SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple has posted a new security warning for users of its iCloud online storage service amid reports of a concerted effort to steal passwords and other data from people who use the popular service in China.
The computer maker said in a post Tuesday on its support website that it was aware of organized attacks seeking to obtain user information. It said Apple’s own servers have not been compromised but the company was taking the matter very seriously.
Apple’s post did not mention China or provide any details on the attacks. But several news outlets reported Tuesday that some Chinese Internet users have begun seeing warnings that indicate they had been diverted to an unauthorized website when they attempted to sign into their iCloud accounts.
Shannon Cotsoradis of Kansas Action for Children- KHI photo
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — The percentage of Kansas students entering kindergarten in 2012 who had been immunized on the medically recommended schedule tumbled to 61 percent from about 72 percent the previous year.
The drop, highlighted in KIDS COUNT data released Tuesday by Topeka nonprofit Kansas Action for Children, puts on-time immunization rates at their lowest in at least five years.
“Timely immunization not only keeps children healthy but also protects others, including infants who are too young for vaccinations and people with compromised immunity,” said Shannon Cotsoradis, Kansas Action for Children president and chief executive officer. “It also prevents the spread of dangerous diseases that can lead to serious illness and even death.”
The vaccination rates in the study pertain to a series of five shots children are recommended to receive by age 2: diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, polio, measles-mumps-rubella, hepatitis B and influenza B.
Prior to 2012-2013, on-time vaccination rates increased every year since the 2008-2009 school year, when they checked in at 63 percent.
Gianfranco Pezzino, Shawnee County’s health officer, said Kansas is prone to large fluctuations in vaccination rates from year-to-year and said he hoped the KIDS COUNT numbers were a one-year anomaly.
Kansas KIDS count data (click to enlarge)
He said the state is failing to reach the 90 percent coverage recommended for “herd immunity” that prevents infectious disease from spreading to unvaccinated people.
“We’re way far away from that number, and it looks like we’re getting even farther away if this drop is true,” said Pezzino, who also works for the Kansas Health Institute, the parent organization of the editorially independent KHI News Service.
Cotsoradis said there was limited margin for error within the data, which was gleaned from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s 2012-2013 Retrospective Immunization Coverage Survey. She pointed to confidence intervals for the individual vaccines that generally allow for a difference of about 2 percentage points.
Cotsoradis also agreed that vaccination rates fluctuate from year-to-year in Kansas. But she said a plunge that caused the five-year immunization outlook to trend downward probably could not be chalked up solely to one poor year.
“Could there be some volatility? Yes, absolutely,” she said. “But that much volatility? I doubt it.”
Cotsoradis said there’s other evidence that supports the data’s accuracy, including outbreaks of pertussis and measles in recent years.
Delay increases risk
Some of the dip in on-time vaccination could be attributed to parents not getting their children all of the recommended shots, Cotsoradis said.
Some also could be due to an increasing number of parents delaying some shots. Reports of parents delaying shots due to concerns about the safety of the current schedule have proliferated in recent years, and a 2009 study found 26 percent of parents surveyed delaying vaccinations, despite no evidence the current schedule causes more adverse reactions.
KDHE data showed that about 71 percent of Kansas children had completed the recommended series by 35 months of age, meaning roughly 10 percent caught up on their shots within a year of the recommended time frame.
Still, Cotsoradis said delaying vaccination increases risks.
“Although the data suggests that some children may receive these immunizations at a later point in time, it’s important for kids to get these vaccinations by age 2 to reduce the risk of exposure not only for themselves but for others,” she said.
There’s also the possibility more parents are opting out of vaccinating their children.
“KDHE told us there has been a significant increase since 2010 of religious exemptions,” Cotsoradis said. “But they are not releasing that data until next year.”
There are two ways to enroll a child in kindergarten without the requisite vaccinations. One is a medical exemption, which requires a form signed by a physician stating the reason for the exemption and which vaccines it pertains to.
The other is a religious exemption that requires a parent or guardian to write a statement explaining that the child is a member of a religion that opposes vaccines. In Kansas, that is far more common than the medical exemption.
