Local officials complain they were left in dark on New Jersey Ebola quarantine center

Local officials in central New Jersey are complaining they were left in the dark on plans to convert a shuttered military base into an Ebola quarantine center — and say they only found out about it when fire officials arrived for an inspection last week. 

“Nobody was happy about this situation,” Eatontown Mayor Dennis Connelly told FoxNews.com. 

Connelly says he had learned earlier that the military post, Fort Monmouth, could be used as a secondary quarantine site — the state already uses a psychiatric hospital in Hunterdon County — but only found out that the plan had moved forward last week. 

The Asbury Park Press reported that the state Department of Human Services had been in contact with a select number of local officials regarding the plan for this center. However, they asked that the plans not be made public. Local officials complain there was never an opportunity for the community to discuss the matter and be part of the planning. 

According to Connelly, the concern wasn’t just that patients potentially exposed to Ebola could be housed there. Officials also have been preparing the Fort Monmouth property to be put up for sale, and the Ebola center plans create problems for that effort. 

“Officials … are concerned that such actions have the potential to undermine the economic development of the Fort Monmouth property in the long run as it is necessary for the Board and the public and the State to work together openly and for the betterment of all residents,” Connelly said in a joint statement with Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry, Oceanport Mayor Michael Mahon and Tinton Falls Mayor Gerry Turning. 

Fort Monmouth was closed as a military post in 2011. Shortly afterward, a committee — the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) — was created to assist in the economic transition of the surrounding towns. The committee assumed control of the base from the Army, with the power to lease and sell parts of the property. According to reports, FMERA recently leased a portion of Fort Monmouth for six months to the Department of Human Services to use as the Ebola quarantine center. 

The local officials said in their statement that the lease, though, was “imposed” on the committee by Gov. Chris Christie’s government and “was not vetted at a public meeting or voted on by the entire Board.” 

While the state is being accused of keeping the plans close to the vest, dozens of other treatment centers already are operational across the country to handle Ebola and other outbreaks. There are 48 treatment centers and 20 quarantine centers, overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fort Monmouth was not previously among them. 

Local and state officials have sent a letter to the Department of Human Services requesting answers for why Fort Monmouth was chosen as the site for this center. 

The quarantine center is still in the developing stages, and no Ebola patients have been treated there.   

The Asbury Park Press reported that the center will only treat patients who have been exposed to the virus but show no symptoms, suggesting the health risks would be minimal. If patients were to become symptomatic, according to the report, they would be transferred to another facility immediately. 

Representatives in the Christie administration have not yet commented on the local officials’ concerns. 

FoxNews.com’s Jean Lee contributed to this report.

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Local officials complain they were left in dark on New Jersey Ebola quarantine center

Top finance officials grapple with weak growth

WASHINGTON, DC, USA (AP) — World financial leaders yesterday promised “bold and ambitious” action to boost a global recovery that has shown recent disturbing signs of weakness.

That pledge from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) policy-setting committee comes after a week of stomach-churning swings in the financial markets triggered by growing fears that parts of Europe could be in danger of slipping into another recession.

The 188-nation IMF called increasing economic growth an “utmost priority” and pledged to make the necessary structural changes that would stimulate greater growth.

But finance leaders have made similar promises in the past, only to fall short when trying to follow through.

The commitments came in a closing statement from the IMF’s steering committee at the fall meeting of the IMF and World Bank.

Officials also endorsed the IMF’s efforts to support three West African countries battling the Ebola crisis.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said at a news conference that the IMF has made US$130 million available to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and that the IMF and other international agencies stood ready to do more.

“If more is needed, it will be there,” Lagarde said.

Speaking earlier yesterday to the IMF policy-setting committee, British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne took note of the recent downgrades to global growth forecasts and said there was a need “for further progress by policymakers to deliver a strong and sustainable global recovery”.

Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega, told the IMF group that the global recovery “continues to create a sense of disillusionment”, and the IMF had demonstrated “an entrenched propensity to overstate prospects” for growth in the world’s largest economies.

The IMF and World Bank meetings were preceded by talks among finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Group of 20 nations, which comprise 85 per cent of the global economy. Those discussions focused on the recent growth slowdown and troubling signs that some countries in Europe could be close to another recession.

