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Dear friends,

Below
are one-paragraph excerpts of important news articles you may have
missed.
These news articles include revealing information on beneficial bacteria
in our bodies which keep us healthy, NASA's new search for its files on
the Kecksburg (PA) UFO incident in 1965, FEMA's fake news briefing on the
Southern California fires, and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from
the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to
function, click
here. Key sentences are highlighted for those with
limited
time. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread
the word, we can and will build a brighter
future.

With
best wishes,

Tod Fletcher and Fred
Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team


Caution: Killing Germs May Be Hazardous to Your
Health

October 29, 2007,
Newsweek


http://www.newsweek.com/id/57368

Our war
on microbes has toughened them. Now, new science tells us we should
embrace bacteria. Any part of your body that comes into contact with the
outside world ... is home to bacteria, fungi and protozoa. There are
thousands of different species ... says Stanford biologist David Relman,
who is investigating the complex web of interactions microbes maintain
with our digestive, immune and nervous systems. Relman is a leader in
rethinking our relationship to bacteria, which for most of the last
century was dominated by the paradigm of Total Warfare. He says, "people
still think the only good microbe is a dead one." The body's natural
microbial flora aren't just an incidental fact of our biology, but
crucial
components of our health. Our microbes ... regulate our immune systems
and
even our serotonin levels: germs, it seems, can make us happy. What we
need
is more exposure to the good microbes. "Modern sanitation is a good
thing,
and pavement is a good thing," says [science writer Jessica] Sachs, "but
they keep kids at a distance from microbes." The effect is to tip
the immune system in the direction of overreaction, either to outside
stimuli or even to the body's own cells. If the former, the result is
allergies or asthma. Sachs writes that "children who receive
antibiotics in the first year of life have more than double the rate of
allergies and asthma in later childhood." But if the immune
system
turns on the body itself, you see irritable bowel syndrome, lupus or
multiple sclerosis, among the many autoimmune diseases that were
virtually
unknown to our ancestors but are increasingly common in the
developed world.

Note:
For many powerful articles on health from reliable sources, click here.


NASA to Search Files on UFO
Incident

October 27, 2007, Associated
Press


http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hY-pEhBhV6UBddtjWRMkax_ecxFAD8SH5MS80

NASA has
agreed to search its archives once again for documents on a 1965 UFO
incident in Pennsylvania, a step the space agency fought in federal
court.
The government has refused to open its files about what ... moved
across the sky and crashed in the woods near Kecksburg, Pa., 40 miles
southeast of Pittsburgh.
Traffic was tied up in the area as curiosity seekers drove to the area,
only to be kept away from the crash site by soldiers. The Air
Force's explanation for the unidentified flying object: A meteor or
meteors. "They could not find anything," one Air Force memo stated after
a
late-night search on Dec. 9, 1965. Several NASA employees also were
reported to have been at the scene. Eyewitnesses said a flatbed truck
drove away a large object shaped like an acorn and about the size of a
Volkswagen bus. A mock-up based on the descriptions of local residents
sits behind the Kecksburg Volunteer Fire Department. UFO enthusiasts
refused to let the matter die and journalist Leslie Kean of New York City
sued NASA four years ago for information. The agency has turned over
several stacks of documents which Kean says are not responsive to the
request, an argument that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan agreed with.
In March, Sullivan rejected NASA's request to throw the case out of
court,
resulting in negotiations that led to the agency promising last week that
it will conduct a more comprehensive search. Kean said Friday that she
sued NASA rather than the Army because the space agency a decade ago
released some relevant documents on the case.

Note:
To read a revealing summary of UFO evidence presented by highly credible
military and government officials, click here.


FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . .
FEMA

October 26, 2007, Washington
Post


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/25/AR2007102502488.html

FEMA has
truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has
improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged
Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1
p.m. news briefing. Reporters were given only 15 minutes' notice of the
briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA's Southwest D.C.
offices. They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a
"listen
only" line, the notice said -- no questions. Parts of the briefing were
carried live on Fox News. Johnson ... was apparently quite familiar with
the reporters -- in one case, he appears to say "Mike" and points to a
reporter. FEMA press secretary Aaron Walker interrupted at one point to
caution he'd allow just "two more questions." Later, he called for a
"last
question." "Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?" a reporter asked.
Another asked about "lessons learned from Katrina." "I'm very happy with
FEMA's response so far," Johnson said, hailing "a very smoothly, very
efficiently performing team. And so I think what you're really seeing
here
is the benefit of experience, the benefit of good leadership and the
benefit of good partnership, none of which were present in Katrina."
Very smooth, very professional. But something didn't seem right.
The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. And the media seemed to be
giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA's greatness. Of
course,
that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing
reporters. The staff played reporters for what on TV looked just
like the real thing. "If the worst thing that happens to me in this
disaster is that we had staff in the chairs to ask questions that
reporters had been asking all day, Widomski said, "trust me, I'll be
happy." Heck of a job, Harvey.

Note:
To watch this amusing "news briefing", click here.


Berkeley going solar - city pays up front,
recoups over 20 years

October 26, 2007, San Francisco
Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/26/MNAIT0DQO.DTL

Berkeley
[Cal.] is set to become the first city in the nation to help thousands of
its residents generate solar power without having to put money up front -
attempting to surmount one of the biggest hurdles for people who don't
have enough cash to go green. The City Council will vote Nov. 6 on a plan
for the city to finance the cost of solar panels for property owners who
agree to pay it back with a 20-year assessment on their property. Over
two
decades, the taxes would be the same or less than what property owners
would save on their electric bills, officials say. "This plan
could be our most important contribution to fighting global warming,"
Mayor Tom Bates said. "We've already seen interest from all over the U.S.
People really think this plan can go." The idea is sparking
interest from city and state leaders who are mindful of California's
goals
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020. Officials in
San
Francisco, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica and several state agencies have
contacted Berkeley about the details of its plan. "If this works, we'd
want to look at this for other cities statewide," said Ken Alex,
California deputy attorney general. "We think it's a very creative way to
eliminate the barriers to getting solar panels, and it's fantastic that
Berkeley's going ahead with this." This is how Berkeley's program would
work: A property owner would hire a city-approved solar installer, who
would determine the best solar system for the property, depending on
energy use. Most residential solar panel systems in the city cost from
$15,000 to $20,000. The city would pay the contractor for the system and
its installation ... and would add an assessment to the property owner's
tax bill to pay for the system. The property owner would save money on
monthly Pacific Gas & Electric bill because electricity generated by the
solar panels would partly replace electricity delivered by the
utility.

Note:
For many other innovative ideas to develop cheap, renewable energy
sources,
click
here.


Edits To Global Warming Testimony
Slammed

October 25, 2007, CBS News


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/25/national/main3407247.shtml

Lawmakers
on Capitol Hill blasted the Bush administration for forcing edits in the
testimony of a government expert speaking to Congress about the health
effects of global warming. When [Julie Gerberding, director of the
Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention,] testified about the health effects
of
global warming, her testimony was a bit vague. "Weather is inextricably
linked to health," she said. It turned out six pages of specific warnings
about diseases that could spread because of global warming were edited
out
by the White House, as well as a line that the CDC considered this a
serious public health concern that remained "largely unaddressed." When a
draft of Gerberding's testimony went to the White House for review, two
sections - "Climate Change is a Public Health Concern" and "Climate
Change
Vulnerability" - were removed, cutting the 12-page document in half. The
original draft contained much greater detail on the potential disease and
other health effects of climate change than was in either Gerberding's
prepared remarks or in her other comments during the hearing. "The public
health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed. CDC
considers
climate change a serious public health concern," the draft says. The
phrase
was not in the testimony given the committee or in her other remarks at
the
hearing. “It appears the White House has denied a Congressional
committee access to scientific information about health and global
warming," said Dr. Michael McCally, Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
"This misuse of science and abuse of the legislative process is
deplorable.”