PREP AND PERSONAL: As a junior tennis player his highest career ITF ranking was 477 in July 2022 … pre-college UTR rating was 13.01 0at4Ohio State Indiana Men’s Tennis Falls to Ohio State4/18/2025 8:30:00 PM | Men's Tennis GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The unemployment rate in Michigan has increased from 4% in February 2024 to 5.4% since February of this year there is a silver lining for Michiganders experiencing unemployment unemployment benefits have increased for Michigan residents "The maximum weekly benefit amount increases from the current $362 a week to $446 a week," said Nick Assendelft communications manager for the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) Wednesday. That figure will go up to $530 on Jan it'll increase each year depending on inflation Assendelft said the maximum number of weeks that a claimant can qualify for has also increased from 20 to 26 so claimants can claim up to five dependents That now has gone up to $12.66 per dependent," said Assendelft If you applied for unemployment benefits before Wednesday and determine whether adjustments need to be made for those claimants who had claims in that time period and retroactively apply the higher rate," Assendelft explained It's good news for West Michigan residents like Melissa Elle The Grand Rapids resident said times were tough when her husband had lost his job a while back. "I think that's exactly what we need Grand Rapids Sugar Bar employee Anais Adjahi shares the same sentiment and then going back on their legs to find a new job or Assendelft said the state's Claimant Roadmap makes it easy to apply for unemployment benefits "It's just a real nice resource that we've launched recently that just kind of takes a little bit of the confusion out of it So I would urge any claimant to follow our UIA Claimant Roadmap as they go forward and apply for benefits," said Assendelft Follow FOX 17: Facebook - X (formerly Twitter) - Instagram - YouTube will revolve around the theme of Gut Health shall take place as from noon at the Expert Stage Pig Register here for the Pig Progress seminars at EuroTier the theme of gut health is always attracting huge crowds – and that is for a reason The gut is the location where the disciplines of pig health and pig nutrition meet Both disciplines have faced challenges in the most recent years as the use of antibiotics is discouraged as much as possible and zinc oxide can no longer be used at pharmacological levels The seminar shall therefore concentrate on achieving a healthy gut for sows how to keep it healthy and what happens in case the gut is being challenged First on stage will be Jessica Schynoll. She is veterinarian at Vivet Schweine in northern Germany As tail biting is considered to be caused by a multifactorial complex it is likely that gut health also plays a role in the cocktail Her practice Vivet spends a lot of attention to the link between gut health ileitis and tail biting – and she will explain more about this in detail The microbiome will also come back in the 2nd presentation. On behalf of animal nutrition company Novonesis will speak Dr Lea Hübertz Birch Hansen Focus of her presentation will be the power of a robust gut microbiome – for greater pig health and performance She will discuss what makes the gut microbiome so vital for the industry and how microbiome robustness can be identified Oliver Merdy is global programme manager swine at Phileo and his talk will revolve around “pioneering probiotics.” He will delve into the question how yeast probiotics can shape generations of quality piglets In his presentation he will also zoom in on sows as the right microbiota in a sow’s gut will help them be ready for nurturing piglets with good quality colostrum and milk Finally, Margriet Faber will address the audience on behalf of Dutch animal nutrition company Denkavit Her focus will be to highlight insights about the company’s feed additives line using natural mineral additives piglets can be helped to bridge the weaning dip nutrition enriched with humic acids can support the gut of pigs of any age Registration for the seminar of Wednesday noon is possible by clicking the link below This seminar is 1 in a series of 3 Pig Progress will host at EuroTier. Earlier on Wednesday, November 13, there is a Pig Progress seminar on sow management Expert speakers will address the audience between 10am and 11.30am at the Expert Stage Pig Jip van Assendelft Named Mountain West Player of the Week2/28/2024 1:05:00 PM | Men's Tennis © 2025 Boise State University Athletics Accessibility Statement Indiana Men’s Tennis Signs Jip van Assendelft5/31/2024 11:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis Before and after: The area in the Crum Woods below Strath Haven condominiums which often flooded and became too muddy to access became navigable thanks to the efforts of Emily van Assendelft ’23 and Jonah Ring ’23 Crum Woods has a 72-foot-long upgrade, thanks to a team effort between Emily van Assendelft ’23 and Jonah Ring ’23, the Engineering Department, and the Crum Woods Stewardship Committee For their engineering capstone senior design project van Assendelft and Ring collaborated with a diverse group of stakeholders to design and coordinate volunteers to build a boardwalk over a trail segment Facilities provided financial support for the project.  “[The boardwalk] leaves behind a tangible benefit to the College and also reflects a great collaboration across many groups at Swarthmore,” says Matt Zucker associate professor and chair of the Engineering Department.  For van Assendelft and Ring, former members of the cross country team, the idea to pursue a project enhancing Crum Woods was inspired by many hours spent running on its trails.  The two runners had dedicated years to conservation work outside of the College by working for the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps in Colorado and Appalachian Conservation Corps in Virginia.  “These AmeriCorps programs facilitated knowledge of trail work and sustainability through hands-on manual labor,” says van Assendelft “We wanted to utilize the skills gained from our wilderness construction experience in order to benefit the Swarthmore community and extend the life and usability of Swarthmore’s very own trail system.” in the spring of 2022 to explore doing a project in the Crum Woods van Assendelft and Ring attended monthly meetings with the Crum Woods Stewardship Committee Rasmussen mentioned that the area below Strath Haven condominiums might benefit from a boardwalk installation van Assendelft approached the Engineering Department for approval to proceed with the initiative with Ring.  The duo met with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to determine what type of permit was necessary for the boardwalk installation van Assendelft and Ring consulted Ross Bickhart who helped them understand the extensive permitting process and ultimately certified their final boardwalk design Peers and teammates volunteered alongside trail crew volunteers and grounds staff from the Scott Arboretum the Engineering Department’s machine shop supervisor and helped transport materials to the site.  “It was immensely satisfying to see the practical knowledge gained from my experiences with AmeriCorps Trail work [combine with] problem-solving skills derived from Swat’s engineering curriculum,” says Ring. “It was a lovely way to end my time at Swat — giving back to Crum Woods which has been central to my experience [on the cross country team] over the past four years.”  “This project expanded our knowledge of design and construction — all important skills as we enter careers in environmental engineering and conservation work after graduation,” adds van Assendelft.  and students, celebrated the boardwalk’s opening with a small ceremony prior to Commencement.  The Communications Office invites all members of the Swarthmore community to share videos, photos, and story ideas for the College's website. Have you seen an alum in the news? Please let us know by writing news@swarthmore.edu many leading scientists in aerosol physics and infectious diseases quickly understood that the primary mode of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus Despite these admonitions and decades of evidence supporting their concerns the World Health Organization (WHO) and national health agencies disregarded these concerns The failure to address the route of transmission and coordinate a global response has seen the pandemic extend into every corner of the planet infecting much of the global population Although official COVID-19 deaths are approaching 7 million global excess deaths are now at 25 million and the prospect of repeat infections with new variants of SARS-CoV-2 has created a pandemic within a pandemic with Long COVID characterized appropriately as a mass disabling event recently contacted the World Socialist Web Site to speak on his early efforts to bring attention to the world that SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted through aerosols and it was necessary to take appropriate measures to address this mechanism to bring a swift end to the pandemic through the limitation of speech in indoor spaces as part of a comprehensive response that included masking and ventilation Benjamin Mateus (BM): What do you remember or when did you first hear about the pandemic What was your first understanding of what was happening when COVID-19 began to appear Alexander van Assendelft (AA): I naturally heard about it already in January 2020 and got worried and I heard about how it was developing in Finland and at that time also I didn’t understand more of it than anybody else at that time until the 28th of March 2020 when I received a link to an evening news piece from our son There was Professor Ville Vuorinen [Professor of Energy Technology at Aalto University who was speaking about the work he had been conducting for not more than about two weeks at that time He said he had preliminary results and concluded that people exhale aerosols when they speak I was struck by a bolt of lightning at that moment when I suddenly understood that the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus must be by aerosol which explained its rapid transmission all over the world I was quite shocked also because I had never heard about such things relating to transmitting infections through talking and breathing The only aerosol sources I knew were the ones we use to give medicines to asthmatics in aerosol devices BM: Can you speak more about your profession and what you did after you retired Maybe just so that people can understand who you are And then I went on to specialize and became a pulmonologist in 1976 I was working in two different hospitals until I was elected chief physician for the Central Hospital in North Karelia In 1986 I was elected medical director of the Central Hospital in Kotka in southern Finland After that I thought I would have a peaceful life and it didn’t become at all peaceful because I happened to acquire a new specialty I have tried to really catch up with the Corona in all the ways I have been able to I’m assuming much of your work is done in the critical care setting And does part of that also include respiratory infections one of the issues that a lot of the physicists raised is that there’s a very strong divide between medicine meaning you receive people who are already infected and you treat them who is more interested in the mode of transmission Medical schools and training don’t really address the physics behind how infections are acquired And that’s probably also why I didn’t know much about the ways they are transmitted that tuberculosis was very easily transmitted through the air But we were only concerned about the people who got ill and the mechanism behind it was not such an important factor We just tried to give medicines and make them better through the right treatment BM: And do you think there’s a need to somewhat amalgamate the public health in relation to infectious diseases and physics in the facilities where people are treated meaning that we can’t be so specialized that we don’t understand one person’s role versus another person’s role It’s important for the specialties to exist but we must be talking to the aerosol physicist We must be speaking to the public health people who establish policy We must be speaking to the hospital system and explaining the engineering behind filtration and the technology These different areas seem to be very separated That is probably the greatest problem and has been the reason why at the beginning and not even now it’s realized how important the physics are which the aerosol engineers already had been working on by the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s because of the SARS-CoV-1 That’s one point also for me which has been very important I have a great admiration for the engineers who really from the beginning understood what it was about that the message just doesn’t go through to those who should take care of what to do about it BM: Because of what you had told me about Professor Vuorinen I looked up and found his article on modeling aerosol transport and SARS-CoV-2 virus exposure by indoor inhalation which was finally published in October 2020 Did you happen to communicate or speak with him on these issues when you saw his report on the news I have become almost friends with Ville since then At the beginning I was very annoyed with him because I tried to get him to be more active in Finland to inform the authorities from his point of view as he is the foremost aerosol expert in Finland I think the engineer’s way of thinking about their duty is to inform us physicians and the authorities about what is happening and why it’s happening but it’s not really their duty to inform the public in the way we would like to The first time I called him we had almost a dispute and a very nice thing was that he recently received a prize from the Finnish Academy for applying computational flow dynamics to the study of the spread of COVID through aerosols It is one of the most important prizes for researchers in Finland He invited me to the celebration of this prize for his work with COVID-19 for meteorology and other kinds of aerosols he changed his whole scientific approach when he realized that he understood more than anybody else in Finland about it Catalina Neeson had published in November 2020 their experiences with identifying SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in hospital ventilation systems a long distance from where the COVID patients were being kept They say in their conclusion that airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 must be taken into consideration for preventive measures Their report is based on data from April and May of 2020 I