Author Archives: Danzig

Pipe leaks could be tied to March quake – Baker City Herald

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The Idaho earthquake that rattled Baker City happened almost four months ago but one of its effects might have been percolating ever since.

Baker City Public Works crews have recently repaired two leaks in a main water pipeline buried beneath Carter Street.

Although the link is not definitive, its possible that shaking from the March 30 quake near Stanley, Idaho, weakened a joint in the 12-inch-diameter pipe and led to the leak that caused water to pool along the curb on the north side of Carter Street between Seventh and Eighth streets.

The site is near the pedestrian crossing of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

When we get an earthquake like that, movement of the earth, it moves those pipes just a little bit and sometimes it can kind of break a seal and water can find its way out, Fisk said on Monday. So it could have been that but were not sure.

The March 30 quake, which had a magnitude of 6.5, rattled windows and caused chandeliers to sway in Baker City, about 128 miles from the epicenter.

City crews have fixed three leaks on the Carter Street pipe since the earthquake, Fisk said.

We really havent had any others, its just been that area, he said. We had one on Estes Street (one street north of Carter) as well and its a 6-inch cast-iron line.

Although the timing of the leaks suggests the quake might have been responsible, the pipeline, which is several decades old, leaked occasionally before the temblor as well, said Michelle Owen, the citys public works director.

Owen said the city will look to replace the pipeline, possibly including the project in a future fiscal year.

It impacts a lot of people so we really have to determine the best way to replace it, she said.

The cast-iron pipe would be replaced with one made of ductile iron, a stronger material that the city uses in many such replacements.

Early last week city crews repaired a leaking valve along Carter Street.

But with water continuing to puddle on the surface, crews dug up the pipe and found the second leak. They repaired that on Friday morning.

The crew went out and dug up that pipe and was able to pound some packing back in to stop the leak, Fisk said. And they put whats called a bell clamp on that leak so its now sealed and not leaking.

Workers had to remove the concrete curb on the north side of Carter Street.

Fisk said the city plans to build a new curb there before winter.

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Pipe leaks could be tied to March quake - Baker City Herald

Blood on Their Hands | Letters to the Editor – The Chief-Leader

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To the Editor:With the massive increase in shootings and senseless murders of innocent bystanders, some stick out.

Brandon Hendricks 17 years old, a basketball star who just graduated high school and was going to attend St. John's University, was killed June 29. Anthony Robinson on July 5 was holding his 6-year-old daughter's hand walking down the street when he was gunned down. I don't want to try to imagine the kind of nightmares she will have for the rest of her life.

Shatavia Wells on July 7 was shot 8 times for asking someone to stop throwing firecrackers around children and died July 17. Davell Gardner, 1 year old, was fatally shot in the stomach while sitting in a stroller July 12.

What is so painfully sad is that in between theses dates, many others, some children, were shot and killed. And Cuomo and de Blasio still allow this lawlessness to run rampant.

Amid all this loss of life, on July 16 de Blasio holds a press conference with a BLM sign replacing the city seal, and this clown of a Mayor states, "We have fewer people in our jails than any time since WW ll, and we are safer for it, and better for it."

The truth is, the numbers are low because of the failed bail-reform bill, which has given criminals an unlimited get-out-of-jail-free card.

He wants to send advocates out to handle small problems instead of the NYPD. Eric Adams, former NYPD Captain and current Brooklyn Borough President, supports that idea. But now he wants the Anti-Crime Unit back, especially after Shatavia Wells followed his instructions June 21 that communities should stop calling 311/911 for fireworks complaints, but rather "talk to the young people or the people on your block who are using fireworks and warn them of the dangers."

President Trump has promised to send Federal agents to several problem cities, including New York. Cuomo his brain cells kicking in, calls Trump and tells him we have it handled. So Cuomo and de Blasio both grow a pair and kick the protesters out of City Hall Park. Yetsee how long they have allowed the death and destruction to continue.

What I want to know is, why are people not protesting in front of Gracie Mansion and de Blasio's Brooklyn house, why are they not protesting in front of the Governor's Mansion? City and state officials have blood on their hands, and not just for the senseless shootings. They sat back and watched the rioters and looters destroy black and white businesses. They have violated their oath of office to serve and protect and provide safety and security.

All the victims of these turnstile criminals deserve justice. Children, and women and mensome senior citizenshave lost their rights, and in many cases their lives. This cannot stand. They should not be considered acceptable losses in a war.

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Blood on Their Hands | Letters to the Editor - The Chief-Leader

Using the EU taxonomy as a guide to sustainable recovery – Investors’ Corner BNP Paribas

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Many of the hardest-hit sectors, including oil & gas, cars and aviation, have business models that were already under pressure before the crisis from rapidly changing market dynamics and ever-tighter climate regulations. The generous recovery packages on offer, together with the particular circumstances of the crisis, provide them with the opportunity to make bold and ambitious changes that might otherwise have been challenging to implement.

How companies respond to the stimulus, and how they adjust their strategies, will determine their future profitability and long-term competitiveness.

In the EU, the conditions attached to the stimulus will be a defining factor. Policymakers can implement recovery packages that may either act as a catalyst for change, setting these companies on the right transition pathway, or lock in their unsustainable business models and waste taxpayers money.

The European Commission has proposed that the sustainable taxonomy the official EU classification of economic activities and the conditions under which economic activities can be considered sustainable guides investment in Europes recovery to ensure alignment with the EUs long-term ambitions.[1]

We believe governments need to emphasise support that helps companies become sustainable from an economic, social, and environmental perspective. Priority should be given to setting companies on the right transition path.

Any firm in a carbon-intensive sector that receives a bespoke or large taxpayer bailout should develop a detailed strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 at the latest. Transition plans should include short, medium, and long-term targets, and a social impact programme that addresses potential socially adverse impacts on employees, for example, by retraining employees.

The taxonomy could and should guide companies, investors, project promoters and other stakeholders, including policymakers, in the transition to a low-carbon, resilient and resource-efficient economy. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is consistent with EU environmental goals[2], including intermediate targets and a procurement plan for Europe to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

It is important to differentiate between improving the environmental performance of existing assets and ensuring that all future facilities make the maximum effort to be aligned with the low-carbon transition.

The taxonomy is well suited to guiding new investments, so it should inform companies decisions on future investments. These should be directed towards contributing substantially to climate change mitigation (compatible with achieving carbon neutrality by 2050), while avoiding significant harm to other objectives such as biodiversity or clean water. Oil & gas companies, for example, should prioritise investment in renewables or green hydrogen and reduce exposure to assets that risk being stranded.

Recovery investment, grants and spending should not create greater hurdles to the achievement of EU environmental goals or violate social standards. The taxonomy provides the EU with criteria to ensure all investments cause no significant harm (Do No Significant Harm criteria within the taxonomy) in the environment and society (social standards embedded in the taxonomy).

To claim alignment with the taxonomy, economic activities need to substantially contribute to one of the six environmental objectives and not significantly harm any other

In parallel, there is growing pressure to strengthen the governance of companies in the area of sustainability (included in the EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance). The recently agreed recovery stimulus plan should reinforce this trend: this time around, public support from the EU and in many (but not all) other regions will and should come with green strings attached.

In return for support, companies should also strengthen their governance structures in these ways:

Towards a sustainable recovery

Since recovery packages can serve as a catalyst for change, we believe companies should present and commit to transition paths in line with the EU taxonomy as well as strengthen their governance structures in return for support.

In Europe, the taxonomy could form the basis of green transition plans, in combination with the governance and strategy principles of the TCFD[3], as expressed in the disclosure recommendations of the European Commissions Technical Expert Group on sustainable finance.

