“Jiminy Cricket! Critters plague Staten Island this fall - SILive.com” plus 3 more

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• Jiminy Cricket! Critters plague Staten Island this fall - SILive.com
• After Las Vegas shooting, radio dead zones still plague Strip - Las Vegas Review-Journal
• Is a Dark Ages disease the new American plague threat? | TheHill - The Hill
• Defensive failures continue to plague Illini entering week six - Daily Illini

Jiminy Cricket! Critters plague Staten Island this fall - SILive.com Posted: 30 Sep 2019 12:42 PM PDT STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Author Carlo Collodi conjured a sweet little talking insect for Walt Disney named Jiminy Cricket in the movie "Pinocchio." But for a Staten Islander who has the real deal chirping away in the nether regions of his or her basement -- it's not such a cute arrangement. And an unofficial poll of several Staten Island exterminators says that this year the critters are bugging borough residents more so than usual. A. Ardvark's Mike Buonocore reported, "We've definitely noticed an increase of cricket activity this year." In his 25 years of business, the Great Kills-based exterminator said indeed this is a particularly incredible year for the insect Island-wide. "They're just an annoyance, a nuisance," he said. They won't bite. But they can live in garages and basements through the winter, he said, interlopers that invade through cracks and crevices in walls and foundations. John Forma, co-owner and manager of Top Hat Exterminators of Great Kills, said he's not surprised by the massive number this year. "I actually anticipated it. We had such a mild end-of-the-winter I figured the population would be up," Forma said. He speaks not as an entomologist, but from 70 years of experience in the business between he and his dad/business partner, Richard Pascone. "July and August were dry," he said, adding, "The colder and more brutal the winter is, the more a population won't make it through over-wintering." And it's not just Staten Island contending with the issue: Forma lives in New Jersey where the same phenomenon is occurring. MORE ON THE NORTH SHORE? Mark Loffredo of Post Exterminating said the pests are more prolific on the North Shore than in other parts of the borough. "There's a lot more vegetation here," explained the Tompkinsville-based bug killer. "Those are your common field crickets or black crickets," he said of the kind spotted and heard in homes and apartments from shore to shore. Loffredo said even though many are concerned that the insects sting, crickets actually have no stingers. "One thing that's fascinating about the cricket is its ovispositor. It looks like a long stinger which scares the hell out of people," he said, explaining that it is actually "an egg-laying organ of females who use it to inject their eggs into the warm, moist soil." Crickets, he added, "have a real bad habit of stealing spider food. They'll actually rip a spider's web apart and eat what they catch." Loffredo said he thinks the cricket cheep-cheep-cheep sound, created when they rub their wingtips together, is pretty. In fact, he owns a little cage particular to Chinese culture that allows them to be kept as a pet. "It's a calling sound. The males are more vocal than the females," he said. Glue traps catch crickets and other insects. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri) To sweep the cheepers, Buonocore said, "Glue boards are great because everything ends up on there." The traps also enlighten a human being on a broad range of icky intruders -- silverfish, spiders, ants and the like -- that get stuck on the traps. But granules of professionally applied insecticide sprinkled on the perimeter of a home also do the trick. CRICKETS ON THE MENU? Anyone hear of a cricket on a Staten Island restaurant menu? As food is the focus of this reporter's regular beat, the answer is no -- although from time to time one can spot chapulines, dried grasshoppers, in Mexican grocery stores on Port Richmond Avenue. The high-protein creatures, a cousin of the cricket, lend crunch to tortillas. Tara Buirkle, manager of Michael's Martinis and Meatballs in Dongan Hills, said there was no cocktail in her repertoire named for the offending mini-beast. But there is the "Grasshopper," an ancient concoction by some standards, to say cheers to the chirper and a more pleasant note on which to close this mite-y tale. "It is crème de menthe, white crème de cacao and heavy cream. Shake it up and pour it in a frosted martini glass," said Buirkle. "We do get requests for it every once in a while." The Grasshopper at Michael's Martinis and Meatballs in Dongan Hills.

