February 24, 2019

Get a Jumpstart on Spring Allergies
By Glenn Ellis

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Even though you may be still dealing with the ominous remnants of winter, it might seem a little early to talk about Spring and allergies that seem to accompany warmer weather- but not really. Depending on where you live in the US, allergy season can start as early as February.

While the majority of America experiences spring allergies in early April, warmer regions often see pollination rise in late February to early March. Most often, the culprit is ragweed, a plant that grows wild all over the country, but especially the East Coast and Midwest.

Those with allergies in the spring are typically allergic to pollen that begins to appear in the air. You may have started seeing tree pollen, one of spring’s main offenders, in the early weeks of February. In the latter part of the season, we will begin to see grass pollen, and the combination can make the spring a miserable time for allergy sufferers. High season usually kicks into gear when the thermometer hits 60 degrees for 3-4 days.

Around 50 million Americans struggle with seasonal allergies each year, and the latest research shows that these rates are increasing, affecting as many as 30% of adults and 40% of children.

As you transition from cold winter to warmer spring, not only will you go outside more often, you’ll also let the outside in by opening windows for fresh spring air.

Here’s a little information you need to know to be prepared for this spring’s allergy season:

When there are higher traces of pollen and dust particles in the air, your body often goes into defense mode. Your immune system’s reaction is to attack these particles by releasing chemicals known as histamines into your bloodstream. It’s these histamines that trigger the symptoms of allergies we know all too well. Your immune system signals your body to make more mucus membranes to protect your eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and throat (hence the itching, sneezing, and running). Pollen comes from budding and blooming trees, grass, weeds and other plants. Allergy symptoms can also increase in response to increased pet dander because both cats and dogs shed more as the weather turns warmer.

While the exact cause of allergies is not known, an allergy occurs when your immune system produces antibodies when exposed to harmless foreign matter. Your immune system is mistaking allergens like pollen and dander for dangerous substances and fighting off them off with the “immunoglobulin E” or IgE antibodies. These produce histamine that can cause the allergic reaction and the telltale symptoms of allergies.

Common asthma symptoms include chest tightness, coughing (especially at night), wheezing and/or shortness of breath. However, many of these symptoms are also seen in other conditions.

Why wait until your eyes are red and itchy and your nose won’t stop running to get medical help? You don’t have to wait until you are suffering to do something about your allergies. Whether you make an appointment with an allergist or start taking medication, it’s important to get ahead of the pollen. Preparing now can help ease your symptoms throughout the season. If you’ve never been allergy tested now is a great time to do it. Learn what you are allergic to and how to treat it before your symptoms get worse.

Start taking medication around two weeks before you typically start to feel your allergy symptoms. Over-the-counter antihistamines and nasal steroid sprays can help manage your symptoms by reducing your allergic reaction after it starts but also before. Antihistamines reduce or block histamines that cause your allergy symptoms. Pretreating with allergy medication before symptoms begin can help prevent inflammation and help ease your stuffy nose, itchy, watery eyes and other allergy symptoms.

When venturing outside, as frustrating as it may be, try to plan your schedule so that you can avoid outdoor activities when the pollen count is highest, typically 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.

It can also help to minimize spring allergies inside your home by shutting out pollen. As tempting as it may be to let the spring breeze in, keep doors and windows closed to minimize allergy symptoms. When spring cleaning, focus on areas in your home where allergens tend to accumulate - air filters, bedding, upholstered furniture, and carpeting. Vacuum often - floors, furniture, rugs - and use a vacuum with a HEPA filter.

Pollen isn't the only spring allergy culprit. Mold can also kick your allergy symptoms into overdrive. Keep mold out of your home by focusing on areas where mold is most common -basements, bathrooms, kitchens, and any areas with leaks.

Not only will April's showers bring more flowers, it might also cause more symptoms for spring allergy sufferers. Rain can promote plant and pollen growth. Wind accompanying a rainfall can stir pollen and mold into the air, also heightening symptoms.

Anyone with allergies and asthma should be able to feel good, be active all day and sleep well at night. No one should accept less. Don't wait for spring allergies to play havoc with your head. Get set for allergy season now.