This is a great opportunity to enshrine long-termism in companies modus operandi and to emphasise the importance of ensuring returns to long-term shareholders, while at the very least causing no adverse impacts to other stakeholders.

Also read Crisis and resilience Navigating a sustainable recovery

Any views expressed here are those of the author as of the date of publication, are based on available information, and are subject to change without notice. Individual portfolio management teams may hold different views and may take different investment decisions for different clients. This document does not constitute investment advice.

The value of investments and the income they generate may go down as well as up and it is possible that investors will not recover their initial outlay. Past performance is no guarantee for future returns.

Investing in emerging markets, or specialised or restricted sectors is likely to be subject to a higher-than-average volatility due to a high degree of concentration, greater uncertainty because less information is available, there is less liquidity or due to greater sensitivity to changes in market conditions (social, political and economic conditions).

Some emerging markets offer less security than the majority of international developed markets. For this reason, services for portfolio transactions, liquidation and conservation on behalf of funds invested in emerging markets may carry greater risk.

[1] The EU taxonomy is a tool to help investors, companies, issuers and project promoters navigate the transition to a low-carbon, resilient and resource-efficient economy, for further information see https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/business_economy_euro/banking_and_finance/documents/200309-sustainable-finance-teg-final-report-taxonomy_en.pdf

[2] The EU has developed a strategy, with specific targets, for each of the six EU environmental objectives - the attenuation of climate change, adaptation to climate change, the sustainable utilisation and protection of water and marine resources, the prevention and reduction of pollution, and the transition towards a circular economy, biodiversity and recycling.

[3] More on the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures

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Using the EU taxonomy as a guide to sustainable recovery - Investors' Corner BNP Paribas

Indigenous communities need to be partners in Canadas COVID-19 recovery plan – The Globe and Mail

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Joseph Quesnel is an adviser on the National Task Force for Real Jobs, Real Recovery. He is an Indigenous policy and governance researcher.

Its easy to forget that at the beginning of the year, Canada was right in the middle of another crisis triggered by a series of protests over a natural gas pipeline being built through northern B.C. The issue of Indigenous reconciliation was front and centre in our national consciousness.

Then, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, damaging our national economy in a way that we had never experienced before. For a natural-resource powerhouse like Canada, this had a measurable impact on our economic performance in the early part of the year. In 2019, natural-resource industries contributed $236-billion, representing 11.3 per cent of the Canadian economy, according to Natural Resources Canada. About 1.7 million Canadians were employed by the sector.

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Now, in this downturn, the manufacturing sector and natural resource extraction have become connected. A significant part of manufacturing is derived from natural resources.

For most Indigenous communities, reserve lands and traditional territories are located on or near resource projects. For example, the energy and mining sectors are some of the main private-sector employers of Indigenous peoples. Many of these resource-based jobs are high-paying jobs that make a big difference in Indigenous communities and provide meaningful steps toward tangible independence. In most cases, resource projects are a direct pathway to First Nation prosperity and wealth. And the vitality of the natural resource sector is intimately connected to the Indigenous communities that service it.

As Canada moves from pandemic crisis response toward recovery, the innovative natural-resource economy must play a central role. And as a result, Canada will need First Nations as full participants and partners in the natural resource-based recovery.

Recently, the national Task Force for Real Jobs, Real Recovery launched to draw up a blueprint for Canadas economic recovery as the country emerges from the COVID-19 crisis. The task force is being convened by Resource Works, a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization committed to the development of Canadas resources in a manner that is inclusive of Indigenous peoples and maintains a clean and healthy environment. Indigenous economic development is central to the work of the task force.

For most Indigenous communities, the sense of frustration comes from economic exclusion. The biggest challenge for Canada is to ensure that First Nations are full partners in the economic recovery, and that we do not simply return to the previous mode of conflict over resource development. As Indigenous business leader Blaine Favel once said: Reconciliation means that Indigenous people should not be the poorest people in lands that belong to us.

The answer to exclusion and resentment is becoming included and empowered. At present, the problem is Indigenous communities and governments lack financial tools that other Canadians take for granted. As Ottawa considers the mechanics of its economic recovery, it must remove barriers to the economic participation of Indigenous communities in the resource economy by providing support for Indigenous communities to become active beneficiaries and partners in the development of large-scale infrastructure.

At present, Indigenous communities under the Indian Act cannot use their greatest asset reserve lands to secure capital or build equity; you cannot place a lien on something that, under law, you do not own. Barring significant movement on the land question, Ottawa and Indigenous communities must work around this obstacle by providing financial tools to enable First Nations communities to lift themselves out of poverty.

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To start, Ottawa can lend Indigenous governments its sovereign government guarantee to secure lending, just as the federal government currently backs Indigenous housing through ministerial guarantees that protect on-reserve mortgages. With such secure loans, Indigenous communities can better invest in major infrastructure projects, including pipelines, and these communities can become equity partners, as well as significant decision makers on environmental protection. And while Canadas credit rating recently suffered a downgrade, it remains infinitely better than that of any current Indigenous government.

New Zealands Indigenous Maori communities despite a history of colonial land dispossession chose to invest money from treaty settlements and placed tribal lands back under Maori ownership and raised billions of dollars in assets. Likewise, Canada must open trusts that are held on behalf of First Nations and use those trusts as well as land claims and specific claims settlement monies toward investing and becoming equity partners in major infrastructure projects.

In the end, if Indigenous communities are equity partners in these projects, they will be invested in project successes, ensuring a pathway toward shared prosperity. Rather than being passive observers, First Nations should be engaged as full partners in the post-pandemic recovery. That would be good news for all involved.

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Indigenous communities need to be partners in Canadas COVID-19 recovery plan - The Globe and Mail

Post-COVID Banking: Now is the Time to Make the Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment Process Match the Rapidly Evolving Risk Environment – JD Supra

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Financial institutions have long suffered from the twin problems of high transaction-monitoring alert volumes and incomplete or low-quality data. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges posed a constant risk to institutions by threatening to overwhelm compliance staff and making it difficult to implement an enterprise-wide risk-based approach. The challenges brought on by the pandemic have only further exacerbated these problems by changing workplace dynamics, customer behavior, and the threat situation. Now is the time for financial institutions to make the enterprise-wide risk assessment process more dynamic so that it can match the rapidly evolving risk environment.

Financial Institutions and COVID-19: The New Normal

Changes to the global economy brought on by the pandemic have caused many companies around the globeincluding financial institutionsto alter the ways they work as well as the way they interface with customers and others. Further complicating these changes for financial institutions is their regulatory compliance burden, which has not changed. Financial compliance departments are thus facing a multitude of new challenges:

What do these challenges demonstrate to financial entities? It is no longer sufficient to examine enterprise-level risks once a year during the annual anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions risk assessment processfinancial institutions need more than a static snapshot of their exposure at a single moment in time. Current risk assessment processes are too often onerous and resource intensive while failing to equip financial institutions with the information they need to employ a risk-based approach that adapts to the evolving nature of these risks.

Shifts in customer behaviors and emerging COVID-19-related threats are triggering a high volume of false-positive transaction-monitoring alerts based on rules meant to identify deviations from expected behavior that may be suspicious. This further strains already stretched compliance teams and amplifies challenges related to the lack of complete and reliable data needed to fully understand expected customer behaviors and risk factors. As a result, pressure continues to build on the compliance controls in place to mitigate risk as traditional, static, rules-based transaction-monitoring systems are unable to adapt to the dynamic risk environment.

It is very easy for financial institutions to go into crisis management mode as they attempt to triage the increasing risks and alerts. However, even during a crisis like the current pandemic, its important not lose sight of how vital it is to take a holistic approach to enterprise-wide risk management to achieve a sustainable and efficient compliance program in the long term. If the current situation has vividly illustrated anything, it is that risks facing financial institutions are not static. Like the weather, risks change constantly in response to external elements such as customer behavior, geopolitical instability, technology, and pandemics, and internal factors such as resources and systems.

