Secret Hours

Gastroenterologists at Rush University Medical Center are studying the safety and efficacy of a new system for delivering chemotherapy for patients with esophageal cancer, a rare, but deadly disease that attacks the throat. The unique drug therapy delivers a highly concentrated dose of chemotherapy injected directly on to the hard-to-reach tumors in the esophagus non-surgically.

Paratroopers at Forward Operating Base Salerno are busy running fiber optic lines in order to keep critical lines of communication open.

The paratroopers of Charlie Company, 425th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division are working to keep everyone connected through a variety of services, so the battle can continue.

Army Capt. Brian Collins, commander of the Network Support Company, is leading the team of paratroopers.

“We provide all of the connectivity for the brigade throughout the Task Force Yukon area of operation,” he said, referring to the sector of eastern Afghanistan approximately the size of Maryland.

“It is a huge tasking for the smallest company in the entire brigade,” he added.

The captain explained the necessity of the network functioning at all times.

“It allows communication flow on the battlefield, which is critical to meeting the commander’s intent,” Collins said, reiterating the importance of Soldiers’ ability to communicate both in combat and in operational cells at the company level.

Any issues that arise with the network create an urgency that the network specialists meet with efficiency.

“We have Soldiers that fly out to different forward operating bases on signal maintenance, we have the help desk located in the tactical operations center, network operations, and constant troubleshooting … we do a lot in 24 hours.”

“We have to do our job very well because if we don’t then everyone else can’t do their jobs,” said Army Spc. Robert Troxler, a member of the fiber optic team of C. Co. “Yeah we may get a little wet and muddy, but the bottom line is that the job has to be done.”

Collins took command of the company during their last deployment tour in Iraq and 22 months later, has seen the results of his team’s hard work: a proficient group of Soldiers who are close-knit both on and off duty.

“We are a very tight company,” he said, smiling. “I have just an incredible team. They make everything happen, they are awesome!”

Pretty soon, all US taxpayers will be insuring state and muni debt of the broke state of California.

See, the state needs to raise $15 billion in fresh debt over the next few months, but of course, since the economy there is so terrible, and its government has been horribly mismanaged, nobody is willing to lend it money. Solution: Get the feds to insure the debt.

Governor Schwarzenegger and other state officials have sent a letter to Barack Obama and the Congress pleading for help. They claim there's very little risk of default, but that: “Currently, we have only limited access to the credit markets, and banks have shown little interest in enhancing government-issued debt in a declining market.”

There's a good chance they'll get it. Barney Frank has already indicated a desire to help, and possibly to insure all muni debt. Remember, Frank slammed ratings agency Moody's for putting all muni debt on negative watch, saying that higher borrowing costs for cities and states would be counter-stimulative.

And of course, the Federal government loves making bailouts in the form of "insurance" since it gives the appearance of only being a contingent -- and unlikely -- payment.

Indeed, muni defaults have been historically rare events. But they've been accelerating, and we keep going back to what Warren Buffett said in his letter to shareholders. Muni defaults were rare in the period before muni bond insurance. Now that cities and states have third parties who can pick up the tab, the pressure on them to make good and do the hard choices has abated. And if your muni insurer is the federal government, not some profit-seeking firm, then really, why bother making good on your loans at all.

Highlighting another challenge to the development of quantum computers, theorists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have shown* that a type of software operation, proposed as a solution to fundamental problems with the computers’ hardware, will not function as some designers had hoped.

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