Remember, I’m not a doctor. I just sound like one. Take good care of yourself and live the best life possible! The reader should always consult his or her healthcare provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for their own situation or if they have any questions regarding a medical condition or treatment plan

Glenn Ellis, is Research Bioethics Fellow at Harvard Medical School and author of Which Doctor?, and Information is the Best Medicine. He is a health columnist and radio commentator who lectures, nationally and internationally on health related topics. For more good health information listen to Glenn, on radio in Philadelphia; Boston; Shreveport; Los Angeles; and Birmingham., or visit: www.glennellis.com

 

Feb. 12, 2019

America Watching As Top Three Virginia Officials are Embroiled in Controversy

This Associated Press image shows Virginia Gov. Ralph S. Northam’s page in his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook. The page shows a picture of a person in blackface and another wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood next to different pictures of the governor. 

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In the suddenly topsy-turvy world of Virginia politics, one fact is certain: Ralph S. Northam is still Virginia’s governor. He also has no immediate plans to resign, despite the uproar and the torrent of calls for him to quit the office some believe he is no longer fit to hold.

The sudden reversal of fortune began when Big League Politics, a conservative, Republican-leaning news and opinion blog, posted a 35-year-old yearbook photo that appears under the governor’s name showing two people, one in blackface and the other in a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood.

The blog indicated that it was tipped off to the forgotten photo published in the 1984 edition of the Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook by a former classmate upset with Gov. Northam’s stance on abortion.

Struck by an avalanche of criticism, the governor initially issued an apology on Friday, Feb. 1.

“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now. This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine and in public service. But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians’ faith in that commitment,” he stated.

He pledged to do everything he could to restore the public’s trust in him.

But at a Saturday, Feb. 2, news conference, Gov. Northam recanted the apology.

Instead, the 59-year-old genial pediatric neurosurgeon with a reedy voice urged people to trust his word that he was not one of the two people in the photo, a position that began gaining support this week as published reports began surfacing in which former classmates agreed that other students were in the photo.

Gov. Northam, who also was criticized for dressing up as a plantation owner at Halloween, said at the news conference that he had never seen the photo because he finished medical school and started a residency program with the Army Medical Corps in San Antonio, Texas, and did not purchase a copy.

The governor also said that while he blackened his cheeks with shoe polish later that year in dressing up like his favorite entertainer, Michael Jackson, to compete in and win a dance contest in San Antonio, he said he was certain the yearbook photo was not his and that he was not one of the two people pictured.

As the governor fought to clear his name, he gained unexpected relief from the controversy when Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax and Attorney General Mark R. Herring both came under their own clouds.

Late Sunday, Feb. 3, Lt. Gov. Fairfax, 39, suddenly became embroiled in an equally explosive controversy regarding a sexual encounter at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston with Dr. Vanessa Tyson, now a California university professor. Dr. Tyson now publicly claims Lt. Gov. Fairfax, forced her to perform oral sex after they went to his hotel room.

Fairfax, a single Columbia University law student at the time, was working on a political campaign.

By Tuesday, the lieutenant governor had displaced Gov. Northam in the headlines as he sought to defend himself. Lt. Gov. Fairfax insisted the encounter with Dr. Tyson was consensual after Big League Politics also spread the information based on an email the blog said was provided by a Richmond friend of Dr. Tyson, Adria Scharf, executive director of the Richmond Peace Education Center and wife of Dr. Thad Williamson, a University of Richmond professor who has been a top adviser to a potential gubernatorial rival of Lt. Gov. Fairfax, Mayor Levar M. Stoney. A second woman, Meredith Watson, has since accused Fairfax of sexual assault, intensifying the controversy surrounding him.

Then on Wednesday, Attorney General Herring, 57, who had urged the governor to resign in favor of Lt. Gov. Fairfax, issued an unexpected admission about his own blackface episode.

Herring said in 1980 when he was a 19-year-old college student, he and friends “dressed up and put on wigs and brown makeup” and went to a party portraying “rappers they listened to at the time, like Kurtis Blow.”

Herring, who immediately resigned as co-chair of the Democratic Attorney Generals Association, called his actions a product of “our ignorance and glib attitudes” and a lack of “appreciation for the experiences and perspectives of others.”

He said in the years since, the memory has caused him “deep regret and shame,” though he added that the past conduct “is in no way reflective of the man I have become in the nearly 40 years since.”

