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Associated Press

CIMEX LECTULARIUS: Adult bedbugs live on blood — human and animal — and lay nearly invisible eggs.

More bedbugs are biting in Cincinnati

Associated Press

CIMEX LECTULARIUS: Adult bedbugs live on blood — human and animal — and lay nearly invisible eggs.

The biting insects, which can live in mattresses and wall cracks, led to hundreds of complaints in the city last year. It's hard to determine the national scope of the problem.

By P.J. Huffstutter
January 4, 2009

Reporting from Cincinnati -- In this Ohio city, it seems, it really is tough to stop the bedbugs from biting.

When complaints about the bloodsucking insects first trickled in to Cincinnati's public health department three years ago, officials assumed it was an anomaly -- or perhaps the overactive imagination of a bug-phobic public. After all, Cimex lectularius had all but vanished here by the 1950s because of the frequent use of DDT and other now-banned pesticides.

But that trickle of complaints has grown into a flood: A recent public survey found that 1 in every 6 people here has had a run-in with the biting bugs in the last 12 months.

Dozens of fire stations in Cincinnati have had to dump furniture or have their living quarters exterminated because firefighters unknowingly brought the eggs in on their boots or pant legs. Assisted-living complexes have spent tens of thousands of dollars on pest-control companies because, the thinking goes, visitors may have carried in the bugs on their purses or bags.

City health department officials said they now receive more frantic calls about the insects than about mice, rats and cockroaches combined.

If things continue, "we won't be able to keep up with the requests for inspections," said Camille Jones, assistant Cincinnati health commissioner and member of a city-county bedbug task force. "It's a problem that we expect to only get worse."

Cincinnati is not alone in its itchy woes. Reports of a welt-covered public are coming in from college campuses, high-end hotels and even movie theaters across the country.

University officials at Texas A&M in College Station have flown in bedbug-sniffing dogs to root out the insects. The University of Florida in Gainesville reportedly has spent tens of thousands of dollars to clear dorm rooms and campus apartments of infestations.

In New York, there were 8,830 complaints about bedbugs in fiscal 2008, which ended June 30, up from 1,839 in 2005, according to the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The bugs have shown up in unexpected places: An executive with Fox News told the New York Times that the Manhattan newsroom had to be exterminated for bedbugs and have its furniture replaced after an employee tracked the insects in from home.

Task forces aimed at eradicating the bugs and educating the public have been established in numerous states -- including Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Ohio.

In California, the bugs have become such a problem that the state's Department of Public Health started surveying local public health agencies in 2007 to get a handle on the scope of the infestation. Among the reasons cited for the return of the bugs: the DDT ban and an increase in international travel.

Often mistaken for ticks, adult bedbugs are about a quarter-inch long and reddish-brown. They are active mostly at night, and their bites can leave itchy welts on the skin.

During the daytime, they tend to hide near places where people sleep -- such as the seams of mattresses -- or in wall cracks or beneath furniture. The eggs are white, sticky and about the size of a speck of dust, so people can unknowingly spread them from room to room or even across town.

"Set a bag down on the carpet, or walk through an infested area, and it's almost impossible to tell that you're walking out with shoes or a bag that has bedbug eggs stuck to them," Jones said.

The bugs are not easy to kill. Most over-the-counter insecticides won't work, and clearing up the problem can take several treatments from a professional exterminator.

There's also a social stigma associated with the insect, but unlike some other vermin, bedbugs are attracted to blood -- such as a human's or an animal's -- not to garbage.

Renee Corea has battled the bugs in her New York apartment for months but shies away from talking to friends about the details.

"My home is clean. It's always been clean," said Corea, who helps run the online support and policy advocacy group newyorkvsbedbugs.org. "I have lost a lot of belongings because of this. The whole experience was emotionally draining and exhausting. It still is."

But figuring out the extent of the problem nationwide is difficult, entomologists say.

Part of the problem is that cash-strapped cities don't see the insect as a public-health priority. Unlike cockroaches, fleas and mosquitoes, bedbugs aren't known as disease carriers.

"Anyone can be at risk," said Greg Kesterman, director of environmental health for the Hamilton County public health agency, which includes Cincinnati.

Kesterman noted that the county received two complaints about bedbugs in 2003 and nearly 300 in 2008.

