US Elections: Republicans lose big in referendum on Donald Trump

"What a tangled  web we weave when we first practice to deceive"

The president's Republican  party has been trounced in the first major elections held since his inauguration, with Democrats winning a bigger than expected margin in both New Jersey and Virginia today.

Democrats swept the statewide offices in Virginia and are on the verge of taking control of the lower house there.

US President Donald Trump has criticised his party's candidate for Virginia governor just minutes after he lost the election.

Trump fired off a tweet from South Korea after it became apparent that nominee Ed Gillespie would lose to Democrat Ralph Northam.

"Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for," Trump wrote. "Don't forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy.

Trump was referring to the four congressional special elections held this year, all in which Republicans retained the open seats.

It was a much wider victory than anticipated for the Democrats' Northam, as well as for incoming New Jersey governor Phil Murphy.

Murphy will replace Chris Christie, a former presidential candidate and Trump surrogate with profoundly dire approval ratings.

The big wins have Democrats abuzz with the possibility that they could take back Congress in the midterm election this time next year.

Meanwhile, Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio was comfortably re-elected in Trump's hometown of New York.

Note EU-Digest: The Democrats better don't start congratulating each other. Republicans lost not because the Democrats did such a good job as a party, but rather because with someone like Trump as President of the US , who shoots himself in the foot constantly, just about anyone, or any party could now win against Republican candidates. 

EU-Digest

USA Drug Epidemic: President Obama Takes Lead against Drug Abuse - killing more people than in car accidents

Heroin Applicator: Killing thousands of people yearly

President Obama sat down with those on the front lines of the U.S. heroin and opioid epidemic on Tuesday for a frank discussion about the country’s addiction crisis, calling the issue critical to his role in protecting the health of the American people.

“When you look at the staggering statistics in terms of lives lost, productivity impacted, cost to communities, but most importantly cost to families from this epidemic,” Obama said. “It has to be something that is right up there at the top of our radar screen.”

The President addressed U.S. opioid abuse, which has grown during his two terms in office, at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, a gathering of law enforcement, medical professionals, and treatment facilitators who’ve been impacted by addiction. Obama spoke on a panel for over an hour with two recovering addicts and two medical professionals, including moderator Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Since 2002, there has been a 286% increase in heroin-related overdose deaths, with a tremendous spike after 2010.

The term "responsible drug use" is a favorite saying of people who use drugs on a regular basis and want to proof they are not addicted. Unfortunately across the USA, more Americans die every year from drug overdoses than from motor vehicle crashes. 

In 2014, drug overdoses killed 47,055 people, the highest number on record, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority, around 28,000, involved opioids such as prescription painkillers and heroin. In fact, heroin-related overdose deaths have more than tripled since 2010, totaling 10,500 in 2014. Bottom line: say no to drugs and if you run into or see a drug dealer report him or her to the police !

EU - Digest

US Drug Epidemic: Obama joins fight against opioid abuse -yearly in America more people die from drug overdoses than from car accidents

Lending his voice to the fight against a drug scourge that kills 28,000 Americans a year, President Obama told nearly 2,000 policymakers, professionals and parents Tuesday that the nation must provide more treatment for people addicted to opioids and reframe the addiction problem through the lens of public health.

“The most important thing we can do is reduce demand for drugs, and the only way that we reduce demand is by providing treatment and thinking about this as a public health problem and not just a criminal issue,” Obama said during a panel discussion at the 2016 National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit.

“Part of what has made it difficult to emphasize treatment over criminal justice system has to do with the fact that the populations affected in the past were ... stereotypically identified as poor and minority,” he said. “And as a consequence, the thinking was it is often a character flaw in those individuals who live in those communities. ... One of the things that’s changed ... is a recognition that this reaches everybody.”

