police her son owns a boat, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit also states that according to police, Downer persuaded his mother to move to Everett from California so he could take care of her, and after setting up the joint account in April 2010, told an employee at her Everett apartment complex he had moved funds out of her account “only because she had too much money to qualify for a caretaker.” After making the $85,000 transfer from the joint account to his own in mid-May 2010, he one week later secured power of attorney, subsequently revoked, to oversee all banking and financial transaction’s for his mother’s “use and benefit.”

Reached by Public Data Ferret, Raffard, who speaks with a pronounced French accent, said she remained appalled at what had transpired. “He stole money from me. I will never forgive him. I’ll never forget what he did. I never raised him like that. From a son, you should not have this. I have nothing to do with him and when I die, my money goes to somebody else.”

Downer is also facing administrative charges of unprofessional conduct from the Washington State Department of Health for misappropriating funds from a patient under his care (Raffard). He got his nursing assistant license from the state in late September of 2006 and it expired in August 2011.

The new legislative language, about which the council would like to hear from constituents during the public hearing portion of the meeting, makes several changes to existing rules for keeping backyard chickens. Key are proposed new regulations in Table 2 which ease current restrictions requiring a 20,000 square foot minimum residential lot size for the first outdoor chicken and another 5,000 square feet for each extra one. The new language would permit up to eight chickens on a single-family lot of up to 10,000 square feet, and one more chicken for each additional 2,500 square feet, with up to 15 chickens on a single-family lot of 25,000 square feet or more.

But there are some new rules for these homes on the range. No roosters are permitted. Structures housing chickens must be at least 10 feet from the owner’s home or any neighboring home, and cannot be more than 120 square feet and eight feet tall.

The draft ordinance would also amend regulations on residential beekeeping. Existing city code allows no more than four hives per 10,000 square foot residential property, with one additional hive for each additional 2,500 square feet of property, and up to 10 hives total. The new language allows up to two hives on lots smaller than 10,000 square feet, four on lots between 10,001 and 12,500 square feet, and one more for each additional 2,500 square feet of property, also up to 10 hives total. As previously, just one swarm per hive is allowed. The ordinance also includes new language on feeding wildlife, human conduct toward wildlife, traps, poison and animal housing.

The proposed new rules stem from city Planning Commission recommendations, and a broader look at regulation of urban wildlife by a city Wildlife Task Force which developed a Wildlife Management Plan. The City Council is expected to vote on the code revisions at a meeting following the public hearing.

Public Data Ferret’s Construction and Land Use archive

Mapped events and resources, dynamic prevention messaging
Part of the job is to create a database to display the SGC calendar events on a Google Maps-like interface, along with static links to research and prevention sites. A second and more dynamic database would also likely be developed, project managers say, to distribute prevention messages through the mobile app.

According to the vendor Q&A, “one of the goals of this project is to see if an app targeted to men who have sex with men (MSM) in Seattle can increase research recruitment or referral to partner sites providing HIV/STD prevention and care.”

Light on social features, at first
Vendors asked if the app’s first iteration would include added social media features like messaging, or content sharing directly to users’ RSS or Twitter feeds, or Facebook accounts. The answer was no, not to begin with, but if the app is successful and more funding is secured, then such features could be added.

New approaches welcomed to HIV prevention
Aware of the gains made against HIV and AIDS through anti-retroviral drug therapy but still concerned about continuing risk-prone behavior among some MSM in Seattle and King County, public health and communications experts here have continued to try new approaches to HIV prevention.

Ongoing effort to address high-risk behavior
One experiment used gift card vouchers to try to reduce meth use and high risk sex among Seattle area MSM, but a related study by UW Harborview researchers found it wasn’t successful. A report last fall by the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System found the Seattle region ranked high in behaviors which increase the risk of getting HIV.

The deadline for responding to the mobile app RFP is May 10, by email only to Marianne Dizard at mdizard (at) uw (dot) edu. The work on the contract will run to May 2013. The contractor will work with UW Medicine’s Strategic Marketing and Communications and IT Services Web Development teams.

