U.S. Health Officials Concerned Over Second Ebola Case

Federal health officials in the US admitted on Sunday they were deeply concerned by a “breach in protocol” after it was revealed that a healthcare worker who treated Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas had become the second person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the US.

Four days after Duncan died in an isolation unit, after arriving in Dallas last month from Liberia, secondary tests confirmed that a female employee at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital has the virus, in the first case of Ebola transmission in the US and the second outside Africa.

Texas officials earlier said preliminary tests showed the worker had been exposed to Ebola, but they were awaiting confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Confirmation followed on Sunday afternoon.

The White House said President Barack Obama had been updated about the case.

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Ga. Police Raid Farm, Mistake Okra Plants for Marijuana

Authorities in Georgia mistook a man's okra plants for a marijuana grow operation earlier this month, showing up at his residence with police dogs and a helicopter.

Dwayne Perry said that he was frightened when a helicopter hung low over his house and Bartow County deputies arrived at his front door with a K-9 unit.

"They were strapped to the gills," Perry said.

The officers were part of a statewide task force looking for home-grown marijuana. They had spotted Perry's okra plants, which look similar to marijuana but have five leaves instead of seven.

"Here I am, at home and retired and you know I do the right thing," Perry said. "Then they come to my house strapped with weapons for no reason. It ain't right."

Georgia State Patrol Capt. Kermit Stokes told WSB-TV on Oct. 2 that they had not been able to identify the plants yet, but that they had a variety of characteristics similar to marijuana.

Stokes said that disturbing citizens is not the task force's intent. "Our intent is to go out and do our job and do it to the best of our ability," he said.

Officers apologized on two occasions, but Perry said "Anything could have happened," and that he fears his reputation was damaged after the high-profile encounter.

Elizabeth Warren Accuses Obama of Protecting Wall Street

Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Thomas Frank of Salon. During the interview, she claimed President Obama's administration "protected Wall Street. Not families who were losing their homes. Not people who lost their jobs. Not young people who were struggling to get an education. And it happened over and over and over."

Warren has been vocal concerning corruption on Wall Street and how it has hurt the economy, while she sees families struggling with little help from the government that allows those corporations to do so. Warren praises President Obama for creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but she thinks he could do more to help struggling families find paths to a better financial situation.

Other parts of the interview feature Warren talking about the high cost of college tuition, risky business practices and the need for large government reforms. She said that aside from large campaign contributions, lobbyists and lawyers are fighting for the rich in a way that the poor and middle class don't get represented. "The system is rigged. And now that I've been in Washington and seen it up close and personal, I just see new ways in which that happens," she said.

News: S.C. Among Worst States for Teachers

We're not as bad as North Carolina, but South Carolina still ranked near the bottom of Wallethub's 2014 ranking of the best and worst states for teachers.

South Carolina ranked 45th of 51 in the report (which also ranked Washington, D.C.), just ahead of Arizona and Hawaii but well behind other Southeastern states like Louisiana (26), Alabama (31) or Georgia (33). North Carolina ranked dead last.

Wallethub analyzed 18 different metrics to find teachers' opportunity and competition, and the academic and work environment for each state.

South Carolina's low scores in its average starting salaries for teachers, 10-year change in teacher salaries and public school spending per student played a major part in ranking South Carolina 45th overall, said Raz Daraban, communications manager for Wallethub, a personal finance website.

The ranking didn't take into account any changes that went into effect for this school year, such as Gov. Nikki Haley's education reform bill that added early-grades reading coaches, funds technology improvements and sends more money to schools with poor students.

The education bill, which Haley called a first step in a decade-long transformation of the state's public schools, did not address teacher salaries.

South Carolina's average starting teacher salary is $32,389, below the 2012-2013 national average of $36,141, according to the National Education Association.

Greenville County's starting teacher salary for 2014-2015 is $33,259 for a teacher with a bachelor's degree.

"Sadly, insofar as these kinds of lists go, South Carolina continues to rank near the bottom for teachers," Bernadette Hampton, president of the South Carolina Education Association, said in a statement. "Most certainly inadequate compensation is a contributor to this statistic. Lawmakers in South Carolina have the ability to improve conditions for teaching and recognize teachers as the highly educated professionals that they are. Yet, year after year, they fail to take substantive, sustainable action. One-time money does little to change a perplexing compensation paradigm."

