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It has been a pretty lousy month for the idea that the American government is capable of expanding access to healthcare to the uninsured and underinsured. The polls — or a poll, at least — are in, and people don’t like President Obama anymore.

 Nearly all the news Americans have seen regarding the rollout of the exchanges — the things that people are referring to when they say “Obamacare” — has been relentlessly negative. The site doesn’t work. The president told everyone that they’d get to keep their existing plans, now it turns out that many, many people can’t. Some people now have to pay way more than they used to. Rates could skyrocket for everyone if enough people can’t or don’t want to sign up. This is what everyone — including people who only barely pay attention to the news, which is many millions of Americans — has been hearing, over and over again, for a full month now. That’s bad news for the success of the law, and it’s also bad news for the liberal experiment.

 First of all, yes, Brian Beutler is totally correct, the people using these stories for political gain are over-hyping the problem, disingenuous and wholly uninterested in the principle of universal healthcare. That’s a given. In most instances, the policies being canceled are terrible fake policies that don’t cover anything. Generally, the policies now available to these people will offer superior coverage. Many of the people whose policies were canceled will qualify for subsidies to buy better coverage. It’s also quite possible — maybe probable — that insurance companies are intentionally trying to up-sell people on plans that will cost more out of pocket than other plans available on the exchanges. We know all this, because we read all the smart liberal bloggers. Most Americans don’t! For most Americans, Obamacare is, so far, canceled plans and a nonworking website.

 This biggest problem is that the website just isn’t functional, but let’s take the administration at its word when it says that will be fixed in November. That’s not going to be close to the end of it. Which is why Republicans spent more time hammering Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about Obama’s “you get to keep your plan” line than the site troubles: They know it’s going to be a longer-lasting and more damaging story. Even if the website is fixed in a few weeks, these stories will continue to dominate the news for months.

 And not just the news outlets that political elites pay attention to. People with canceled plan letters and “rate shock” horror stories will be featured on local news broadcasts across the country, with even less context and explanation that you’ll find on the national news, because local TV news is pretty uniformly terrible. And they’ll keep getting featured, because there are simply going to be a ton of people who get their policies canceled and then get asked to pay more. Sarah Kliff estimates 7-12 million people. That’s a fraction of the total population, and many of these people may now qualify for Medicaid or subsidies, but that’s still a lot of people deeply frustrated by “Obamacare” right as it begins its much-publicized rollout.

 All of that is exactly why this is a dumb way to give people health insurance. This is a program that, by design, is going to annoy literally millions of Americans immediately. It will improve most of those people’s lives, but it will do so in a way that feels as coercive as possible. It didn’t have to be that way! No one is ever annoyed that they qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. People may hate paying the taxes that fund those programs, but people always appreciate direct benefits.

 The way the ACA deals with people who had previously purchased crappy insurance on the individual market — and the way insurance companies have chosen to deal with these people — illustrates nearly every problem with attempting to design conservative, “market-based” ways to do things best done by straightforward government programs. It exposes the flaws in both the technocratic wing of the Democratic Party — a too-clever solution to a very simple problem — and the centrist third-way wing — making legislation intentionally worse to shield Democrats from increasingly ineffective accusations of liberalism, or to pick up Republican support that, in this environment, is never coming. So we end up with a program that hides many of its best and most important features, and loudly advertises its most coercive element.

 Democrats created this mess for themselves. Conservative Democrats are responsible for many of the program’s flaws, and, perversely, their attempts to shield themselves from public outrage ended up creating a law that will lead to more public outrage than a more government-oriented program would’ve. But the program was designed by moderate and even liberal Democrats. They were working to appease the conservatives, yes, but we should have long since learned that a conservative congressional Democrat will only ever agree to something if you promise to make it a little bit, or a lot, worse. In other words, the ask should’ve been bigger. ||||| Henry Waxman made a plea at the end of Wednesday’s House hearing grilling of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The California Democrat and liberal lion asked Republicans to reach across the aisle to work with Democrats to improve Obamacare.

 Yes, Henry Waxman, who has made a career of ideological witch hunts and smash-mouth partisanship, wants a cease-fire over Obamacare, or so he says.

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 reset Sebelius apologizes for glitches Obama blasts ACA critics

 Waxman was picking up a common liberal theme: It’s not fair that Republicans continue to oppose the president’s eponymous health care law and pick at its failures, deceits and irrationalities. If only they were more reasonable, Obamacare could be tightened up around the edges with a few technocratic fixes and go on to its glorious destiny.

 (POLITICO's guide to Obamacare)

 It’s a little late to get or expect any Republican buy-in, though. That would have required serious compromise back in 2009, when Democrats, at the high tide of their power in the Obama era, saw no reason to make any. They ignored the polls, they ignored Scott Brown’s shocking win in Massachusetts, and they ignored normal parliamentary practices to pass the single most partisan piece of major social legislation in a century.

 They insisted on this particular law, at this particular time. They own it. They own every canceled policy, every rate increase, every unintended consequence and every unpopular intended consequence. It is theirs, lock, stock and two smoking barrels.

 But they can’t stop whining.

 They complain that Republicans aren’t as cooperative as they were when the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan had a rocky start. This is absurd. The Part D website experienced what could be accurately described as “glitches,” rather than the full meltdown of HealthCare.gov. And Democrats supported the basic idea of the prescription drug benefit, even if they wanted a more generous one.

 They complain that what they really wanted was single-payer, but had to settle for the unsatisfying second-best of Obamacare. Paul Krugman calls the health care law “a clumsy, ugly structure that more or less deals with a problem, but in an inefficient way.” (And he’s a supporter!) The reason they couldn’t get single-payer, though, is that there weren’t enough Democratic votes for it.

 (PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)

 They complain that Republicans are refusing, in the words of Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent, “to have an actual debate about the law’s trade-offs.” This is especially rich given that the president has steadfastly refused to acknowledge some of the most significant trade-offs, namely that some people will lose their current insurance and have to pay more in the exchanges.

 Some liberal pundits have tiptoed around Obama’s flat assurance about keeping your insurance if you like it. Sargent politely says it was “narrowly untrue,” while Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic diplomatically says the president shouldn’t have spoken “in such clear-cut terms” and Jonathan Chait subtly says it “currently feels like a lie.”

 Other commentators like Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune and Bill Maher of HBO frankly say the president lied.

 It is a falsity the White House doesn’t want to give up. In a tweet heard around the world, White House aide Valerie Jarrett said it is a FACT that “nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans.” Never mind that the entire architecture of the law is based on forcing people in the individual insurance market out of their current plans and onto the exchanges; that is how it’s supposed to work and how it needs to work.

 (WATCH: 7 quotes on Obamacare glitches)

 In a characteristically graceless note, in his health care speech in Boston Wednesday President Obama didn’t say anything about how his prior declarations had been misleading, at best. Instead, he tweaked his dishonesty for a different positive spin: “For the fewer than 5 percent of Americans who buy insurance on your own, you will be getting a better deal.” Not if they are forced — as many of them will be — to buy benefits they don’t need at a price they don’t want to pay.

 From the beginning, Obamacare has depended on a political ethic of doing and saying whatever is necessary. The falsehood about people keeping their coverage was essential to selling the legislation. So the president repeated it relentlessly. Now that actually allowing people keep their current coverage would undermine a pillar of the law, the president will resist all efforts to make good on his famous promise. Whatever it takes.

 Near the end of his Boston remarks, the president said, “Both parties working together to get the job done, that’s what we need in Washington right now … You know, if Republicans in Congress were as eager to help Americans get covered as some Republican governors have shown themselves to be, we’d make a lot of progress.”

 Is that how we’d make a lot of progress? The president got his law and it’s possible more people will be uninsured in 2014 than if it had never passed. That’s on him, no matter how much he and his supporters want to evade responsibility for their own achievement.

 Rich Lowry is editor of National Review. |||||Summary:

– The problems with the Affordable Care Act have at least accomplished this much for candidates on the left: They now should know what job No. 1 is going forward, writes Alex Pareene at Salon. "The immediate priority—and progressives running for office in 2014 and 2016 should practice saying this out loud—is fixing Obamacare." He's talking about more than tech trouble, however. They need to address what he sees as other fundamental flaws with the ACA, including "coverage gaps, the ways insurance companies will continue to exploit people and rip them off, and the potential for the cost burden on middle-class people to grow." It's important that liberals acknowledge the problems and propose tangible solutions—like, say, federalizing Medicaid for those who live in states that haven't embraced ObamaCare—rather than simply getting defensive about it, he writes. Along those lines, conservative Rich Lowry writes in Politico that he's already tired of the "whining" he's hearing from Democrats about the new law and why things aren't working. "They insisted on this particular law, at this particular time. They own it. They own every canceled policy, every rate increase, every unintended consequence and every unpopular intended consequence. It is theirs, lock, stock and two smoking barrels." Click for Lowry's full column. Or click for Pareene's full column.