Changing How Risk Is Understood and Managed

Financial institutions should seek flexible and innovative approaches to understanding and managing risk. For entities that want to reexamine their approach, a good first step is to review the current risk assessment, as well as the data behind the assessment, and ask:

Ultimately, the long-term goal of any global financial institution should be to have a dynamic and sustainable risk assessment process that provides a real-time or near-real-time view of its changing risk and control environment. Such a system helps an institution identify and rapidly adapt to emerging risks and determine if controls are weakening under strain while creating a continuous feedback loop that strengthens processes and controls.

The Rewards of Change: A Dynamic Risk Assessment Process

Ensuring that financial institutions can confidently and efficiently harness the data already within their systems and map them to identified risk indicators is critical to achieving this more dynamic view of risk in a sustainable way because it presents opportunities for automation and efficiency. Transaction-monitoring systems and controls are one important piece of the data puzzle because they are a key source of data for assessing both risk exposure and the efficacy of controls. To clearly see the full picture, however, financial institutions must also ensure the completeness, accuracy, and accessibility of data in other areas such as customer due diligence files and core banking and payment platforms.

Even in this time of crisis during which financial institutions are facing economic headwinds and struggling to keep up with a rising tide of false-positive alerts, it remains critical for financial institutions to invest in this long-term vision. An integrated approach to risk assessment and data management is critical to moving toward a more sustainable and effective enterprise-wide risk management program. Financial institutions should seize this moment, leverage the existing momentum of changes to processes and procedures, and take the opportunity to enhance the risk and control assessment process and address data challenges. An investment now will pay dividends in risk management and quality data in the future.

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Post-COVID Banking: Now is the Time to Make the Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment Process Match the Rapidly Evolving Risk Environment - JD Supra

How Provident Fund is taxed: All you need to know – The Financial Express

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Provident Fund (PF) is a retirement-cum-savings scheme introduced by the Central Government considering the long term/retirement needs of the population. India is designed as a welfare state. However, owing to resource constraints, schemes like PF, ESI, CGHS, etc. have been designed to make the working population contribute consistently for their needs and contingencies both during and post employment. Contributions to provident funds are made on a monthly / periodic based on the nature of these funds.

These contributions form part of the Public Account of India (NSSF) and are deployed through acquisition of Central and State Government securities. Till date, PF contributions are considered to be the highest tax-free investments which also have a deduction in the year of investment.

To give a perspective:

The contributions to these provident fund accounts are eligible for accretions or interest and are available for withdrawal after a minimum lock-in period. Tax exemptions and deductions are available on both the interest and contributions subject to limits specific therein. For the purposes of Income Tax, provident funds are categorized into:

a. Recognised Provident Fund (RPF) recognized by the Commissioner of Income Taxb. Unrecognised Provident Fund (URPF) not recognized by the Commissioner of Income Taxc. Statutory Provident Fund (SPF) established under the Provident Fund Act, 1925. This is mainly for government employees, universities, educational institutions, etc.d. Public Provident Fund (PPF) established under Public Provident Fund Act, 1968

Tax benefits applicable to each of the above funds are as follows:

COVID Package: As part of the Economic Stimulus Package by the Ministry of Finance amid COVID-19, the following measures impacting the employees were announced:

# Workers registered with EPFO were given an option to take non-refundable advance of their own money in PF Account for any contingency expenditure. The limit for such withdrawal would be 75% of amount standing to their credit in the account or 3 months of wages. [As per April, 2020 report of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, EPFO offices across the country have settled 8,44,947 COVID-19 claims till 30.04.20 disbursing an amount of Rs.2662.41 crores to claimants]

# Further, SPF contribution of both employer and employee was reduced to 10% each from existing 12%, for all establishments covered by EPFO, for the months of June, July and August, 2020

Apart from unrecognized provident funds, all other funds are eligible for significant tax benefits, which is why provident fund contributions are one of the most popular forms of retirement savings.

Mr Mohan Prasad, a retired employee of Doordarshan, claims, Even though we did not have our employer contributing, the fact that I personally contributed year on year to avail maximum tax benefit ensured that I retired with a handsome corpus. India has always been a savings economy. However, the Gross Domestic Savings to GDP has been consistently falling and is currently at 30% (36% in 2007-08) which is significantly lower than China @ 44% but comparatively higher than developed economies like UK @ 16.2% and USA @ 17.9% (world bank). Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong- provident fund contributions and investments have always been considered as the fail-safe for the Indian working class and continues to be the bed rock of our fragile social security system.

(By Divakar Vijayasarathy, Founder and Managing Partner, DVS Advisors LLP)

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How Provident Fund is taxed: All you need to know - The Financial Express

Latest Innovative Report on Cryonics Technology Market 2020 | Trends, Growth Demand, Opportunities & Forecast To 2026 | Alcor Life Extension…

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Cryonics Technology Market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The data which has been looked upon is done considering both, the existing top players and the upcoming competitors. Business strategies of the key players and the new entering market industries are studied in detail. Well explained SWOT analysis, revenue share and contact information are shared in this report analysis.

Cryonics Technology Market is growing at a High CAGR during the forecast period 2020-2026. The increasing interest of the individuals in this industry is that the major reason for the expansion of this market.

Get the PDF Sample Copy of This Report:

https://www.a2zmarketresearch.com/sample?reportId=8260

Note In order to provide more accurate market forecast, all our reports will be updated before delivery by considering the impact of COVID-19.

Top Key Players Profiled in This Report:

Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Biocision, Cellulis, Cesca Therapeutics, Cryologics, Cryonics Asia Ltd., Cryonics Institute, Cryotherm, GE Healthcare, Humai, Kriorus, Oregon Cryonics, Osiris, Panasonic Biomedical, Praxair Technology, Sigma-Aldrich, Southern Cryonics, Thermo Fisher Scientific, VWR

The key questions answered in this report:

Various factors are responsible for the markets growth trajectory, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the global Cryonics Technology market. It also gauges the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat from new entrants and product substitute, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market. The influence of the latest government guidelines is also analyzed in detail in the report. It studies the Cryonics Technology markets trajectory between forecast periods.

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Reasons for buying this report:

Table of Contents:

Global Cryonics Technology Market Research Report

Chapter 1 Cryonics Technology Market Overview

Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industry

Chapter 3 Global Market Competition by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by Region

Chapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions

Chapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type

Chapter 7 Global Market Analysis by Application

Chapter 8 Manufacturing Cost Analysis

Chapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers

Chapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

Chapter 11 Market Effect Factors Analysis

Chapter 12 Global Cryonics Technology Market Forecast

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Latest Innovative Report on Cryonics Technology Market 2020 | Trends, Growth Demand, Opportunities & Forecast To 2026 | Alcor Life Extension...

TOM PURCELL: Laughter really is the best medicine – The Albany Herald

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I missed it again. So did the rest of America.

July 1s unofficial International Joke Day came and went without fanfare.

Thats regrettable because we could all use a good belly laugh right now which gave me an idea.

The other day, after hearing more doom-and-gloom news while driving, I said to the Apple CarPlay app on my trucks stereo, Hey, Siri, tell me a joke.

Siri, Apples voice-activated digital assistant, replied, My cat ate a ball of yarn. She gave birth to mittens.

Thats an awfully corny joke but I laughed so hard, I accidentally steered my truck onto some roadside gravel.

When you laugh like that, its impossible to be angry or to dwell on whatever personal or business challenge may hang over your head

A belly laugh is an antidote to the self-seriousness thats one of the greatest afflictions of modern times. And with a pandemic killing thousands and crippling the economy, plus protests and social unrest, we need belly laughs more than ever. One psychologist suggests practicing laughing with a friend because utter seriousness can drive us to despair.