The upheaval has come amid a fast-moving General Assembly session when Gov. Northam is a key player in shaping legislation and Lt. Gov. Fairfax presides over the state Senate.

Amid the new revelations, Gov. Northam was bolstered by Republican House Speaker Kirk Cox’s public statement Monday that the yearbook photo could not be considered an impeachable offense and the fact that the governor’s aides and members of his cabinet have stuck with him rather than resigning. He is soldiering on.

On Tuesday, Feb. 5, for example, Gov. Northam quietly signed legislation providing a $750 million package of incentives for Amazon, which plans to open part of its East Coast headquarters in Northern Virginia.

For those who denounced the governor in the wake of the photo — particularly a wide swatch of elected Democrats near and far — it was simpler when they could take an unforgiving stance solely involving Gov. Northam.

Take the 21-member Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, which has urged the governor to resign and end the turmoil.

“We amplify our call for the governor to resign,” the Caucus stated Saturday after listening to Gov. Northam’s press conference. “He has irrevocably lost the faith and trust of the people. Changing his story now casts further doubt on his ability to gain that trust.”

But the Caucus is among many looking for a fallback position with the new revelations involving the two other top Democratic leaders, notably Lt. Gov. Fairfax, who is first in line to succeed to the office if Gov. Northam resigns.

The Caucus, led by Henrico Delegate Lamont Bagby, did not comment Wednesday on how their members will deal with a governor they have labeled a pariah, but whom they might have to work with. Most of the Richmond legislative delegation also didn’t comment. The only response has come from Delegate Betsy B. Carr, D-69th, who responded on her plan of action with Gov. Northam remaining in office: “As I have always done, I will support and advocate for legislation that helps my constituents and the Commonwealth. I work each and every day to improve the lives of Virginians, and I will continue to do that.”

At this point, it appears the African-American community is far from unanimous. Some want Gov. Northam to stay on the job, while others continue to call for his resignation.

For example, two African-American pastors in the Richmond area, Bishop Charles A. West and the Rev. Dwayne E. Whitehead, told the Free Press they do not believe the governor should resign.

“I don’t think that something that happened 35 years ago should dictate what happens to us now. We are not the same person we were,” Bishop West said.

“Who of us does not have things that we did as immature youths that we now regret?” asked Rev. Whitehead.

Others expressed similar views.

“This reaction to that photo is overblown,” said Jacqueline German, who has an office cleaning business. “I don’t really care what happened 35 years ago. I care about what is happening now. Gov. Northam has done some good things, and I want him to continue doing his job.”

It is still murky as to how much fallout there will be from the yearbook photo.

The College of William & Mary rescinded its invitation to Gov. Northam to attend Friday’s inauguration of its new president at its Charter Day ceremony.

Whether Gov. Northam will face similar rejection from other institutions and organizations that traditionally would want him to participate remains to be seen.

For now, there are only questions. Will he find himself barred from attending the National Governors Association and be struck from the list of potential graduation speakers at Virginia’s public universities?

Will executives of businesses that are opening or expanding in Virginia want to appear with him?

Can he still raise money to help Democratic candidates during the upcoming General Assembly elections in which Democrats were seeking to take control of the legislature from Republicans? Or will the Democratic Party nominees run away from him?

Whatever the future holds, Gov. Northam appeared to spell out his approach to life in his inaugural address when he urged his listeners to embrace hope.

“Hope is not just a source of comfort for the afflicted,” he said. “It is a wellspring of energy to fight for a better tomorrow, no matter what the odds."

Feb. 12, 2019

Justin Fairfax Deserves a Fair Hearing

When African-American men are accused of rape, a sordid history is evoked 

By Frederick H. Lowe

NEWS ANALYSIS

Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Justin Fairfax, the lieutenant governor of Virginia, has asked the FBI to investigate allegations by two women that he sexually assaulted them. The alleged assaults, which occurred years earlier, were never reported to police or to physicians but were reported to the women’s friends.

Dr. Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson, the two women, indicated they are willing to testify at a hearing to impeach Fairfax. Virginia Delegate  Patrick Hope recently said he soon  would introduce articles of impeachment against Fairfax.

Tyson said that Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex on him after they kissed consensually while they were attending the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Meredith Watson, says she was raped by Fairfax in 2000 while the two were students at Duke University.Fairfax has denied the allegations of both women but that hasn’t stopped almost everyone, including Senators Tim Kaine (D., Virginia), Mark Warner (D., Virginia), Kamala Harris (D., California) and Virginia’s Legislative Black Caucus from demanding that he resign.