South Carolina teachers earn 86 percent of the national average of $56,103.The average salary for South Carolina teachers is $48,375, which places us at 39th in the country, according to the SCEA.

Starting teachers earn 15 percent less than college-educated professionals in comparable occupations, Hampton said.

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Study: Coffee, Decaf and Regular, Promote Liver Health

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute say people who drink coffee every day are doing well by their livers, improving the organ's function and potentially staving off disease.

In a recent health survey, scientists found those who drink coffee -- both decaf and regular -- were less likely to have high levels of various biomarkers that signal poor liver function, including aminotransferase, aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and gamma glutamyl transaminase.

Heightened levels of these enzymes are often a signal of liver damage and are linked to problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer.

In analyzing coffee habits and blood samples collected from more than 27,793 participants, 20 years of age or older, during the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, scientists found those who drank coffee had lower levels of the enzymes linked to poor liver health. The positive effects on liver health were present regardless of whether participants drank regular or decaf coffee, suggesting coffee components other than caffeine are at work.

"Prior research found that drinking coffee may have a possible protective effect on the liver. However, the evidence is not clear if that benefit may extend to decaffeinated coffee," lead researcher Dr. Qian Xiao, of the National Cancer Institute, said in a press release. "Our findings link total and decaffeinated coffee intake to lower liver enzyme levels. These data suggest that ingredients in coffee, other than caffeine, may promote liver health."

Researchers say further research is necessary to figure out exactly what those ingredients may be. The study was published Friday in the journal Hepatology.

Same-Sex Marriage Moving Toward Law in 35 States

Legalized same-sex marriage is on a trajectory to become law in 35 states. 

With the latest judicial action, a ruling by a federal appeals court, marriage between people of the same sex will be nearly double the number of states prior to the Supreme Court's assent to appeals court rulings Oct. 6 that struck down state laws limiting marriage to one man and one woman.

Leaders in the effort to protect the biblical, traditional definition of marriage, meanwhile, continued their lament of Americans' loss of power to an activist judiciary but urged allies not to give up.

The most recent blow to marriage's meaning throughout history came Oct. 7, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman in two states. The appeals court's ruling is expected to take effect in three other states in its circuit with similar laws. 

The Ninth Circuit's ruling followed by a day an announcement by the U.S. Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage in five states and moved another six states in the same circuits toward gay marriage. In their Oct. 6 orders, the justices denied review of decisions by three federal appeals courts overturning state laws that prohibited same-sex marriage. The high court's refusal to accept the cases means the lower-court rulings are controlling. 

Prior to the actions by the Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit Court, same-sex marriage was legal in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

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UN: ISIS Making Slaves of Children, Women

A United Nations report highlighting the human rights violations of the Islamic State's jihadist campaign in Iraq found that while over 24,000 Iraqi civilians have been injured or killed by ISIS in the first eight months of 2014, and the extremists have taken up the practices of recruiting 12- and 13-year-old soldiers and forcing women and girls into sex slavery.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in conjunction with the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq released a report last Thursday that investigated ISIS' violations of human rights by conducting interviews with over 500 internally displaced witnesses. The witnesses told the UN investigators of the atrocious ways in which the terrorists were killing, kidnapping and persecuting citizens of all religious beliefs, including those holding ISIS' own faith of Sunni Islam.

Using information obtained from a variety of governmental, non-governmental and local media sources, the report states that in the first eight months of 2014, ISIS terrorist and militants from associated groups have killed approximately 8,493 Iraqi civilians, while injuring 15,782.

Many of the casualties occurred in the final two months of the reporting as 11,159 casualties and 4,692 deaths were reported from June 1 until Aug. 31, the time period in which ISIS was able to seize the majority of Iraq's northern Nineveh province.

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Anderson Touchdown Club Announces Weekly Winners

The Anderson Area Touchdown Club announced its winners for the week Friday.

Co-Defensive:  Dayquan Telley, Westside High School

Austin Daniels, Belton-Honea Path High School

Offensive:     Audruw Richardson, Wren High School

Lineman:       Andrew Bishop, Powdersville High School

Coach:         Scott Earley, Westside High School

Study: Major Advance Found for Type 1 Diabetes

Scientists believe they have made a major advance in the quest to find an effective treatment for type 1 diabetes.

