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MOUNT VERNON — The pre-Thanksgiving rash of warm weather gave rise to the swarming of Asian lady beetles in some parts of Central Ohio this week, although their numbers are generally much lower this year than they have been in previous years. "I’ve seen them in years past cover the whole side of a building," said Rick Amore of Helmick’s Exterminating in Mount Vernon. He said that in large numbers, the beetles can be very stressful. One particular case he had involved trying to get rid of a nest of yellow jackets, which were surrounded by thousands of Asian beetles. He couldn’t tell at times whether he was being bitten or being stung. Over the last 20 years, multi-colored Asian beetles (Harmonia axyridis) have become the dominant species of ladybug in North America.
Professional associations and trade unions reject constitutional reform
Twenty-nine Venezuelan professional associations and trade unions called upon Venezuelans to cast their ballots next December 2 to reject the constitutional reform advanced by President Hugo Chávez, branding the proposed changes as "illegal" and "anti-democratic." In the headquarters of the Venezuelan Doctor's Federation, its chairman Douglas León Natera read a communiqué where workers and professionals rebutted the 69 items comprising the constitutional reform. "The reform does not ensure personal security and integrity, it will not lower prices, it will not improve hospitals, and it will not stop illnesses such as dengue, measles, malaria, tuberculosis, and others from continuing to spread. It does not mitigate food shortage, it does not prevent low birth weight or growth or development disorders resulting from the lack of milk consumption during pregnancy, it does not ensure plans for road maintenance, it does not provide for credit plans of plans to build houses, it will not lower inflation," they claimed.
25 million reasons they're in trouble
GORDON Brown suffered a seismic shock to his premiership yesterday, as it was revealed that the privacy of half the UK's citizens had been compromised. The Prime Minister listened solemnly as his Chancellor, Alistair Darling, laid bare a bureaucratic bungle on an unprecedented scale. .
Biz Buzz: Another shop on SLO block to close doors
Dawn Curnes is closing The Waggin' Tail Cafe & Barkery, a boutique for pets, in San Luis Obispo next Friday. Her two-year-old business will be the third to close within the month on Marsh Street between Broad and Garden streets. Curnes said earlier this month that she intended to stay in business at least long enough to get a boost from Christmas sales. But after getting advice from a business expert, she said, "it just was not in the books to continue." "I've been losing money from March on," said Curnes, who never accrued any pay for herself in the two years she's been open. "National predictions say retail will be very soft this Christmas, and there's just no end in sight. Now I have to buy myself out of retail contracts and sell my equipment below market, just to get rid of it, so I anticipate losses around $35,000 to $50,000." Curnes said she believed her business closure may be one of many to come in the near future.
American Specialty Health Names Pamela Lauper Chief Sales Officer
SAN DIEGO, Nov. 27, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- American Specialty Health (ASH), one of the nation's premier personal health improvement organizations, recently named Pamela Lauper its chief sales officer. As CSO, Lauper will lead and direct all sales-related activities of the company. In addition to fulfilling these responsibilities, Lauper will work closely with CEO George DeVries on ASH's executive management team. .
Schools, communities can work together to tighten anti-smoking rules, seminar told
Spare the rod, spoil the smoker was the message conveyed at a tobacco control seminar at UPEI on Wednesday. The presentation, which highlighted smoking patterns among youth, zeroed in on backing anti-smoking policies in schools with enforcement. Donna Murnaghan, associate professor at UPEI’s school of nursing, along with Chris Lovato, associate professor of health care at the University of British Columbia, spoke before UPEI faculty as well as students and community members on ways to keep the number of young smokers on the decline. Murnaghan said studies have shown that schools with stricter smoking policies, backed with action from teachers and the community, have a lower rate of student smokers. She said policy is not enough. "This is not a school problem," she said. "This is a community problem." Murnaghan added that banning on-campus smoking only forces smokers to move off the property to smoke, which doesn’t solve anything.
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