Social media give everyone a platform to share thoughts, which is good. But some self-serious people get awfully huffy with others who disagree with or challenge their thinking. Theyre so serious and so certain that those who disagree with them are wrong, even evil, that they demonize their detractors.

They dont try to converse, debate or understand differing viewpoints. OK, boomer and OK, Karen memes offer cases in point.

Humor and laughter, wonderfully infectious, keep us from falling into the trap of self-seriousness, promoting goodwill, thoughtfulness and civility. Humor is an elixir, a tonic that is good for mind and spirt, says an executive coach.

Laughters power is incredible and that power lasts.

One of my favorite family stories dates to the early 1950s. Freddy, my dads uncle on his mothers side a real character had a neighbor who was among the first in their area to buy a VW Beetle. Behind the neighbors endless boasting about his Beetles terrific gas mileage was conceit essentially, Im smarter than you, which is why Im getting way better gas mileage than you.

Freddy began sneaking next door at night to fill the VWs gas tank. As he did so, his neighbors boasts grew louder and more tiresome the guy was ready to call the Guinness World Records people, as his VW clearly was getting more miles per gallon than any other Beetle on Earth.

After a month, Freddy continued sneaking next door. But now he siphoned gas from the Beetles tank to the point where the neighbor thought his VW was getting worse gas mileage than any other Beetle on Earth.

Were still laughing at the braggart neighbor who suddenly stopped bragging.

Theres more evidence of the power of laughter. More than 60 years ago, my mother first heard this joke, which she vividly remembers, and still laughs at:

A lady whod been grocery shopping was walking to her car when she tripped and dropped a paper bag and two eggs fell out of the carton and broke onto the pavement. She was so upset that she started crying. A drunk walked up, surveyed the situation, and told her, Dont worry, lady. It wouldnt have lived anyway. Its eyes are too far apart.

We all need to laugh more. It really is the best medicine for our current ails.

Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free.Please support us by subscribing or making a contribution today.

Tom Purcell is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com.

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TOM PURCELL: Laughter really is the best medicine - The Albany Herald

The politicization of medicine during the coronavirus pandemic – WKYC.com

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American is split on the nation's response to Covid-19, but is that anything new?

CLEVELAND COVID-19 and the nations response to it, like seemingly everything else today, has divided the nation.

Whether its masks, hydroxychloroquine, businesses closing down or opening up, or even the severity of the coronavirus, everything about this pandemic has been polarizing.

People believe, in general, whats comfortable for them to believe and convenient for them to believe, Joseph White, a professor of political science and public policy at Case Western Reserve University, told 3News.

White says the politicization of healthcare and medicine is not something new. He cites President Woodrow Wilson neglecting to address the 1918 flu pandemic due to potential effects on the World War I effort, as well as President Ronald Reagan overlooking the AIDS epidemic. However, he says this time is a little different.

Whats unique here is the divisions are far more neatly along partisan lines and identified with party membership, he explained.

The countrys divide on the virus and the responses to it have been felt by the medical community.

Its just not a political issue, Dr. Amy Ray, the Medical Director for infection prevention at MetroHealth, said. For me, its frustrating to watch it be treated as such.

Ray says she understands the different reactions, but its been challenging to deal with.

Everyone is analyzing the data in their own way, she said.

So how did we get here? White says its been happening for years. We went from a nation in disagreement, to a nation divided, ultimately becoming a nation living in two separate realities.

Some of that is from the difference in media sources, he said. Some of that is from what people call the big sort, where more and more democrats live near democrats and republicans live near republicans. Theres disagreements about facts and disagreements about expertise to a point where people simply live in different realities.

While the fractured America will continue to disagree over public policy, Ray and White both hold hope that eventually the nation will get behind one common goal: Defeating this virus.

The virus doesnt care about politics and it certainly doesnt care about elections, Ray said. We, as humans, have to get through this together no matter which political party we belong to or not.

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The politicization of medicine during the coronavirus pandemic - WKYC.com

Fauci Would Have Thought Twice About Career in Medicine Had He Known It Meant Someday Talking to Jim Jordan – The New Yorker

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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Friday that he would have thought twice about pursuing a career in medicine had he known that it would lead to his talking someday to Representative Jim Jordan.

Speaking to reporters after his congressional testimony, Fauci said that, during his appearance in the hearing room, he had been revisiting the series of life choices that had resulted in his being forced to hear Jordan speak.

I could have done so many other things with my life, the esteemed virologist said. I could have been a firefighter. I was actually a pretty good dancer back in the day. I could have given that a shot.

Reflecting on those roads not taken, Fauci added, Had I chosen any of those fields, you can bet your bottom dollar I wouldnt have spent today having to listen to Jim Jordan. Those are minutes Ill never get back.

Fauci clarified that he was very grateful for his career as an an epidemiologist but added, Lets not kid ourselves. If I were a professional dancer, theres about a zero-per-cent chance I would ever be in the same room as Jim Jordan. Oh, wellit is what it is.

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Fauci Would Have Thought Twice About Career in Medicine Had He Known It Meant Someday Talking to Jim Jordan - The New Yorker

Just the Right Medicine – Daily North Shore

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Mitchell Hill

Loud noises rattle Mitchell Hill more than most. At 24-years-old, the Wilmette native endured 42 (and counting) MRI tests to ensure that a brain tumor, discovered when he was 2-years-old, has not returned.

As anyone whos had an MRI knows, the experience is jarringstuffed into a tube, unable to move, nothing to distract your mind from the noise.

The majority of Hills MRIs were done at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital of Chicago Outpatient Center in Lincoln Park. The MRI room had sterile white walls and a looming massive MRI machine that rattled nerves as it stopped and started.

The tests were a very traumatic part of my childhood, Hill recalls.

Hill thought about how this process could be improved not only for himself but for others. He knew several members of Lurie Childrens staff and began to ask them questions.

Northbrook outpatient room PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR

In 2017, he met with a member of the Lurie Childrens Foundation team. They embraced his idea of a more child-friendly MRI room but at the time were unable to take on the project.

So I wrote that one off and thought, okay, its a good idea, but its not going to happen, Hill says.

Fast forward to Lurie Childrens work with Chicago artist Steve Musgrave at its new Surgical Center in Northbrook. Graphic illustrator Musgraves large-scale murals and digital designs have positively impacted childrens experiences at the main hospital.

Lurie Childrens Foundation called Hill and expressed an interest in using similar murals around the MRI machines at its Lincoln Park Outpatient Center. The Foundation gave Hill a dollar figure he needed in order to fund the installationand he was on it.

Lisa Mulvaney, Arts in Medicine Coordinator at Lurie Childrens, likens the installation process to being a conductor. She coordinates with artists, clinical teams, and vendors who fabricate and print the designs.

Its challenging to design illustrations around an MRI machine, Mulvaney says. The goal was to transform the entire feel of the room, and most importantly, the childs first impression.

The idea of transforming spaces and making the hospital feel less clinical and more child-friendly is something that has been part of Lurie Childrens mission from day one, explains Mulvaney.

As Lurie Childrens plans blossomed, so did Hills fundraising efforts. He turned to family and friends for the initial funds and managed to raise the dollars necessary for the Lincoln Park installation. He thought that was the end of it.

Check signing for art installation

Then Hill got another call from Lurie Childrens. They were inspired by the projects impact on patients and families and were beginning a renovation of their MRI suites at the main hospital. The rooms were bigger and so were the fundraising goals$10,000 per room. At the end of the project, there would be 4 MRI rooms.

I told them yes and then got off the phone, Hill recalls. I thought, this just went from a reasonable project to a project five times that amount. How am I going to pull this off?