Clusters of exemptions
KDHE’s 2012-13 Kindergarten Immunization Coverage Survey reported last year that 363 of the 481 exemptions exercised during the 2012-2013 kindergarten year were for religious purposes.
The 481 total exempted represented just 1.4 percent of the state’s overall kindergarten enrollees that year, but many of them were clustered in the same communities, increasing the possibility of outbreaks. KDHE reported that three of the state’s 283 school districts had 10 percent or more of their kindergarten students with an exemption.
Anti-vaccine activists in Kansas sought a third, broader exemption based on personal belief in the 2012 session, but it died in committee. Colorado has such an exemption, but pro-vaccine groups argue it fosters disease and sought to tighten it last spring.
KDHE’s kindergarten immunization coverage report showed the western part of Kansas has the highest vaccination levels, while “the counties and (school) districts with the greatest percentage of exemptions are concentrated more heavily in the eastern half of Kansas.”
The report, compiled by epidemiologist Elizabeth Lawlor, calls vaccine coverage a matter of “great public health importance” and says falling vaccination rates have coincided with a rise in once-dormant diseases.
“When children are exempt from vaccination (or not up to date) and they are in close contact of someone with a vaccine preventable disease, they are at risk for contracting the disease, and subsequently spreading the disease to immunized or under immunized individuals (e.g., infants),” the report states. “Therefore it is important that the percentage of exemptions in school-aged children remain low.”
Cotsoradis said it might be time for the state to put immunization rates back on the front burner, perhaps bringing back the Immunize Kansas Kids task force.
“I think in recent years there has not been a lot of statewide attention to our immunization rates,” she said, “generally because they’ve been better and stable.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
CHICAGO (AP) — Dietary supplements containing potentially dangerous prescription drug ingredients may still be for sale even years after safety recalls.
That’s according to researchers who bought supplements online that had been recalled for containing drugs. They detected hidden steroids, similar ingredients to Viagra and Prozac and a weight loss drug linked with heart attacks
Of 27 products tested, 17 still had the same drug that prompted the recalls.
The researchers say manufacturers are putting profit ahead of consumer health and that lax oversight by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is contributing to the problem.
The study appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
A supplement industry group says regulators should crack down on rogue companies.
The FDA has issued warnings but says companies can be hard to track down.
The Midland Empire Chapter of the Red Cross is sponsoring a Blood Drive in honor of two brothers whose lives were saved with blood donations.
According to the Red Cross, 11-year-old Cole Miller was born with a congenital heart defect requiring open heart surgery. During surgery at birth he did not have enough blood to circulate while he was in operation. Cole needed a blood donation during his surgery.
Cole’s 5-year-old brother Connor was diagnosed with stage 4 Hepatoblastoma in February of 2014. The softball size tumor was found in his liver and had spread to his lungs. During Connor’s intense chemotherapy and liver resection he needed several blood donations to survive the treatment. Both boys are thriving.
In honor of Cole and Connor Miller a Blood drive will be held October 30 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Eugene Field Elementary School located at 2602 Gene Field Rd. in St. Joseph.
To make an appointment visit redcrossblood.org and use sponsor code Cole&Connor or call (800)733-2767.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback says his opponent, Democratic challenger Paul Davis, would appoint justices to the Kansas Supreme Court who are overly sympathetic to violent criminals.
But Davis is accusing the Republican incumbent of trying to exploit a high-profile Wichita murder case to boost his re-election chances.
The confrontation came during their fourth and final debate. Also Tuesday, Brownback’s campaign released a television ad referencing brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr, whose death sentences for a quadruple homicide were vacated by the state Supreme Court in July.
Brownback has long sought more power to directly appoint justices rather than use a longstanding merit system in which a committee comprised of lawyers and members of the public send up suggestions.
Davis says he believes the governor doesn’t need more control over judicial selection.
Fall Open Burning Season
Open burning for fall 2014 begins Monday, November 3, 2014, and runs through Sunday
November 23, 2014. Open burning dates are approved by the Chief of the Enforcement
Section of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
Open burning is permitted on these days within the City of St. Joseph under the
following guidelines:
Burning for yard waste of residential properties only.
