plinky

critical support to fda in their quest to rid americans of the animal milk

WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program for testing of fluid milk and other dairy products due to reduced capacity in its food safety and nutrition division, according to an internal email seen by Reuters. The suspension is another disruption to the nation's food safety programs after the termination and departure of 20,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, as part of President Donald Trump's effort to shrink the federal workforce. The FDA this month also suspended existing and developing programs that ensured accurate testing for bird flu in milk and cheese and pathogens like the parasite Cyclospora in other food products. Effective Monday, the agency suspended its proficiency testing program for Grade "A" raw milk and finished products, according to the email sent in the morning from the FDA's Division of Dairy Safety and addressed to "Network Laboratories." Grade "A" milk, or fluid milk, meets the highest sanitary standards. The testing program was suspended because FDA's Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory, part of its division overseeing food safety, "is no longer able to provide laboratory support for proficiency testing and data analysis," the email said. An HHS spokesperson said the laboratory was already set to be decommissioned before the staff cuts and though proficiency testing would be paused during the transition to a new laboratory, dairy product testing will continue.

linky to unrolled thread

to twitter

from amusing twitter thread

referencing article here (arxiv, free)

It was only through international pressure – including interventions by British MPs – that my brother was released after 100 days of illegal detention. But the threats did not end there.

Shortly after his release, I began receiving encrypted messages warning that “we are not done with you.”

Weeks later, on the evening of 26 November 2023, I was attacked at my UK residence.

When I answered the doorbell, a man dressed in biker gear and wearing a helmet and gloves threw an acidic liquid at my face.

My four-year-old daughter stood behind me as I was rushed to the hospital. The police arrived at the scene, collected evidence, and provided me with protection.

But despite the severity of the attack, there was no public outcry, no expulsion of Pakistani intelligence officers from the High Commission, and no official condemnation.

Instead, I was privately informed that a “strong message” had been delivered to the Pakistani authorities.

the fuck

absolutely random stuff about organs from counterpunch, but fascinating

Our reporting shows that cops are paying a company to help them deploy AI-powered bots across social media and the internet to talk to people they suspect are anything from violent sex criminals all the way to vaguely defined “protestors” with the hopes of generating evidence that can be used against them.

Jorge Brignoni took notes for the Cochise County, Arizona, Sheriff’s Office at a meeting with Massive Blue in August 2023, which 404 Media obtained. In the notes, he wrote that Overwatch does “passive engagement, then active engagement, towards commitment” with a “Bad Actor, Predator, DTO,” or drug trafficking organization. These targets are then “HAND[ed] OFF to L.E. [law enforcement] to arrest, indict, convict.”

On June 5, a Pinal County Board of Supervisors meeting was asked to approve a $500,000 contract between the county and Massive Blue in order to license Overwatch.

“I was looking at the website for Massive Blue, and it’s a one-pager with no additional information and no links,” Kevin Cavanaugh, the then-supervisor for District 1, said to Pinal County’s Chief Deputy at the Sheriff’s Office, Matthew Thomas. “They produce software that we buy, and it does what? Can you explain that to us?”

just grifts on top of grifts

“Supervisor [Cavanaugh] ultimately voted for the agreement because Massive Blue is alleged to be in pursuit of human trafficking, a noble goal,” a representative from Cavanaugh’s office told 404 Media in an email. “A major concern regarding the use of the application, is that the government should not be monitoring each and every citizen. To his knowledge, no arrests have been made to date as a result of the use of the application. If Overwatch is used to bring about arrests of human traffickers, then the program should continue. However, if it is just being used to collect surveillance on law-abiding citizens and is not leading to any arrests, then the program needs to be discontinued.”

In an August 7, 2024, Board of Supervisors meeting, Cavanaugh asked then-Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb for an update on Massive Blue. “So they have not produced any results? They’ve produced no leads? No evidence that is actionable?” Cavanaugh asked. “That would be public knowledge, that would be public information.”

interview with pal action in nlr

it's a good piece of journalism, but christ

i wonder what inspired that