– Election results are still trickling in in Washington state (it's a vote-by-mail-only state, KOMO News reports), but it looks like voters are giving Democratic Rep. Roger Freeman of Federal Way a second term with about 53% of the vote, NBC News notes. There's just one problem: The 48-year-old Freeman died last week after a long battle with colon cancer, the Seattle Times reports. Many voters either didn't know Freeman had died or had already sent in their ballots, the Washington Post reports. "I did not know that. When did he pass away?" one voter told KVAL. "This is extremely rare," a spokesman for Washington's secretary of state tells NBC. "But there are protocols in place." Those protocols would be much simpler if voters had simply elected the very much alive Republican candidate, Jack Dovey. However, since Freeman is apparently the victor, Democrats in the district will pick three names to serve as his temporary replacement; the county councils will then vote one of those candidates in to serve for one year, with a special election next year to pick someone for the final year of the two-year term, NBC notes. Dovey, now known as the challenger beat by a deceased candidate, simply tells KVAL, "It's a tragic thing that happened." (This county candidate dropped out of the race after his dead friend supposedly voted for him.)

Expand this summary.

In August, the Federal Way Mirror in Washington State said of their close 30th District state house election, "this race may be the most interesting to watch. Two good, smart candidates who know the issues and will run a very clean race."

 It was a race to watch, but not for the reason they predicted.

 The incumbent Democratic state Rep. Roger Freeman — one of two black representatives in the state legislature — died at the end of October at the age of 48. Around 15 percent of the district's voters had already mailed in their ballots, and at the end of Election night he had a six-point-lead over his Republican opponent, Jack Dovey.

 The death was so recent that most voters were simply unaware that it had happened, and voted for the incumbent or on a party line. Local news station KVAL spoke to one such person on Tuesday night.

 Voter Steven Hinz cast a ballot for Freeman because he didn't know the candidate had died. "I did not know that," he said. "When did he pass away?"

 Since Freeman would not be able to effectively serve his terms, the two counties that make up the 30th district will select a temporary legislator from three possibilities offered by local Democrats. A special election would then be held next year.

 Voters elect people whose hearts no longer thump to the beat of democracy more than you'd think. Last year, Oregon voters elected a man to the Aberdeen City Council five months after he died. Missouri elected a dead man who was running unopposed to serve as county commissioner in 2010. Three weeks before the 2000 election, Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash. When he won a Senate race against John Ashcroft, his widow was appointed to take his place.

 Hackensack High School Principal Joseph DeFalco died after the polls had opened in 2005, and was elected to the city council for a four-year term he could not complete, or even start. In 1998, a dead woman, Jacquelyn Morrow Lewis Ledgerwood, made it to a run-off in the Oklahoma Senate's Democratic primary.

 The New York Times reported at the time, ||||| November 4, 2014 at 11:00 PM

 Roger Freeman, a Democratic state representative from Federal Way, appeared headed for victory Tuesday despite dying six days ago.

 Tuesday’s ballot results put Freeman, a first-term incumbent for the 30th legislative district that spans parts of King and Pierce Counties, ahead by six percentage points over his Republican challenger, Jack Dovey.

 Freeman’s apparent victory leaves a decision for filling the vacant House seat to the King and Pierce County Councils, which must jointly appoint a Democrat to replace Freeman for one year. Freeman’s replacement will be chosen from three nominees put forward by Democratic Party officials in the 30th District. A special election would be set next year for voters to decide on a candidate to fill out the final year of the two-year House term.

 Freeman, 48, a public defender and former Federal Way City Council member, died Wednesday morning after a long battle with colon cancer. He is survived by a wife and two children. ||||| UPDATE: Roger Freeman, who died last week, is leading his race for a seat in the state House of Representatives. Early results show Freeman is taking 53 percent of the vote.

 FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- There's an unusual twist in the race for state house in the 30th district of Federal Way. The democratic incumbent died from cancer last week, but Rep. Roger Freeman's name is still on the ballot -- and he's still getting votes.

 Freeman was battling to retain his seat in the state legislature. He was also battling colon cancer that spread to his liver and lungs. He lost that battle last Wednesday

 "It's a day to remember Roger Freeman. It's a day to remember how he made us feel," said Freeman's legislative director, Martin Moore.

 Jack Dovey is Freeman's Republican challenger.

 "It's a tragic thing that happened," Dovey said.

 Freeman's name is still on the ballot and is still getting support. Voter Steven Hinz cast a ballot for Freeman because he didn't know the candidate had died.

 "I did not know that," he said. "When did he pass away?"

 Even though word of Freeman's death spread throughout the community last week, obviously not everyone knows about it.

 "I voted for Freeman,"said Robert Zielie, who also didn't realize Freeman was dead.

 But Freeman's supporters still want folks to vote for him, because if he wins he'd be replaced by a democrat. The democratic precinct leaders would offer three potential replacements to the county councils of King and Pierce counties who would select one. If no agreement is reached, the governor gets to choose.

 Dovey says he'd rather see Freeman waving signs with him.

 "It's a lot easier running against the person than the party," he said.

 So Freeman's campaign says vote for Roger even though he's no longer with us.

 "I think that's something that he would personally want," Moore said. ||||| 5 things to know about Washington state's election

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 SEATTLE (AP) - Washington voters won't be electing a governor or U.S. senator this election, but they will weigh in on issues like gun background checks and class sizes. And voters in central Washington will see a first for the state - two members of the same party on the fall ballot in a congressional race.

 Here's a look at 5 things to know about the general election:

 GUN MEASURES: Voters will decide the fate of two competing gun background check initiatives. One, Initiative 594, seeks universal background checks on all sales and transfers, including private transactions and many loans and gifts. The other, Initiative 591, would prevent the state from expanding checks beyond the national standard. Like federal law, Washington law currently requires checks for sales or transfers by licensed dealers but not for purchases from private sellers, like those who sell at gun shows or to friends. No other state has a gun-related measure on the ballot this year, and millions of dollars have been pouring into the state, mostly in support of expanding background checks. I-591 also would prohibit the confiscation of firearms without due process.

 REPUBLICAN VERSUS REPUBLICAN: The most interesting congressional race in the state is also the one where one party is guaranteed to have the winner. Washington's 4th Congressional District features two Republicans on the fall ballot - the first time that's happened in a federal race under the state's 'Top 2' primary system. Tea party favorite Clint Didier is in a tight contest against Dan Newhouse, backed by the Republican mainstream. Newhouse has said he would focus on central Washington priorities such as water conservation and cleaning up the giant Hanford Nuclear Reservation, while Didier ran largely against the political establishment in the nation's capital, including some fellow Republicans, who he terms "RINOs," Republicans in name only.

 SENATE CONTROL: For the last two legislative sessions, Republicans have controlled state Senate with the help of two Democrats who left their party to caucus with the GOP. Republicans hope to gain outright control of the upper chamber following Tuesday's election. Currently, the state Senate is split 26-23, technically with the majority lying with Democrats. But in 2012, two Democrats joined the Republicans to form a mostly GOP-controlled coalition, sending Democrats to the minority. The Democrats need to win two or more seats to regain control of the Senate, but Republicans had strong showings in the primary. Unlike the Senate, the House has not changed majority in more than a decade. This election is not expected to be different. The Democrats in that chamber currently hold a 55-43 majority.

 CLASS SIZE: Voters in Washington state will vote yet again on class sizes. Education advocates are pushing a measure limiting class sizes, but opponents say Initiative 1351 could make a bad budget situation worse as lawmakers scramble to pay for court-ordered reforms. State financial experts believe the initiative would eventually cost the state about $2 billion a year to pay for thousands more teachers and other school staff. Washington voters overwhelmingly approved another class size reduction initiative in 2000, and 14 years later, lawmakers are just starting to pay that bill. This initiative is different, in both its scope and the way it was written. Initiative 1351 would set lower class sizes at every grade level. The previous initiative focused on the youngest grades.

 VOTE BY MAIL: Washington, like Oregon, is an all vote-by-mail state. But unlike Oregon - where ballots have to be received by Election Day - in Washington, ballots just have to be postmarked no later than Election Day or placed in an official ballot drop box by 8 p.m. Tuesday. That means that in some of the more competitive races, results may not be known for days as most counties will update vote counts only once a day. ||||| SEATTLE — An incumbent Democratic state representative in Washington was headed for a decisive re-election victory on Wednesday even though he died last week, results indicate.

 Roger Freeman, a first-term representative from Federal Way, a city between Seattle and Tacoma, had about 53 percent of the vote, compared to about 47 percent for his Republican challenger, Jack Dovey. Freeman, 48, died last week after a battle with cancer. His death came after ballots were mailed to Washington voters, where all voting is done by mail.