"This is not only an urban concern," Kesterman said. "This is everywhere."

p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com

EPA 'Cow Tax' Could Charge $175 per Dairy Cow to Curb Greenhouse Gases

Call this one of the newest and innovative ways your government has come up with to battle greenhouse gas emissions.

Indirectly it could be considered a cheeseburger tax, but one of the suggestions offered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act is to levy a tax on livestock.

The ANPR, released early this year, would give the EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas for not only greenhouse gas from manmade sources like transportation and industry, but also “stationary” sources which would include livestock.

The New York Farm Bureau assigned a price tag to the cost of greenhouse gas regulation by the EPA in a release last month.

“The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog,” the release said. “Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.”

Kate Galbraith, correspondent for The New York Times, noted on the Times’ “Green Inc.” blog that such a “proposal is far from being enacted” and that the “hysteria may be premature.”

But Rick Krause, senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau, warned it’s certainly feasible – especially based on the rhetoric of President-elect Barack Obama and the use of the EPA to combat global warming. Such action by an Obama administration would take an act of Congress for livestock to be exempt.

“The new president has been on record as saying that he really supports regulating greenhouse gases out of the Clean Air Act,” Krause said to the Business & Media Institute. “So, we really have to keep an eye on it. Legislation would really be the only way to exempt it at this point – the cow tax.”

Krause said it is difficult to quantify the cost that might be passed directly to the consumer by farmers from the legislation, but predicted it would mean higher costs for dairy production.

“It’s hard to figure what it would do to consumer prices since farmers, unlike other industries, really can’t pass their cost along directly like utilities and things do,” “About the only thing we could realistically come up, in terms of any of this stuff – it would add between 7 and 8 cents per gallon of milk costs to farmers. So it would cost them 7 or 8 cents more to produce a gallon of milk.”

Even the Department of Agriculture warned the EPA that smaller farms and ranches would have difficulty with limits as much as 100 tons annually on emissions:

“If GHG emissions from agricultural sources are regulated under the CAA, numerous farming operations that currently are not subject to the costly and time-consuming Title V permitting process would, for the first time, become covered entities. Even very small agricultural operations would meet a 100-tons-per-year emissions threshold. For example, dairy facilities with over 25 cows, beef cattle operations of over 50 cattle, swine operations with over 200 hogs, and farms with over 500 acres of corn may need to get a Title V permit. It is neither efficient nor practical to require permitting and reporting of GHG emissions from farms of this size. Excluding only the 200,000 largest commercial farms, our agricultural landscape is comprised of 1.9 million farms with an average value of production of $25,589 on 271 acres. These operations simply could not bear the regulatory compliance costs that would be involved.”

Horse runs into movie theater

BOLDON, England, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Witnesses said an escaped farm horse shocked film-goers when it ran through the automatic doors of a Boldon, England, cinema.

A witness said the horse, one of three that had escaped from a farm, was frightened by a little girl blowing a raspberry outside of the Cineworld complex Dec. 19 and ran straight for the cinema entrance, The Sun reported Monday.

"The horse noticed the cinema and headed towards us, and when it got close, the automatic doors opened and in it came," the witness said. "It was a bit of a surprise -- the general public don't expect to see a horse in the middle of a cinema foyer -- but it was all over in 20 seconds."

Authorities said the horse was captured safely and no one was hurt.

"It's certainly the first time I have heard of this happening and I have worked in cinemas for six years," a Cineworld spokesman said.

Boozy Britain's bloody New Year: A 999 call every seven seconds in alcohol-induced mayhem

By Neil Sears
Last updated at 9:09 AM on 02nd January 2009

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Violence scarred celebrations and led to a bloody New Year across the country as emergency services endured a chaotic end to 2008.

Ambulance control centres reported receiving 999 calls as often as once every seven seconds - the second highest volume of calls since the Millennium - as binge drinkers turned nasty in the freezing temperatures.

Many of the calls related either to alcohol-fuelled assaults or excessive drunkenness.

Bloodbath: A victim of a bottle attack at a club in North London

Booze contributed to time-wasting calls to 999 operators too, with one man calling to ask if New York was in America, and what time it was there.

Elsewhere, while large numbers were ferried to hospitals, in some areas injuries were treated by paramedics in 'booze buses' to leave ambulances free for more serious emergencies.

In Essex, so many drunk people were arrested that all 200 of the constabulary's cells were filled, and overflow revellers had to be shipped to neighbouring Kent to be held for the night.