think you also referenced in your letter from October 2022 rethinking of the US Covid-19 pandemic response.” You wrote that there was a reference to an ABC News article in Chinese where it said that the Chinese authorities had recognized that transmission of COVID was happening through aerosol or airborne pathways They actually go a long way to say things like open your windows and take basic airborne precautions … and this is in February 2020…  you get this link to a news piece where Vuorinen says the virus is transmitting through aerosol This is a huge paradigm shift in recognizing that the pandemic is airborne What were the implications of this in your mind and what were you trying to do to let people know about it I would say very fast because already on March the 29th I wrote a letter to be published in the big newspaper in the capital city As I realized that it wouldn’t be published I wrote to the THL (the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) I wrote to our government and all the ministries in charge and warned them also and asked them to inform the public and to contact Professor Vuorinen to get some more information Then I tried to get this knowledge out internationally I wrote a short article in the European Respiratory Society’s new COVID-19 forum where I recommended that we should speak as little as possible indoors that the ventilation and air filtration all over in the buildings should be looked after I wrote a comment to that article which also wasn’t published Because we should have had a meeting with our fellow students in Basel that year I wrote to two of them wondering about what I should do The nice thing was that both colleagues reacted to it in the same way saying that my view about the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was just the same as theirs who is an internist professor at the Helsinki University Hospital and I also told him about my problem to get anything out nationally and internationally about the aerosol transmission “I think you should write an article about it.” I asked him if he would also be prepared to contribute to the article I think the thing is so clear that I would do it.” I was a bit astonished because I had already at that time understood that it was something that you couldn’t speak about without getting negative comments Anyhow, we wrote the article together, and it was published on the 15th of May 2020, in the Finnish Medical Journal with the headline, “Aerosol Mediated SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Underestimated Danger.” Still nothing happened even if I had already sent the manuscript for the article to the Institute of Health and Welfare in the hope that which I sent to all the Finnish newspapers for which I could find an email address I decided to take the matter to an even higher level I had hoped that they would put together an independent commission to decide what is really the truth and what is not who is the one who has to control that the government does its job My complaint was that the government in Finland didn’t do its duty to save the population’s health and save their lives and that should be one of the main things that the government should ensure for the population Then I made my last attempt in this respect by sending a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights They said the same thing: Nothing to do about it Nobody realized that it would have been possible for the governments in the whole world to do something else other than what they were doing It would have been possible to erase the whole pandemic I sent this little article I had in the European Respiratory Society to all health authorities across the world for whom I found an email address including the WHO and the European Union’s own heads The only response I received was from Austria and Norway but no one took any actions on the implications noted in the article regarding COVID BM: I think you also told me that you sent it to Dr Fauci and a personal note to Angela Merkel in December BM: What did you make of this complete disregard of your concerns AA: I concluded that we were being censored It was public censorship in Finland and all over the world I suppose that the newspapers use self-censoring routinely so I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t hear from them The only courageous exception was a small newspaper in Lovisa It even published the facts about the censoring We also submitted our article on the concerns over aerosolization of the virus to the Finnish Medical Journal and to international publications like The Lancet. But none of them accepted it. So far, we have managed to publish three responses to other articles in such medical journals. Two were in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and one in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) The most astonishing thing was that the editor-in-chief of The Lancet wrote three days after rejecting our article that “all governments and public health authorities will need to remain open to new ideas for controlling the pandemic.” We had just given him a new idea to control the pandemic and the article wasn’t published despite that I also thought of getting out the information out on social media platforms I contacted a journalist who really knew how that works He said that it would be awfully expensive and would anyhow be impossible because Facebook had decided that any information about prevention and treatment of COVID-19 wouldn’t be published and it would be very interesting to know who gave the order to censor such things I can understand the censoring of therapies and treatments because there were a lot of very strange concoctions various people were endorsing But about something which could have prevented the whole pandemic … really I can’t get my head around how it’s possible to censor such discussion to the point that new ideas aren’t allowed to be raised the BMJ had written a comment on this issue regarding the transmission of COVID where they noted that the CDC published information on aerosol transmission where they clearly identified that the risk of aerosol transmission of COVID is real But soon after that they quickly removed the statement which is in keeping with a lot of what the CDC has done evade or delay important public information The WHO is implicated in such censorship as well Taking the history of this science—the issue of germ theory and miasma the controversy between Chapin’s droplet theory and Wells’ conception of airborne contagion the CDC’s studies on the airborne nature of influenza Milton’s important work on the aerosol of infectious agents in the last two decades the SARS-1 global epidemic and numerous studies published since on the airborne nature of these transmissions the critical work by aerosol physicists— there was an understanding that this route of transmission was a valid concern I don’t think so much that the censorship was related to scientific dogma Because what would be the harm in recognizing that aerosol transmission as a valid mechanism Not accepting it or considering it poses a serious risk to the population and infection control The response to a pandemic should a priori concede to the precautionary principle to accept the aerosol transmission and then act accordingly until proven that such a route lacks objective evidence how do we hope to eliminate the virus if indeed it is aerosolized There should have been a major shift in addressing this question physical understanding but in creating a political response to it on forms of airborne defenses in indoor spaces Why we in the 2020s were stuck in the dogma of the 1910s The expertise in the WHO couldn’t have been real expertise I would say they were completely incompetent in these respects But I think that maybe one thing was that already in March and April 2020 COVID-19 had been going on so long and the WHO had denied any possibilities about the transmission by aerosol that they just didn’t have the courage to take a step back and say Another critical misstep was that although the engineers understood what it’s all about They were stuck in the dogma and maybe also they didn’t like that in this respect the engineers knew so much more about SARS-CoV-2 than they did There was also the issue that the scientists always want to have proof about everything That’s in most cases naturally something that we physicians also want to have To have absolute proof meant deliberately exposing people to a potentially lethal virus Now the sad thing is that there has been published in June 2023 a study done in the UK at such a prominent institution as the Imperial College London by 13 colleagues Their aim was to better understand viral transmission and disease They studied 36 healthy volunteers in which SARS-CoV-2 was inoculated by nasal drops Not only did they find viral genetic material in air samples but viable virus samples were also collected in areas where the virus could only get to by being airborne Two individuals released 86 percent of the airborne virus which they said supported the idea of how superspreading events occur Most of the virus that was released was detected over a three-day period All this we had already known and understood the whole bunch at the Imperial College should be taken to trial for that study because it was unethical BM: I found your story interesting in that you were essentially stuck in Spain and trying desperately to get this very important message out to the rest of the world that the virus was airborne the frustrations you were facing found concrete expression in the predicament you faced it was quite an adventure because we were in Spain during the seven-week lockdown The only time we were allowed to go out was to buy food I recall at the time I was trying to write my letter to The Lancet Just opposite our flat there was a bar that had open access Wi-Fi I took our rental car and drove around the block and parked right in front of that bar and began formulating my letter on my smartphone As I was sitting there a police car stopped next to me They got out and asked me why I wasn’t at my home A compilation of the World Socialist Web Site's coverage of this global crisis I explained that I agreed with them that I should be at home but that I didn’t have Wi-Fi where I lived and urgently had to get a letter out to the Lancet about the COVID pandemic In that case you can stay here but after 20 minutes you just have to go home!” So What I thought about … I will shortly come back to what we were discussing about the dogma … about the WHO’s lack of response at that time They might have been afraid that the population would panic if they learned about the virus being airborne and especially when I have been treating patients with very severe diseases I had always the principle of remaining objective I did a thorough clinical investigation and determined if the patient could benefit from surgery or needed oncologic treatment First after that I told the patients the diagnosis and explained their proposed treatment All my patients left with a positive attitude and didn’t fall into panic or depression They very much appreciated being told the truth of their condition I don’t think this is any different with the pandemic People want to know the facts and what needs to be done to protect themselves This reminds me of another point of what I had been explaining to others at that time Because we knew that the virus was aerosolized we had discussed one important factor to reduce the risk of transmission: to minimize the amount of talking indoors “It’s impossible to be without talking!” What we were saying is that we should minimize speaking as much as possible If we minimized how much talking we did—say less than 75 percent of normal and relied more on using texting and non-verbal communications indoors with smartphones like many especially younger people anyhow do daily with their friends—the risk of facing a person who might have COVID and contracting the infection will be greatly reduced Based on modeling data about the quantity of virus we emit breathing versus speaking we could have driven the reproduction number to less than one and ended the pandemic in a matter of a few weeks without limiting our movements drastically here on the island where I now am sitting in our summer house In the summer the figure grows to about 2,500 It was very interesting the first time I came out here in June 2020 and I stopped there and saw a circle of six women talking with each other standing outside with about one meter between them “We are just doing as we have understood we should do because of the pandemic We are not having any indoor meetings or discussions We’re meeting outside every time we want to get together.” Those women were wives of the local fishermen or normal working people for whom I have a lot of admiration because they have much common sense and a special philosophical attitude to life That we can manage.” But the people who are more educated they don’t seem to understand it or don’t want to understand it BM: It’s an interesting point you raised about the idea of explaining to people Very early on there was evidence of the airborne transmission of this disease We knew that in February 2020 in Washington state at a choir rehearsal a superspreader event took place where many were infected That incident was caused through aerosolization of the virus during singing A tremendous number of viral particles are released during such activity compared to just normal breathing If we understood that the virus was aerosolized and that talking can emit more particles to minimize the amount of talking we do indoors to avoid causing potential infections the need for universal use of respirators and the use of HEPA filters and improvement to ventilation in indoor spaces and then only allowing the most essential workers to engage in such work in proximity while offering them daily on-site testing and medical attention as indicated I think these are very basic public health demands What is insidious about COVID is the ability for infected people without symptoms or pre-symptoms to infect others I don’t think your warnings on this or recommendations to minimize speaking indoors are unfounded on your question could the WHO have been worried that if they acknowledged the virus was airborne it would have caused widespread panic is important to take up The only time and only ones that always seem to panic when the truth is admitted are the politicians or policy makers “Who will panic knowing that COVID is airborne: the public or Wall Street executives?” AA: I’d imagine that maybe the executives would panic about what they should do in that case I wanted to return to the discussion on limiting speaking in indoor spaces. These are based on objective data. When people speak