Women and mothers across the nation are worried about a news story that just broke regarding very minute trace amounts of Melamine being detected in infant formula that is sold in the United States.  The formula companies are standing by their products and claiming that the FDA tests were inaccurate.  This is a serious issue, you should know all the facts. The FDA has said that while there is NO SAFE ALLOWABLE amount of Melamine, the amounts detected are so slight that there should not stop feeding your child formula at this time, rather, contact your pediatrician or the FDA if you have further questions that cannot be answered by the links in this article.

Earlier this year the news story broke announcing that Melamine had been found in infant formula made and sold in China. The result was over 50,000 ill babies and sadly, a few dead babies. Melamine is a chemical with many uses, among which is the ability to appear as a protein when dangerously and illegally mixed into food substances.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says there is NO SAFE LEVEL of Melamine in infant formula. A contradiction indeed, they are also telling parents not to overreact or change their baby’s diet at this time. The levels found are extremely low, however, you be the judge. The FDA has established a section of their website for Melamine information.

Yahoo! Reports from the Associated Press:

According to FDA data for tests of 77 infant formula samples, a trace concentration of melamine was detected in one product — Mead Johnson’s Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron. An FDA spreadsheet shows two tests were conducted on the Enfamil, with readings of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million.

Three tests of Nestle’s Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid, a melamine byproduct.

The FDA said last month that the toxicity of cyanuric acid is under study, but that meanwhile it is “prudent” to assume that its potency is equal to that of melamine.

And while the FDA said tests of 18 samples of formula made by Abbott Laboratories, including its Similac brand, did not detect melamine, spokesman Colin McBean said some company tests did find the chemical. He did not identify the specific product or the number of positive tests.

Questions and Answers to you questions about Melamine. What is Melamine? What do I do if I think my infant formula contains Melamine? Melamine Information? Symptoms of Melamine poisoning?

Enfamil released a statement today saying that the FDA testing was inaccurate.

This is an original posting to 451 Press but is cross posted with Parent Extremis, and modified for this website’s audience.

President Elect Barack and Michelle Obama have choosen Harvard MBA Desiree Rogers, currently a prominent Chicago businesswoman to be their personal social secretary. Rogers, 49, will be the first African American White House social secretary. Rogers will be leaving her current position as an executive at Allstate Financial in Chicago to come to Washington later this winter.

The Obama’s have selected a highly-educated woman who has a great social stature and understanding of the demands on the office. It is clear that they are very focused on ensuring they are introduced to the country and the world with great attention to detail and no stone left unturned. Rogers knows the Obama family well and this puts her in a great position to get down to work immediately as she already knows their preferences, ethics and tastes.

The position is far-reaching. The job entails being involved in every event or ceremony that occurs at the White House on or the grounds. Beginning the moment after inauguration, Rogers will be responsible for organizing the swearing-in of Obama’s new Cabinet.

Her vision will be to make the White House more accessible and more inclusive. She is also committed to developing events featuring children because the Obama’s have two school-aged daughters, Sasha and Malia who will be the first young kids in the White House in over 30 years.

Ann Stock, a social secretary under the Clinton White House was once responsible for organizing the historic signing of the Mideast peace agreement, for 4,000 guests, on four days notice.

Prior to joining Allstate, Rogers headed a $2 billion utility.

SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST

It’s that time of year again:  The HOLIDAY season is among us … almost.  Thanksgiving is just a few days away and the day after that is Black Friday, a day known for mass shopping, sales and crowds at the malls.   Here are some of my favorite gifts, some of which I hope to get myself, maybe … these gifts could be great for the special women in your life, your mom, aunt, grandmother, wife, sister, mother, partner, ….

For the woman who loves a garden but doesn’t have the space to capability to maintain a large backyard plot, this Year Of Seeds provides a complete kit of seeds and pots in which to grow them.

This is perfect for a windowsill garden of delicate flowers, including marigolds, pansies, poppies and baby’s breath.