The sexual assault allegations against him also have taken attention away from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam who admitted wearing black face at a Michael Jackson dance contest and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring wearing black face at parties. Both men said they will not resign from office and they may survive.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Gayle King interviewed Northam who said it was 400 years ago when black indentured servants were brought to the Commonwealth. That comment seemed to go  right over King’s head because blacks brought to Virginia were slaves. Indentured servants paid for their passage and worked for their employer a set number of years until they paid off their debt and were free. King claims she corrected the governor, but I didn’t hear it.

Margaret Brennan, Face the Nation’s host, asked King about the allegations against Fairfax.

She said Tyson’s and Watson’s allegations were very credible. King is a black woman, but no black men or someone who could add a historical context to rape allegations against black men appeared on the show.

U.S. history has plenty of tragic examples.

On June 15, 1920, a white mob in Duluth, Minnesota, lynched three Black circus workers —- Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie —- after Irene Tusker, a 19-year-old White woman charged that the three men had raped her, although a physical examination by a physician established she had not been raped, according to the book “The Lynchings in Duluth.”

Recently, Rick DeSantis, Florida’s governor, pardoned four black men for the 1949 rape of a white woman that never occurred.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (D., Illinois) and U.S. Sen. Tammy  Duckworth (D., Illinois) said they will introduce legislation that would designate the site of the 1908 Springfield Race Riots a National Historic Monument after whites and immigrants burned down an entire black neighborhood after a white woman claimed a  black man raped her. The woman later admitted she made up the story.
Black women are not unbiased observers of the way society treats black men. Some are sympathetic, while  others know they have cachet with whites, especially white men, because they are women and women who are expected to be especially deferential.

I have had this happen to me. I was a member of the Art Institute of Chicago. I was waiting in the gift area of the modern wing for my wife and son who were shopping nearby to join me.
A black woman security guard, dressed in plainclothes, said to her white partner, “ ‘I am going to see what he’s up to.’ ”  With an angry look, she pressed her face close to mine and said nothing. When my wife and son ran up. she told her partner, “Let’go,” and they left.

Another abhorrent incident of this ilk took place while I was a fellow at Northwestern University. The fellows were waiting to visit Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart after twice clearing jail security. I was the only Black man among the fellows who were all younger white women except for one older black woman and an older White man.

A Black woman deputy sheriff walked up to me and wanted to know why I was there. I explained to her that I was a fellow, which she didn’t believe. My answer angered her.
She moved her watch hat with one hand in a threatening manner. Her other hand rested on the butt of her gun, leading me to fear that she was going to shoot me.
I was waiting with the others to go inside the jail. I wasn’t breaking out. I wasn’t an inmate. I was an invited, registered guest.

At some point, I must have dissociated because I can’t remember what happened next. I was subsequently aware the deputy sheriff had left without explanation. None of the other fellows came to my defense to say I was with them.  A few just stared at me.  The Black woman fellow said something which I don’t remember.

I wonder who will come to Fairfax’s defense. People are already building gallows to lynch him over the Internet. He deserves a fair hearing.

Feb. 11, 2019

Citizenship Question Could Hurt Census Count of Black America
By Khalil Abdullah

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Ethnic Media Services

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Constitution requires that America’s decennial census count all persons residing in the United States, not just citizens, a clearly stated objective now at risk.

In a lawsuit brought by plaintiffs including states, cities and civil rights organizations, New York Southern District Judge Jesse Furman ruled on Jan. 15 in their favor against Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ intention directing the Census Bureau to include a question asking census respondents whether they and everyone else in their households are U.S. citizens.

At issue is not only whether the question’s inclusion is legal, given administrative timelines that were missed, but whether it would depress participation, particularly among ethnic populations, thus resulting in an inaccurate count.

Jeri Green, Senior Advisor on the 2020 Census at the National Urban League, termed Ross’ action “a thinly veiled attempt to sabotage and affect congressional and Electoral College representation by deliberately undercounting vulnerable populations and erasing them from the census count.”

Green noted that “out of roughly 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants in America, about 620,00 are black, according to the most recent statistics by the Migration Policy Institute. But equally at risk, however, are the 4.2 million documented black immigrants who comprise a rising share of the black population in the United States.”