Public Data Ferret is a news knowledge base program of the Seattle-based 501c3 public charity, Public Eye Northwest. Ferret In The News; Donate.

Washington not a “breeder state” like Utah, California, Hawaii, Texas
According to the “Households and Families 2010″ U.S. Census report which was issued in April 2012, Washington was far closer to the middle of the pack in average size of household and family. There were 2.51 people per Washington household versus 2.58 nationally, and 3.06 people per Washington family versus 3.14 nationally. The states with the biggest average households and families were Utah (3.1 and 3.56 respectively); California (2.9 and 3.45); Hawaii (2.89 and 3.42) and Texas (2.75 and 3.31). Of the 52 state and related jurisdictions covered in the report, those with the smallest average household and family sizes were the District of Columbia (2.11 and 3.01); North Carolina (2.3 and 2.91); Maine (2.32 and 2.83); Vermont (2.34 and 2.85); and Montana (2.35 and 2.91).

Husband-wife households are less than half of the total
Overall there were 116.7 million households counted nationally in the 2010 census, up 10.7 percent from the last census in 2000. Almost 301 million people lived in those households; another eight million Americans lived in group facilities such as nursing homes, military barracks, or dorms. Two-thirds of households were classified as family households, with two or more related individuals, but just 48.4 percent were husband-wife households, a small gain of 3.7 percent from 2000.

One big U.S. household trend: not married – and no children – thanks very much
The only type of household to decrease over the 10 years was husband-wife with children, which dropped five percent. In percentage terms, the biggest increases from 2000 to 2010 were in unmarried couple households (up 41.4); followed by male-headed households with no spouse or children (up 35.6); female-headed households with no spouse or children (up 29); and male-headed households with no spouse but with children (up 27.3).

Solo In Seattle
Seattle earns a special mention in the report for ranking eighth out of 282 U.S. cities of 100,000 population or more in percentage of one-person households. More than 117,000 of Seattle’s 283,510 households, or 41.3 percent, were inhabited by just one person.

Disparities among U.S. households of spouseless women, and spouseless moms
In the 2010 Census, households headed by a female with no spouse accounted for 13.1 percent of the whole; while 7.2 percent of all U.S. households were headed by spouseless females who also had children. Notably, that last figure is three times more than the percent of households headed by spouseless males with kids.

The percentages of households led respectively by spouseless women, and spouseless women with kids, were lower than the national average for whites (9.9, 5.2) and Asians (9.5, 4.1) but higher for blacks (30.1, 17.4), Latinos (19.2, 12.1), Native Americans (21.4, 12.3), and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (17, 9.8) and for various mixed-race groupings.

Same-sex households up 80 percent in 2010, but were just .6 percent of all
Same-sex households grew a whopping 80.4 percent from 2000 to 2010, to 646,464 nationally. However this represented just six-tenths of a percent of all 2010 U.S. households. As noted in a Census Bureau technical/statistical paper (see p. 27), this count included same-sex households where the partners categorized themselves as spouses; and households with unmarried same-sex partners. States or related jurisdictions with the highest percentage of total same-sex partner households were District of Columbia (1.8), followed by Delaware, Massachusetts, California and Vermont (each .8 percent). In Washington, .7 percent of households included same-sex partners.

The 2010 Census did not include categories for sexual orientation of individuals, so there is no U.S. LGBT population count resulting from it. As the Washington Blade reported last fall though, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force more than 140,000 2010 U.S. Census respondents attached stickers to their forms and more than 30,000 individuals singed petitions urging the inclusion of individual LGBT counts in future Census takings and in similar efforts (such as the ongoing, American Community Survey).

Public Data Ferret’s Demographics archive

Public Data Ferret is a news knowledge base program of the Seattle-based 501c3 public charity, Public Eye Northwest. Ferret In The News; Donate.

The work is part of the broader Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors 2010 Study which updates similar work last completed in 1996, and aims to give researchers and decision makers better data to guide policy. The life expectancy data for all U.S. counties are given additional context by a series of three visualizations from IHME. An especially useful one allows comparisons of life expectancies in individual U.S. counties with other nations.