A huge brawl at a social club in Loughton, Essex, meant 600 rowdy revellers had to be dispersed, with two arrested for attempted murder after a 47-year-old man was stabbed in the eye and back.

Officers stop and question a drunken male about his facial injuries in Newcastle

In Wales, a 999 call led to tragedy when an ambulance speeding its way to an emergency ran over and killed reveller Jason Hawkes, 23, as he stood in the road outside a pub in Beddau-near Cardiff.

In one of the most disturbing incidents an ambulance was wrecked by callous thugs while parked outside the home of a sick baby boy in Tilehurst, Reading.

He eventually had to be sped to hospital in his family's own car.

Mother-of-two Jemma Dromgoole, 22, had found her son Ryan, 19 months, screaming in pain with a limp arm at teatime on New Year's Eve.

Miss Dromgoole said: 'We thought that he had dislocated his shoulder or something even worse. He was so distressed I had to call 999.

Sick and sorry: The binge catches up with this girl

This sequence of pictures shows a reveller having a rest on the pavement in Newcastle city centre

With her shoes off, she at one point places her hand in her mouth

A bystander chats to the woman before, cigarette in hand, she contemplates the evening

'The ambulance was here within five minutes and they quickly decided to take him to hospital because he would not let them near him.

'When we got outside one of the paramedics made a dash for the ambulance. He said he saw a kid on a bike and then told us the ambulance had been put out of action by vandals.

'He asked if we could go in my partner's car to the hospital. What kind of person does that to an ambulance? It's sickening.'

Partygoers stumble as they make their way in Newcastle city centre

Dressed up for the night, two women pass through a scanner to enter an area in Broad Street, Birmingham

The attackers had smashed the windows, ripped out wiring and stolen the navigation and communication system as the vehicle was parked with its blue lights flashing.

Ryan was later sent home without the need for surgery. It was believed he might have twisted his arm while playing.

The reports of a 999 call every seven seconds came from the London Ambulance Service.

A Newcastle reveller shows his facial wounds to a PC

In the early hours of this morning, officers arrest this reveller in Norwich

Last year the problem was even worse but then it was nowhere near as cold, with far more revellers out on the streets.

Spokesman Alistair Drummond said: 'The high volume of calls on New Year's Eve put the service under increased pressure.

'It made it harder for us to ensure we respond quickly to other patients with potentially life-threatening emergencies.

'People should not be drinking so much that they wake up in hospital.

'We would urge them to think more carefully about the consequences of drinking so that they can enjoy the start of 2009 safely and responsibly.'

Violent incidents in the capital included a bloody fight at the Gilgamesh Party in Chalk Farm, where a man was left drenched in blood after allegedly being hit with a bottle.

His injuries were not life threatening. .

The hangover starts here: A partygoer collapses in the street

British Transport Police spokesman Superintendent Brian Pearce - whose colleagues helped control the huge crowds gathered for fireworks by the Thames, said: 'The nature of New Year's Eve in central London has changed. What used to be a relatively low-key, spontaneous night is now a world-class event that attracts thousands and thousands of people.

'Such large crowds create a challenging policing environment. In the main the crowds were good humoured.'

There were 13 'booze buses' or field hospitals specially set up around the capital to deal with minor injuries on the spot.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service received a call once every 12 seconds in the first five hours of 2009 - most alcohol related, and dozens of them inappropriate, including the man asking whether New York was in America.

Fighting in Newcastle upon Tyne left police and paramedics dealing with a number of bloodied young men.

The aftermath of the excessive night of celebrations is likely to add to the huge numbers of workers expected to phone in sick today.

An young woman helps a friend who has almost certainly had too much to drink

According to the Federation of Small Businesses, it will be 'No Show Friday' because many employees will seek to extend their festive break into the weekend rather than bother turning up for work.

Spokesman Stephen Alambritis said: 'It's bleak and freezing, and after the celebrations for New Year's Eve run into New Year's Day, we believe there will be record absences from work.

A stunning image of Big Ben as fireworks light up the London skyline

• Two thirds of us planned to stay at home on New Year's Eve, to save money in the credit crunch. A survey of more than 2,000 adults by Post Office home insurance found only one in eight planned to go to a pub or club. How many changed their mind at the last minute is not known.

• An estimated 700,000 revellers braved freezing temperatures to see in 2009 on the streets of central London. Some 3,300 police officers were on duty to control the crowds. They made 103 arrests including 20 for assault, ten for drunkenness and five each for drugs and robbery.