they emit in the order of 5 to 200 times more viral particles than when they are breathing That means by minimizing discussion or not speaking then the amount of virus transmitted is 10 times lower the WHO’s guidance in the beginning of the pandemic to wash your hands to diminish transmission which they borrowed from their recommendations for the flu Social distancing has the result to mute the aerosols and allows the big droplets to drop down but it doesn’t help at all for the aerosols which are flowing around he compared the viral aerosols to smoke from cigarettes flowing in the air Who gets COVID-19 depends on individual immunology current vaccination status and various factors which we have referenced and no one knows if anyone in the room is infected unless they are displaying symptoms of COVID BM: Recently I read that 90 percent of all human activity happens indoors Had we accepted the possibility of aerosol transmission of the virus and acted accordingly to address this route of spread we would have saved countless numbers of lives This means that the pandemic is a social disease although the official public health line is to treat it as an issue of personal choice to decide one’s own risks This goes against any basic public health principle where the pathogen threatens all communities and must be addressed socially That’s why I raised the issue of panic on Wall Street because accepting the objective scientific conditions required to end the pandemic means a critical shift in our understanding that indoor air that is safe to breathe is a democratic and social right virus detectors and an assortment of technologies that protect populations from infection while indoors we must design better and more comfortable masks and develop sterilizing nasal/mucosal vaccines every effort must be made to eliminate the virus and prevent the outbreak of the next pandemic The frustration that you have expressed in not finding anyone to listen to your concerns is not based on the lack of information or comprehension of these mechanisms on their part The stated dogma of the droplet theory of germs was used intentionally to place doubt in the public’s mind so they didn’t have to address the pandemic which had a significant impact on the global economy And it’s true that it would really have meant that the whole way of living for maybe two months would have been changed radically My thinking was that with the help of digitalization and maybe also new inventions or in the schools even by going back to the blackboard people would have been able to manage at work almost without talking with each other and communicating in other ways Going out would have been the right thing to do if it was necessary to talk face to face I am sure it wouldn’t have been impossible to achieve The time limitation of what we have estimated was so short that the investments made during that time wouldn’t have been in any proportion to what was done during the lockdowns That really got the whole economy and the whole world on its knees That was a much greater problem than informing people what situation we were facing everywhere and getting them to accept the temporary limitations in communications while attending work the British Medical Journal had an article which was awful to read about the estimation of how many were killed after China lifted their Zero-COVID policy Their estimation is that since January this year And more than 90 percent were infected in that short time The WHO has such an impact on the national health authorities that nobody dares to even think about doing anything other than what the WHO does and even the physicians I spoke to then told me that they have to follow the recommendations of the Institute of Health and Welfare the WHO functions as an auxiliary to the state apparatus It is a health authority but takes its marching orders from the US and European Union I think your points are well taken and very critical But the fundamental question here is the elimination strategy which is not just a public health construct but one that assumes a political dimension on a global scale It requires more than trying to decrease transmission—and I agree that perpetual lockdowns are problematic in implementing It requires eliminating the virus from every community across the planet That means we have to rebuild our public health infrastructure from an international perspective We have to have meaningful collaborations with scientists in every part of the world in conducting surveillance of dangerous pathogens that have pandemic potential The technology exists to track every package every ship and aircraft and every person on the planet Why not utilize these to assist in conducting detailed tracking of viruses on a global scale This raises questions like how do we conduct flights into airports and assure the passengers and population they will be free from becoming infected It acquires political dimensions because this investment in an international public health process requires dialogue with every social aspect in every part of the world You can’t just eliminate COVID in Australia or in China and expect that for three years you will keep it contained this shift to an international perspective and eliminating the virus also means shifting from a profit-driven capitalist society to a socialistic perspective where the well-being and welfare of all communities are a priority And from this grows the issue of healthcare infrastructure building and the various social sciences that can address social needs What is preventing addressing these urgent tasks is not lack of scientific comprehension or the means to achieve these needs It is capitalism that has made the pandemic possible in the first place and has allowed it to permeate every aspect of our lives today If we want to stop this and the next pandemic then it assumes a political and social character And that is probably one of the reasons why nothing was done And that may be impossible in our world to get all the governments to agree with this strategy BM: I’d like to end asking you if there is something you’d like to say to people who will be reading this interview Maybe you’d like to make a concluding statement AA: I would like to say that even if it’s not possible anymore to get rid of this pandemic because of the extremely transmissible Omicron mutations it would still make a great difference if people realized that the most dangerous part in encountering others is when they are talking maintaining distance and wearing good masks then it is possible to decrease your risks considerably from getting COVID Everybody can do something to protect themselves and others BM: I agree with your remarks but would challenge you that COVID can be eliminated if we placed our efforts into doing just that But I can imagine that when we formerly thought that it would take four to eight weeks we have maybe to multiply it with the transmissibility of the Omicron in mind I think that it theoretically would be possible Someone from the Socialist Equality Party or the WSWS in your region will contact you promptly Match Recap: Men's Tennis | 2/7/2025 9:58:00 PM | Anthony Fiorella / MTSU Athletic Communications Thanks for visiting The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here Objective To assess the benefits and harms of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) for the treatment of chronic low back pain Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) including reference lists of eligible trials and related reviews Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Randomised controlled trials examining the effect of spinal manipulation or mobilisation in adults (≥18 years) with chronic low back pain with or without referred pain Studies that exclusively examined sciatica were excluded No restrictions were applied to language or setting Review methods Two reviewers independently selected studies and assessed risk of bias and quality of the evidence The effect of SMT was compared with recommended therapies Main outcomes were pain and back specific functional status examined as mean differences and standardised mean differences (SMD) Quality of evidence was assessed using GRADE A random effects model was used and statistical heterogeneity explored Results 47 randomised controlled trials including a total of 9211 participants were identified who were on average middle aged (35-60 years) Most trials compared SMT with recommended therapies Moderate quality evidence suggested that SMT has similar effects to other recommended therapies for short term pain relief (mean difference −3.17 95% confidence interval −7.85 to 1.51) and a small clinically better improvement in function (SMD −0.25 High quality evidence suggested that compared with non-recommended therapies SMT results in small not clinically better effects for short term pain relief (mean difference −7.48 −11.50 to −3.47) and small to moderate clinically better improvement in function (SMD −0.41 these results were similar for the intermediate and long term outcomes as were the effects of SMT as an adjuvant therapy Evidence for sham SMT was low to very low quality; therefore these effects should be considered uncertain Statistical heterogeneity could not be explained About half of the studies examined adverse and serious adverse events but in most of these it was unclear how and whether these events were registered systematically Most of the observed adverse events were musculoskeletal related One study with a low risk of selection bias and powered to examine risk (n=183) found no increased risk of an adverse event (relative risk 1.24 95% confidence interval 0.85 to 1.81) or duration of the event (1.13 the Data Safety Monitoring Board judged one serious adverse event to be possibly related to SMT Conclusion SMT produces similar effects to recommended therapies for chronic low back pain whereas SMT seems to be better than non-recommended interventions for improvement in function in the short term Clinicians should inform their patients of the potential risks of adverse events associated with SMT To resolve the issue of effectiveness, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. This publication is an update of our earlier Cochrane review, which found high quality evidence suggesting no clinically relevant difference between SMT and effective interventions for reducing pain and improving function in patients with chronic low back pain.19 Data for the other comparisons were of lesser quality The primary objective of this current review was to examine the effectiveness of SMT on pain relief and improvement in function at the short and long term follow-up compared with control treatments for adults with chronic low back pain Secondary objectives included the assessment of adverse events The effect of SMT for other secondary outcomes and health related quality of life are to be fully described elsewhere as an update of this review and published in the Cochrane Library This review follows the guidelines for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). Our protocol is registered with the Cochrane Collaboration.20 We only included published randomised studies Studies using an inadequate randomisation procedure (eg allocation based on birth date) were excluded Studies were considered eligible if they included adults (≥18 years) and if more than 50% of the study population had pain lasting more than three months we included studies if the observed differences were thought to be due to the unique contribution of SMT which may include studies in which SMT was delivered as part of a package of care—that is if the effects of SMT could be isolated; for example studies comparing SMT plus exercise with exercise alone would be included whereas studies comparing SMT plus exercise with SMT alone would not We excluded participants with postpartum low back pain or pelvic pain due to pregnancy and studies that examined “maintenance care” or prevention; in addition to studies that were designed to test the immediate post-intervention effect of a single treatment only as well as those studies that exclusively examined back related conditions (eg We also excluded studies if SMT was combined with other therapies making it difficult to distinguish the effect of SMT—for example a study comparing SMT plus exercise with another type of treatment (eg This review focuses on the effects of both spinal manipulation (high velocity low amplitude (HVLA) techniques) as well as mobilisation (low velocity We examined the effect of SMT compared with recommended therapies and SMT as adjuvant therapy to any other therapy Sham SMT was any comparator in which SMT involved hand contact and techniques that simulated SMT but was designed not to deliver a therapeutic effect (eg light touch or diminished therapeutic force) improper patient positioning or purposely misdirected movements) Although we considered the effect of HVLA SMT versus LVLA SMT (ie manipulation versus mobilisation) as secondary because it was not included in our protocol we included this comparison as it represents a point of continued discussion The primary outcomes were pain intensity and back pain specific functional status Adverse events and serious adverse events are summarised narratively we also screened the reference lists of all included studies and systematic reviews; searched trial registers ClinicalTrials.gov and World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP); and we sent our selection of studies to trial authors and specialists in SMT to identify any trials potentially missed Appendix 1 shows the search terms and strategies AdeZ) independently screened the titles and abstracts and assessed the quality of the evidence (GRADE) Potentially relevant studies were obtained in full text and independently assessed for inclusion Data extraction and management—A standardised form was used to extract the study design (randomised controlled trial) Final value scores (means and standard deviations) were extracted for the meta-analyses Change scores were converted into a mean value Assessment of risk of bias in included studies—risk of bias was assessed according to the 13 criteria recommended by the Cochrane Back and Neck Review Group (see appendix 2) This tool is the same as that recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration with the addition of items thought to be relevant in the assessment of non-drug trials We used this tool to evaluate selection bias Studies with fatal flaws were excluded from the meta-analyses defined as studies with an exceedingly large drop-out rate or with statistically and clinically relevant important baseline differences suggesting possibly improper randomisation or selective exclusion of data Unit of analysis issues—When multiple contrasts from the same trial were