After Las Vegas shooting, radio dead zones still plague Strip - Las Vegas Review-Journal Posted: 30 Sep 2019 06:51 AM PDT This is part of an ongoing series observing the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. See all of our coverage here. Two years after the Las Vegas massacre, resort properties on the Strip are still dotted with dead zones that make it impossible for first responders to communicate on their radios, whether during a routine call or a crisis like the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting. On the night of the attack, several Las Vegas police officers reported issues with transmitting and receiving radio updates within Mandalay Bay, where a gunman on the 32nd floor fired more than 1,000 rounds at concertgoers. The Las Vegas Review-Journal published an investigation last year documenting some of those concerns. In July, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department also cited Mandalay Bay's limited radio coverage as the department's "biggest challenge" that night, noting in a report that SWAT members in a Mandalay Bay stairwell had trouble contacting their commander. To that end, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo in July said the Clark County Fire Department had since spearheaded an effort to address the "failure" and ensure that all Strip properties have adequate indoor radio coverage, which means officers and firefighters can reliably communicate within 95 percent of a building. But two years after the wake-up call of Route 91, progress on that effort largely remains a mystery. Clark County officials in September refused to release records that may have outlined which Strip properties had achieved adequate radio coverage and which had not, arguing that the records were confidential under state law. "If a first responder is in a building and they lose their communication, they can lose their life," said John Foley, managing director of the Safer Buildings Coalition. "That communication is really the only lifeline that you have." The nonprofit coalition works to increase communication capabilities for first responders inside buildings. "The public has to understand that if they can't dial 911 in a building, nobody's coming. It's the exact same problem first responders have with their radios," Foley said. "If there's a solution for one, there should be a solution for the other." Testing reception The effort to ensure that all Strip properties have adequate radio coverage appears to have started in April 2018, when Clark County Fire Chief Greg Cassell sent a letter to high-rise property owners on the Strip and throughout the county, asking them to conduct radio strength studies to test reception within buildings. According to the letter, properties were asked to complete the studies by Jan. 1. If the properties did not have adequate radio coverage, owners had until July 1, 2020, to reach compliance. The move was a first, as existing fire code only required high-rise properties built in 2009 and after to have adequate indoor radio coverage. Structures built prior to that had never been forced to comply. Mandalay Bay opened to the public in 1999. That doesn't mean Las Vegas police didn't try to encourage property owners to have adequate radio coverage anyway. But according to police officials, the properties didn't prioritize the problem. Then a blaze at the Westgate in August 2017 proved how dangerous radio dead zones could be. As crews worked to extinguish it, firefighters inside the building had a hard time communicating with incident commanders and fellow firefighters outside, Cassell said. So in September 2017, fire administration and prevention officials brainstormed how to address the issue. They decided to first focus on the Westgate, then develop a plan to assess radio coverage in other high-rise properties, whether or not they were built before 2009. Less than a month later, on Oct. 1, 2017, officers inside Mandalay Bay found themselves unable to communicate as the Route 91 attack unfolded. Fifty-eight people died, and more than 800 were wounded. "Unfortunately, it took an event like 1 October to get this moving forward," Barbara Doran, who heads radio logistics and 911 dispatch for Las Vegas police, said of the effort. Complicated problem Foley, with the Safer Buildings Coalition, said the process of retrofitting existing buildings to boost radio reception is often costly and clumsy. "It's a complicated problem that spans politics, economics and technology," Foley said, "and the least of those challenges is the technology." The main issue always seems to be: Who is responsible? To architects and building planners, equipment that boosts radio reception is often an afterthought, whether fire code requires it or not. And while fire officials enforce that code, they aren't always familiar with the technology or how to test it. Instead, that expertise typically lies with state and local communication officials, who aren't involved in the process. Even then, property owners are on the hook to fund the upgrades. "That's where the bottleneck has been," Foley said. It doesn't have to be like this, Foley said. He compared radio booster technology to sprinkler systems, which architects and building planners have long accounted for. "There's no commercial benefit to having a sprinkler system in a building, but you do because of fire code," he said. "Some things you do because they're the right thing to do." The process is also much cheaper and easier if the technology is included in the original design, he said. Instead, the