He realized it would be better to partner with a corporate donor. At the time he worked for Revolution Brewing in Chicago.

If I was going to reach out to Chicago corporations, I might as well start with my employer, Hill says.

So he pitched Revolution Brewings CFO Doug Veliky. Velikys son was struggling with medical issues at the time and he was acquainted with the sterility of MRI rooms. In Veliky, Hill found someone who understood his mission. Veliky became a huge advocate and fundraised 76 percent of the projects goal.

As of now, Hill says he and Veliky have helped transform five MRI rooms at Lurie Childrens.

For 25 of my 40 tests, I had to be sedated because I was so anxious, Hill says. And coming off the anesthesia, as my mom will attest, was pretty extreme.

We want the designs to appeal to kids of all ages, Mulvaney elaborates. Theres also walking the fine line of making the designs friendly and engaging, but not overstimulating for kids who may have sensory issues, she explains.

This past September, Hills journey came full circle when he needed an MRI at the Outpatient Center in Lincoln Park, the first location that he helped transform.

Theres a big window that leads to a room full of doctors controlling the machine youre about to go intoalmost as if youre the subject of an experiment, he notes. With a fox decal, you cant see the doctors in the other room, which I thought was quite pleasing.

It appears that Hill has out-foxed some of the MRI room anxiety.

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Just the Right Medicine - Daily North Shore

Precision Medicine Identifies Key Recurring Mutation in Head and Neck Cancers – UC San Diego Health

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Head and neck cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) account for the majority of these cases. In a new study, based on preclinical research and published July 29, 2020 in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center report that an investigational drug candidate called tipifarnib showed promise in treating HNSCC tumors with mutations in the HRAS gene.

The findings shed new light on the HRAS gene, a member of the RAS family of genes that produce proteins that regulate a variety of cellular processes, including growth, movement and differentiation. In 4 to 8 percent of HNSCC tumors, the HRAS gene is mutated.

J. Silvio Gutkind, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and associate director of basic science at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

This preclinical research has the potential to extend to the entire HNSCC patient community, whose overall survival rates are limited in recurrent or metastatic disease, and existing therapeutic options that are far from optimal, with response rates of roughly 10 to 20 percent, said senior co-author J. Silvio Gutkind, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and associate director of basic science at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

These preclinical findings support the idea that HRAS represents a druggable oncogene in HNSCC through tipifarnibs inhibition of a key enzyme. It is a precision therapeutic option for HNSCCs harboring HRAS mutations.

Tipifarnib is a selective inhibitor of farnesyltransferase, an enzyme that plays a critical role in anchoring some RAS family proteins to cellular membranes. Unlike KRAS and NRAS gene mutations, HRAS is dependent on farnesyltransferase activity for function, offering a way to indirectly target an oncogenic RAS isoform using a well-characterized drug with extensive clinical experience.

In the study, UC San Diego researchers found that cell line- and patient-derived HNSCC models harboring HRAS mutations were highly sensitive to tipifarnib, which the authors said has demonstrated encouraging preliminary clinical activity in patients with relapsed or refractory HRAS-mutant HNSCC to date.

Currently, Kura Oncology, a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company, is conducting a nationwide clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of tipifarnib in head and neck cancer with HRAS mutations. Employees of Kura are co-authors of the new paper. UC San Diego is not part of the trial.

Treatment with tipifarnib, wrote study authors, had a multifaceted effect on the biology of HRAS-mutant HNSCC tumors, reducing oncogenic signaling and proliferation, while increasing apoptosis (cell death), blocking angiogenesis (development of new blood vessels in tumors) and driving squamous differentiation of tumors.

Head and neck cancer accounts for approximately 650,000 cases and 330,000 deaths annually worldwide. In the United States, approximately 4 percent of all cancers are head and neck, with an estimated 65,630 persons diagnosed each year, two-thirds of them men and 14,500 deaths, according to Cancer.Net.

Co-authors of the study include: Mara Gilardi, Zhiyong Wang, Marco Proietto, Anastasia Chilla, Yusuke Goto, Alfredo A. Molinolo, and Napoleone Ferrara, all at UC San Diego; Juan Luis Calleja-Valera, Sanford Research; Marco Vanoni, University Milano-Biocacca; Matthew R. Janes, Kumquat Biosciences, Inc.; Zbigniew Mikulski, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; and Antonio Gualberto, Kura Oncology, Inc.

Funding for this research came, in part, from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (grant 1R01DE026870), the National Institutes of Health (grant S10OD021831) and the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research.

Disclosures: Matthew Janes is an employee and stockholder of Kumquat Biosciences. Antonio Gualberto and Francis Burrows are employees and stockholders of Kura Oncology. J. Silvo Gutkind is a member of the advisory boards of Oncoceutics, Domain Therapeutics and Vividion. Ferrara is co-founder of Theia Therapeutics, serves on the Board of Directors and has equity.

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Precision Medicine Identifies Key Recurring Mutation in Head and Neck Cancers - UC San Diego Health

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course offered by Osher Center for Integrative Medicine – Vanderbilt University News

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Mindfulness is a way of learning to relate directly to whatever is happening in your life, a way of taking charge of your life, a way of doing something for yourself that no one else can do for youconsciously and systematically working with your own stress, illness and the challenges and demands of everyday life.

The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course schedule consists of one orientation class, eight weekly classes and one daylong retreat on a Saturday. This highly participatory, practical course includes guided instruction in mindfulness meditation practices, gentle stretching and mindful yoga, group dialogue and discussions aimed at enhancing awareness in everyday life, and daily home assignments. Students also will receive a home practice manual and be sent occasional recordings.

The MBSR course is scheduled for Aug. 20Oct. 15.Attendance for the orientation session is mandatory and foundational for participation in the MBSR course. The deadline to register for the eight-week program is the Tuesday evening following the orientation session.

Learn more and register. >>

NOTE: If you are an individual living with chronic pain or anxiety, please be aware that the Osher Center for Integrative Health offers mindfulness classes that are specifically designed for your situation (please refer to the Living Well with Chronic Pain or Mindfulness Skills groups on our website).

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Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course offered by Osher Center for Integrative Medicine - Vanderbilt University News

Impact of Covid-19 on Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging Market 2020 Analysis by Geographical Regions, Type and…

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Global Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging Market Forecast to 2027- COVID-19 Impact Analysis and Forecast

The report on the Global Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging Market contains details about market segmentation based on technology, product type, end-user industry, and regional analysis. The report provides a brief overview of the market for Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging and current and future market trends. The report considers 2017-2018 as historical years, 2019 as the base year, and provides an estimate for the forecast period of 2020-2027. The revenue estimations for this forecast period are determined through applications and types of the products available in the Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging market.

The report covers the Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging market with regards to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. It analyzes the impact of the pandemic on market growth and remuneration. The pandemic has changed the economic scenario of the world and has affected several sectors of the market. The report estimates the market for Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging according to the impact of COVID-19.

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Key manufacturers and vendors are profiled extensively, including their product portfolios, production capacity, gross margins, revenues, and costing. Their market share is calculated in the regional analysis. The report also includes SWOT analysis, Porters Five Forces analysis, feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.

Major players profiled in the report include:

Canon Medical Systems, GE Healthcare, Koning Corporation, Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, Neusoft Medical Systems Corporation Limited, Siemens Healthineers, Hitachi Healthcare Systems, Neurologica Corporation, Shenzhen Anke High-Tech Co., Bracco Imaging SPA, and Koninklijke Philips NV, among others.

The report includes primary and subjective research with a comprehensive study examined and validated by industry professionals and experts. The report aims to provide a deeper understanding of the market and to gain fruitful investment information for further business expansions. The report covers the current market situation, growth opportunities, technological advancements, and government policies of the market.

Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging market segmentation based on Product Types:

Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging market segmentation by Applications:

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Furthermore, the report studies the factors impacting the growth of the market, restraints that might hamper the market growth, and limitations that would impact business expansion. The report also provides profiles of key competitive players and their strategies and operating procedures. The report further provides insights into the opportunities and threats that the industry may witness in the upcoming years, throughout the forecast period. The study also provides an insight into the growth in revenue, along with estimated CAGR through the forecast period.

Benefits of Global Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging Market Report:

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Impact of Covid-19 on Magnetic Resonance, Computed Tomography And Nuclear Medicine Imaging Market 2020 Analysis by Geographical Regions, Type and...

Guest column: The next great cure might be hiding in your medicine cabinet – The Mercury

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In the race against COVID-19, biopharmaceutical firms Regeneron and Sanofi have launched clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of their drug, Kevzara, in treating the virus' life-threatening immune complications.

Interestingly, Kevzara isn't new; it was initially approved by the FDA in 2017 as an anti-inflammatory treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.

The launch of new trials for this drug provides hope that a treatment for COVID-19 -- and a host of other serious diseases -- might already be sitting behind your pharmacist's counter. But discovering fresh ways to utilize existing drugs requires policies that encourage researchers to look for them in the first place.

Scientists have been discovering new uses for old medicines for decades. These new uses are what researchers call a new "indication."

Recently, scientists have found that several colon-cancer drugs can slow the progress of macular degeneration -- an eye condition that gradually leads to blindness. Close to 11 million Americans suffer from macular degeneration. About half of all patients treated with the new indication can see well enough to drive after five years.

Moreover, Harvard Medical School researchers are exploring the use of a common vaccine for tuberculosis in treating type 1 diabetes, an affliction with which 1.25 million U.S. residents live.

These examples notwithstanding, the potential for discovering new indications for already-approved drugs remains mostly untapped. The FDA has approved more than 20,000 prescription drug products for marketing. Any could have powerful new therapeutic applications.

Thankfully, if these new indications are out there, there's a high likelihood that U.S. biopharmaceutical researchers will find them. That's because America's robust intellectual-property laws reward innovators who invest the time and resources needed to discover whether drugs can be put to new uses.

Right now, drug makers that find a new application for an existing drug can secure a "method-of-use" patent. This new patent recognizes that the indication is completely new and the company may have exclusive rights to sell the drug for that additional use once it secures FDA approval.

In this way, method-of-use patents create a financial incentive for drug companies to spend hundreds of millions of dollars exploring new indications. Without the ability to patent new methods of use, this follow-on drug development would be a money-losing endeavor.

Unfortunately, method-of-use patents are under scrutiny from some lawmakers in Washington. They claim that drug firms use these IP protections to "game" the system and force patients to pay more for new therapies.

Such assertions fail to take into account that method-of-use patents protect only the new use of the drug, not the drug itself.

Without these IP protections, some of the greatest examples of drug repurposing would have never been possible. That includes AZT -- the very first drug approved for AIDS. The medicine, created in the 1960s, was originally intended for cancer patients.

Years later, when researchers discovered AZT's potential for treating AIDS, the drug firm Burroughs-Wellcome secured a follow-on patent, enabling the company to invest the time and money required to turn AZT into an FDA-approved drug for AIDS.

The next breakthrough cure might be a drug that's already in medicine cabinets across the country. But we need robust IP protections to help these novel indications come to fruition.

Christopher Holman is a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, where his primary research focus lies at the intersection of intellectual property and biotechnology. He also serves as a senior scholar at the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University

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Guest column: The next great cure might be hiding in your medicine cabinet - The Mercury

INOVIO Receives Orphan Drug Designation From US FDA for DNA Medicine INO-3107 To Treat Rare Disease Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis (RRP) -…

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PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., July 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --INOVIO (NASDAQ: INO) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted orphan drug designation for INO-3107, its DNA medicine being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 trial for treatment of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP).

RRP is a rare disease caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6 and 11 infections. RRP causes noncancerous tumor growths leading to life-threatening airway obstructions and can progress to cancer in rare cases. Currently, the disease is incurable and is mostly treated by surgery to remove the tumor growths to temporarily restore the airway. The tumor almost always recurs and the surgery must be repeated, often multiple times a year. RRP can severely impact the quality of life for those living with the disease.

Orphan drug designation is intended to advance drug development for rare diseases. FDA grants orphan drug status to medicines intended for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of rare diseases or conditions. In the United States, an orphan disease is defined as a disease or condition with a prevalence of less than 200,000 patients in the United States annually. This orphan drug designation from the FDA qualifies INO-3107 for various development incentives, including a tax credit on expenditures incurred in clinical studies, a waiver of the New Drug Application (NDA) fee, research grant awarded by the FDA, and most importantly, 7 years of U.S. market exclusivity upon approval for the treatment of RRP.

Ami Shah Brown, Ph.D., MPH, INOVIO's Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, said, "Receiving FDA's orphan drug designation for INO-3107 is an important milestone in the development of INOVIO's DNA medicine for this rare disease and clearly underscores the importance of addressing the unmet medical need for this debilitating condition."

The open-label, multicenter INO-3107 Phase 1/2 trial is currently open to enrollment to recruit 63 subjects in the U.S. and will evaluate the efficacy, safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of INO-3107 in subjects with HPV 6 and/or 11-associated RRP who have required at least two surgical interventions per year for the past three years for the removal of associated papilloma(s). For this study, adult subjects will first undergo surgical removal of their papilloma(s) and then receive four doses of INO-3107, one every three weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint will be a doubling or more in the time between surgical interventions following the first dose of INO-3107 relative to the frequency prior to study therapy.

Last year, INOVIO published data from its pilot clinical study of INO-3106 (DNA medicine candidate targeting HPV 6-caused RRP) in the scientific journal Vaccines (MDPI). Study results demonstrated that INO-3106 generated immunogenicity and engagement and expansion of an HPV 6-specific cellular response, including cytotoxic T cells. The paper also showed that INOVIO's immunotherapy allowed two out of two patients who previously required approximately two surgeries per year for several years to manage this disease to delay the need for surgery to a robust degree; one patient was able to delay surgery for over a year and a half (584 days surgery-free) and a second remained surgery-free for over two and a half years (over 915 days surgery-free).

About RRP

Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is a rare disease (estimated at 15,000 active cases in the U.S.) that is characterized by the growth of tumors in the respiratory tract caused by the human papillomavirus. Although benign, papillomas can cause severe, even life-threatening airway obstruction and respiratory complications. A distinguishing aspect of this disease is the tendency for the papilloma to recur after surgical procedures to remove them. Left untreated, if RRP develops in the lungs, affected individuals can potentially experience recurrent pneumonia, chronic lung disease (bronchiectasis) and, ultimately, progressive pulmonary failure. In rare cases papillomas can become cancerous (malignant transformation) developing into squamous cell carcinoma. Additional symptoms of RRP can include hoarse voice, difficulty in sleeping and swallowing, and chronic coughing. RRP symptoms are usually more severe in children than in adults. In children, the disorder is most often diagnosed at or around the age of four years. In adults, the disorder occurs most often in the third or fourth decade.

About INOVIO's DNA Medicines Platform

INOVIO has 15 DNA medicine clinical programs currently in development focused on HPV-associated diseases, cancer, and infectious diseases, including coronaviruses associated with MERS and COVID-19 diseases being developed under grants from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the U.S. Department of Defense. DNA medicines are composed of optimized DNA plasmids, which are small circles of double-stranded DNA that are synthesized or reorganized by a computer sequencing technology and designed to produce a specific immune response in the body.