examined in the same comparison, we halved the number of participants in the shared comparison. This step accounts from problems arising when multiple arms from the same trial are examined in the same meta-analysis. “Halving” the number of participants corrects for error introduced by double counting.21 Assessment of reporting biases—Funnel plots were constructed we examined potential conflicts of interest as well as the funding source Data synthesis—GRADE was used to evaluate the overall quality of the evidence for each outcome which ranges from high to very low quality and is based on five domains: limitations of design Appendix 3 describes the criteria and operational definitions Assessment and investigation of heterogeneity—A prerequisite to pooling data was based on clinical homogeneity which is why we stratified the meta-analyses by type of comparison Statistical heterogeneity was examined by inspecting the Forest plot and was formally tested using the Q test (χ2) and I2 We attempted to explain cases of considerable heterogeneity (defined as an I2 statistic ≥75%) using meta-regression for those comparisons with sufficient data The following variables were considered a priori: duration of the low back pain (subacute or chronic versus exclusively chronic) type of clinician (chiropractor versus other) type of radiating pain (above knee versus below knee); multimodal SMT (ie SMT delivered alone compared with examined in a larger multimodal context or as a package of care) After examining the discriminative ability of these variables we considered the additional variable of country where the study was conducted we modelled just four variables: duration of the low back pain In the first step we conducted a univariate analysis and in a subsequent step we used the two variables showing the strongest effect to construct the final model We report the effect and I2 for the final models only No public or patient representatives were directly involved in the draft or process of this review the primary outcomes examined in this review represent a core set recommended for low back pain which included patient representatives in its development A detailed description of the characteristics of the included studies is available on request from the primary author Study sample sizes ranged from 21 to 1334 (median 132 among those studies that recruited a mixed population the duration of the pain typically ranged from months to years (see table A in appendix 5) None of the studies made a clear distinction between persistent low back pain or exacerbation of a chronic condition We would have liked to have described whether the research team was multidisciplinary and whether it included clinicians who were involved in the treatment but in many cases these data were not reported no official disclosure was reported in most of the studies although many were older studies for which disclosure was not standard procedure at the time Table 1 summarises the treatment effects and quality of the evidence for all comparisons Summary of treatment effects and GRADE summary of findings for all comparisons among trials included in systematic review of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) for chronic low back pain Pain—Moderate quality evidence suggested that SMT is not statistically better than recommended interventions at one month and 12 months, although the difference was significant at six months. The size of the effect was, however, not clinically relevant (fig 2) Exclusion of extreme outliers accounted for a large percentage of the statistical heterogeneity for this outcome at one month (mean difference −0.39 95% confidence interval −2.41 to 1.62; participants=3005; studies=23; I2=44%) while the overall effect remained virtually unchanged 100 maximum pain) for spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) versus recommended therapies in review of the effects of SMT for chronic low back pain Pooled mean differences calculated by DerSimonian-Laird random effects model See supplementary file for more detailed graphic Back specific functional status—Moderate quality evidence suggested that SMT results in a small, statistically better effect than recommended interventions at one month but not statistically better effect at six and 12 months (fig 3) Exclusion of extreme outliers accounted for a large percentage of the statistical heterogeneity for this outcome at one month (SMD −0.12 95% confidence interval −0.23 to −0.01; participants=2907; studies=22; I2=44%) Standardised mean difference for improvement in function at 1 and 12 months for spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) versus recommended therapies in review of the effects of SMT for chronic low back pain Pooled standardised mean differences calculated by DerSimonian-Laird random effects model Pain—High quality evidence suggested that SMT results in a small statistically significant but not clinically better effect than non-recommended interventions at one month Moderate quality evidence suggested that SMT results in a statistically significant but not clinically better effect at six months and low quality evidence that SMT results in a statistically significant but not clinically better effect at 12 months (fig A in appendix 5) Back specific functional status—High quality evidence suggested that SMT results in a small to moderate statistically and clinically better effect than non-recommended interventions at one month Moderate quality evidence suggested that SMT results in a small statistically significant and clinically better effect at six months and low quality evidence that SMT results in a small to moderate statistically significant and clinically better effect at 12 months (fig B in appendix 5) Seven studies compared the effect of SMT with sham SMT.14374349606672 Pain—Low quality evidence suggested that SMT does not result in a statistically better effect than sham SMT at one month Exclusion of an extreme outlier accounted for a large percentage of the statistical heterogeneity for this outcome at this time interval (mean difference −3.49 95% confidence interval −6.03 to −0.94; participants=781; studies=9; I2=5%) very low quality evidence suggested that SMT does not result in a statistically better effect than sham SMT at six and 12 months (fig C in appendix 5) Back specific functional status—Low quality evidence suggested that SMT results in a moderate to strong statistically significant and clinically better effect than sham SMT at one month Exclusion of an extreme outlier accounted for a large percentage of the statistical heterogeneity for this outcome at this time interval (SMD −0.27 95% confidence interval −0.52 to −0.02; participants=698; studies=7; I2=39%) very low quality evidence suggested that SMT does not result in a statistically significant better effect than sham SMT at six and 12 months (fig D in appendix 5) Pain—Moderate quality evidence suggested that SMT results in a small statistically significant but not clinically better effect at one month and 12 months and low quality evidence that SMT does not result in a statistically better effect as an adjuvant therapy at six months (fig E in appendix 5) Back specific functional status—Moderate quality evidence suggested that SMT results in a small statistically significant and clinically better effect at one month and low quality evidence that SMT results in a small statistically significant and clinically better effect at 12 months but not statistically significant effect at six months (fig F in appendix 5) The evidence at six months was of low quality and there were no data for 12 months Mobilisation versus mobilisation—One small study with a high risk of bias for many criteria compared the effects of Maitland mobilisation with Mulligan mobilisation.58 The authors concluded that there was no significant difference between either technique for the short term reduction of pain Prediction intervals—Prediction intervals for the effect of SMT versus recommended therapies suggested a small to moderate effect in favour of either therapy meaning that the therapy chosen by patients and clinicians should be based on factors other than effectiveness alone Data were too few for the other comparisons to ascribe a meaningful interpretation to those results (table B in appendix 5) We conducted meta-regression only for the comparison of SMT with recommended therapies two variables were typically included in the final model: multimodal SMT and duration of the low back pain (tables C and D in appendix 5) these variables did not explain the statistical heterogeneity for short term outcomes and marginally for intermediate and long term outcomes The moderator effects were also typically small and not clinically relevant This meant that there was appreciably no difference in effect when SMT was offered as a package of care (as opposed to SMT alone) or when patients with exclusively chronic low back pain were included (as opposed to a mixed population) Meta-regression was not conducted for the other comparisons because data were too few to ascribe any meaningful interpretation to those results no appreciable difference was found in effects for risk of bias or when the effect of SMT versus exercise was examined Publication bias—Publication bias was only examined for SMT versus recommended therapies owing to the paucity of data for the other comparisons We constructed two separate funnels plots for pain and functional status for all time measurements (figs G and H in appendix 5) Although these funnel plots do not suggest publication bias Summary of adverse event assessments among trials included in systematic review of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) for chronic low back pain In the treatment of chronic low back pain in adults moderate quality evidence suggests that spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) results in similar outcomes to recommended therapies for short and long term pain relief as well as improvement in function the quality of evidence varied suggesting that SMT does not result in clinically better effects for pain relief but does result in clinically better short term improvement in function compared with non-recommended therapies and this is a line of evidence that we are currently pursuing in an individual participant data meta-analysis SMT can be delivered as a standalone therapy, although it is typically offered within the constructs of a broader treatment package, together with exercise therapy or combined with usual care, as is recommended in recent national guidelines for low back pain.582 This is important because SMT is by nature a passive treatment to prevent inappropriate behaviour and to empower patients to take control of their condition it is vital that practitioners impart the proper message to their patients suggests that benign adverse events are common and serious adverse events are rare The incidence and causal relations with serious adverse events are difficult to establish in part due to inherent methodological limitations of the included studies clinicians should ensure that patients are fully informed of potential risks before treatment no other economic evaluations have been done of SMT for the treatment of chronic low back pain Although we did not actively search for these types of evaluations because that was an objective of this review it is unlikely we missed any economic evaluations in these studies The primary author knows this literature well and regularly attends meetings in which trial results are presented it is likely that studies as well as protocols would have referenced an economic evaluation if it existed it remains to be determined whether SMT is a cost effective option for the treatment of chronic low back pain The most important limitations are those inherent to most (if not all) systematic reviews—namely the limited number of studies with a low risk of bias as well as ambiguity about the impact of publication bias we could not resolve the problem related to statistical heterogeneity nor is this likely to be resolved in future reviews: studies of SMT are conducted in varied settings using several methods of recruitment and SMT techniques that are subsequently compared with various types of therapies in most studies it was unclear if the research team was multidisciplinary and whether it included clinicians involved in the treatment of patients given that disclosure was often not reported potential conflicts of interest cannot be ruled out Future trials of SMT for low back pain should include an economic evaluation; an analysis of the proportion of patients who achieved a specified level of pain relief (eg percentage of those experiencing 50% pain improvement); a better description of the qualitative components of SMT such as factors that are likely to influence treatment The evidence suggests that SMT results in a modest average clinical effect at best: future trials on the effect of SMT for chronic low back pain are not necessary and address any of these specific recommendations Private or governmental agencies should refrain from funding small trials that are poorly conceived SMT produces similar effects to recommended therapies for chronic low back pain but results in clinically better effects for short term improvement in function compared with non-recommended therapies Numerous randomised controlled trials of varying methodological quality and size have examined the benefits and harms of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) for the treatment of chronic low back pain These trials have been summarised in numerous systematic reviews with varying results SMT is not currently recommended as a first line treatment for chronic low back pain and its effects are uncertain SMT has similar effects to recommended therapies for chronic low back pain although it seems to be better for short term improvement in function Data for the other comparisons (placebo SMT and SMT as adjuvant therapy) might be considered less robust and therefore unclear Information is limited on the incidence of adverse events and serious adverse events with SMT for this population We thank the editorial board of the Cochrane Back and Neck Review Group for its constructive comments and those authors who provided clarification of their trials for this update Systematic review registration: A protocol of this review is registered with the Cochrane Library. Rubinstein SM, van Middelkoop M, Assendelft WJJ, de Boer M, van Tulder MW. Spinal manipulative therapy for chronic low-back pain. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2009(4):CD008112; doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008112 and MWvT analysed and interpreted the data All authors critically revised the article for important intellectual content and gave final approval for the article and MvM (2011 publication) and MRdeB and WJJA (2004 publication) collected and assembled the data The corresponding author attests that all listed authors meet authorship criteria and that no others meeting the criteria have been omitted Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: SMR received personal grants from the European Chiropractors’ Union (ECU) the European Centre for Chiropractic Research Excellence (ECCRE) the Belgian Chiropractic Association (BVC) and the Netherlands Chiropractic Association (NCA) for his position at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam He also received funding for a research project on chiropractic care for the elderly from the European Centre for Chiropractic Research and Excellence (ECCRE) AdeZ received a grant from the European Chiropractors’ Union (ECU) (grant No A14.03) for an independent study on the effects of SMT SMR and AdeZ declare that they work in their own private clinics as chiropractors The remaining authors received no support from any organisation for the submitted work; have no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; and have no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work Data sharing: Details of the characteristics of the included studies are available from the corresponding author at s.m.rubinstein@vu.nl Transparency: All authors affirm that the manuscript is an honest and transparent account of the study being reported; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned (and This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Respond to this article Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about The BMJ NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it Read related article See previous polls Junior Sam Scherer forehands a ball during his singles match against Dartmouth College on Feb at the IU Tennis Center in Bloomington. Scherer was the only Hoosier to leave his singles match unfinished after Indiana clinched three singles victories Redshirt sophomore Facundo Yunis reaches down to swing at the ball during his singles match against Dartmouth College on Feb Sophomore Ben Pomeranets returns the ball to his opponent during his singles match against Dartmouth College on Feb Pomeranets won his singles match in three sets.  Junior Sam Scherer aligns himself with the ball and makes contact striking it through the air during his doubles match against Dartmouth College on Feb at the IU Tennis Center in Bloomington. Scherer won the No 2 doubles match with a score of 6-2.  Junior Jip van Assendelft swings his racket and hits the tennis ball during his singles match against Dartmouth College on Feb Van Assendelft won his singles match in two sets Sophomore Ben Pomeranets moves to make contact with the ball at the last second during a play in his singles match against Dartmouth College on Feb at the IU Tennis Center in Bloomington. Pomeranets transferred from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University to Indiana Redshirt sophomore Facundo Yunis swings to return the ball during his singles match against Dartmouth College on Feb at the IU Tennis Center in Bloomington. Yunis was selected to the Big Ten Conference men’s tennis preseason watch list prior to this season The Daily Rundown is published Monday through Friday and gives you a quick look at the day's top stories Friday's weekly recap will let you catch up on the most important and most popular stories of the week Find out what the IDS is saying about IU basketball distributed during the IU basketball season A lost seal was found wandering wandering in the Noord-Holland town of Assendelft in consultation with the Pieterburen Seal Center The police found the seal on Vaartdijk in Assendelft after tips from locals. “We know we have a versatile working area. But we never expected to encounter a seal,” the Zaanstreek police said on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/reel/1896854194102797 who assessed the seal and sent photos and videos to Pieterburen The seal center concluded that the animal was in good health so the animal ambulance marked it and returned it to the sea a body of water that ends in the North Sea Canal via locks It sometimes happens that seals end up in inland waters, Pieterburen told the NU.nl And seals often eventually find their way again We took action in Assendelft because the seal was on the road.” Waivers for unemployment insurance claimants who were told they were overpaid benefits in the pandemic may come this weekend a spokesperson for Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency said Friday but the agency is still testing its system a spokesperson for Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency said the agency will continue system testing over the next couple of days and will know by the end of the weekend where things stand in terms of sending waivers to claimants who were told they were overpaid Earlier this month, Julia Dale, the director of the agency, said at a joint state House and Senate Oversight Committee hearing held in Lansing that the agency expected to send out waivers on April 29 and over the weekend to about 382,000 claimants Those claimants represented 96% of the 398,000 claimants who received a pause in collection activities such as wage garnishments and intercepting of state of Michigan tax refunds until at least May 7 While Dale said the majority of the claimants who received a pause were getting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits in the pandemic. The agency issued about 350,000 waivers in July for PUA claimants who were told they would have to "requalify for benefits." But it's unknown how many claimants have been told they were overpaid benefits or how many claimants are currently experiencing collection activities such as having their tax returns seized or their wages garnished Assendelft said the agency is limited on the available reporting in the agency's current system and would require additional resources to figure out how many claimants are in this situation More: Waivers for unemployment overpayments could start to roll out by end of the month More: Michigan's UIA pauses collection activities for certain claimants with overpayment letters "People who are being considered (for a waiver), or have garnishments out there are entitled to some kind of individual notice," said Blanchard, who is an attorney with the Ann Arbor law firm Blanchard & Walker. "Even if it's not a final decision by the agency, (claimants should get) an explanation of what's going on." Assendelft said it will notify claimants by mailed letter and through a message in their unemployment insurance (MiWAM) accounts when they’ve received a waiver. A hearing for the lawsuit, which was filed in the Michigan Court of Claims, is scheduled for May 17. Contact Adrienne Roberts: amroberts@freepress.com. Indiana Men’s Tennis to Host Two Matches This Weekend3/13/2025 7:00:00 PM | Men's Tennis Great Lakes and Energy cannot adequately assess the remaining danger from two dams that failed May 19 because the dams' owner is not cooperating Boyce Hydro LLC's "cooperation lacks urgency and sufficiency to be able to properly assess the dam's integrity to ensure the safety of the Midland-area residents,"  EGLE spokesman Nick Assendelft said While a federal judge after the May flood ordered Boyce to assess the condition of the remaining portion of the Edenville Dam on the Tobacco River a report prepared by engineers for Boyce states that it does not fulfill the judge's required assessments More: Owner of failed Midland, Sanford dams files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy The company has also not finalized a contract with an independent team of national dam safety experts convened by EGLE in early June to investigate the May 19 failure of the Edenville and Sanford dams along the Tittabawassee River "Boyce has known since shortly after the failures that they would be required to come to terms with the team and the delay has set back by two months the process to find answers for our Midland-area residents who lost everything when Boyce's dams collapsed," Assendelft said Boyce Hydro LLC owns and operates the Edenville Smallwood and Secord dams along the Tittabawassee River The Edenville and downriver Sanford dams failed amid record rainfall May 19 causing widespread flooding in Midland County. More than 2,500 homes businesses and nonprofits  were damaged or destroyed by the floods Boyce managing partner Lee Mueller and attorney Dan Curth responded with an emailed statement "Contrary to erroneous statements made by governmental entities," Boyce is "proposing to fully fund a forensic investigation to identify the cause of the dam breaches," they said adding that company officials "welcome and look forward to those conclusions." Midland and Gladwin counties are seeking to take ownership of the dams using condemnation and eminent domain Requests were filed in both counties' circuit courts last week More: Biden campaign ad spills beans on GM's secret Corvette plans "We need to have the property now to start to address the debris removal and erosion," said Dave Kepler The nonprofit was established by the two counties in 2018 to acquire and manage the four Boyce-owned dams It was nearing a purchase agreement with Boyce for the dams when the breaches occurred Just to stabilize the ongoing erosion and other damage caused by the dam breaches — before getting into costs to rebuild the dams and the Wixom and Sanford lakes they created — "we're looking at about $40 million worth of work," Kepler said "And we need to have access to the properties." Under an eminent domain condemnation procedure a judge could order the Boyce dams sold to the Four Lakes Task Force as a governmental entity of the two counties The task force and/or counties would then be required to pay Boyce fair market value for the properties Boyce last week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it faces flood-related lawsuits from the state of Michigan and multiple others, including class-action suits from nearby affected property owners. Contact Keith Matheny: 313-222-5021 or kmatheny@freepress.com. Residents pay less for electricity from the grid when they produce some energy themselves from solar, wind and other alternative sources, according to a recent report. But their efforts still don’t make up much of the state’s energy needs. The energy from alternative sources produced in Michigan by energy users increased from 21,888 kilowatts in 2016 to 29,571 kilowatts in 2017, according to the report by the Public Services Commission. That’s a 35 percent increase, but it makes up only 0.032 percent of Michigan’s retail electricity sales. Residents can receive a credit whenever they produce their own electricity, said Nick Assendelft, a public information officer for the Michigan Public Services Commission, based in Lansing. This net metering program encourages customers to produce electricity through solar, wind and water while remaining connected to the utility for when those sources are unavailable. That’s in case the winds don’t blow strongly enough or if the sun is blocked by clouds, Assendelft said. “Let’s say you own a farm and want to install a windmill or solar panels,” Assendelft said. “You’re still hooked up to an electric grid, so if you can’t use alternate energy, you can still have electricity.” The amount generated in Michigan in 2017 by personal wind turbines, solar panels and hydroelectric systems is enough to meet the energy needs of 2,000 to 3,000 homes at once, said Jared Johnson, professor of physics at Grand Rapids Community College. There is still room for the program to grow, Assendelft said. However, the Public Services Commission doesn’t estimate how many more customers will participate. Brian Wheeler, senior public information director for Consumers Energy, said interest in clean energy will lead more customers to generate their own electricity. The net metering program had 3,277 customers in 2017. Most customers use either solar or wind energy, according to the report. A small percentage of customers use hydroelectric sources of energy. Overall, 93 percent of the people producing their own electricity have installed solar panels and the remaining seven percent have installed wind turbines or hydroelectric projects, according to the report from the Public Services Commission. These numbers do not include wind farms owned by utility companies, Assendelft said. Southeast Michigan produces the most  renewable energy. One noticeable trend is the heavy use of renewable energy along shoreline counties in the Lower Peninsula. Solar energy sees the most use in Oakland and surrounding counties. Kent County has the most solar use in the west and Delta County has the most solar use in the Upper Peninsula. DTE Electric and Consumers Energy sell the most alternative energy equipment to individual producers. DTE has 1,705 customers and Consumers Energy has 939 customers, according to the Public Services Commission. LANSING — As winter storms continue and record Great Lake water levels rise, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is urging Michigan residents to remain wary of coastal erosion that can turn dangerous.  The Corps is warning of docks and breakwalls that break off into the lakes, endangering both residents and watercraft. The Corps said water levels at the start of 2020 were higher than they were at the same time in 2019, which was already a record-breaking year.  In  Manistee, City Manager Thad Taylor said coastal erosion has caused significant damage to public facilities. “Mostly recreational areas have been affected,” Taylor said. “The retaining wall for our boat launch has been damaged, parts of our riverwalk have been torn out due to high winds and ice jamming, and a large section of a pier was destroyed about six weeks ago.”  The damage has been steady since last summer. The city plans additional repairs, including the placement of rocks and boulders along the shore to lessen the impact of wave action.  “We’ve already spent over $1 million to repair damages to roads, breakwalls and docks,” Taylor said. “Much of that has been reimbursed by our insurance company, but we still expect to have to spend at least another $1.5 million to stabilize the shoreline.”  With expensive damages piling up, several senators and representatives have called for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to declare a state of emergency. They include Rep. Bradley Slagh, R-Zeeland, House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, and Rep. Terry Sabo, D-Muskegon.  