Strip is working to catch up. No pushback Foley noted that Chief Cassell's effort to get all county high-rise buildings up to code is "very proactive and extraordinary in comparison to what's happening in most of the rest of the country." "Much education is needed to improve local jurisdictions' awareness of fire codes regarding building radio reinforcement and the processes and standards needed to implement the solutions," Foley said. Records show that Clark County fire officials in 2018 requested that 52 area properties conduct radio strength studies, including at least 28 on the Strip. Though it's unclear how many properties still lack adequate radio coverage, fire and police officials said all properties are participating. "There's been no pushback at all," Doran said. In lieu of county records, the Review-Journal asked each of the 28 Strip properties that the county contacted in 2018 about the status of their respective radio strength studies. Officials with The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Las Vegas Sands and Caesars Entertainment declined to comment. Officials with Tropicana, Treasure Island and Casino Royale did not respond. Encore recently completed its radio strength study, and Wynn Las Vegas is next, a spokesman said. A Sahara Las Vegas official said the property is working with officials to meet the county's requirements. Brian Ahern, a spokesman with MGM Resorts International — which owns Mandalay Bay and 10 other Strip properties the county contacted — released the following statement: "We have a close working relationship with the county and other partners and are continually evolving our procedures and technology to make them as effective as possible." It remains unclear if any properties already have achieved adequate radio coverage or are on track to achieve it by the July 1, 2020, deadline. "As long as a property is showing continuous progress in complying with the fire code requirements, there will be no fines levied for the failure to meet the completion timeline," Cassell wrote in an email. The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter.

Is a Dark Ages disease the new American plague threat? | TheHill - The Hill Posted: 08 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT Diseases are reemerging in some parts of America, including Los Angeles County, that we haven't commonly seen since the Middle Ages. One of those is typhus, a disease carried by fleas that feed on rats, which in turn feed on the garbage and sewage that is prominent in people-packed "typhus zones." Although typhus can be treated with antibiotics, the challenge is to identify and treat the disease in resistant, hard-to-access populations, such as the homeless or the extremely poor in developing countries. I also believe that homeless areas are at risk for the reemergence of another deadly ancient disease — leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease. Leprosy involves a mycobacteria (tuberculosis is another mycobacteria) that is very difficult to transmit and very easy to treat with a cocktail of three antibiotics. Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are more than 200,000 new cases of leprosy reported in the world every year, with two-thirds of them in India, home to one-third of the world's poor. The poor are disproportionately affected by this disease because close quarters, poor sanitation, and lack of prompt diagnosis or treatment easily can convert a disease that should be rare to one that is more common. ADVERTISEMENT Untreated, Hansen's disease causes disabilities over time, with the peripheral nerves affected and the fingers and toes becoming numb. Multibacillary Hansen's disease, the more serious version, also causes skin lesions, nodules, plaques and nasal congestion. With eye involvement, corneal ulcers and sometimes blindness can occur. According to the CDC, there are between 100 and 200 new cases of leprosy reported in the U.S. every year. A study just released from the Keck Medical Center at the University of Southern California looked at 187 leprosy patients treated at its clinic from 1973 to 2018 and found that most were Latino, originating from Mexico, where the disease is somewhat more common, and that there was on average a three-year delay in diagnosis, during which time the side effects of the disease — usually irreversible, even with treatment — began to occur. Leprosy is still more prevalent in Central America and South America, with more than 20,000 new cases per year. Given that, there is certainly the possibility of sporadic cases of leprosy continuing to be brought across our southern border undetected. And it seems only a matter of time before leprosy could take hold among the homeless population in an area such as Los Angeles County, with close to 60,000 homeless people and 75 percent of those lacking even temporary shelter or adequate hygiene and medical treatment. All of those factors make a perfect cauldron for a contagious disease that is transmitted by nasal droplets and respiratory secretions with close repeated contact. I am much more concerned about the permanent disabilities that come with leprosy — given that 2 million to 3 million people are affected worldwide — than I am with the associated stigma. Nevertheless, leprosy appearing among the homeless in L.A. is a sure recipe for instant public panic. Marc Siegel M.D. is a professor of medicine and medical director at Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Health. He is a Fox News Medical Correspondent. Follow him on Twitter @drmarcsiegel.