 "This is extremely rare," said Brian Zylstra, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office. "But there are protocols in place." Once all ballots are finalized in coming weeks, if Freeman wins the vote, Democrats still will hold on to his seat in the state House of Representatives, Zylstra said.

 Democrats in Freeman's district, which spans two counties, will select three names for a temporary replacement and the King and Pierce County councils will vote to appoint one of those candidates to the seat for one year, according to state election rules. The seat would be on the ballot in 2015 to fill out the remainder of the two-year term, the rules say.

 Should the Republican candidate win, he will take the seat in Olympia at the start of the next legislative session.

 Roger Freeman a Democratic state representative in Washington, is seen in an undated photo from the U.S. House of Representatives. HANDOUT / Reuters

 IN-DEPTH

 — Reuters |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

This undated photo provided by the Lawrence County Ohio Sheriff's Office shows Aaron Lawson. Multiple people were found fatally shot and another person was discovered stabbed and critically wounded at... (Associated Press)

 This undated photo provided by the Lawrence County Ohio Sheriff's Office shows Aaron Lawson. Multiple people were found fatally shot and another person was discovered stabbed and critically wounded at a pair of residences in southeast Ohio. Officials were hunting Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017, for Lawson,... (Associated Press)

 This undated photo provided by the Lawrence County Ohio Sheriff's Office shows Aaron Lawson. Multiple people were found fatally shot and another person was discovered stabbed and critically wounded at a pair of residences in southeast Ohio. Officials were hunting Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017, for Lawson,... (Associated Press) This undated photo provided by the Lawrence County Ohio Sheriff's Office shows Aaron Lawson. Multiple people were found fatally shot and another person was discovered stabbed and critically wounded at... (Associated Press)

 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A 7-year-old boy was shot dead and his body apparently hidden in a home where three adults were found fatally shot and a fourth was stabbed, a sheriff said Thursday as a manhunt for the suspect focused on a wooded area near Ohio's southern tip.

 Authorities had issued a missing-child alert after the slayings and spent hours searching for Devin Holston only to find the child dead Thursday at the same house trailer where the bodies were found.

 The suspect, 23-year-old Arron Lawson, is being sought on warrants for charges including aggravated murder, Lawrence County Sheriff Jeffery Lawless said.

 Deputies spotted Lawson around 12:30 a.m. Thursday in a blue truck in Ironton, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of where the victims were found, but they lost him after a brief chase when he crashed into a ditch and ran into the woods, Lawless said.

 Lawless told the Ironton Tribune that all those involved were somehow related.

 Three adults were found dead in a house trailer in an unincorporated area further north on Wednesday evening, and a fourth adult who came upon the scene after work was stabbed there and fled to seek help, the sheriff said. The wounded person was later flown to a hospital in Huntington, West Virginia.

 None of the dead adults or injured victim has been identified. The sheriff's office said releasing further information would compromise the investigation.

 Agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, including crime-scene and cybe-unit investigators, are assisting Lawrence County with the case, said Jill Del Greco, a spokeswoman for BCI and the state attorney general's office.

 Lawless said schools in the Rock Hill district were closed Thursday because of the attacks.

 The initial report about the slayings — violence against multiple people found at properties of related residents — recalled details from a still-unsolved homicide case that rattled rural southern Ohio last year. But investigators have no indication of a connection between the cases, Del Greco said.

 The deaths on Wednesday occurred roughly 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of the Piketon area, where eight people from the Rhoden family were found shot to death in four homes in April 2016.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Mark Gillispie in Cleveland contributed to this report.

 ___

 Find Kantele Franko on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/kantele10 and her work at http://bit.ly/2qEaebN .

 ___

 This story has been corrected to show the sheriff now says the boy was 7, not 8.

 ___

 This story has been corrected to show the sheriff now says the spelling of the suspect's first name is Arron, not Aaron. ||||| (Additional reporting by Heath Harrison)

 Murder warrants issued for suspect

 On Thursday afternoon, Lawrence County Sheriff Jeff Lawless spoke to the media about the quadruple homicide that happened on Wednesday near Decatur. He confirmed that three adults had been killed and that a boy they had been looking for overnight had been killed as well.

 “What we have here is a horrible, horrible tragedy,” Lawless said. “We have many families who are suffering.”

 On Thursday afternoon, warrants were issued for Aaron Lawson, 23, of 15868 State Route 93 in Pedro, who was described as 5’9″ in height, weighing 139 pounds and having brown hair and hazel eyes.

 Lawless said three counts of murder and one count of aggravated murder had been filed with the prosecutor’s office.

 “Further charges could be coming,” he added.

 Lawless said their investigation began around 7:20 p.m. Wednesday. Deputies went into a house trailer at 15497 State Route 93 and found three dead bodies that had suffered gun shot wounds.

 A fourth victim suffering stab wounds had gone to a nearby house for help and called the sheriff’s office. He was taken by helicopter to the hospital to have his injuries treated.

 Lawless said that the man had been trying to get a hold of the relatives in the trailer and when he came home from work, he discovered the bodies and was attacked by Lawson and was stabbed several times. The man then drove to a nearby relative’s house for help.

 Lawless said the man was doing well.

 Investigators searched the trailer for anyone else in the house while trying to not disturb the crime scene. Search warrants were obtained, and investigators from the Ohio Bureau of Investigation (BCI) found the body of 8-year-old Devin Holston, who had initially been reported missing. Officers had searched the woods and nearby structures in an effort to find him. The boy had also suffered gun shot wounds.

 “His body was put in a place that was hidden,” Lawless said. “So that is what made it difficult for our investigators to discover it at that time.”

 Lawless said they were not releasing the names of victims yet because they were still notifying next of kin. The boy’s name had been released as part of the effort to find him when they thought he was missing.

 The bodies have been sent to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office for autopsy.

 Officers from various agencies have been searching the woods for Lawson.

 There have been helicopters, drones and a bloodhound searching for Lawson.

 Lawson was spotted by deputies on State Route 141, near County Road 52, driving a Blue Chevrolet truck at about 12:30 a.m. on Thursday morning and a pursuit ensued. Deputies said Lawson crashed the vehicle into a ditch on State Route 141 at County Road 44 South, fled on foot and he was lost in the woods.

 He was last spotted in the 1500 block of County Road 181 on Thursday afternoon.

 “That is a vast, wide open area. It is a strip mine area, a wooded area,” Lawless said. “There are caverns and caves everywhere, so it is difficult to search.”

 Lawless said that they did not believe that Lawson was armed with a gun, but there had been reports of Lawson trying to get into cars overnight and could have found a weapon.

 Lawless said they have recovered what they believe to be the murder weapon.

 No motive has been given for the homicides. Lawless did say that Lawson was related to some of the victims and that he lived within a quarter mile of the house trailer where the homicides occurred.

 “He did spend a lot of time there,” Lawless said, adding that the families and friends were dumbfounded this had happened. “It seemed like everyone got along, especially with the amount of time he spent there.”

 Lawless said he hoped to find out the motive once they captured Lawson.

 Lawless said that he searched the records and that Lawson had never been in the county jail. A search for Lawson’s name at the clerk of courts office came up with no results for any cases involving Lawson.

 Lawless said that BCI was doing a methodical investigation of the house and that “every room is a crime scene.”

 Lawless said there had been an outpouring of assistance from other law enforcement agencies across Ohio and the Tri-State area. He said that the West Virginia State Police had sent a helicopter and so had the Butler County Sheriff’s Office. There were U.S. Marshals on scene as well as officers from every village and town in Lawrence County, the Pike County Sheriff’s Office, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office, the Ashland Police Department, and the Huntington Police Department. The Barboursville Police Department had their bloodhound in the woods searching for Lawson.

 Rock Hill schools were closed Thursday because of the incident. Later in the day, all afters chool activities and games were cancelled as well.

 Rock Hill, Dawson-Bryant and Symmes Valley schools, as well as Sugar Creek Christian Academy, are all closed today (Friday, Oct. 13). The Rock Hill football moms and Allyn’s Jewelers are taking donations to go toward funeral expenses for the family. |||||

– A 7-year-old boy was shot dead and his body apparently hidden in a home where three adults were found fatally shot and a fourth was stabbed, a sheriff said Thursday as a manhunt for the suspect focused on a wooded area near Ohio's southern tip. Authorities had issued a missing-child alert after the slayings and spent hours searching for Devin Holston only to find the child dead Thursday at the same house trailer where the bodies were found, the AP reports. The suspect, 23-year-old Aaron Lawson, is being sought on warrants for charges including aggravated murder, Lawrence County Sheriff Jeffery Lawless said. Deputies spotted Lawson around 12:30am Thursday in a blue Chevrolet truck in Ironton, about 15 miles south of where the victims were found, but they lost him after a brief chase when he crashed into a ditch and ran into the woods, Lawless said. The sheriff told the Ironton Tribune that all those involved were somehow related. The three adults were found dead in a house trailer in an unincorporated area further north on Wednesday evening, and a fourth adult, who went to the scene after work looking for his relatives, was stabbed there after encountering Lawson and fled to another home to seek help, the sheriff said.