According to Michael Ruddock, a governmental affairs assistant for the Michigan Association of Counties, that would allow the state to petition the federal government to free up federal funding and repair municipal areas. “As of now, there is no available funding to help affected parties,” Ruddock said, “but we do have nominal grant funding through our department to help communities develop resiliency plans.”  A state of emergency could also provide funds to assist homeowners seeking repairs. According to Nick Assendelft, a public information officer for the Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy, reports of erosion damaging private property number in the hundreds.  “Erosion is affecting all areas,” Assendelft said, “from private property to municipal facilities and park land.”  Ruddock and the Association of Counties said that the financial toll on property owners of coastal erosion is high.  “Flooding and erosion can have severe financial impacts,” Ruddock said, “such as having to set back a home in the face of advancing erosion or having to front the cost to clean up debris that has fallen into the water.”  Some homeowners are attempting to combat the destruction and flooding by erecting temporary barriers.   To assist them the department and the Army Corps have begun a joint effort to speed up the permitting process. According to Assendelft, the project will reduce the time needed to process permits and limit the cost of applying.  “We’ve been able to turn around a number of permits within a few days,” Assendelft said, “instead of the 30 to 60 days that we’d see typically in the past.”  Since implementation began in the fall, the department has seen a spike in the number of permit applications. From the start of the 2020 fiscal year, Oct. 1, 2019, through  Jan. 1, there were 452 permit applications for work along the Great Lakes shoreline.  “The (applications) we’ve received in the first quarter of this fiscal year are more than half the total received for the entire fiscal year of 2019,” Assendelft said. “If that rate holds up, we could be looking at more than 1,800 applications for the full year, compared to 836 for fiscal year 2019.”  Assendelft said residents can apply for temporary barrier permits at https://miwaters.deq.state.mi.us/miwaters/external/home, and all applications are jointly reviewed by the Corps and the department.  “People seeking a permit should apply for one as soon as possible,” Assendelft said, “in order to avoid situations where they need truly immediate work.”  According to Ruddock and the Association of Counties, there is no easy solution to shoreline erosion. Permits are valid for only five years. For properties that use temporary barriers, uneven erosion can become a problem. According to Ruddock, sandbags slow water damage, but in doing so they can lead to higher water at neighboring properties. The public can monitor weekly water level reports at the Corps website. https://www.lre.usace.army.mil/Missions/Great-Lakes-Information/Great-Lakes-Information.aspx#ICG_ETH_22302  This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Logout Gateway to the world of smart farming Dutch company GPX Solutions is once again providing a tractor for NPPL participants this year GPX significantly improved its autonomous systems and developed a new autonomous retrofit package In collaboration with the National Fieldlab for Precision Farming (NPPL) project and Wageningen University & Research Dutch companies De Bruijn Mechanisatie and GPX Solutions provided a Steyr Expert 4130 CVT with the autonomous iQuus Control system last year The Steyr tractor equipped with iQuus Control toured NPPL participants in the Netherlands under the supervision of NPPL expert Koen van Boheemen Their practical experiences revealed that the autonomous system still required constant supervision and that programming was not user-friendly During May, June, and July, a Fendt 716 (171 hp) with iQuus Autonomy will be tested among NPPL participants is more autonomous and comprehensive than its predecessor GPX Solutions hopes that arable farmers can enjoy a cup of coffee with peace of mind while the tractor autonomously carries out its tasks GPX has developed a system allowing farmers to program routes for the tractor themselves making it more flexible in its applications Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the agricultural sector Twin companies that own and operate failed Midland-area dams that caused widespread flood damage have filed for bankruptcy amid attempts by residents to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars Boyce Hydro LLC and Boyce Hydro Power LLC filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday in federal bankruptcy court in the Eastern District of Michigan The move came more than two months after historic rains between May 17 and May 19 led to widespread flooding in Midland and Gladwin counties.  Boyce Hydro listed more than $7.1 million in liabilities owed to its 20 largest creditors Both limited liability corporations owe more than $6.1 million to Chicago-based Byline Bank for a federal loan Boyce Hydro also listed a $418,153 owed to Midland-based Gerace Construction and more than $152,000 to New York-based Gomez & Sullivan Engineers the Edenville Dam bordering Gladwin and Midland counties broke sending a surge of water down the Tittabawassee River and over the top of the Sanford Dam downstream Gretchen Whitmer requested a federal disaster declaration from President Donald Trump and estimated the flooding caused approximately $245 million in damages across five counties.  Attorney Geoffrey Fieger filed two proposed class-action lawsuits in May seeking $500 million for Midland-area flood victims, claiming the owner of the dams and the State of Michigan were negligent in maintaining them. “Boyce Hydro’s bankruptcy filing shows once again the company’s disregard for the residents of mid-Michigan," Nick Assendelft, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, wrote in a statement. "For years, it ignored pleas by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make sure its dams met strict safety standards. Now, it’s ignoring pleas from area residents to take responsibility for the company’s two collapsed dams." The state department will continue investigating the dams' failures, Assendelft said. "The team will examine the contributing factors that led to the failures of the Edenville and Sanford dams in mid-May," Assendelft wrote. "The team’s recommendations will inform next steps in the dams’ futures." A bankruptcy case filing indicates several contractors that helped stabilize the dams after the flooding have not been paid. The contractors have filed liens against the properties but Boyce Hydro co-manager Lee Mueller believes the debts will be classified as unsecured. “I am personally devastated and am in despair for all property owners who have been impacted — many of whom I know personally,” Mueller wrote in the declaration filed in bankruptcy court. “I am frustrated by years of unwillingness by homeowners to contribute to improvements that could have improved the dam for everyone, and with the regulatory decisions that directly caused this catastrophe.” The Edenville and Sanford dams most likely will be condemned, Mueller wrote. Otherwise, the debtors would consider liquidating valuable equipment in the dam houses. Before filing bankruptcy, the debtors reached agreement on a settlement with liability insurers that provides more than $3 million to the bankruptcy estates, Mueller wrote.  Photo: Van AssendelftAccording to a leading animal welfare behaviour specialist greater use of on-farm hatcheries will reduce the stress of young chicks which has an adverse effect on growth and mortality rates Transporting day-old chicks even across a small distance can cause stress senior lecturer in poultry behaviour at the School of Natural and Environmental Science Prof Asher has been looking a distress calls for commercial monitoring of broiler chick welfare and found that chickens make 30 different calls distress calls are an indicator of something negative Consistent distress calls have lasting effects on growth and the ability to cope with stress Chicks tend to make such calls when they are isolated from other birds Prof Asher told a National Farmers’ Union poultry research seminar that if other birds heard these types of calls made in the early days of life (3-7 days) such stress could be contagious and be passed on to other birds Trials have been taking place on 12 commercial flocks with evidence pointing not only to distressed chicks linking to lower weight gain up to day 32 Prof Asher was particularly interested in a presentation by Lancashire farmer Glen Haggart who plays music in laying sheds to improve bird welfare whose 64,000 birds produce eggs for Stonegate Farmers said he believed music and sounds reduced anxiety reduced aggression and increased egg production Mr Haggart has non-beak trimmed Burford Browns which he wants to take to more than 80 weeks Taking the white birds to 100 weeks with full feather coverage is a challenge he accepts but one in which he thinks music can make a difference UK egg farmer plays music to his hens Egg producer Glenn Haggart has for the past 4 years been trialling sounds and music in hen sheds to his 64,000 birds. And he believes so strongly that music is making a difference to his hens that he will trial out his finding on a new flock of Dekalb Whites. Additionally, they face ongoing welfare and consumer concerns, most notably in the challenge around beak trimming, where pressure is growing for the UK to follow Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, and Norway in imposing bans. Changes in management techniques, knowledge sharing, and ways to reduce stress levels in flocks needed to be addressed and taken forward, she argued. Logout Gateway to the global feed industry The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine has approved a long-awaited registration dossier which has finally unlocked the procedure for state registration of feed additives in the country Ukraine’s parliament passed the law on Feed Safety and Hygiene This law sought to bring Ukrainian veterinary standards in line with European regulations blocked the registration of feed additives Dmytro Kyryliuk, committee manager of the European Business Association warned that the new law brought strong turbulence to Ukraine’s feed additives market He said it has caused a disruption in supplies and has forced some farmers to change feed composition The share of imported feed additives in Ukraine ranges between 75% and 90% president of Ukraine’s pig farmers association With no timely measures taken to address this issue it could have worsened feed compositions used by some companies in Ukraine and impair the financial performance of livestock companies all companies submitting an application to register a feed additive in Ukraine must submit a registration dossier which has a detailed description of the product the absence of an approved registration dossier form has meant that the entire state registration system was not operational passed a decree allowing the re-registration of feed additives this decision prevented the livestock industry from a complete collapse as state registration in Ukraine was valid for 5 years up to 30% of all permits were about to expire The new rules primarily concern feed additives that have never before been registered in Ukraine it is believed that not a single new feed additive passed state registration in Ukraine in the past year whose activities are related to the production and circulation of feed have the opportunity to register safe and high-quality feed additives,” said Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine She added that the registrational dossier standards had been developed in accordance with European legislation “Its adoption was an important step in bringing the Ukrainian feed market in line with EU requirements,” Novikova said the lack of regulatory requirements for the registration dossier blocked the procedure for state registration of these products and created an artificial shortage of feed additives in Ukraine.” Water sample tests show that contaminant levels near a property with a history of chemical and radioactive contamination that collapsed into the Detroit River "were not detectable or well below water quality standards," the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy announced Wednesday afternoon.  The department took three samples near the site on Jefferson Avenue near the Ambassador Bridge leased by Detroit Bulk Storage 27 — one 2,540 feet upstream from site one directly in front of the spill area and one 1,040 feet downstream.  The samples were analyzed at the department's Lansing lab with test results showing no detectable levels of PCBs metals or several other industrial pollutants but at levels "well below water quality standards," according to EGLE.  EGLE spokesperson Nick Assendelft said the test results are encouraging.  "We're certainly going to stay on top of this," Assendelft said "Just because these samples were clean doesn't mean we're done with our assessment This probably isn't the last chapter in this story and we're going to take a look and see if there's anything more we need to do."  The site was once home to Revere Copper and Brass, which during World War II produced materials used to make atomic bombs as part of the Manhattan Project and according to a 2011 study by the U.S National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for significant residual radiation.” On Friday EGLE announced the Detroit River's radiation levels were at or below normal Bob Burns of Friends of the Detroit River said although tests show chemical and radioactive levels are below state regulation his organization is concerned with other impacts regarding the "tremendous amount of material spilled." There is a fish nursery habitat just a few hundred feet from the spill site Burns said he's "concerned about sediments negatively affecting it with the current pushing that material around," in addition to erosion and other environmental and wildlife disruption.  It will take several months and a contracted cleanup crew to remediate the environmental effects of the dock collapse The City of Wyandotte and the Great Lakes Water Authority are conducting independent water tests.  "We will continue to be open and transparent in terms of what we're doing and will be keeping the public informed," Assendelft November's incident is not the first time a site leased to Detroit Bulk Storage has collapsed.  