In a comment clearly aimed at Germany, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told finance ministers on Friday that European countries with “external surpluses and fiscal flexibility” needed to do more to address weakness in demand that was holding back growth.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, ran a large trade surplus last year.

Lew also called on China, now the world’s second largest economy, and Japan, number three, to make the necessary policy adjustments to increase their own growth.

A string of weak reports on economic activity in Germany, the largest economy in Europe, jolted financial markets this past week.

US stocks ended their worst week since May 2012, and the market turbulence served as a backdrop for the finance meetings.

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Top finance officials grapple with weak growth

Afghan president to sign deal allowing US troops to stay after 2014, officials say

Newly inaugurated Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is expected to sign a vital security deal Tuesday to allow American soldiers to remain in the country past the end of the year, officials say. 

A senior Defense Department official confirmed to Fox News that the new president will sign the Bilateral Security Agreement allowing for 9,800 U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014. The president also is expected to sign a NATO Status of Forces Agreement, which will allow a small NATO force to stay on as well.

John Podesta, a senior adviser to President Obama, also discussed the pact at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. According to the White House, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham will sign the document on behalf of the U.S. president. 

The announcement comes after Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai was sworn in Monday as Afghanistan’s new president, replacing Hamid Karzai in the country’s first democratic transfer of power after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban. Karzai would not sign the security agreement with the U.S. 

Moments after Ghani Ahmadzai took the oath, he swore in his election challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, as chief executive, fulfilling a political pledge he had taken to share power and defuse election tensions that had threatened to spark violence between the country’s north and south.

In his first speech, Ghani Ahmadzai called on the Taliban and other militants to join the country’s political process and lay down their weapons. However, extremist violence Monday killed at least 12 civilians and police officers as foreign forces prepare to withdraw from the country at the end of the year.

“We are tired of war,” Ghani Ahmadzai said in a televised address. “Our message is peace, (but) this doesn’t mean we are weak.”

U.S. officials previously had said they expected Ghani Ahmadzai or an official in his government to sign the security agreement with the U.S. shortly after his inauguration. Both Ghani Ahmadzai and Abdullah said during their campaigns they would sign the deal. 

Fox News’ Justin Fishel and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Afghan president to sign deal allowing US troops to stay after 2014, officials say

Jamaica sprint star Usain Bolt blasts officials for Gay’s doping ban

Tyson Gay (left) pictured with Usain Bolt of Jamaica (File)

GLASGOW, Scotland, Wednesday July 23, 2014, CMC - Jamaican sprint super star Usain Bolt has criticized anti-doping officials for reducing American sprinter Tyson Gay’s doping ban after he tested positive for an anabolic steroid last year.

Gay and Bolt’s fellow Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell, both 31, failed drug tests for oxilofrine, in July 2013.

Gay was given a one-year ban and Powell was initially suspended for 18 months.

“I’m not really happy with the situation and with how it was done,” Bolt said.

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“I think for someone like [fellow Jamaican] Asafa [Powell] to get a ban of 18 months for that [stimulant oxilofrine] and then Tyson Gay get just one year because of cooperating, I think it is sending a bad message into the sport that you can do it [dope], but if you cooperate with us, we’ll reduce the sentence.”

Powell claimed his ruling was “unfair and unjust”, and said a legal supplement he took, Epiphany D1, was contaminated.

He appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and his ban was subsequently reduced to six months.

Former 100m and 200m world champion Gay could have been banned for up to two years but received a lighter penalty because he co-operated with the US Anti-Doping Agency.

“I don’t think that’s the right way to go,” Bolt insisted.

“… because you are pretty much telling people that this is a way out, it’s a way of beating the system”.

Both Gay and Powell have now returned to action.

Bolt is scheduled to race for the first time this year in the Commonwealth Games 4x100m relay next week.

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Jamaica sprint star Usain Bolt blasts officials for Gay’s doping ban

Officials insist Goat Islands must be protected

FOLLOWING an announcement by environment minister Robert Pickersgill that the Goat Islands are being seriously considered for the site of a logistics hub to be built by the Chinese Government, environmentalists have been up in arms about the move.