Here is a news article:

 Keven Drews, The Canadian Press

 VANCOUVER -- Enduring 180,000 bites is the scientific price a British Columbia biologist had to pay so her team of researchers could suck a little life out of the worldwide bedbug epidemic.

 A team of biologists, a chemist and students from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., announced Monday that they have identified a set of chemicals that can lure bedbugs into traps and keep them there.

 The findings are significant because the pests, which were once thought eradicated in industrial countries, have reappeared over the past two decades, infesting everything from low-income housing to pricey hotels and causing health concerns, too.

 Biologist Regine Gries, who with her husband Prof. Gerhard Gries, form part of the team, said she was initially a little reluctant and disgusted to act as a host so the pests could feed and scientists could gather and analyze the bugs skin and feces.

 She said she got over those feelings because she, unlike others, was resistant to the bites.

 "I calmed myself down thinking when human beings were still living in caves, they were probably bitten by bedbugs, by fleas, by mice and who knows what, all these insects associated with humans," she said. "So I think humans can endure this, and I'm lucky enough that I have no side effects, that I just can handle it."

 Not only can bedbug bites cause rashes and itching, but a recent study linked them to Chagas, a disease that can cause serious heart and digestive problems in those who are infected, said SFU Chemistry Prof. Robert Britton, who is also a team member.

 The team is now working with a company based out of Victoria, B.C., to develop the first effective and affordable trap to detect and monitor infestations.

 The discoveries were made in three separate phases and began when the Gries and their students began the research about eight years ago.

 Gerhard Gries said they initially found a pheromone blend -- chemical substances secreted by animals for detection -- in the skin of bedbugs. He said they attracted the pests in lab experiments but not in infested apartments.

 He said the researchers realized a component was missing. Britton joined the team and used the university's state-of-the-art spectrometers to study the chemicals Regine Gries found in the bedbugs' shed skin.

 Britton, the Gries and their students then discovered a histamine, a molecule that had previously eluded researchers, signalled a "safe shelter" to the bedbugs, meaning once they came into contact with it they remained in place.

 Gerhard Gries said his wife further studied the bedbugs' feces and found three new components. He said the combination of all the components and the histamine became the lure they sought.

 He said bedbugs are lured to the trap by the airborne components, and once they come into contact with the histamine, which is placed on a piece of filter paper, they remain put.

 Britton said the trap's chemical costs are just under a dime.

 Gerhard Gries said a cardboard box served as a trap during the experiments.

 "One of the real benefits of this new technology will be that it is effective and affordable," he said.

 The research has been published in the leading chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, and was funded by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada in partnership with Contech Enterprises Inc. ||||| After 180,000 bedbug bites and eight years of study, Simon Fraser University scientists say they have invented a new kind of bedbug bait and trap.

 The trap, which will be available commercially next year, will work by emitting a set of chemical attractants, or pheromones, that lure the bedbugs into traps, and keep them there.

 Biologist Regine Gries discovered the pheromones after acting as a host for more than a thousand bedbugs during the research, which also involved her husband, biology professor Gerhard Gries, SFU chemist Robert Britton and a team of students.

 "The biggest challenge in dealing with bedbugs is to detect the infestation at an early stage," said Gerhard Gries in a news release on Monday.

 "This trap will help landlords, tenants, and pest-control professionals determine whether premises have a bedbug problem, so that they can treat it quickly. It will also be useful for monitoring the treatment’s effectiveness."

 Regine Gries endured 180,000 bites from the team's bedbug colony as part of the research, the release said, because she is immune to the bites, getting only a slight rash instead of the usual itching and swelling most people suffer.

 Why bedbugs love biting us so much

 Bedbugs are wingless pests that feed on humans as their preferred source of blood. The small, flat insects were all but wiped out after the Second World War but have returned with a vengeance to Canadian homes, hotels and shelters.

 The insects will bite all over a human body, favouring the face, neck, upper torso, arms and hands. They can go for weeks or months without feeding, depending on the temperature.

 The Gries research began eight years ago, when they initially isolated a pheromone mix that attracted bedbugs in lab experiments, but not in bedbug-infested apartments.

 "We realized that a highly unusual component must be missing — one that we couldn’t find using our regular gas chromatographic and mass spectrometric tools," said Gerhard Gries.

 Britton was then brought in to the team to study the tiny amounts of chemicals Regine Gries had isolated from shed bedbug skin and figure out why bedbugs find human skin so appealing.

 After two years, Britton and the Gries discovered the answer is histamine, a chemical which signals "safe shelter" to the bloodsucking pests.

 Crucially, once in contact with histamine, the insects stay there regardless of how hungry for human blood they are.

 Key to bedbug trap is in the feces

 However, despite their extensive research, the Gries and their team still could not combine the histamine or pheromone blend to make an effective trap — so they began analyzing airborne chemicals from bedbug feces.

 Five months later, the team had discovered three new compounds that had never before been reported for bedbugs, completing the combination of attractants needed for the trap.

 Their bedbug trap has been successfully tested in bedbug-infested apartments in Metro Vancouver and the team is now working with Victoria-based Contech Enterprises Inc. to develop the trap commercially.

 Unfortunately, this means Regine Gries is still feeding the bedbug colony every week.

 "I’m not too thrilled about this...But knowing how much this technology will benefit so many people, it’s all worth it." |||||
A summary of this is?

– If, someday, bedbugs are no longer a cause for concern, remember to thank Regine Gries. She's a biologist in British Columbia who was willing to tolerate 180,000 bites as a host for the creatures so that her team could study them. "I calmed myself down thinking when human beings were still living in caves, they were probably bitten by bedbugs, by fleas, by mice and who knows what," she tells the Canadian Press via CTV. "So I think humans can endure this, and I'm lucky enough that I have no side effects, that I just can handle it." It seems her work has paid off. The researchers, including Gries' husband, found a histamine molecule that, to the bugs, indicates a "safe space," the Press reports; once the bugs find it, they stick around. The researchers lured them to the trap using a pheromone blend and components from the bedbugs' own feces; the histamine then keeps them there. The cost of the chemicals? Less than a dime per trap. "The biggest challenge in dealing with bedbugs is to detect the infestation at an early stage," Gries' husband tells Simon Fraser University News. "This trap will help landlords, tenants, and pest-control professionals determine whether premises have a bedbug problem, so that they can treat it quickly." The trap should be on the market next year, CBC reports. That's particularly good news for Chicago, which was reported earlier this year to be America's worst city for bedbugs. (Another researcher suffered bee stings in the name of science.)


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Bradley Wiggins capped his remarkable sporting year by taking home the big prize at the ceremony in London

 A glass of wine with a rough sleeper, Santa in trunks, a thousand partying Muscovites … in a My Best Shot special, top photographers pick the image that sums up winter for them ||||| The King Abdullah financial district is seen illuminated at night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

 The King Abdullah financial district is seen illuminated at night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

 The King Abdullah financial district is seen illuminated at night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Close

 Saudi Arabia will shift its weekend to Friday and Saturday starting next week, taking the biggest Arab economy a step closer to opening its $400 billion stock market to foreign investors.

 Ministries and monetary agencies will adopt the new weekend from June 29, aligning Saudi Arabia with other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, according to a royal decree yesterday. The decision was taken based on “the economic position of the kingdom and its international and regional obligations,” it said. The weekend moves from Thursday and Friday.

 “Investors can read between the lines and see this as another step towards opening up the market,” Fadi Al Said, senior fund manager at ING Investment Management in Dubai, said by phone yesterday. “It’s not official, but this is one of the things Saudi needed to do to open the markets for foreign investors.”

 Deutsche Bank AG and HSBC Holdings Plc are among banks that have predicted the kingdom’s stock exchange, the largest in the region with a market value bigger than those in Turkey and Ireland combined, may open to foreigners as early as next year amid rising demand for assets. Such a move may attract as much as as $30 billion of inflows, John Burbank, founder of $3.7 billion San Francisco-based hedge fund Passport Capital LLC, said in February.

 Global Businesses

 Non-resident foreign investors can currently only participate through share-swap transactions and exchange-traded funds.

 The weekend switch “will help us in the global business world,” Mutlaq al-Morished, chief financial officer for Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), the world’s biggest petrochemicals company by market value, said in response to e-mailed questions. “We had only three days left to do business. If you add in the time zones, like with U.S., we found ourselves with limited hours to do business in the week.”