the collapse occurred under the weight of more than 100,000 tons of road salt Contact Omar Abdel-Baqui: 313-222-2514 or oabdel-baqui@freepress.com Detroit Bulk Storage had similar Detroit River bank collapse in 2011 Uranium-contaminated site in Detroit was part of Manhattan Project Tests show Detroit River safe after collapse of uranium-tainted site, regulators say Uranium-contaminated site collapses into Detroit River An inspection report released Thursday that was underway before the Edenville Dam's May 19 failure confirms that it did not meet state capacity requirements before the flood The report affirms the state's January preliminary finding and comes amid biting criticism of state regulators and Attorney General Dana Nessel by the Four Lakes Task Force a bi-county authority that had agreed to buy that dam and three others from Boyce Hydro "were trying to get control of their future over a bureaucratic system that was failing us," the task force said in a statement "We implore the attorney general to insist that her Environment Natural Resources and Agriculture Division work from the facts and apply critical thinking to the problem and insist on it from all parties involved Our devastated communities deserve that much." The task force statement said its engineers told state regulators in September 2019 that the dam did not meet state standards The Four Lakes Task Force said it "does not believe” the dam met the state’s dam safety requirements Great Lakes and Energy spokesman Nick Assendelft said late Thursday "As we were building our knowledge of the dam’s history and current condition since taking over regulatory control in October 2018 it was extremely important to EGLE that we obtain the best and most definitive information," Assendelft said "We anticipated that the receipt of the consultant’s report in March would be a key part in determining with certainty whether suspicions we and others had about the dam’s spillway capacity were accurate." said the task force's contention that EGLE was aware of the dam safety reports and its belief that it did not meet the state’s probable maximum flood requirements is “absolutely true.” the task force also said the state had access to all dam safety reports from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission after it revoked the Edenville Dam's license to generate electricity in September 2018 regulatory authority of the structure fell to Michigan's environmental department.  The state suggested in filing a lawsuit against dam owners Boyce Hydro Power this week that it had difficulty obtaining information from FERC suggesting this delayed its ability to get up to speed on the dam's condition.  FERC revoked the license more than two decades after determining it could not withstand the maximum probable flood for that area and having been unable to compel Boyce to expand its spillway capacity requiring the dam's ability to withstand 50% of the maximum probable storm event It turns out that the dam could withstand neither according to the engineer's report released Thursday It was prepared on behalf of the task force by Spicer Group and submitted to the state on June 4 The Four Lakes Task Force was created by Midland and Gladwin counties to purchase the dams and preserve the four lakes that they create (Sanford 2 a deal to buy the dams for $9.4 million and invest $100 million in upgrades to maintain their safety more than four inches of rain fell on the Titabawassee River watershed The National Weather Service has called it a once-in-200-year rainfall event although some state officials have suggested without citation an even more infrequent interval alterations to expand the dam's capacity to handle bigger storms were expected in 2024 according to the Spicer Group inspection report Four Lakes Task Force has since halted its plans to purchase the dams. In a letter published on Tuesday, it said it still wants to proceed with an acquisition. "We are still committed to our mission to acquire the property from Boyce and restore the damage created by this flood," the task force wrote. In its statement, the Four Lakes Task Force said it agreed to prepare a dam safety report for the state because it expected to close on the sale in January. That closing, it said, was delayed because of difficulty with financing caused by legal fighting between Boyce Hydro and the state. The state sued Boyce on May 1 for allegedly killing rare freshwater mussels and damaging other aquatic life during an unauthorized lowering of lake levels in the winter. The Spicer report, which the state expected in March, confirmed its suspicions, an EGLE spokesman said. "We anticipated that the receipt of the consultant’s report in March would be a key part in determining with certainty whether suspicions we and others had about the dam’s spillway capacity were accurate," Assendelft said earlier Thursday.  The Edenville Dam failed on May 19, draining Wixom Lake and overwhelming the downstream Sanford Lake and dam, which also failed. The failures prompted the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents, a shutdown of Dow Chemical Co. operations and caused an estimated $175 million in damage in Midland County. The specific cause for the failure has not been determined. EGLE is investigating; the task force this week requested an independent investigation. "We have been encouraged by the engagement of every federal and state agency coming into our community to help," the task force's statement read, before turning attention to state regulators and the attorney general. "Well almost." 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Click here to login .st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Mark Tower | mtower@mlive.comGRAND RAPIDS MI -- The Line 5 oil and gas pipeline crossing the Straits of Mackinac But the maximum pressure at which liquids are pumped through the pipeline has been decreased, according to a Friday, April 27, Enbridge Energy statement The decrease in pressure is a precaution requested by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) the federal agency that provides oversight of pipelines like Enbridge's Line 5 according to a statement from Michigan Agency for Energy spokesperson Nick Assendelft Divers inspecting the twin underwater oil pipelines on Wednesday discovered "marring on the surface of the pipelines," Assendelft said in a statement Enbridge is now developing plans to repair and reinforce the pipeline at those damaged locations and state regulators support the decision to reduce pressure "State agencies fully support this action as a critical precautionary step," Assendelft said Enbridge called the new operating pressure restrictions a "precautionary and prudent measure," and company spokesperson Ryan Duffy said the reduction was enacted "in consultation with PHMSA." "We took this step in close consultation with our federal regulator PHMSA and with the State of Michigan," Duffy said in a statement "Line 5 is tested at more than 1200 pounds per square inch the maximum pressure we're allowed to run at is 600 psi we elect to operate the line day to day at just 150 to 200 psi." A spokesperson for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration called the pressure restrictions "voluntary." The federal agency said the new restriction amounted to a roughly 40 percent reduction in pressure from normal Duffy later clarified his earlier statement "150 to 200 is what we have always operated at The only change now is the reduction in max pressure is lower Great Lakes executive director for the National Wildlife Federation and a member of Michigan's Pipeline Safety Advisory Board said a reduction in pressure is not enough to protect the Great Lakes "All flow into Line 5 should be stopped immediately to protect the Great Lakes from imminent danger of an oil pipeline rupture until and unless independent analyses show that the pipeline is safe," Shriberg said "If Line 5 is so damaged that an emergency flow restriction is necessary then it is too unsafe to continue to operate in the Straits of Mackinac and risk the water This should be the beginning of the permanent decommissioning of Line 5 in the Straits." Enbridge also provided two photographs of the damaged areas of Line 5 An underwater photograph of Enbridge Line 5's eastern leg shows what the company calls "apparent contact areas," which are circled believed to be damage resulting from an April 1 incident in the Straits of Mackinac Shriberg questioned the lack of detail contained in Enbridge's Friday statement "The continued lack of transparency by Enbridge their continued claims that 'everything is fine' before finally being forced to admit it's not is insufficient to provide Michigan citizens with the confidence that their water is safe," he said "Release two grainy images and a few bullet points late on a Friday afternoon does not constitute transparency All images and the full video need to be publicly released immediately And independent analyses of the damage must be undertaken." Enbridge previously reported to state officials that inspections of the pipes revealed "three dents," likely caused by whatever damaged adjacent power cables on April 1 Those damaged areas are where divers later found the marring An underwater photograph of Enbridge Line 5's western leg shows what the company calls "apparent contact areas," which are circled The damage to Line 5 resulted from an April 1 anchor strike, according to a lawsuit filed by the state against Escanaba-based shipping company VanEnkevort Tug and Barge Inc A tugboat and barge owned by the company were passing through the straits at the time and dragged an anchor across the lake floor according to the lawsuit filed earlier this month by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette A VanEnkevort spokesperson confirmed the company had a vessel passing through the straits on April 1 but has not admitted responsibility for the damage to the underwater power cables or oil pipelines The alleged anchor strike is blamed for damaging Line 5 a decommissioned Consumers Energy cable and a network of power cables operated by Wisconsin-based American Transmission Company Two cables in American Transmission Company's six-cable electrical transmission system were severed causing the release of an estimated 600 gallons of dielectric fluid into the water which operates as an insulator inside the electric transmission cables is potentially fatal for humans if swallowed and "very toxic to aquatic life," according to the manufacturer's safety data sheet Crews responding to the spill began extracting remaining dielectric fluid from the lines shortly after April 1 Coast Guard reports more than 600 gallons of the fluid has been extracted with each of the two damaged cables capable holding about 400 gallons Though Enbridge has conducted two single-day shutdowns of Line 5 since April 1 it has rejected calls to shut down operations permanently and maintains the newly discovered damage poses no threat to the pipeline's structural integrity "The structural integrity of the pipes remain sound and the regular operations of the pipelines continues at the reduced pressure limit," Duffy reiterated in Friday's statement Assendelft said state officials remain in contact with Enbridge Energy about the state of the Straits of Mackinac crossing and have not identified any evidence of leaks from the twin pipelines "Tests conducted by Enbridge and reviewed by the state have shown that Line 5 continues to operate without leaks," he said in a statement The damaged Consumers Energy cable was not known to be damaged until visual inspections were completed by a remotely operated underwater vehicle earlier this week Installed in 1956 and de-energized and retired in 1990 that cable did not contain fluids like the ATC lines according to a Consumers Energy press release Some have pointed to the dielectric fluid spill as a warning of what could be a much more catastrophic ecological disaster if Line 5 were to rupture and begin spewing oil into the Straits of Mackinac Previous inspections of the section of Line 5 crossing the straits have revealed bends and deformations of the pipe and numerous gaps in its protective coating A number of environmental groups and others, including the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, have renewed calls for a permanent shutdown and decommissioning of the entire length of Line 5 in Michigan -- not just its Straits of Mackinac crossing and transports up to 540,000 barrels of light crude oil and natural gas liquids per day It crosses the Straits of Mackinac west of the Mackinac Bridge as does the ATC power cables and the twin natural gas pipelines operated by TransCanada Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025) © 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us) The material on this site may not be reproduced except with the prior written permission of Advance Local Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site YouTube's privacy policy is available here and YouTube's terms of service is available here Ad Choices \n m_gallery = \"oil_leaks_from_power_cable_spa\";\n m_gallery_id = \"5a3d14ca8c\";\n m_gallery_title = \"Oil leaks from power cable spanning Straits of Mackinac\";\n m_gallery_blog_id = \"\";\n m_gallery_creation_date = \"Tuesday 12:46 PM\";\n m_gallery_permalink = \"https://www.mlive.com/expo/erry-2018/04/5a3d14ca8c/index.html\";\n m_gallery_json = \"https://expo.advance.net/static/5a3d14ca8c/data.json\";\n m_gallery_pagetype = \"embed\";\n m_gallery_type = \"photo\";\n<\/script>\n Gallery: Oil leaks from power cable spanning Straits of Mackinac Michigan’s automotive future is looking more electric have announced pilot programs in the coming year that will study the number and efficiency of charging stations and consider improvements to promote the adoption of electric vehicles The Michigan Public Service Commission has held two conferences on “alternative fuel” vehicles to encourage public discussion of the state’s role in electric vehicle charging the media relations and public information specialist for the commission Participants raised questions about the regulatory framework such as whether users would pay directly for charging stations or through utility companies Pilot programs discussed included initiatives by Consumers Energy and DTE Energy to partner with automakers and charging station companies in places like Ann Arbor and Detroit Consumers Energy presented its “Electric Vehicle Strategy.” The utility plans to seek opportunities such as streamlining home charging equipment installation working with General Motors to improve at-home charging and beginning a three-year pilot program on infrastructure DTE presented a plan to start six pilot programs in 2018 including charging “showcases” in Detroit and Ann Arbor and “extreme fast” charging on highways Consumers Energy press officer Brian Wheeler said the company is    interested in doing what it can to promote development of electric vehicle infrastructure The company’s hope is that Michigan will be a leader in electric vehicle technology just like it became a leader when the auto industry  started up Part of building a network