CLINIC SICKENED THOUSANDS

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Freezing rain grips Nova Scotia
Wed Mar 5, 1:43 PM

NOVA.SCOTIA (CBC) - Another round of winter has turned roads around Nova Scotia into ice rinks, making travel both difficult and treacherous.The province was hit with a mix of snow and freezing rain Wednesday.With the ugly weather in the forecast, many schools cancelled class ahead of time. Throughout the day, however, more classes and events were called off.Provincial transportation crews were out salting treacherous roads, but were still urging motorists to slow down and be extremely careful.As fast as they go out and go over the runs, the ice is covering up right over the product and they're having a hard time getting around, said Stephen Callahan, a dispatcher with the Department of Transportation in Beechville.

There were several minor car accidents on icy roads in the Halifax region, though no reports of serious injuries.At the Halifax Robert L. Stanfield International Airport, numerous flights were delayed or cancelled. Airline officials advised travellers to check ahead before heading to the airport.The hold-up at the Halifax airport was due in part to bad weather in central Canada.In southern Ontario, Windsor reported close to 20 centimetres of snow. Montreal reported about 14 centimetres of snowfall and winds were expected to increase in Quebec.Environment Canada said most areas of Nova Scotia could expect the freezing rain to continue overnight.With files from the Canadian Press

It's officially Ottawa's 2nd heaviest snowfall on record
Wed Mar 5, 1:38 PM

OTTAWA (CBC) - After more than 20 centimetres of snow fell Tuesday night and Wednesday, it's officially Ottawa's second snowiest winter on record, with 345 cm so far. Environment Canada is predicting another snowstorm on Saturday.The all-time record for snowfall was 444.1 centimetres in 1971, so Ottawa needs less than 100 centimetres for the record.The snow caused major problems for commuters, with Ontario Provincial Police reporting about 150 accidents since 5 a.m., most of them minor, with no major injuries. City police dealt with more than 25 minor accidents.OC Transpo said several buses broke down and had to be towed. At one point, five buses were stuck along a stretch of Kent Street near Somerset Street.The heavy snowfall also forced the final closing of Rideau Canal skating rink.The National Capital Commission blamed a combination of mild temperatures and heavy snow.NCC spokeswoman Kathryn Keyes said it's harder for the ice to recover from mild weather at this time of year.Ottawa sent out an estimated 600 snow-removal vehicles overnight and Wednesday morning.The snow should end late in the afternoon or early evening, and clear right out, said Mitch Meredith of Environment Canada.Meredith is already tracking another storm on the east coast of the U.S. that could hit eastern Ontario on Saturday afternoon.That storm would be all snow, with no rain or ice pellets, he said.

Snow, ice, floods hit several states By DOUG WHITEMAN, Associated Press Writer Wed Mar 5, 2:44 PM ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Snow, ice and flooding closed roads and schools across Ohio on Wednesday and left tens of thousands of customers without electricity in the aftermath of a storm system that had pummeled wide sections of the eastern half of the nation. Scattered school closings were reported Wednesday from Indiana to Maine. The National Weather Service issued flood warnings and advisories for streams from eastern Oklahoma to North Carolina and as far to the northeast as Massachusetts.In northern Maine, Caribou received 1.4 inches of snow overnight, giving the city a total of more than 160 inches so far this season, making this the second-snowiest winter on record there, the weather service said.More than a dozen homes were evacuated overnight because of flooding in eastern Ohio's Jefferson County.A school was set up as an emergency shelter, said Rob Herrington, assistant director of the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency.Mostly, we've had more nuisance flooding than anything, just some water on the roads, he said.

At least three Ohio counties declared driving emergencies, meaning only essential vehicles should be on the roads, and traffic in some other parts of the state was slowed by accidents on icy roads and detours around fallen trees and power lines.Traffic in northern Indiana was at a near standstill Wednesday morning on Interstate 74 near Batesville because of ice and snow, state police Sgt. Noel Houze said. Motorists were unable to make it up a hill on the highway about 60 miles southeast of Indianapolis. Several inches of snow had fallen overnight in northeastern Indiana.The edge of the storm also hit southeastern Michigan, dumping as much as 10 inches of snow during the night and closing hundreds of schools in the Detroit area.Sleet changing to light snow during the night in western New York state created an ice layer about a half-inch thick around Buffalo and Rochester, the weather service said. Buffalo Niagara International Airport shut down for about an hour Wednesday morning so crews could clear runways and a handful of flights were canceled.The storm blacked out thousands of homes and businesses in parts of Indiana, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Virginia and North Carolina,Farther south, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency Wednesday because of power outages and preliminary reports that high wind had destroyed nine buildings and damaged more than 50 others.On Tuesday, the same storm system dumped as much as 13 inches of snow in west-central Arkansas, with up to 8 inches in Missouri and 9 around Alton, Ill., the weather service said.Four inches of rain fell in southwestern Kentucky, and up to 5 inches fell in southwest North Carolina. Alabama had two small tornadoes Tuesday that destroyed at least two homes and damaged others, the weather service said.Two people were killed Tuesday in Illinois when their car slid on a sleet-covered road into the path of a truck.