INOVIO's DNA medicines deliver optimized plasmids directly into cells intramuscularly or intradermally using INOVIO's proprietary hand-held smart device called CELLECTRA. The CELLECTRA device uses a brief electrical pulse to reversibly open small pores in the cell to allow the plasmids to enter, overcoming a key limitation of other DNA and other nucleic acid approaches, such as mRNA. Once inside the cell, the DNA plasmids enable the cell to produce the targeted antigen. The antigen is processed naturally in the cell and triggers the desired T cell and antibody-mediated immune responses. Administration with the CELLECTRA device ensures that the DNA medicine is efficiently delivered directly into the body's cells, where it can go to work to drive an immune response. INOVIO's DNA medicines do not interfere with or change in any way an individual's own DNA. The advantages of INOVIO's DNA medicine platform are how fast DNA medicines can be designed and manufactured; the stability of the products, which do not require freezing in storage and transport; and the robust immune response, safety profile, and tolerability that have been demonstrated in clinical trials.

With more than 2,000 patients receiving INOVIO investigational DNA medicines in more than 7,000 applications across a range of clinical trials, INOVIO has a strong track record of rapidly generating DNA medicine candidates with potential to meet urgent global health needs.

About INOVIO

INOVIO is a biotechnology company focused on rapidly bringing to market precisely designed DNA medicines to treat and protect people from infectious diseases, cancer, and diseases associated with HPV. INOVIO is the first and only company to have clinically demonstrated that a DNA medicine can be delivered directly into cells in the body via a proprietary smart device to produce a robust and tolerable immune response. Specifically, INOVIO's lead candidate VGX-3100, currently in Phase 3 trials for precancerous cervical dysplasia, destroyed and cleared high-risk HPV 16 and 18 in a Phase 2b clinical trial. High-risk HPV is responsible for 70% of cervical cancer, 91% of anal cancer, and 69% of vulvar cancer. Also in development are programs targeting HPV-related cancers and a rare HPV-related disease, recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP); non-HPV-related cancers glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and prostate cancer; as well as externally funded infectious disease DNA vaccine development programs in Zika, Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, and coronaviruses associated with MERS and COVID-19 diseases. Partners and collaborators include Advaccine, ApolloBio Corporation, AstraZeneca, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)/Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND)/Department of Defense (DOD), GeneOne Life Science/VGXI, HIV Vaccines Trial Network, International Vaccine Institute (IVI), Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC), National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Ology Bioservices, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Plumbline Life Sciences, Regeneron, Richter-Helm BioLogics, Roche/Genentech, University of Pennsylvania, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and The Wistar Institute. INOVIO also is a proud recipient of 2020 Women on Boards "W" designation recognizing companies with more than 20% women on their board of directors. For more information, visit http://www.inovio.com.

CONTACTS:

Media: Jeff Richardson, 267-440-4211, [emailprotected]Investors: Ben Matone, 484-362-0076, [emailprotected]

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to our business, including our plans to develop DNA medicines, our expectations regarding our research and development programs, including the planned initiation and conduct of preclinical studiesand clinical trials, and the availability and timing of data from those studies and trials. Actual events or results may differ from the expectations set forth herein as a result of a number of factors, including uncertainties inherent in pre-clinical studies, clinical trials, product development programs and commercialization activities and outcomes, the availability of funding to support continuing research and studies in an effort to prove safety and efficacy of electroporation technology as a delivery mechanism or develop viable DNA medicines, our ability to support our pipeline of DNA medicine products, the ability of our collaborators to attain development and commercial milestones for products we license and product sales that will enable us to receive future payments and royalties, the adequacy of our capital resources, the availability or potential availability of alternative therapies or treatments for the conditions targeted by us or our collaborators, including alternatives that may be more efficacious or cost effective than any therapy or treatment that we and our collaborators hope to develop, issues involving product liability, issues involving patents and whether they or licenses to them will provide us with meaningful protection from others using the covered technologies, whether such proprietary rights are enforceable or defensible or infringe or allegedly infringe on rights of others or can withstand claims of invalidity and whether we can finance or devote other significant resources that may be necessary to prosecute, protect or defend them, the level of corporate expenditures, assessments of our technology by potential corporate or other partners or collaborators, capital market conditions, the impact of government healthcare proposals andother factors set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 and other filings we make from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that any product candidate in our pipeline will be successfully developed, manufactured or commercialized, that final results of clinical trials will be supportive of regulatory approvals required to market products, or that any of the forward-looking information provided herein will be proven accurate. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements, except as may be required by law.

SOURCE INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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INOVIO Receives Orphan Drug Designation From US FDA for DNA Medicine INO-3107 To Treat Rare Disease Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis (RRP) -...

YOUR VIEWS: Letters to the Editor, July 25 – Opinion – Utica Observer Dispatch

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SundayJul26,2020at3:45AM

Only one choice in November

There should be no guesswork left to this November's Presidential election.

If you are for illegal immigration, eliminating ICE, defunding police, abolishing borders, tearing down historical statues, not incarcerating rioters and looters, and support the legal requirement of Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing which Joe Biden does (this would end single-family zoning in suburbs), then you will vote Democrat.

The "radical left" is an embarrassment to America.

Don Laible, Ilion

Weve lost our way

We search to find answers for the source of our unprecedented national and global turmoil. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when our nation began its descent, but my belief is that Darwin's "Origin of Species" was the impetus.

There was opposition to God before Darwin but the theory of evolution is man's attempt to deny God's existence and to prove we don't need God.

At its core it is atheism. A century later we witness the result of removing God. We no longer have school prayer yet teaching evolution is mandated and taught as a fact, not theory (it isn't).

The mention of creationism sends evolutionists/liberals/atheists into a frenzy. We saw this in Holland Patent earlier this year.

Then came abortion and its rejection of the sanctity of life followed by same-sex marriage and its rejection of God's design for marriage -- one man, one woman. To its shame, the Roman Catholic Church endorses evolution as do most mainline Protestant churches.

This is blasphemy!

The past several generations in this country have grown up in a godless school system, a godless society and godless churches.

Our problem is godlessness and only repentance and seeking Jesus Christ is the solution.

Bob Morris, Utica

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YOUR VIEWS: Letters to the Editor, July 25 - Opinion - Utica Observer Dispatch

Five Ways Latin American Airlines Can Strengthen Through Bankruptcy – Forbes

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Airline demand drops have driven multiple Latin American airlines into bankruptcy. Used effectively, ... [+] this process could strengthen the region's aviation sector.

Two of the largest airlines in Latin America, Avianca and Latam, along with Mexicos AeroMexico, have filed for bankruptcy protection following the coronavirus outbreak. In the period from 2008-2012, most of the US airline capacity went through bankruptcy and the result was a few big mergers followed by years of record profitability for the industry. It also meant that many retired employees lost lucrative defined benefit pension plans and the consolidation produced efficiencies by eliminating excess capacity and reducing total industry headcount. Will Latin America see the same financial results from this current crisis?

The situation is obviously quite different. Worldwide airline demand has dropped to low levels, and the return of that traffic is uncertain both in terms of its timing and whether or not all traffic will even return at all. Latin American aviation has seen growth with low cost airlines, like the US and Europe, with carriers like Volaris in Mexico, Sky Airline in Chile, Azul in Brazil, and Viva Colombia. But as American, United, Delta, Northwest, Continental, and US Airways consolidated into three carriers and became financially much stronger, will the traditional players in Latin America be able to do the same and have success against the upstarts?

The answers to these two questions is uncertain, but if these carriers are aggressive the results should ultimately result in a stronger Latin American aviation sector. The five key things to do are:

Blue medical mask for protection against virus and other diseases. The graph shows how this virus ... [+] has damaged the economy and forced companies into bankruptcy.