 The Tadawul All-Share Index (SASEIDX) declined 0.8 percent to 7,500.69 today, trimming this year’s advance to 10 percent. That compares with a surge of 39 percent for Dubai’s index and a drop of 16 percent for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

 Morgan Stanley

 Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG are among global banks have set up offices in Riyadh as a hub for brokers covering the GCC region in anticipation the market will open up. MSCI Inc., whose gauges are tracked by investors managing about $7 trillion, last year resumed Saudi coverage and said it would consider including the nation in frontier or emerging-market indexes if it allows foreigners direct access.

 MSCI this month upgraded the United Arab Emirates, the second-biggest Arab economy, and Qatar to emerging-market status. The index provider’s decision “puts additional pressure on Saudi Arabia to accelerate its qualified investor program and we now believe this is likely over summer,” Emad Mostaque, a London-based strategist at Noah Capital Markets EMEA Ltd., said June 12.

 “Opening up to foreigners is mostly about regulation,” Tariq Qaqish, head of asset management at Dubai-based Al Mal Capital PSC, said by phone yesterday, adding that changing regulation in the country can take years. Still, the weekend shift “is definitely a step forward,” he said.

 Lost Opportunities

 The changes to the working week will “lead to greater convergence with global markets,” Saudi Capital Market Chairman Mohammad Al-Sheikh, who’s based in Riyadh, said in a statement yesterday.

 The kingdom has taken other steps in recent months. Al-Sheikh, a World Bank executive representing Saudi Arabia, was appointed as chairman of the CMA in February. In April the CMA announced a plan to issue credit ratings for local companies, and in May issued a resolution to adopt a stock price fluctuation limit of 10 percent for shares on their first trading day. The same month it proposed new procedures for companies with losses at or exceeding 50 percent of their capital.

 The Saudi weekend switch will “put an end to negative effects and lost economic opportunities” from having different working days than regional and international institutions, the Saudi Press Agency said, citing the royal decree. Weekend changes for schools and educational institutions will start in the next academic year.

 To contact the reporters on this story: Samuel Potter in Dubai at spotter33@bloomberg.net; Glen Carey in Riyadh at gcarey8@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A notable change for working Saudi Arabians: The weekend will now come a day later. Its people had enjoyed a Thursday-Friday weekend, but Oman's recent switch to Friday-Saturday made Saudi Arabia the odd man out among the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. The change to a Friday weekend start, described by Reuters as a "surprise," is effective this week, per an order issued yesterday by King Abdullah. Businesses are pleased: "It will increase interface with the rest of the world," says a former oil exec, and a Riyadh-based strategist notes that the move puts an end to "having just three working days aligned with the rest of the world." Bloomberg sees something more behind the shift: the Saudi stock market. "It’s not official, but this is one of the things [Saudi Arabia] needed to do to open the markets for foreign investors," says a Dubai fund manager. Bloomberg reports that Deutsche Bank and HSBC have previously predicted that foreign investors could be given direct access to the country's $400 billion stock market as early as 2014.


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LONDON — European airlines, which have already lost millions of euros in revenue due to a flying ban over much of Northern and Central Europe that has been extended into Monday, questioned the basis of the ban Sunday after some airlines successfully completed test flights.

 Air France-KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa AG were among those flying test flights without passengers, with KLM saying that it had successfully flown 10 flights at normal flying altitudes without any problems and no damage to aircraft. The Dutch carrier said it had sent the results of its tests to the Dutch Transport Ministry and is ... |||||

 EU transport ministers are to hold emergency talks by video conference on easing the air travel crisis caused by a volcanic ash cloud in Europe's skies. More than 6.8 million passengers have been affected so far, as the crisis enters its fifth day. Airports and airlines are questioning the need for curbs said to be costing airlines $200m (£130m) a day. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has criticised European governments' response. "We must move away from this blanket closure and find ways to flexibly open air space, step by step," IATA head Giovanni Bisignani told a news briefing in Paris. MAJOR EU AIRPORTS 0800 19/04 Heathrow - closed Frankfurt - closed after reopening on a limited basis for several hours on Sunday Paris Charles de Gaulle - closed Schipol, Amsterdam - closed Rome - limited service Madrid - limited service The enormous shroud of fine mineral dust particles now stretches from the Arctic Circle in the north to the French Mediterranean coast in the south, and from Spain into Russia. Airspace remains closed, or partially closed, in more than 20 countries. Sixty-three thousand flights have been cancelled in the four days since the clampdown began. And the prospect of a return to normal air travel remains far from clear. Speaking ahead of the EU talks, Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said: "We cannot just wait until this ash cloud dissipates." The Spanish Minister for Europe, Diego Lopez Garrido, had said on Sunday that up to half of the flights across Europe could operate on Monday. He was speaking after talks with Eurocontrol, which co-ordinates air traffic control in 38 nations. It had recommended the current flight ban. But Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations for Eurocontrol, told the BBC that while half of the European landmass could be clear of ash cloud, that did not mean half of the flights could go ahead. The flight bans came amid fears that the ash - a mixture of glass, sand and rock particles - can seriously damage aircraft engines. The international airports council, ACI, said a total of 313 airports had been paralysed by the restrictions and the global backlog was affecting more than 6.8 million travellers. In another development, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans working in agriculture, the country's largest export sector, face economic uncertainty because of the flight bans. Refrigerated stores at Nairobi airport and on farms are now completely full, and a huge amount of fresh flowers and vegetables destined for the European market is in danger of perishing, the BBC's East Africa correspondent, Will Ross, reports. The problems have also led to the postponement of next Saturday's Japanese MotoGP. Data assessment The EU transport ministers' video conference, hosted by Spain, is set to consider a proposal that passengers from countries like Britain, who are stranded in the US or Asia, would fly into Spain and then continue their journey by train, boat or coach. ANALYSIS Robert Peston, BBC Business Editor The two biggest British airlines are incurring painful losses. British Airways is losing around £25m ($38m) a day; and Easyjet up to £5m ($7.6m) a day. But they also have substantial borrowing facilities and cash, and can cope with a financial pain so long as it doesn't last too long. Many other airlines across Europe are less fortunate, which is why ministers are telling me that a Europe-wide financial support scheme for the airline industry - funded by taxpayers - is a very live issue. As for the impact on the wider economy, supermarkets say that supplies of imported flowers and exotic fruit and vegetables are beginning to run low. And businesses dependant on air freight are hurting. But the crisis would probably have to endure for many more days yet for the cost to be big enough to upset Europe's economic recovery. Peston: Airlines to ask for help Dutch Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings was "advocating for a different approach to the problem", the Dutch transport inspectorate said. This would entail "drawing a distinction between areas with low concentrations and those with high concentrations" of ash when making decisions on air safety. The UK Transport Secretary, Lord Adonis, said information from various test flights on Sunday, assessing the impact of the dust on jet engines, would be considered during the conference. Siim Kallas said European authorities were working to find a solution that did not compromise safety. Southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull volcano began erupting for the second time in a month on Wednesday. Iceland's Meteorological Office said tremors from the volcano had grown more intense but the column of ash rising from it had eased to around 5km (3.1 miles). Ash still 'very worrying' Britain has extended a ban on most flights in its airspace until at least 1900 local time on Monday (1800 GMT). Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands are keeping their airspace closed until 1200 GMT on Monday. Spain has re-opened its airspace after a brief closure. Officials there have suggested its airports could be used as an entry platform into Europe. Our business editor, Robert Peston, understands that British Airways fears it may not be allowed to fly normal services until Thursday at the earliest. One measure being discussed by the British government is the possibility of deploying the Royal Navy to collect some of the estimated 150,000 Britons who are stranded abroad. While several airlines carried out test flights and reported planes showing no obvious damage after flying through the ash, a scientific test flight over Britain concluded that the situation could still be dangerous.

 I've been stranded in Madrid since Thursday. We've been told we cannot get a flight until 26 April at the earliest.

 Christine Blanchard

 Volcano ash: Your stories Dr Guy Gratton, who was part of the scientific team, said: "It's still quite a complex mixture of clear air and very worrying but invisible volcanic ash at all sorts of heights." Weather experts say wind patterns mean the cloud is not likely to move far until later in the week. Eurocontrol said there were only 5,000 flights in European airspace on Sunday, against 24,000 normally.

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What is a shorter version of the above article?

– EU leaders are meeting in an emergency session today to discuss continued flight bans in the wake of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. They're meeting by video teleconference because leaders can't fly anywhere. "We cannot just wait until this ash cloud dissipates," said EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas. Increasingly angry airline officials are demanding flight bans be lifted, accusing governments of crisis mismanagement. The International Airline Association blasted the lack of "risk assessment, consultation, management and leadership," AP reports. The decision to close the airspace "was made exclusively as a result of data from a computer simulation in London," an Air Berlin spokesman complained to the Wall Street Journal. Several test flights over the weekend have revealed that engines suffered no harmful effects from the ash. Airport shutdowns have affected some 6.8 million travelers and are costing airlines $200 million a day in lost revenue, reports the BBC. Airspace is closed or partially closed in 20 countries.