It comes with soil pellets and instructions for the accidental black-thumb among us.  Available from Red Envelope for $79.99

What woman doesn’t want to increase her level of organization? This great charging station/docking station is a great centrally located charging zone for all of your electronic equipment.  You can use it to sort your mail, bills, hold some pens and a checkbook.  I have an earlier more simple version of this and it is great. I keep our cell phone chargers in it as well as stamps, important papers and receipts and it is simply styled and fits well with my living room/dining room decor.

This is a great family gift too because it is something everyone can benefit from.  This model is from Pottery Barn and it retails for $169 but is currently on sale for $119.  This model allows your to play you iPod while everything charges.   Other models are less expensive without the iHome capability.  Target sells a similar model for a more reasonable price, made by Crosley you can charge four things at a time.

More gift ideas coming soon …

Tell me, what are your favorites this season?  Leave a comment and a link and I will feature your selections and recommendations.

Michael Jackson, recording artist and entertainer, has reportedly sold his child-like fantasy home The Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara, California (120 Miles Northwest of Los Angeles) for $35 million. Sycamore Valley Ranch Company, a company based in Delaware is reportedly a joint venture between Jackson and an affiliate of Colony Capital LLC. This information is unconfirmed at the time of posting because it was reported to the AP from a source unauthorized to speak on the record about the deal.

Neverland, which rests on 2,800 acres has been home to the King of Pop since 1988 when he designed it to be an amusement park. He established a zoo, a Ferris wheel and a roller-coaster. At the height of his popularity, he invited thousands of kids to come play at his ranch.

Jackson defaulted on the $24.5 million he owes on the property and was facing foreclosure. Colony Capital bailed him out earlier this year by purchasing his loan. Colony Capital, based in Los Angeles is a real estate investment company run by billionaire Tom Barrack.

It is rumored that Jackson has upwards of $300 million in debt and legal fees, so this sale for (a measly) $35 million won’t help too much but I suppose it will cover a few legal fees, of which Jackson has incurred many.

He named the ranch Neverland after the fictional world of Peter Pan to create the child’s world that he feels he was denied by being a child star. Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana in 1958.

SOURCE

SOURCE

It’s that time of year again; the time when homes smell like cinnamon and pumpkin pie, when I tend to gain about five pounds, and when fleece feels like heaven on your feet and also the time to get a FLU SHOT.

The flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by a virus. It causes mild to severe illness and sometimes death. The single best way to protect yourself against the flu is to get a vaccine each year. Symptoms of the flu include a high fever, headache, extreme fatigue, sore throat, dry cough, runny and stuffy nose, muscle aches and stomach symptoms more common in children include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

According to the CDC, each year 5%-20% of the population gets the flu and more than 200,000 are hospitalized for complications such as pneumonia, dehydration and worsening of other chronic medical conditions. Older people, young children and people with other health conditions like asthma, diabetes and heart disease are at a higher risk for suffering complications and this group especially should get vaccinated. About 36,000 people die.

You should get vaccinated as soon as vaccine becomes available as early as September. Flu season usually peaks around January but outbreaks can occur earlier in the winter and closer to the holiday season.

Visit the CDC website page here to read more about how FLU spread and how to protect yourself.

The following people in particular should be vaccinated:

Children aged 6 months up to their 19th birthday

Pregnant women

People 50 years of age and older

People of any age with certain chronic medical conditions

People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities

People who live with or care for those at high risk for complications from flu, including:

a. Health care workers
b. Household contacts of persons at high risk for complications from the flu
c. Household contacts and out of home caregivers of children less than 6 months of age (these children are too young to be vaccinated)

For information about flu shots for children CLICK HERE.

A recent story on CNN.com titled My REAL life as a call girl proposed some very interesting and circular questions. Stating factually, the article asserts that experts disagree on whether or not prostitutes are victims. The sordid and not so sordid stories of how women fall into prostitution are as numerous as there are prostitutes. Is a high-end escort or call-girl different at all from a prostitute or are we just splitting hairs over semantics?