Production cost is an airlines weight, and you cant win a race when youre overweight. Lower unit costs come from high productivity in all labor groups and physical assets, simplifying the operation, re-thinking distribution, and being realistic about the service to offer customers based on length of flight. Product features that can result in revenue premiums, because some customers will pay a higher ticket price, have to be made in proportion and should be evaluated as to whether offering such features is margin accretive. The growth of low cost carriers, just like in the rest of the world, shows that many customers want a low price over anything else. Larger, higher service airlines need to be able to offer low prices to those customers while still attracting higher paying passengers. The best way to thread this needle is with lower unit costs.

Every airline in the world is re-thinking their fleet plan given the dramatic change in demand and the recalibration of asset pricing in the OEM and aircraft lessor sectors. An airlines fleet determines not only where it can fly, but also how complicated its pilot training, maintenance, and support services will be. More complications always means higher costs for an airline. Using the flexibility that bankruptcy offers means that Latin carriers should be aggressive in re-structuring and simplifying their flown and ordered aircraft.

Ancillary revenue has become a critical component of airline revenue. Airlines have learned that by lowering base fares and charging separately for products that some choose but others avoid results in higher average unit revenue. Traditionally higher-service airlines dont need to go as far as airlines like RyanAir or Spirit but can create better pricing flexibility and attract a larger customer base when their revenue stream is more diversified. The realities of the coronavirus and the flexibility of bankruptcy restructuring gives Latin carriers a unique opportunity to change not only their unit costs, but also the robustness of their revenue engine.

ARTURO MERINO BENITEZ AIRPORT, SANTIAGO, CHILE - 2019/03/21: A LATAM Airlines Airbus 321 seen ... [+] landing at Santiago airport. (Photo by Fabrizio Gandolfo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Traditional airlines charge high fares to less price elastic business passengers and use low fares, and discretionary traffic, to fill seats still available. More successful airlines have figured out how to make money on every customer, including those paying the lowest fares. I dont mean this in a true accounting sense, meaning comparing those fares to the marginal cost of an empty seat on a flight already scheduled. I mean that they actively recruit passengers of all price elastic bands, because they know that however the plane is filled, it will be profitable. This comes from low unit costs and aggressive ancillary revenue production.

In both the US and Europe, difficult environments resulted in airline restructuring that included mergers. Airline mergers are complicated, distracting, and dont always work. But consolidation also has produced stronger companies and better controlled industry capacity. Latin America can benefit from this idea also, and this means that while these airlines in bankruptcy need to focus on items one through four on this list first, they should also try to position themselves to take advantage of tactical merger opportunities as they emerge from their own restructuring.

Bankruptcy is often seen as a sign of failure and mismanagement. But external events, like the massive demand destruction caused by the coronavirus, can also quickly change the financial position of airlines that may not have been perfect, but were viable before this. In these cases, bankruptcy can be an opportunity to fix core issues that will result in a stronger company with more growth opportunity. The relative strength of carriers like Delta, United, and American in the years prior to Covid-19 is in part due to the changes and initiatives made possible by bankruptcy and consolidation. Traditional Latin American carriers can do this same thing, and in the process became more competitive with low cost carriers and other countries carriers, and provide more stable employment and better customer service. But only if they use the toolbox that bankruptcy offers them!

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Five Ways Latin American Airlines Can Strengthen Through Bankruptcy - Forbes

Kentucky Bankruptcies Dropped Last Quarter. It’s The Calm Before The Storm – WKMS

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The U.S. economy shrank by 33% from April to June, the worst quarterly plunge ever.

Yet, in Kentucky, bankruptcy filings actually dropped.

There were 34% fewer bankruptcy petitions from the first to the second quarter of 2020, according to new data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The filings were also down more than a third when compared to the same period last year.

If that sounds like good news, experts warn the worst is yet to come. As the COVID-19 pandemic forces millions of Americans out of work and into debt, some Kentuckians are scraping by on unemployment insurance. Others might be waiting for their situation to bottom out before filing bankruptcy.

Weve got a tidal wave of bankruptcies coming, said Peter Brackney, a bankruptcy attorney in Lexington. The waters often recede before the wave comes in.

There are likely many reasons for the bankruptcy downturn. As the pandemic drags on for months longer than first anticipated, indebted consumers and business owners might be awaiting their financial nadir before petitioning a court for a discharge, or release from certain debts. Some debtors might be waiting for their employment situation to straighten out before entering bankruptcy proceedings. Others might be hoping for further relief from policymakers such as student loan debt forgiveness, considered a hail mary.

Some experts credited the governments emergency relief measures for mitigating the worst of the economic fallout. The centerpiece of the federal response was the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which included the $669-billion Paycheck Protection Program, stimulus payments, forbearances on mortgages and student loans, and expanded unemployment benefits. A state moratorium on evictions has also staved off personal disaster for thousands of Kentuckians.

But relief measures arent expected to be permanent, and financial calamity continues to threaten those unable to make ends meet.

Steve Vidmer, a bankruptcy attorney in Murray, saw a clear lag in bankruptcy filings after Mattel closed its local Fisher-Price toys plant in 2002. Nearly 1,000 employees were laid off.

Here I assumed the floodgate was opened, Vidmer recalled. But it took a long time before people realized they might need to file for bankruptcy. Sometimes its not until months or years later that they realize theyre in a pickle they cant get out of.

Since April, bankruptcy filings are trending upward, if slowly. In April, there were 809 bankruptcy petitions filed in Kentucky; in June, there were 948.

Still, Junes filing total was 24% lower than June of last year. Meanwhile, theres some evidence consumer debts are getting worse. Americans will rack up an estimated $80 billion in new credit card debt in 2020, a roughly 8% increase, according to ananalysisfrom WalletHub.

The debt is there, but people havent paid the consequences yet, said Ed Flynn, a consultant with the American Bankruptcy Institute. After unemployment benefits expire and after foreclosures pick up again, he predicts bankruptcy filings will really go through the roof.

The typical debtor is not very high income, in Kentucky or anywhere else, Flynn said. It may take a year to really play out, but at some point, people are really going to feel the pain.

Graham Ambrose is an investigative reporter covering social services and youth issues. He is aReport for America Corpsmember. Contact him at gambrose@kycir.org.

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Kentucky Bankruptcies Dropped Last Quarter. It's The Calm Before The Storm - WKMS

NY congressman calls Remington bankruptcy filing ‘punch in the stomach’ – Olean Times Herald

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UTICA (TNS) U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-Utica, says he stands with the workers at Remington Arms following the announcement this week that the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Remington Arms bankruptcy is a punch in the stomach for the hardworking men and women in our region, Brindisi said in a statement. This bankruptcy cannot be used as an excuse by the companys owners to gut union pensions, take away benefits that have been collectively bargained, or deny the safety rights of workers whove made the company profitable over the years.

He added, I have spoken with UMWA Local 717 representatives and have offered the full assistance of my office during this process. I stand with the workers in Ilion and their families whove dedicated their lives and made a living working at this plant.

As it stands, the Remington Outdoor Company is in talks with a number of parties and plans to solicit bids prior to a September auction, according to a statement distributed to Remington Arms employees in Ilion.

Republican Claudia Tenney, who is running against Brindisi for New Yorks 22nd Congressional District seat in the November election, also released a statement.

Remington Arms decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a sad day for the Mohawk Valley, its loyal and hard-working employees, and America, she said. As the oldest continuously operating firearms maker in the country, the Ilion plant is part of American history and woven into the fabric of this community.

I have worked hard to defend Remington and its workers and will not stop now, Tenney said. It has been an honor to work with and earn the support and trust of its employees and its union, UMWA 717, over many years. I will fight to see Remington survive this painful chapter and come away stronger.

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NY congressman calls Remington bankruptcy filing 'punch in the stomach' - Olean Times Herald