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Consumers’ Guide to Highly Fluorinated Chemicals

 Why are highly fluorinated chemicals harmful? Highly fluorinated chemicals contain carbon-fluorine (C-F) bonds, which are some of the strongest bonds in nature. That makes them both incredibly resistant to breakdown and very useful. For instance, they can make products grease or stain-resistant, nonstick, or waterproof. However, this comes at a cost. The highly fluorinated chemicals that have been well-studied have been associated with: Watch our new video

 To learn more, watch our short webinar testicular and kidney cancer

 liver malfunction

 hormonal changes

 thyroid disruption high cholesterol

 obesity

 ulcerative colitis

 lower birth weight and size Other highly fluorinated chemicals are suspected of similarly causing health problems, but have not been well tested. Because they are resistant to breakdown, these chemicals can persist in our bodies for years. In the environment, they can last for millions of years. This means that the highly fluorinated chemicals released during our lifetimes will build up in the environment, and many future generations will be exposed to them, at even higher levels than we are today. Scientists from all over the world signed the Madrid Statement to share their concerns about highly fluorinated chemicals and are asking for a limit to the production and use of these chemicals. Find out more here On May 1, 2015, the Madrid Statement was published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a high-impact scientific journal. Click here to read the article, here to read an accompanying editorial by distinguished scientists Linda Birnbaum and Phillipe Grandjean, here to read the reply from the chemical industry, and here for our response.

 How are we exposed?

 Highly fluorinated chemicals are used in consumer products such as cookware, clothing, outdoor apparel, carpeting, and food packaging to provide nonstick, oil- and water resistant properties. They are also used in some kinds of cosmetics.

 We are exposed to them by direct contact with these products, but also through the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.

 They have been detected at high levels in humans and wildlife all over the globe.

 What can you do? Ask yourself, “Do I really need products that are stain-resistant, nonstick, or waterproof?” Knowing the consequences, you might choose to give up some conveniences or product performance. Steps you can take: Avoid products that are oil repellant or stain resistant.

 Only purchase waterproof gear when you really need it.

 Avoid cosmetics with PTFE or any word containing “perfluor” or “polyfluor” on their ingredients list.

 Replace your Teflon nonstick cookware with cast iron, glass, or ceramic.

 Avoid microwave popcorn and greasy foods wrapped in paper.

 Tell retailers and manufacturers you want products without fluorinated chemicals.

 Support companies committed to phasing out highly fluorinated chemicals, such as the apparel brands that have joined Greenpeace’s Detox campaign, and the fast food chains that removed them from food packaging as a result of EWG’s action. All products from these apparel brands will be free of highly fluorinated chemicals after those dates. You can drive change for healthy products!

 Resources

 In the Media ||||| The dust in our homes and the air we breathe harbor a complex stew of chemicals. Some, like oxygen, sustain life. Others are pollution stemming from things like car exhaust or from tiny scraps of household products. A pair of new studies adds a level of much-needed detail about exactly how widespread such toxic exposures can be.

 A new analysis, published Wednesday in Environmental Science & Technology, reaffirmed that consumer product chemicals including phthalates, phenols and flame retardants are ubiquitous components of household dust. These substances are present at such high levels that researchers say it is likely we are inhaling and accidentally eating small amounts of these chemicals every day, although we don't yet know whether this level of exposure is enough to do harm.

 Such exposures occur after the chemicals flake off of products including building materials, electrical cords or perfume, says senior author Ami Zota, a professor of environmental and occupational health at The George Washington University. To better understand the scale of such exposures she and her colleagues collected the findings of 26 peer-reviewed studies and one unpublished data set on indoor dust samples from 14 states. The samples came from urban, suburban and rural settings, and included houses as well as other locations like schools and workplaces. The 10 most common chemicals in the study were found in over 90 percent of samples, which suggests they come from items present in most people's households and communities.

 The most abundant chemical in the analysis was di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a phthalate that is used in flexible plastics as well as in cosmetics and personal care products. In mice and rats, ingesting high doses of DEHP interferes with the development of the male reproductive system and is linked to liver cancer. When the investigators ranked the chemicals according to how much preschool-aged children were likely to ingest, the flame retardant tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) came out on top. TCEP has been linked to cancer and brain damage in mice, but like many of these household chemicals we don't know whether it might be dangerous to humans.

 An important limitation of the study is that it only looked at the types and amounts of chemicals present in dust—not the health of people who spent time in places where the dust was collected. For many of the chemicals, we don't yet know what amount should be considered hazardous for long-term exposure, Zota says. And we don't know whether some of the chemicals might be more harmful in combination than they are individually.

 Tracey Woodruff, who was not involved with the new analysis, calls the work a “great contribution” to the study of chemicals in household dust. She's the director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco, and she was previously a senior scientist and policy analyst at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “The dust is out there. We know the chemicals are in the dust,” she says. “Now we have a better picture of what that looks like and also what we’re going to be ingesting, which is really important for thinking about risks.”

 In the Air

 A second study raises new questions about air exposures we might encounter outside the home. Work published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on September 6 suggests magnetite nanoparticles, typically found in the air, may travel farther than previously believed throughout the human body and ultimately lodge in human brain tissue. Such particles from air pollution have long been linked to respiratory disease, Woodruff says, but the link to brain health is “newly being appreciated.”

 The researchers examined 37 samples of brain tissue from people who had lived in Manchester, England, and in Mexico City. They used a sensitive magnet to confirm that magnetic particles were present in the brains and then looked for the particles under a transmission electron microscope. Although our bodies produce a small amount of magnetite—a mineral made of iron and oxygen—specific characteristics of the magnetite particles researchers found in the brain samples suggest these substances did not come from the body. Typically, such particles appear crystal-shaped under an electron microscopic. Yet Barbara Maher, who studies magnetic minerals that occur in the environment at Lancaster University, and her team found that most of the samples from the brain were actually smooth and round.

 That shape, along with other clues like particle size and the presence of other metals, suggests they were produced at high temperatures—likely in the engines of vehicles. “In essence they are molten droplets,” Maher says. ”If they cool quickly enough, they keep that spherical shape.”

 The particles are small enough that they can enter the brain through the olfactory nerve via the nose. Nobody has yet proved that magnetite contributes to Alzheimer's or any other disease—magnetite has been detected previously in the brains of some Alzheimer’s patients—but the mineral is known to create free radicals that can damage cells. As a result, Maher believes it is “highly improbable” that the particles' presence in the brain is harmless.

 “The levels of magnetite they found in the brain are much higher than have been found in other studies,” says Jon Dobson, who studies magnetic nanoparticles in biomedicine at the University of Florida and was not involved in the study. There is a chance the high levels were from accidental contamination in the lab, in spite of the researchers' careful steps to avoid it, he says. But if the high levels are simply due to the patients being exposed to high levels of pollution, future studies involving a control group from less polluted areas could confirm the findings.

 Removing nanoparticles and consumer product chemicals from our environment is a big job that would require major policy changes, for example banning the most toxic chemical from products. In the meantime, though, both Zota and Woodruff note that washing your hands before you eat can significantly reduce your accidental intake of the chemicals found in dust. They also recommend vacuuming with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, which is designed to remove very fine particles.

 Maher points out that walking farther away from busy roads may also help to reduce how much exhaust you breathe in. Even walking on the downhill side of the road, she says, rather than the uphill side where drivers burn more fuel as they accelerate, may make a difference. “Any distance that you can put between you and the source of the particles is a good thing.” ||||| TIME Health For more, visit TIME Health

 Ten chemicals suspected or known to harm human health are present in more than 90% of household dust samples, according to a new study.

 The research, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, adds to a growing body of evidence showing the dangers posed by exposure to a slew of chemicals people in developed countries encounter on a day-to-day basis. The chemicals come from a variety of household goods that includes toys, cosmetics, furniture, cookware and cleaning products.

 A class of chemicals known as phthalates — a group that includes DEP, DEHP, DNBP and DIBP — are present in the highest concentrations, according to the research. That class of chemicals is also thought to be among the most harmful. Exposure to phthalates may interrupt the endocrine system, leading to a decrease in IQ and respiratory problems, among other problems, health researchers say.

 Read More: You Asked: Can My Couch Give Me Cancer?

 Highly fluorinated chemicals (HFCs), another class of chemicals common in household dust, has been linked to kidney and testicular cancer. The compound is found in everything from cell phones to pizza boxes, according to the study.