The Goat Islands are located less than a mile off the coast of Old Harbour Bay and can be accessed in about 15 minutes by boat. The cays are among 14 small islands that are part of the Portland Bight Protected Area and are officially a part of the parish of St Catherine.Great Goat Island is approximately 600 acres while Little Goat Island is about 300 acres.According to environmentalist, member of the Jamaica Cavers Organisation and the Jamaican Iguana Research Project, Jan Pauel, any form of industrialisation of the Goat Islands will have a devastating effect on the environment and will cause untold suffering to the many persons who make a living off the sea.“Those islands are a nursery and breeding ground for every kind of seafood that we eat in Jamaica … fish, lobster, crabs, conch. It is not suitable for any kind of industrialisation. There is a lot of undiscovered stuff out there. It’s jobs versus conservation. It is not about saving lizards and animals and it is not about jobs, jobs, jobs. First of all, the jobs are going to go to the Chinese, as we have seen with the road in Palisadoes, the Chinese Embassy and the Spanish hotels on the North Coast who are all managed by Spanish, Spanish front desk, Spanish housekeepers,” Pauel said.On Friday, Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Anthony Hylton sought to reassure Jamaicans that protocols were already in place to ensure that a fair ratio of local to foreign workers are employed on all existing Chinese projects.Hylton said that the hub would integrate Jamaica into the global economy, given its worldwide connectivity and the integrated activities with global value and supply chains.“We must get our people ready for the jobs and they must have world-class training and world-class standards. The Logistics Hub is a global asset, so there can’t be two standards, a Jamaican standard and a global standard — there can only be one standard,” he said during a press briefing at his office in Kingston on Friday.But Pauel would have none of it.“How many workers you would need to be ancillary staff, to clean the floors, cut the grass and be security at the gate?” he asked.The Sunday Observer visited the islands last week to get a first-hand look at what would be destroyed if a logistics hub were to be constructed there.Both islands have beautiful white sand and mangroves on their coasts which serve as sanctuaries for reef fish which breed in the area and whose fry use the roots of the mangroves as protection from larger predatory fish.Small fish could be seen swimming about less than one foot from the coast.There were also starfish and oysters in the pristine waters.On Great Goat Island there is a variety of plant life including cacti, aloe vera and large trees. Many species of butterflies, birds and green lizards and the common Jamaican Anole lizard were also seen on the islands which were overgrown with thick brush.The islands were once the habitat of the threatened Jamaican Iguana until the 1940s, when the population was thought to have become extinct, mainly due to predation by mongooses and wild goats who destroyed the lizards’ natural habitat.Surprisingly, the water around the western side of Great Goat Island is fresh.If the Government gives the go-ahead for the Chinese investors to build the logistics hub, both islands will most likely be bulldozed, the sea floor dredged and connected nearby wetlands of Cabarita Point on the mainland.It may also require filling in thousands of acres of wetlands, using limestone mined from the hills and spoil dredged from the sea. The resulting loss of the wetlands, seagrasses, coral reefs and coastal forests would result in a massive loss of biodiversity and possible extinction of several species which are only found in Portland Bight.This, according to Pauel, would sound the death knell for the livelihood of the approximately 55,000 persons who live in the Portland Bight Protected Area as the area around the Goat Islands is only 11 feet deep, which is too shallow to accommodate the large vessels that would most likely dock at the logistics hub.“They keep talking about a deep-water port; this is a shallow bay. No matter what, this is of tactical importance, food, water and protection-wise for Jamaica. There is nothing that is worth giving that up for,” he said.Environmentalists have often been labelled as being anti-development zealots who go to great lengths to protect the environment even if it means the loss of earnings and non-creation of employment.However, Chief Executive Officer of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) Diana McCaulay told the Sunday Observer that the goal of the environmentalists was not to block development at all cost, but to make sure that Jamaica’s natural heritage was protected and not mercilessly raped in the name of development.“JET is not against development on Goat Islands. We are against the development of a large transhipment port in the most protected area in Jamaica, without any information on the criteria for site selection, the alternative sites that were considered, or any public consultation, even with groups involved in managing the protected area,” she said.She said that JET was particularly anxious that consultation takes place before any agreements are signed – the consultation that takes place as part of any Environmental Impact Assessment process takes place far too late when the decision has already been taken to go ahead.She agreed with Pauel that the proposed hub was not suitable for the Portland Bight Protected Area.“We believe that to protect an area by law must mean something; it must mean that great care is taken to ensure the type of development done in that area is appropriate, sustainable and does not damage the protected natural resources,” she said.McCaulay was also critical, and labelled as inept the way the matter is being handled by the Government.She pointed to leaked details, speeches and newspaper columns from unofficial sources, Pickersgill’s statement from China, a speech by Hylton at a private sector function to which the media was invited and then asked to leave as proof of the Government’s bundling of the matter. A group of environmental experts, including Marcia Ford environmental data manager- UWI Centre for Marine Sciences; Robert Stephens, chairman Jamaica Protected Areas Trust (JPAT) and Jamaica Conservation Development Trust (JCDT); Professor Dale Webber, chairman Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ); Susan Otuokon, executive director, Jamaica Conservation Development Trust (JCDT); Richard ‘Dickie’ Crawford, chairman, Jamaicans United for Sustainable Development (JUSD); Peter Espeut, environmentalist and natural resource manager; Michael Schwartz Windsor Research Centre (WRC), and Dr Ann Sutton — have all come out against the proposed site of the hub.“The entire Portland Bight Protected Area, including the Goat Islands, is totally unsuitable for the proposed Chinese logistics hub. If Jamaica needs this project, Jamaica needs to find a different site,” a news release from the group said.The group is arguing that not only would the project destroy livelihoods, but also destroy the mangroves which are a natural protection from storm surges, and would increase vulnerability to natural disasters.“Portland Bight is already the most disaster-prone area of Jamaica. Floods, storm surges and hurricane damage have caused massive and widespread damage to property, infrastructure (including ports) and livelihoods. In 2004, during Hurricane Dean, the people of Old Harbour Bay had to moor their boats to the upper parts of their houses. The problems come from a combination of storm surge from the sea and flooding from the land on a scale that could not be reverse-engineered,” the news release stated.The Portland Bight Protected Area, declared under the Natural Resources Conservation Authority Act in 1999 and is a wetland of international importance, declared under the Ramsar Convention in 2006.“We are calling on the Government to carry out a thorough, scientific and transparent assessment of all the options for sites before making a decision. We believe that there are other more suitable sites for this development. Portland Bight cannot be one of the options — it is the worst possible location and will have much more negative than positive implications for the people of Jamaica,” the news release said.McCAULAY … make sure Jamaica’s natural heritage in protectedPAUEL … islands are nursery and breeding ground for seafood