Enlarge

A street cleaner starts to remove the rubbish in Central London

Wacky Laws Still on the Books in America

AP

In Massachusetts, it is illegal to use a human-shaped target for practice at a shooting range.

In Massachusetts, it is illegal to use a human-shaped target for practice at a shooting range.

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From changing the color of baby chicks to shooting effigies to properly honoring the glory of the log cabin, Americans have spent valuable legislative hours throughout the years making sure we're on the straight and narrow.

As a New Year arrives, here are 10 wacky laws that remain on the books across the country:

1. In Billings, Mont., it is illegal for anyone to sell, harbor or give away rats as pets or toys for any purpose other than to feed snakes or birds of prey. Scientists, however, can keep lab rats.

2. Using profanity is against the law on playgrounds and in public parks in Columbia, Md.

3. The last Sunday in June each year is Log Cabin Day in Michigan.

4. In Michigan, it is legal to kill a dog for attacking chickens, livestock or people, but you can't snuff the pooch in a high altitude decompression chamber or by electrocution.

5. In West Virginia, anyone who taunts someone who decides not to participate in a duel or who declines to accept a challenge is guilty of a misdemeanor and can be sent to jail for up to six months and fined up to $100.

6. In Kentucky it is illegal to sell, exchange, offer to sell or exchange, display, or possess living baby chicks, ducklings, or other fowl or rabbits that have been dyed or colored. It is also illegal to dye or color baby chicks, ducklings, fowl or rabbits. And unless they are at least two months old, the aforementioned animals must be sold in batches of six.

7. At shooting ranges in Massachusetts, it is illegal to shoot at targets depicting a human -- whether as a figure, effigy or a silhouette -- unless you're a public safety officer performing official duties.

8. In Alabama it is against the law to alter the natural appearance of the teeth of a horse or mule to make the animal appear younger than it actually is.

9. In Alabama anyone performing a marriage rite is entitled to a fee of $2 per marriage.

10. In Alabama it is against the law to exploit a bear by promoting, engaging in or being employed at a bear wrestling match, or by subjecting a bear to surgical alteration of any kind, including, but not limited to, declawing, tooth removal and severing tendons.

Man, 72, jumps from second-floor window and extinguishes fire

A 72-year-old Batavia man this morning jumped from the second-floor of his townhouse, broke open a first-floor window and single-handedly extinguished a fire, according to the Batavia Fire Department.

Firefighters were called to Walden Estates, an apartment complex at 337 Bank St., about 3:40 a.m. and arrived to find that the male tenant in Apt. 5 had already extinguished the fire, said Batavia Fire Chief Tom Dillon.

The 72-year-old man and a 71-year-old woman were sitting in the living room, covered in soot at that time, he said. Firefighters helped the couple exit the townhouse.

At some point before firefighters arrived, the man helped the woman down the stairs, Dillon said.

The pair suffered from smoke inhalation and were taken to the United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia, where they were treated and released, Dillon said. The man also suffered from cuts on his feet after he stepped on broken glass.

Something woke the couple early today and the man jumped out of a second-floor window, ran around the side of the townhouse and broke open a window using a shovel. He reentered the townhouse and extinguished the fire using water and a five-gallon bucket, Dillon said.

“We were really impressed by the man’s actions,” Dillon said.

The entire townhouse sustained heavy fire damage and moderate heat damage. The living room was charred, he said. Dillon noted that the house is currently not livable.

He added that the smoke detector was not working last night because it had old batteries.

Firefighters are investigating, to determine the cause.

The Ultimate Fart Silencer

The Ultimate Fart Silencer

Everyone farts… Whether it be in public, on a date, or during an interview, it happens and we know how embarrassing it can be. Luckily, a man named “Big Chicken Mushroom” from WuHan, China, has invented the “Fart Silencer”, a small plastic tube that you… um… put in your anus. The “Fart Silencer” is a small plastic tube with one end that is completely open and the other end having numerous smaller holes in it. Users are instructed to insert the open end into their anus when they feel a fart is coming. This should eliminate any unwanted sound farts tend to produce. Users are also instructed to spray a cotton ball with their favorite perfume and put it into the “Fart Silencer” to eliminate any unwanted odor that might occur. Below is the inventor’s demonstration by uses his mouth as anus, seems like it is working. Here is some video of the inventor demonstrating his “Fart Silencer“, with his mouth of course…