 Researchers behind the study, which evaluated datasets from more than 25 prior studies, called for manufacturers to replace the chemicals in their products with safe alternatives, but, voluntary participation aside, the path to force companies to replace chemicals remains difficult. For decades, chemicals in this country have been eligible for use without tests to confirm their safety.

 An overhaul to the Toxic Substances Control Act passed earlier this year will require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to sign off on new chemicals before they enter the open market, but still thousands of chemicals on the market today remain untested. The Environmental Working Group, an environmental nonprofit, estimates that 1,000 of those chemicals warrant further scrutiny, but the EPA does not have the staff — or the time — to invest in such an effort. Instead, the EPA has selected a much smaller list of priority chemicals to evaluate first.

 The research comes as scientists increasingly understand that exposure even to very low levels of these toxic substances can damage human health. And, while exposure on any given day may be small, each exposure adds up. ||||| A new analysis of more than two dozen studies found toxic chemicals in 90 percent of household dust samples taken from 14 states.

 Household dust does more than collect in corners and on bookshelves full of novels you haven’t gotten around to reading. A new study shows it can expose people to a wide range of potentially toxic chemicals.

 In what the authors are calling the first study of its kind – a meta-analysis of more than two dozen previous studies on chemicals in dust – they report that 90 percent of dust samples taken from houses in 14 states contain harmful chemicals, including one that’s known to cause cancer.

 “Most studies only measure a few chemicals so it makes it hard to understand typical exposures in homes and work places,” said the study’s lead author Ami Zota, an assistant professor of environment and occupational health at Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C.

 The researchers – who also came from Harvard University, the University of California-San Francisco, Silent Spring Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council – analyzed data from 26 peer-reviewed papers and one unpublished set of data. The collected data included 45 chemicals from five chemical classes.

 “We wanted to be able to draw more solid conclusions about concentrations of indoor chemicals in the U.S. by pooling data across all of these studies,” Zota explained.

 The chemicals studied come from all sorts of common consumer goods, including furniture, personal hygiene products, flooring, baby products, cleaning supplies, fast food and food packaging. Zota said the chemicals are released into the air and then seep into dust that settles on furniture and floors. People can inhale or ingest small particles of dust or even absorb them through the skin.

 To analyze the previous studies, the scientists parsed the information from three different angles: the level of chemical concentration in dust, how much might be getting into our bodies, and how hazardous the chemicals are.

 “No matter which way we looked at it, there were some chemicals that stood out,” co-author Veena Singla, a staff scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told CBS News. The non-profit group helped to fund the study.

 Ten harmful chemicals were found in 90 percent of the dust samples tested. Phthalates, used in toys and vinyl flooring, among other products, occurred in the highest concentrations.

 They were followed by phenols, often used in cleaning products. Then came flame retardants, fragrances and perflouroalkyl substances, which are used in carpets, textiles, and leather to make them water-, oil- and stain-repellent and to create grease-proof and waterproof coatings for products such as paper plates and food packaging.

 “Phthalates are linked to multiple health hazards, including reproductive,” Signla said. “And some flame retardants are linked to cancer.”

 The authors of the study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, were especially concerned about exposure to children, especially very young children who crawl around on the floor and put their hands in their mouths.

 Chemicals of top concern:

 TCEP - A flame retardant added to couches, baby products, electronics and other products

 DEP, DEHP, BBzP and DnBP – These chemicals, different varieties of phthalates, are found in an array of drugstore items like those listed above, as well as some highly processed foods and fast food. Phthalates are also linked to IQ and respiratory problems in children.

 PFOA and PFOS - These chemicals are found in cellphones, pizza boxes and many non-stick, waterproof and stain-resistant products. They’ve been linked to developmental problems and issues with the immune, digestive, and endocrine systems.

 These may be worrisome when they accumulate in household dust, the researchers say.

 “Indoor dust is a reservoir for commercial consumer product chemicals and many of these chemicals have known and suspected health effects,” Zota said.

 “This is the first study where we can get a more comprehensive picture of chemical contamination in the home,” Singla added. “Previous studies were like looking at the individual dots in an Impressionist painting. Putting this data altogether, we could see what the bigger picture is and it’s really kind of scary.”

 The authors said small amounts can add up over time and potentially impact health.

 “On the one hand, I wasn’t that surprised, and on the other hand I was surprised to see just how bad it was. I definitely expected to see a number of toxic chemicals when we put the data together, but just the extent of it did surprise me,” Singla said.

 The study doesn’t answer all of the researchers’ questions, however. There are still big gaps in knowledge about many chemicals.

 “We know so little about fragrance chemicals. They’re a prime example of the problem of not having information on what’s in our products because companies claim trade secrets,” Singla said.

 Safer alternatives need to be developed, said Zota.

 “One of our objectives with this – because there are so many consumer product chemicals being used currently in commerce with incomplete health and safety information – was to conduct this analysis with the objective of helping researchers as well as decision-makers to set priorities. Which chemicals to prioritize, in terms of conducting future health assessments. As well as which chemicals to actively develop safer alternatives for,” Zota said.

 Individuals can take a number of steps to improve safety, Singla said.

 In your own home, day-to-day, washing your hands with plain soap and water can cut down on the amount of dust you come into contact with. Vacuuming with a HEPA-filter, wet mopping and dusting with a damp cloth can reduce exposure to dust, as well.

 In the longer term, she said, “There are regulatory and legislative solutions. It does make a difference when people tell their government agencies that this matters to them and they’re concerned.” Singla also noted that the Natural Resources Defense Council has a petition for the FDA to ban phthalates from food, which supporters can sign online.

 “We think our homes are safe havens, but what we found is the surprising reality that our homes are being polluted by the products we have every day. Our choices about what we buy and the policies we support can make a real difference,” Singla said. ||||| Since then, many advocates for human health have demanded overhaul of the patently “toothless” law. The Toxic Substances Control Act has simply proven ineffective at banning elements linked to health problems, and many believe its premarket safety testing standards are also inadequate. (Not to mention that the law requires no safety testing for the roughly 60,000 “grandfathered” substances that were already in use as of its passage in 1972.)

 So it is of great historical significance that after 40 years, in a Congress so divided, the U.S. House of Representative voted overwhelmingly (403 to 12) this week to pass the first ever update to the law. Even Republicans who have repeatedly voted to downsize the EPA, have in this case supported the measure to expand its power. The Senate is expected to pass the bill in coming weeks, after which President Obama is expected to sign.

 The product of years of negotiation, the bill was introduced in 2013 by Senators Frank Lautenberg and David Vitter. It had momentum in the moment, but several days later, Lautenberg died. The bill is named in his honor, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act.

 “This is an issue that many people assumed was never going to see progress because it had been so politicized, and industry and environmentalists were so diametrically opposed on how it should be handled,” said Anne Kolton, vice president of communications for the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade group that advocates for industrial chemical manufacturers and suppliers. “It's something that, through the art of compromise, we've settled on with the environmental community and the public health community.”

 But those communities seem less than settled.

 Philip Landrigan, dean for global health in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has for years been concerned about the cumulative effects of environmental exposures that, he believes, have “subtle but far-reaching impacts on brain development that show up as lifelong impairments in cognition, ability to focus, and ability to exert executive control over impulsive, risk-taking behaviors.”

 Among his chief concerns are brominated flame retardants used in furniture, organophosphate pesticides, phthalates used in some toys, perfluorinated compounds, which he'd like to see restricted to “essential uses” (where there is no substitute). Nanotechnology, too, is a concern. “Investment has exploded, but the amount of information on hazards is minute,” said Landrigan. “It may turn out that there isn’t much hazard, but I wouldn't be so sanguine.”

 He’s unsure if the new bill will give enough power to remove substances once they prove harmful. “This could very well fix the problem, but we won't know until the first legal judgment,” said Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, a self-described non-partisan organization "dedicated to protecting human health and the environment." ||||| Phthalates are a group of chemicals used to make plastics more flexible and harder to break. They are often called plasticizers. Some phthalates are used as solvents (dissolving agents) for other materials. They are used in hundreds of products, such as vinyl flooring, adhesives, detergents, lubricating oils, automotive plastics, plastic clothes (raincoats), and personal-care products (soaps, shampoos, hair sprays, and nail polishes).

 Phthalates are used widely in polyvinyl chloride plastics, which are used to make products such as plastic packaging film and sheets, garden hoses, inflatable toys, blood-storage containers, medical tubing, and some children’s toys.

 How People Are Exposed to Phthalates

 People are exposed to phthalates by eating and drinking foods that have been in contact with containers and products containing phthalates. To a lesser extent exposure can occur from breathing in air that contains phthalate vapors or dust contaminated with phthalate particles. Young children may have a greater risk of being exposed to phthalate particles in dust than adults because of their hand-to-mouth behaviors. Once phthalates enter a person’s body, they are converted into breakdown products (metabolites) that pass out quickly in urine.