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Officials insist Goat Islands must be protected

Foreign ministry meets with Canadian officials

News

Friday, August 09, 2013

Foreign Minister, Senator A J Nicholson (third right) yesterday received a courtesy call from members of the Canadian Parliament and private sector, led by Don Meredith (third left), a Jamaican-born member of the Canadian Senate. While in Jamaica, the Canadian team visited the Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show in Clarendon, and attended the Independence Grand Gala at the National Stadium in Kingston. The foreign ministry said yesterday that the participation of the Canadians is part of a wider programme to promote greater collaboration in trade and investment between Canadian and Jamaican interests. Participating in the discussions are David Prendergast (centre), head of the Trade Agreements Implementation Coordination Unit, Foreign Trade Division; wife of Senator Meredith, Michelle (second left); Sima Gandhi (left), an official from the Canadian private sector; Cherryl Gordon, (second right), acting deputy director, Foreign Trade Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; and Deon Williams, acting director, Bilateral Affairs Department of the ministry.

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Foreign ministry meets with Canadian officials

Officials still assessing Antigua tornado damage

News

Friday, July 12, 2013

ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — Antigua and Barbuda authorities were yesterday still assessing the damage caused by a tornado that touched down in the north-east of the island.Director of the National Office of Disaster Services, Philmore Mullin, said it was still too early to determine the cost of the damage caused by the weather system late Tuesday close to Long Island, located about two miles off the north-east coast of Antigua.“Whatever was in its way got scratched so it uprooted trees, downed power lines, damaged vehicles, damaged buildings, and removed things considered to be heavy out of its path,” Mullin told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).Commanding Officer Major Randolph Best said about half of the buildings at the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force had been affected.While tornadoes, known as waterspouts here, have occurred in the past they have primarily uprooted trees or remained at sea.Residents believe that the system may have been linked to the passage of Tropical Storm Chantal through the Lesser Antilles on Tuesday, and Mullen said “I could say that weather conditions were correct for that type of development and it just took place”.

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Officials still assessing Antigua tornado damage