Average life expectancy for women in King County in 2009 (the most recent year for which data were provided) was 83.2 years, which tied for 46th nationally out of 3,147 and ranks within the top two percent. Average life expectancy for men in King County was 79.2 years in 2009, or tied for 43rd nationally, also within the top two percent.

Public Data Ferret’s University of Washington+Public Health+Open Science archive

But because life expectancies and other public health indicators can vary widely with a county, IHME is digging in deeper to health disparities on its home turf through the Monitoring Disparities in Chronic Conditions Study in partnership with Public Health – Seattle & King County. According to a news release which accompanied the new national life expectancy data, the King County study is examining socioeconomic and health risk factors in connection with frequency of visits to hospitals and outpatient clinics and with how well prescribed remedies are implemented.

“What makes the difference is getting the right medication at the right dose. We screen people for diseases but don’t always follow through to manage the diseases,” said Mokdad. IHME also says that U.S. health disparities including differences in life expectancy are most often driven by “preventable causes of death” such as tobacco use, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and alcohol.

King County was not the only one in Washington state to rank near the top nationally in life expectancy. Island County was 14th nationally out of 3,147 counties or county equivalents in 2009 average female life expectancy, at 84.1 years; and Jefferson County was 33rd of 3,147 at 83.4 years. Island County also ranked 5th nationally in 2009 average life expectancy for men at 80.9 years. Three other Washington counties also ranked within the top five percent nationally in 2009 life expectancy for men; Benton, Chelan and Jefferson.

In Washington state as a whole, average life expectancy for men in 2009 was 77.8 years versus 76.2 years in the U.S.. For women it was 81.9 years, against 81.3 nationally. Overall, the IHME data shows many more U.S. counties with longer average life expectancies than in recent decades, but researchers sound a cautionary note that for women life expectancy has plateaued or decreased from 1989 to 2009 in 661 counties nationwide, and for men, in 166 counties. The problem is particularly prevalent in states such as Oklahoma, Tennessee and Georgia.

Among U.S. counties in 2009, average life expectancies were longest for women in Collier (FL) – 85.8; Marin (CA) – 85.1; Montgomery (MD) – 85; San Mateo (CA) – 84.9; Santa Clara (CA) and Stearns (MN) – both 84.6. For men, top counties were Marin (CA) – 81.6; Montgomery (MD) – 81.4; Fairfax (VA) – 81.3; Douglas (CO) – 81; and Island (WA) 80.9.
Public Data Ferret is a news knowledge base program of the Seattle-based 501c3 public charity, Public Eye Northwest. Ferret In The News; Donate.

The 94 participants who died ranged in age from 41 to 101, and 94 percent were white. Almost three-quarters had at least some college education. Seventy-eight percent had cancer, 12 percent had neuro-degenerative disease including Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and 10 percent had either heart or respiratory disease or another illness.

Of the 94 participants who died, 70 did so after taking their lethal medication dosage, most within 90 minutes. Nineteen died without taking their prescribed dosage. For five of the 94 who died, it was unclear whether or not they had ingested the prescribed medicine. Of the remaining nine participants, there was no documentation they had died.

The 103 participants and 94 deaths in 2011 compared to 87 and 84, respectively, in 2010; and 65 and 63 in 2009, the year the state law went into effect on March 5.

For the third year running, the split between male and female participants was nearly even, and only slightly more than one-tenth of participants either lacked health insurance or had unknown insurance status.

The state’s Death With Dignity Act allows Washington residents who’ve been determined to have six months or less to live, to choose physician-assisted suicide. The report only covers assisted suicides, or requests for it, which occurred in compliance with the law’s notification and documentation requirements involving patients, doctors, pharmacists and coroners.

RELATED: “One Story Behind Washington 2011 Death With Dignity Act Statistics,” Colin Fogarty, KPLU-FM, NPR.

Public Data Ferret is a news knowledge base program of the Seattle-based 501c3 public charity, Public Eye Northwest. Ferret In The News; Donate.