 How Phthalates Affect People’s Health

 Human health effects from exposure to low levels of phthalates are unknown. Some types of phthalates have affected the reproductive system of laboratory animals. More research is needed to assess the human health effects of exposure to phthalates.

 Levels of Phthalate Metabolites in the U.S. Population

 In the Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (Fourth Report), CDC scientists measured 13 phthalate metabolites in the urine of 2,636 or more participants aged six years and older who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) during 2003–2004. For several phthalate metabolites, results from the prior survey periods of 1999–2000 and 2001–2002 are also included in the Fourth Report. By measuring phthalate metabolites in urine, scientists can estimate the amount of phthalates that have entered people’s bodies.

 CDC researchers found measurable levels of many phthalate metabolites in the general population. This finding indicates that phthalate exposure is widespread in the U.S. population.

 Research has found that adult women have higher levels of urinary metabolites than men for those phthalates that are used in soaps, body washes, shampoos, cosmetics, and similar personal care products.

 Finding a detectable amount of phthalate metabolites in urine does not imply that the levels of one or more will cause an adverse health effect. Biomonitoring studies on levels of phthalate metabolites provide physicians and public health officials with reference values so that they can determine whether people have been exposed to higher levels of these chemicals than are found in the general population. Biomonitoring data can also help scientists plan and conduct research on exposure and health effects.

 Additional Resources

 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

 Public Health Statement for Di-n-butyl Phthalate

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=857&tid=167

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=857&tid=167 Public Health Statement for Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP)

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=376&tid=65

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=376&tid=65 Public Health Statement for Diethyl Phthalate

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=601&tid=112

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=601&tid=112 Public Health Statement for Di-n-octylphthalate (DNOP)

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=971&tid=204

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=971&tid=204 ToxFAQs for Di-n-butyl Phthalate

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=858&tid=167

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=858&tid=167 ToxFAQs for Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP)

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=377&tid=65

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=377&tid=65 ToxFAQs for Diethyl Phthalate

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=602&tid=112

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=602&tid=112 ToxFAQs for Di-n-octylphthalate (DNOP)

 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=972&tid=204

 Environmental Protection Agency

 Consumer Fact Sheet on Di (2- ethyhexyl) Phthalate

 https://www.epa.gov/safewater/pdfs/factsheets/soc/phthalat.pdf

 https://www.epa.gov/safewater/pdfs/factsheets/soc/phthalat.pdf Dibutyl phthalate

 https://www.epa.gov/iris/subst/0038.htm

 https://www.epa.gov/iris/subst/0038.htm Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)

 https://www.epa.gov/iris/subst/0014.htm

 Food and Drug Administration

 Phthalates and Cosmetic Products

 https://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/ProductandIngredientSafety/SelectedCosmeticIngredients/ucm128250.htm

 National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health ||||| (CNN) When was the last time you dusted your house?

 Your answer could reveal a lot about your home habits, but the findings of a new study might have everyone upping their game -- and potentially keeping wet wipes and hand sanitizer nearby at all times.

 Researchers at George Washington University say 45 toxic chemicals are found commonly in your house dust, with 10 of them lurking in 90% of homes across the country.

 "We wanted to identify which chemicals were present at the highest exposure in homes," said Dr. Ami Zota , an assistant professor of environmental occupational health who led the study. "Some chemicals were in virtually every dust sample."

 To reveal which potential toxins we're being exposed to in the comfort of our own homes, Zota's team analyzed all studies that have sampled indoor environments in the United States since 2000. They looked for the presence of potentially toxic chemicals and divided them into five classes of chemicals, two of which were found to be more common than the rest: phthalates and flame retardants.

 "Many of the top 10 fall into these two categories," Zota said.

 But when factoring in the wide range of chemicals we're exposed to, small amounts can add up, she stressed.

 Lurking in the dust

 The chemicals found in dust samples came from a range of things typically found inside your home, including vinyl products -- such as flooring -- cosmetics, baby products, furniture and nail polish.

 To understand how these chemicals are entering your home, it helps to understand where they are used. Phthalates make plastic softer and more flexible, so they tend to be found in vinyl (PVC) materials such as flooring, blinds and food packaging. Flame retardants help products meet flammability standards that are built into building codes, insurance requirements and fire regulations.

 The other three classes of chemicals found in dust samples included environmental phenols, usually used as preservatives in personal care products like shampoo; fluorinated chemicals, used as stain- and water-repellent treatments for upholstery, carpets and clothes and in nonstick pans; and fragrances.

 Only one chemical used in fragrances had been the topic of a study, meaning many more chemicals are likely to be present in dust with little insight into them, according to the researchers. "We know very little about the health hazard of these fragrances," said Zota.

 But the researchers note that it is about more than exposure. For example, phthalates were detected in the highest concentrations in the study, but the chemicals found in flame retardants had the "highest estimated intake," meaning they are more likely to enter the body.

 "You can breathe it in and can absorb into your skin," Zota said. "These chemicals are not bound to the products, so they can migrate out."

 A risk to child development

 One of the biggest concerns underlying the presence of these chemicals hiding in house dust is the fact that children are most likely to inhale or ingest them as they crawl around, touching things and inevitably placing their hands in their mouths multiple times a day.

 "Environmental insults during early development can have long-lasting adverse health effects that persist across the lifespan," Zota said. Phthalate exposure in children "can increase risk of respiratory, behavioral and neurodevelopmental problems."

 Phthalates are also known to disrupt hormones inside the body, meaning they could cause reproductive problems.

 "We know from lead that exposures are not acceptable," said Dr. Asa Bradman, associate director for exposure assessment at the Center for Environmental Research and Child's Health at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the new study.

 "There's a strong argument to reduce exposure to children whose brains are changing and bodies are developing."

 As for the study findings, Bradman noted that the reason phthalates were found to be most common in house dust was probably because most studies have been done on this class of chemicals.

 "By compiling information in this way, there's always the possibility of exposures that haven't been studied yet," Bradman said.

 Preventing exposure

 Some advice to prevent exposure, other than regularly dusting your home, is to veer away from the traditional feather duster and use a powerful vacuum with a HEPA filter to ensure that all dust particles are sucked up. Regular hand-washing -- which has a multitude of benefits -- will also reduce exposure to flame retardants found on the surfaces of furniture.

 The Silent Spring Institute has created an app to help people understand more about their environmental exposures, aptly named Detox Me

 Join the conversation See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

 But both Zota and Bradman stress that there needs to be more research into the range of chemicals people are exposed to at home and changes at the policy level to reduce the number of chemicals entering people's households, through bans, better regulation and improved underlying chemistry during production.

 "There may be chemicals out there that we don't know about, that we should know about," said Bradman, whose own research looks into exposure risks, particularly among children. His studies have found phthalates to be common in child care practices in the United States.

 "But we can also reformulate materials so that chemicals don't just go into our bodies," he added. "There may be ways to have better adhesion [of flame retardants to furnishings] so they don't get into the environment."

 The issue is also not specific to the United States.

 "These consumer product chemicals are widely used throughout the globe and have been detected in homes in the UK and other European countries," Zota said, adding, "since the European Union has different chemical regulations than the US, the average levels for some of the chemicals may be different than those we found for US homes." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– We're surrounded by toxic chemicals, and even holing up in our meticulously kept homes may not save us, Time reports. Ten chemicals that may be hazardous to our health were found in over 90% of indoor dust samples taken for a study published in the Environmental Science & Technology journal. And these chemicals are found in everyday items, including ones you may suspect (e.g., cleaning products, cellphones) and ones that may surprise you (toys, pizza boxes). Two of the most common toxins are phthalates—chemicals used to make plastics more flexible and thought to be linked to harmful effects on the endocrine system, which can lower IQ and lead to breathing troubles—and highly fluorinated chemicals, or HFCs, used to make items nonstick or waterproof but which are also tied to testicular and kidney cancer, thyroid issues, and liver malfunction, among other problems. In what the study's authors say is the first mega-study of its kind, they scrutinized data from 26 past studies and one unpublished one, with dust containing 45 chemicals collected from homes, schools, and workplaces in 14 states, per Scientific American. The Toxic Substances Control Act was updated earlier this year, per the Atlantic, but the law only requires new chemicals get a green light from the EPA—leaving about 1,000 examination-worthy chemicals already on the market that the agency doesn't have the resources to study. "We think our homes are safe havens, but … the surprising reality [is] that our homes are being polluted by the products we have every day," co-author Veena Singla tells CBS News. How you can decrease your risk, the authors say, per CNN: Wash your hands regularly and use a strong vacuum with a HEPA filter. (Arkansas prisoners fear they were exposed to toxic dust.)