This story discuses one woman, Natalie McLennan moved from Montreal to New York City eight years ago at the age of 20 to pursue an acting career. She met a pimp, Jason Itzler, at a cocktail party who convinced her that “dating” men would be better than waiting tables while she waited for her acting career to take off.

Within four years she was earning $2000 an hour. She would see two or three clients a day for about two hours each. She was earning upwards up $12,000 A DAY, as a prostitute. In 2005 she was the July cover of New York Magazine and three months later her escort agency was shut down. She was arrested for prostitution and spent 26 days in jail.

McLennan knew what she was doing. She made a conscious choice to engage in those behaviors. Should that be illegal? She wasn’t coerced. She wasn’t selling herself for drugs or other criminal money. She was simply trading sex for money. The bottom line is that prostitution according to Wikipedia is the act of performing sexual activity in exchange for money. The legal status varies from one jurisdiction to another; in some parts of the world it is legal and in others it is punishable by death.

Do you think this is a slippery slope of legalities and situations or is it just wrong, morally? Legally?

Your thoughts?

::

Natalie McLennan’s tell-all book The Price: My Rise and Fall As Natalia, New York’s #1 Escort is due out soon.

The votes are in.  Enough have been counted.  Barack Obama keeps raking in the electoral votes and has surpassed the minimum of 270 needed to become the next President of the United States.  At the Democratic National Convention in August of this year, then-Senator Barack Obama, now-President-Elect Barack Obama gave an uplifting, informative, and emotional riveting speech. He concluded with this thought:

America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

There is a lot of work to be done and I am hopeful that we are on the right track, a better track.  I don’t expect him to achieve all of his goals immediately and some probably not at all but I am pleased and humbled that we have elected a new president who is intelligent, informed, inspiring and worthy of being a leader.  I trust that he will represent those who have gone unnoticed for so long.

Winning a ridiculous amount of battleground states Obama clinched the election and will be the next President of the United States of America.  It is on this night, Tuesday November 4, 2008 that this country has elected a new president, an African American to the highest office.  He will be our 44th president. He will  take office on January 20th, 2009 when he is sworn in at the Inauguration in Washington, DC.

To read Barack Obama’s nomination speech in full, click here.

SOURCE

There are a lot of women living safely in our nation with a burning memory of childhood that is unforgivable and unshakable. Their lives began in small villages of West and North Africa where tradition in local tribes includes a rite of passage ceremony known as female genital circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM). This practice, believed to make a girl more chaste and more marriage-worth occurs across religious, class and tribal lines but is more common in rural communities than in cities. In Africa, three million girls are at risk each year of being subjected to FGM.

The United States has granted political asylum to many victims of forced circumcision after a landmark immigration ruling in 1996, however, recently, immigration courts are narrowing the grounds on which they will issue legal sanctuary to these frightened women. Only a few hundred have won asylum claims due to FGM.

The Washington Post reports that “Today, despite world condemnation, legal bans in many nations and years of educational efforts, female circumcision is still widely practiced in Africa. In nine countries — Egypt, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Somalia, Mali, Eritrea, Gambia and Djibouti — more than 75 percent of women have been circumcised.”

The procedure itself is brief, it is known in the West as female genital mutilation. Part or all of the external genitalia are cut off, usually with a hot knife or sharp stone for no medical reason. There is no anesthesia, there is no sterile surface or bandages or medication. The procedure is usually done to pre-puescent girls. Bleeding after the procedure is often severe and can result in shock, infection and death.

International health organizations report that these victims suffer lifelong complications with urination, menstruation, childbirth and intercourse. It is estimated that 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide currently live with consequences of FGM.

FGM is internationally recognized as a human rights violation.

Source: World Health Organization, Washington Post