Burning allowed between 10:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
All fires must be in an upright cylindrical metal container with a volume equal
to no more than 55 gallons. Containers must be located at least fifteen (15)
feet away from any building. Only one burn container per residence is
allowed.
All fires shall be monitored from a point on the property where the fire is
located, by a person capable of containing a fire, should containment become
necessary.
ONLY dry yard waste such as leaves, brush and logs grown on the property
can be burned. NO trash, paper, lumber or building debris may be burned.
Fire-fighting material, including but not limited to, a garden hose or a
container of water sufficient to contain any fire started shall be at the site of
the fire.
If weather conditions such as high winds indicate the safety of the
community or the public may be endangered or if open burning may create a
health hazard, the Fire Chief or Health Director may invoke a temporary
burning ban.
Any violation of the open burning restrictions may result in a summons to appear in
court for a misdemeanor violation.
Residents are encouraged to explore alternatives to open burning. Many options for
disposing of yard waste are easy, do not contribute to air pollution, are not dependent
on time restrictions or the weather, and provide the healthy benefit of physical activity
while doing yard work instead of breathing acrid smoke from a waste fire. Such activities
include mowing leaves into fine particles and leaving them to fertilize the lawn, or
incorporating leaves into garden mulch. Larger wood brush can be chipped into mulch.
If you choose to burn, plan to do so within the days provided, as open burning session
will not be extended due to weather blackout dates.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita-based nonprofit is trying to raise $300,000 to send eight solar-powered clinics to western Africa in response to the Ebola crisis.
The Wichita Eagle reports Clinic in a Can also will be collecting food locally and money for food to be purchased by aid organizations in Africa.
Clinic in a Can was founded by Mike Wawrzewski, a physician assistant, converting shipping containers into medical clinics. The eight clinics to be sent to Liberia are the first to be completely solar powered, which Wawrzewski says is necessary because of the country’s weak power system.
He says the clinics will be ready to ship in about three weeks if funding is in place. The containers will be packed with personal protective equipment for medical personnel who are treating Ebola patients.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Independent candidate Greg Orman is not nearly as well known as his opponent in the U.S. Senate race in Kansas, three-term Republican incumbent Pat Roberts, but he’s not spending much time in public to raise his profile.
Instead, Orman, 45, is campaigning mostly through ads, social media and small invitation-only events. He’s hoping that staying under the radar will keep the attention on the embattled Roberts, who has been criticized for losing touch with his home state during his four decades in Washington.
Roberts, 78, complains that Orman is dodging questions that would show he’s a secret liberal. Roberts is conducting his most vigorous campaign in many years, touring towns across the state to meet voters.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The mayors of Kansas City and San Francisco have a bet riding on the outcome of the World Series.
If the Royals take the crown, San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee will travel to Kansas City to read to students. If the Giants prevail, Kansas City Mayor Sly James will serve meals to the homeless in San Francisco and sing with a church musical group.
Food also is on the line, with James betting barbecue, and Lee wagering Humphry Slocombe ice cream and Boudin sourdough bread.
James says that Kansas City has waited 29 years for a World Series championship team and that “not even a Giant can stand in our way.” But Lee says that although Kansas City has been playing well, the Royals are no match for the Giants.
FORT SCOTT, Kan. (AP) — A former payroll clerk for a southeast Kansas county will be sentenced in November for stealing nearly $24,000 in public funds.
The Fort Scott Tribune reports 29-year-old Angela Timi faces up to 29 months behind bars at her sentencing Nov. 10 in Bourbon County District Court. She must also pay full restitution.
Timi worked in the county clerk’s office from August 2011 until she was fired in January 2013, when officials announced an employee was being investigated for theft.
Timi initially faced 59 charges. Most were dismissed last month when Timi pleaded guilty to misusing public funds and two counts of criminal use of a county credit card.
Agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation found numerous instances of a county credit card being used for Timi’s personal expenses.
BRANDON BAILEY, AP Technology Writer