Defensive failures continue to plague Illini entering week six - Daily Illini Posted: 30 Sep 2019 05:02 AM PDT Ricky Smalling runs with the football at Memorial Stadium vs Nebraska on Sep 21. Jonathan Bonaguro Ricky Smalling runs with the football at Memorial Stadium vs Nebraska on Sep 21. Jonathan Bonaguro Jonathan Bonaguro Ricky Smalling runs with the football at Memorial Stadium vs Nebraska on Sep 21. By Jared Farmer, Staff Writer September 30, 2019 "Defense wins championships" is how the old saying goes. But when the defense comes up short, there often is a need for revision. Illinois Football head coach Lovie Smith said since the end of training camp, improving the defense was a top priority. "A lot of us, including me, need to do a better job," Smith said. Coming together on defense has been one of the biggest issues this Illini Football team has dealt with since Hardy Nickerson's resignation. Smith took over full-time duties as defensive coordinator after Nickerson's defense lost 63-33 to the Maryland Terrapins. The defense allowed a Maryland offense that was shut out the previous to carry for over 700 yards. As a team last year, the Illini gave up 39.42 points per game, good for No. 120 in the NCAA. They rounded out the bottom of the barrel against the run, pass and in terms of allowing yards-per-carry. Bringing in juniors Oluwole Betiku and Milo Eifler and freshman Marquez Beason via the transfer portal, as well as returning standout performers such as junior Jake Hansen and sophomore Jamal Woods, and an entire offseason back to the drawing board gave Smith and staff every reason to believe better days were ahead. The defense has allowed 25.5 points per game throughout their first four games, but when excluding their season-opener against Akron, that jumps up to 33 a game. Certainly an improvement, but this team has a long way to go as a unit if it wants to establish itself in the Big Ten. In comparison to last year, the defense is sacrificing 100 less yards per game on the rush (146) but continue to allow the same amount of passing yards per game (261.75). Again, on one hand, this is a considerable improvement, but on the other, there's still a very long way to go. "We've been better defensively than we have over the past couple of years," Smith said after last weekend's loss vs. Nebraska. "But tonight, it was disappointing. We weren't the type of team we needed to be." No team is safe from the injury bug, including the Illini. In the offseason, the Illini lost their best defender from last year, junior Bobby Roundtree, to a severe spinal injury. Before the season opener, Beason also went out for the season after needing knee surgery. Losing both, especially for a team that's looking for as much possible help on that side of the field as it can get, definitely hurts. Individually, Betiku, Hansen and Eifler, among others, have stood out and established themselves as leaders on the defensive end. But despite their individual success, gelling as a unit has proved to be a task much more difficult. Illinois' Big Ten opening performance against Nebraska was a perfect reflection of the state of this team's defense. Despite what seemed like not only momentum-swinging, at-times, but game-defining sequences, the defense as a whole sacrificed nearly 700 yards as Nebraska's quarterback Adrian Martinez came alive in the second half. Martinez' ability to tear through an Illini defense that was simultaneously giving the offense plenty of opportunities to turn turnovers into points last time out is a very good indicator of the status of this defense. Too many open gaps to be found, miscommunication or a combination of the two towards the later stretches of both the Eastern Michigan and Nebraska games ultimately spelled doom. Defense wins championships. For an Illini team still looking for its first bowl appearance in the Lovie Smith era, continuing to improve on that side of the ball is crucial. It goes without saying. After suffering the back-to-back heartbreaking losses, the Illini will hope to fix their defensive troubles and start turning things back around this upcoming weekend, but their next opponent, the Minnesota Golden Gophers (4-0), has already gotten off to a hot start to their season. "I think we still have more chances, a lot more chances to win, and our defense is a big part of that," Smith said. "In previous years, we haven't had those types of chances. We're a better defensive football team now." @jaredefarmer [email protected]

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