Green participated as a panelist in a media conference call co-sponsored by the Leadership Conference Education Fund and Ethnic Media Services.

Census data is used to determine congressional reapportionment as well as the basis to accurately and fairly distribute federal money to states, counties and cities for a variety of programmatic and infrastructure needs. From schools and hospitals to social services, there is virtually no civic arena that is left unaffected by census apportioned revenue – between $700 to $800 billion annually. Data collected in 2020 will inform all such determinations for 10 years, until the next census in 2030.

However, today’s political environment is often inflamed by debates over immigration and related issues, such as a proposed expansion of a wall on America’s southern border or a recently published story in The Washington Post on non-citizen voting in North Carolina -- votes sometimes cast due to ignorance of, or misunderstandings about citizenship status.

Like the National Urban League’s concerns about the dilution and disempowerment of the black vote, and underfunding of programs and services, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) shares the same perspective relative to its Latino constituents.

Angela Manso, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs, NALEO Educational Fund, cited Census Bureau findings in Providence County, R.I., that “over 78 percent of the Latinos surveyed believe that a citizenship question would make people afraid to participate in the census.”

Manso contends Secretary Ross’ insistence to include the question is “designed to erase our presence in this country and impact our growing political force.”

A newly released Pew Research Center analysis of the 2020 electorate underscores demographic shifts that will produce a greater number of eligible ethnic minority voters, especially Latinos.

John C. Yang, President and Executive Director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a panelist on the call, argued for the elimination of the question as well. He explained that its addition would likely produce a lower turnout among Asian Americans, this country’s fastest growing ethnic cohort. A significant percentage of that growth is due to recent immigrants. “One in four Asians in the United States,” Yang said, “are new Americans and have never participated in the Census, and a citizenship question endangers an accurate count.”

Panelists urged Congress to “step in” to resolve the contention over the citizenship question by introducing legislation that would bar its usage. There are concerns that even with Judge Furman’s ruling in New York, a potentially favorable outcome for opponents of the question’s inclusion in a Maryland lawsuit and yet a third trial in California that is anticipated to produce a ruling similar to New York’s, the Supreme Court could decide to hear the case on the government’s expedited appeal.

Though presumably adherence to precedents would prevail at the country’s highest court, a new law specifically excluding the citizen question could put the issue to rest and beyond the reach of Secretary Ross or others who may seek to exploit its use to accomplish a political agenda.

A House bill, the Census IDEA Act, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., that would bar the question’s use, only a few days ago saw a companion bill introduced by Sen. Brian Schatz, D-HI.

Yet, while the panelists argued that a fair and accurate census should be a bi-partisan issue -- as an inaccurate count reduces revenue for Americans in need everywhere, not to mention violates the principle of equality under law -- attempting to enact legislation brings its own risks.

For one, not only would both the Senate and the House have to pass legislation, the President would have to sign it into law. Should he choose to veto it, it would take 67 senators to override.

Terri Ann Lowenthal, a former staff director of the House subcommittee charged with overseeing the census, said the most likely route to pass legislation addressing the citizenship question would be to attach it to a “must-pass bill,” like an appropriations bill.

Meanwhile, with court cases still pending and the final status of the question still unresolved, key deadlines are at risk. A critical public education awaits implementation and there may be a delay in printing the final census forms until after this summer’s target date. Green noted that Census Bureau enumerators, drawn from the communities they survey to conduct the door-to-door interviews when individuals fail to respond to mailed surveys, have yet to be hired and trained. But to hire the 500,00 people needed for the task, the Census Bureau expects to screen 2.5 million applicants.

Green also pointed out that, given the 2020 census will be the first to utilize the Internet as medium of response, the consequences of the digital divide and lack of Internet access may negatively affect response rates from already hard to count communities, typically low-income and rural, and ones where the number of children present in a household are often unreported.

Beth Lynk, Census Counts Campaign Director for The Leadership Conference Education Fund, speaking of the New York ruling, said that “each of the dozens of defects the judge found” would provide a sufficient basis to exclude the question. Especially relevant to traditionally hard to count populations, Lynk cited a quote from Judge Furman’s 277-page decision: “Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people would go uncounted if the citizenship question is included.”

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