Using human embryonic stem cells as a starting point, they have for the first time been able to create human insulin-producing beta cells equivalent in almost every way to normally functioning beta cells in the kind of large quantities needed for cell transplantation and pharmaceutical purposes.

Doug Melton, Xander University Professor at Harvard University, who led the work, said he hopes to have human transplantation trials using the cells under way within a few years.

The stem cell-derived beta cells are currently undergoing trials in animal models, including non-human primates.

Prof Melton, who is also co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, said a device being tested had so far protected beta cells implanted in mice from immune attack for many months.

“[While] there have been previous reports of other labs deriving beta cell types from stem cells, no other group has produced mature beta cells as suitable for use in patients,” he said.

“The biggest hurdle has been to get to glucose-sensing, insulin-secreting beta cells, and that’s what our group has done.

“We are now just one pre-clinical step away from the finish line.”

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Tony Barnhart to Speak at Anderson Touchdown Club

CBS Sportscaster Tony Barnhart will be the guest speaker today at the weekly meeting of the Anderson Area Touchdown Club, which meets at the Anderson County Library. The luch begins at 11:30 and the meeting itself starts at noon.   

Visitors are welcome.  Membership is $50 for an individual and $200 for a Corporate, which includes 5 memberships.  Lunch for members is $10 and $15 for visitors. For additional information, call 864-226-7380.

S.C. Oks Sweets Fundraisers 90 Days Out of Year

The state Board of Education voted Wednesday to give schools exemptions to sell unhealthy snacks during in-school fundraisers during 90 of 180 school days each year.

According to The Herald newspaper of Rock Hill the issue came about when the federal Smart Snacks in Schools regulations banned the selling of unhealthy food through in-school fundraisers if that food was to be consumed on the school campus during school hours. That includes morning Chick-fil-A biscuit sales by the PTO or Daddies and Donuts drop-ins to help pay for school improvements, but not take-home cookie dough or concession stands at sporting events.

Those federal regulations, however, allowed states to grant exemptions for fundraising programs. As of late July, 33 states had indicated they wouldn’t seek exemptions.

South Carolina originally was in that list, but the Department of Education decided to exempt up to 30 fundraisers, lasting up to 30 days each.

The S.C. Medical Association, Eat Smart Move More SC and several other groups led letter-writing campaigns against the exemptions. Those health advocates point out that the current S.C. exemption would be one of the most lenient in the country.

Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia grant no exemptions. Another nine grant fewer than 10 exemption days. The most exemptions allowed currently are in Georgia (90 days), Pennsylvania (50 days), Wyoming (50 days), Illinois (36 days for high schools, nine for grades K-8) and Tennessee (30 days).

S.C. High Court Says No to Same Sex Marriage Licenses

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday morning directed all probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples until the state's federal lawsuit is decided.

Early Thursday morning, no one had showed up or inquired about submitting an application for gay marriage in Lexington County since other counties in South Carolina began accepting applications Wednesday, officials said.

"If they do, it won't be accepted," Probate Judge Dan Eckstrom said. "We are not accepting applications while the legal challenge is pending."

All was quiet first thing at the Richland County courthouse, where 13 marriage license applications had been accepted Wednesday.

But no licenses will be issued until legal challenges are resolved.

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson is asking the state Supreme Court to stop a Charleston County judge from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Wilson acted after Richland and Charleston counties started accepting marriage license applications from same-sex couples Wednesday, despite the state’s constitutional ban against the marriages and Wilson’s pledge to defend that ban.

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AIM, Holy Trinity, Bethel UMC Sponsors Free Food Oct. 11

Anderson Interfatih Ministries will offer a free food distribution Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at Bethel United Methodist Church, 800 Bleckley Street.

The event is sponsored by Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and Bethel United Methodist Church and volunteers from each church will be on-site early the morning of the distribution to unload and prep the more than 5,000 pounds of assorted food items that will be delivered via truck from Golden Harvest Food Bank.  The food will be distributed to those who need it on a first-come, first-served basis.  The distribution will be held rain or shine, so participants are encouraged to dress for the weather and to bring a cart, wagon, large bin or laundry basket to help in carrying their food package.  

For more information visit aimcharity.org.