for charging will include home Consumers Energy will look into encouraging installations through methods such as rebates No formal plan for the upcoming pilot project has been submitted yet and there’s currently no timetable but a plan should be submitted to the Public Service Commission soon “This is really an exciting time because while electric vehicles don’t make up a large portion of what you see on the road now  It’s growing and it’s going to continue to grow,” Wheeler said Michigan Electric Auto Association President Bruce Westlake said electric cars are becoming more popular because the economics are becoming more viable: The last few years’ worth of electric vehicles from Tesla and other automakers  are much more affordable and cost less to operate than gas-fueled cars The association just completed two Earth Day events In the 10 or more years such events have taken place Westlake said he saw the most electric engines this year Michigan sits in about middle-of-the-pack for the number of electric cars in the state While some states have incentives for purchasing electric vehicles Michigan in some ways punishes drivers for purchasing electric cars Michigan electric car owners  pay an additional $135 to register their vehicles Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center says there are 362 public stations for electric vehicles in Michigan Michigan has the 17th-most public charging stations although it’s the 10th most populous state state or federal incentives for public or home charging stations for electric vehicles it might not have a large impact on electric car ownership Charging stations are a “chicken or the egg” kind of situation Westlake said: Most people want to know if there’s charging infrastructure available before they buy but the vast majority of the time they’ll be charging at home We're a project of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University. More Catch of the Day By David Strayer If you’ve driven Michigan’s highways lately you’ve probably seen the billboards: a big picture of a lanternfly The spotted lanternfly is a serious pest that is poised to cause […] More Photo Friday Power is supplied to the electric motor very quickly which gives the electric bus high performance and rapid acceleration More podcasts By Sammy Schuck Most people may know that festivals attract people to Michigan communities What most may not know is that festivals and events in the state are an annual $1 billion industry according to Michigan Festivals and Events Association CEO Mike Szukhent the lack of winter festivals last year “hit hard.” […] More COVID-19 stories Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News Just as some people today dislike English influences on the Dutch language, in early modern times people also criticised the Frenchification of Dutch. But to what extent did French actually leave its mark in our language? PhD student Brenda Assendelft made a surprising discovery. PhD defence 24 May. In the period Assendelft studied, French played an important role in society as a lingua franca. Especially among the upper class, it was not uncommon to communicate largely in that language. 'People wrote entire letters to each other in French, for example,' Assendelft explains. Gradually, this created the impression that French left a big mark on Dutch. 'But the extent of French influences on Dutch has never actually been looked at systematically.'   Assendelft delved into a self-made corpus filled with Dutch texts from 1500 to 1900. She examined the influence of French on native speakers of Dutch who had also mastered French. 'A typical example of influence is that many people have an accent in their second language thanks to characteristic sounds from their mother tongue,' says Assendelft.   The possible influences of French were not limited to the vocabulary of the language. There were suspicions that the language even influenced the sentence structure of Dutch. 'People used to use the relative pronouns dewelke and hetwelk in Dutch. This looks like a literal translation of the French lequel and laquelle,' says Assendelft. Because of the similarity, it was assumed that the pronouns must have been influenced by French. She also found no evidence that dewelke and hetwelk were influenced by French. 'As far as these relative pronouns are concerned, I didn’t find any traces of the rise and fall in popularity seen with French loanwords and suffixes. I found no evidence that these words were influenced by the French language, although more research is needed to know for sure.' Although red mites are not usually associated during the winter when the weather is cooler the introduction of the housing order and the associated closing of pop holes can create favourable conditions for the mite MSD Animal Health UK technical poultry manager: “The birds will already be stressed due to being permanently housed and so producers don’t want to add to this pressure by not keeping on top of red mite.” Birds affected by red mite can display restlessness weight loss and a drop in egg production and quality the parasite can also cause anaemia and mortality red mite suppresses a bird’s immune system meaning chickens affected by high infestations are more susceptible to other infections Producers can create their own simple red mite traps made from corrugated cards rolled up and inserted into a plastic tube similar in diameter to a water pipe They should be placed strategically around the shed where red mites are likely to travel at night and placed in the freezer for a further 48 hours to kill the mites making it easier to count the number of mites “It’s recommended that monitoring is continued throughout the period the housing order is in place because it’s likely that flock productivity and welfare have already been compromised,” said Pitman proactive biosecurity measures are essential to help prevent red mite infestation from spreading keeping equipment clean and avoiding sharing of equipment between poultry sheds is advised Providing clean footwear and overalls for team members to wear in each shed and limiting external visitors on the site should also be considered Defra guidelines say farmers should check for skin parasites like red mite when birds are indoors under the housing order Dive into articles covering trending industry topics Get a glimpse into poultry farms worldwide Photo: Van AssendelftHeat stress poses an increasing threat for poultry production it was hypothesised that it could help in thermoregulation of the chicks after hatching Heat stress is currently considered to be a major environmental factor impairing the welfare and productivity of food producing animals It not only affects the livestock industry in tropical climates it can also be a problem in temperate regions The damaging effects of heat stress on broilers and laying hGet full access to all stories on Poultry WorldThis Premium article is exclusively available for subscribers Red mite is increasingly becoming one of the most substantial issues facing egg producers and is now prevalent across much of the globe. Presenting an overview, Farhad Mozafar, of Lohmann Tierzucht, told delegates that the night bloodsucking mite had first been documented back in 1778 and was now widespread across Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. Only North America is currently free from mite. Mr Mozafar said the mite, which thrives in high temperatures and high humidity and has a life cycle of between 7-17 days, spreads easily on poultry farms through wild birds, insects, rearing units, rodents, poultry litter, pests and humans. It led birds to become restless at night, caused skin and feather irritation, could lead to feather pecking and cannibalism and disturbed the egg function at night. In moderate to severe cases, it led to anaemia, weight loss and immune-suppression. A colony of 5,000 red mites feeding on a bird could reduce its weight by 1g/day but this rose to 10g/day if there were 50,000 mites and 100g/day if there were 500,000 mites: “Very severe infestations led to death, less severe led to a higher feed conversation rate and a drop in egg production,” he said. There was also scientific evidence that the mites can carry and pass on other diseases, including avian influenza. Mites can also survive for very long periods without feeding: “They can survive without a single meal for a year or longer and can tolerate temperatures of up to 45°C and below -25°C. Mr Mozafar said the mites were developing resistance to the acaricides pesticide and this resistance accelerated if the application was given incorrectly. Professor Olivier Sparagano, associate pro vice-chancellor (research) at Coventry University, talked about the work of COREMI, which is improving current understanding and research for sustainable control of the poultry red mite. There are 28 countries involved in COREMI and Prof Sparagano said latest figures suggested the total annual cost of poultry med mite infestations in the European egg laying industry is estimated to be €231m and €3.2bn worldwide. He urged the International Egg Commission to set up a working group on red mite, saying the growing resistance to Carbaryl and Permethrin based insecticides meant there were not many solutions available. This was leading to products from the black market being used, as seen in the recent fraud case involving Fipronil. Prof Sparagano said a multidisciplinary coordinated approach was needed to tackle the mite, particularly as more poultry keepers were facing skin rashes and disorders. “We need to work with physicians who don’t understand the problem and its threat potential, entomology experts, dermatologists and vets.” He said there had been positive drivers in the last five years include greater communication and education of the issue and a few vaccine candidates are emerging with good laboratory results. But this was tempered by the number of products disappearing from the market not being compensated by new ones and more human health issues. Dr Monique Mul, researcher at Wageningen University, Netherlands, said a sustainable solution through integrated pest management was the way forward in tackling the mite. Dr Mul warned that by not dealinig with red mite poultry producers faced a raft of other diseases, including salmonella. “Solely using chemicals is a dead-end solution. You can’t just spray and think the outbreak is over. It is only sustainable as part of an integrated pest management policy, which requires constant effort, time, money and attention.” She advocated a prevent and suppress policy, stressing the importance of removing soft and hard manure and cleaning the poultry house. It was vital to cover conveyor belts, aeration pipes, air mixing boxes and other pieces of equipment. Other suppressive measures included the use of liquid silicon or green soap and predators. Farmers need to take care in monitoring infestations of the mite so that they knew when to use the best treatment. An automated mite monitor might be the answer or a visual manual scoring system or traps. Deciding when the mites had reached a threshold was tricky, she admitted, adding that she would like to see more product authorisations and further research in this area. A research team from India determined the chemical composition and metabolisable energy (ME) content of feedstuffs used in ruminant animals The nutritive value of ruminant feed is determined by the concentration of its chemical compositions as well as rate and extent of digestion in the rumen The ultimate goal of feed analysis is to predict the productive response of animals when they are fed rations of a given composition This is the real reason for the necessity of information on feedstuff composition a total of 18 feedstuffs used for ruminant feeding including cultivated non-leguminous fodders like maize and oat; leguminous fodders like cowpea and berseem; agro-industrial by-products such as wheat bran Chemical compositions and cell wall constituents of test feeds were determined in triplicate The crude protein (CP) content was calculated as nitrogen (N) × 6.25 and partitioning factor (PF) values were determined by in vitro gas production technique (IVGPT) It was shown that the CP content of non-leguminous fodders varied from 7.29% (sorghum) to 9.51% (maize) but leguminous fodders had less variation in CP Oilseed cakes/meals had high CP and ether extract (EE) content than other feedstuffs except rice polish Wheat straw contained highest fibre fractions than the other ingredients ME content was highest in grains (wheat-12.02 MJ/kg) and lowest in wheat straw (4.65 MJ/kg) and other roughages TDMD of grains and oilseed cakes/meals were higher than the fodders and agro-industrial by-products It was concluded that the energy feeds showed a great variation in chemical composition and ME content The results of this study demonstrated that the kinetics of gas production of energy feed sources differed among themselves Evaluation of various feedstuffs is helpful in balanced ration formulation for field animals and under farm conditions for better utilization of these commonly available feed resources The full article can be read here Photo: Van Assendelft FotografiePharmaceutical giant MSD Animal Health has launched the first red mite treatment added to water lines that it says can “virtually eliminate” the pest from a poultry farm Launched ahead of the World Veterinary Poultry Association congress in Edinburgh UK the treatment is a prescription-only product named Exzolt MSD said the novel treatment was more effective and safer than conventional sprayed products minimising both bird and worker’s exposure to chemicals The cost of red mite to poultry producers in Europe is estimated at €360 million each year decreasing weight gain and reducing egg quality Conventional treatments are also becoming less effective as mites develop resistance The new product utilises the acaricide fluraliner which targets red mites’ nervous systems after they feed on laying hens It is administered to birds via water lines and requires 2 treatments Check out the interactive Poultry Health Tool – with the latest insights on the 40+ most common poultry diseases and trials undertaken by MSD have suggested the product is 99% effective against red mite for at least 15 days following treatment There is also a zero-day withdrawal period for eggs head of poultry at MSD said: “Eggs from chickens are safe to consume making Exzolt ideal for maintaining the health performance and welfare of flocks while continuing to meet market demands and avoiding economic loss for producers.” LondonTests confirm no elevated radiation levels in Detroit River following dock collapse By The Associated PressPublished: December 07, 2019 at 3:09PM EST Twitter feed ©2025 BellMedia All Rights Reserved