Given its widespread reach, administration officials announced a wide range of actions to fight the epidemic, such as expanding access to drug treatment, bolstering efforts to ensure health coverage for substance abuse and mental health are on par with benefits for other medical services, investing in partnerships between law enforcement and communities, and providing guidance on using federal funds to start or expand needle exchanges.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy,meanwhile, said he will release a report later this year on substance use, addiction and health, similar to the landmark surgeon general’s report on smoking released 50 years ago that focused public attention on that issue.

US Drug Abuse: 't’s a plague for families and communities 

They shared their news at the fifth annual summit, organized by Operation UNITE, an Eastern Kentucky anti-drug organization launched in 2003 by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers. The summit has grown from an upstart event into the major national gathering on the issue, drawing people from both sides of the political aisle.
“This is a bipartisan issue — actually a non-partisan issue,”

Rogers, a Republican who represents Kentucky’s fifth district, said in an interview. “We’re united in the drive to stop this death rage that we’re in.”

Across the USA, more Americans die every year from drug overdoses than from motor vehicle crashes. In 2014, drug overdoses killed 47,055 people, the highest number on record, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority, around 28,000, involved opioids such as prescription painkillers and heroin.

In fact, heroin-related overdose deaths have more than tripled since 2010, totaling 10,500 in 2014.

Bottom line: believing that people are able to act responsibly when it comes to recreational, hard drugs or other opiods is total nonsense. Just say no to drugsand report anyone selling drugs immediately to the police.

 Read more: Obama joins fight against opioid abuse | WUSA9.com

US Economy: Show Me The Money: What Super Bowl Economics Means From Coast To Coast - by Michelle FlorCruz

MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J

Stadium beer: $9. Last-minute ticket to the game: $3,000. Super Bowl XLVIII T-shirt: $25. The Super Bowl experience in New York/New Jersey: $600 million?

There’s no doubt the public will be paying inflated prices if you have any plans of attending the Super Bowl this year, but do the numbers really add up to as much as the NFL claims?

The Super Bowl, one of America’s greatest pop-culture phenomena, has transformed from just a football game into a major economic event. This year’s Super Bowl XLVII -- to be held at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J this evening February 2., will be no different, drawing attention and dollars from all corners of the country. 

Read more: Show Me The Money: What Super Bowl Economics Means From Coast To Coast By International Business Times

Flood Control: How Dutch innovations could prevent Sandy-type flooding in New York - by Jason Sheftell

How can we prevent this from happening again?

That’s the question on the lips of those from New York’s hardest-hit streets. City architects and officials have been trying to answer that question and consider ways to protect New York from another storm of Sandy’s magnitude since her waters receded.

Jackson Heights-based architect Haiko Cornelissen grew up below sea level in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He took note as his country employed flood-prevention measures in harbors, along the coastline and in various housing styles constructed specifically to survive water disasters.
Acting fast after Sandy, Cornelissen has set up the website NL4US.com, which offers safe and sustainable solutions for rebuilding in flood-prone areas in the United States.

Concepts including amphibious houses and anti-flood systems around bridges are described in detail. Speaking to engineers in his home country, the architect considered cost, time, building codes and location before lending his thoughts.

The Dutch government took a bold step in the 1950s to preserve the Netherlands’ southern end with an unprecedented flood protecting infrastructure called Delta Works.

Based on the Dutch example, the Storm Surge Research Group at Stony Brook recommended in 2004 to use a similar solution with movable barriers around the New York Harbor, including under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

“Thinking along these lines, I combined the Verrazano with the Maeslantkering, a barrier that protects Rotterdam, the busiest harbor of Europe," Cornelissen says. “The Maeslantkering completed the Delta Works after four decades of building the complete flood-protection infrastructure. The area has not flooded since.

“While the Bloomberg administration has aggressively promoted waterfront development in the city, the New York waterfronts are now the areas hit hardest by the recent storms,” says the architect.

“Therefore one alternative to promote waterfront development is to use floating houses as seen in new parts of Amsterdam.”

Read more: How Dutch innovations could prevent Sandy-type flooding in New York - NY Daily News