FAMINE

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Oil jumps on surprise supply drop By JOHN WILEN, AP Business Writer Wed Mar 5, 3:35 PM ET

NEW YORK - Oil surged Wednesday, rising a remarkable $5 a barrel to a new record over $104 after the government reported a surprise drop in crude oil stockpiles and OPEC held production levels steady. Most analysts had expected the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration to report oil supplies rose last week for the eighth straight time. Instead, they fell by 3.1 million barrels.In Vienna, meanwhile, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said it would hold production levels steady, at least for now.The EIA report and OPEC announcement fed a new frenzy of investing in oil futures, which have risen to new inflation-adjusted records this week as the falling dollar drew new investors to the market.Light, sweet crude for April delivery jumped $5 to settle at a record $104.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Shortly after the Nymex closed, oil briefly rose to $104.95, a new trading record. Earlier this week, oil prices broke the previous inflation-adjusted price record of $103.76, set in 1980during the Iran hostage crisis.

Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is falling.At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices rose a cent to a national average of $3.178 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices have been following oil's recent rally, and are 69 cents higher than a year ago. Many analysts expect prices to rise to near $4 a gallon this spring and summer as driving demand picks up.While investors chose Wednesday to focus on last week's decline in oil supplies, analysts noted that oil inventories are at historic highs. Meanwhile, demand for gasoline is falling, and several forecasters have cut their oil demand growth predictions for this year.There are some very disturbing things in this report on the demand side, said Andrew Lebow, senior vice president at MF Global Inc. in New York.That suggests oil's sharp jump Wednesday was also partly driven by the dollar, which fell to a new low against the euro.There's an ongoing stampede to be a part of the crude oil rally, said Tim Evans, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., in New York.

Many analysts believe oil's rally will be short-lived. Falling demand for overall petroleum products, which was down 3.4 percent over the last four weeks compared to the same time last year, suggest prices could drop steeply once the dollar-driven oil investment frenzy runs out of steam, analysts said.OPEC ministers cited falling demand in announcing their decision to hold production steady. Gasoline demand is off about 1 percent over the last six weeks compared to the same period last year, according to EIA data. At the same time, gasoline supplies rose last week to a 15-year high, Evans said.Clearly, refineries have enough crude oil to produce an abundance of gasoline, Evans said.OPEC did pledge to keep a close eye on oil supply and demand, and said it could change its output levels quickly if needed.Other aspects of the EIA's inventory report were roughly in line with expectations. Gasoline supplies grew by 1.7 million barrels last week, more than the 900,000 barrels analysts expected, and are at record levels. On the other hand, inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 2.4 million barrels, more than the expected 1.9 million barrel decline, and are low in historic terms.

Refiners ramped up production for the second week in a row, boosting activity by 1.2 percent to 85.9 percent of capacity, beating analyst forecasts.Oil pulled other energy futures higher Wednesday. April gasoline rose 11.3 cents to settle at $2.6421 a gallon on the Nymex, and April heating oil futures jumped 15.13 cents to settle at $2.9431 a gallon after rising to $2.9484, a record high. April natural gas rose 38.8 cents to settle at $9.741 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, April Brent crude rose $4.12 to settle at 101.64 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil steady in Asia after surge to record By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer MAR 6,08

SINGAPORE - Oil prices steadied Thursday after rising to a trading record near $105 a barrel following a surprising drop in U.S. crude oil supplies. Also supporting oil prices were OPEC's decision to hold its output steady, an escalating crisis involving three oil-producing South American nations, and as the U.S. dollar sank to another record low against the euro.The primary factor causing the surge in oil prices is the surprising drawdown in crude inventories, which caused traders to really react quite dramatically, said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.Most analysts had expected the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration to report oil stocks rose last week for the eighth straight time. Instead, the stocks fell 3.1 million barrels.In Vienna, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Wednesday it would hold production levels steady, at least for now. OPEC ministers cited falling demand in announcing their decision to hold production steady.The EIA report and OPEC announcement fed a new frenzy of investing in oil futures, which have risen to new inflation-adjusted records this week as the falling dollar drew investors to the market.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery slipped 12 cents to $104.40 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore.The contract jumped $5 to settle at a record $104.52 a barrel Wednesday and later rose to $104.95 in post-settlement electronic trading.Earlier this week, oil prices broke the previous inflation-adjusted record of $103.76, set in 1980during the Iran hostage crisis.Five dollars is an incredible gain, Shum said. The overall oil market fundamentals are supportive of strong oil prices but not at this level, above $100. I would expect some profit taking to put a temporary halt to this rather large surge in pricing.Analysts noted that U.S. oil inventories are at historic highs despite last week's decline in crude supplies. Meanwhile, demand for gasoline is falling, and several forecasters have cut their oil demand growth predictions for this year.Other aspects of the EIA's inventory report were roughly in line with expectations. Gasoline supplies grew by 1.7 million barrels last week, more than the 900,000 barrels analysts expected, and are at record levels.The traders focus on the crude oil drawdown but they did not pay as much attention to the continuing build in gasoline inventories, Shum said. Gasoline inventories are way above the five-year historical average. It's an indication of a demand slowdown in the U.S.

On the other hand, inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 2.4 million barrels, more than the expected 1.9 million barrel decline. Distillates stocks as of Feb. 29 were nearly 10 million barrels less than they were at the end of January.Traders also worried about the escalating of tensions between oil producing countries in Latin America. Colombia's weekend attack on leftist rebels hiding in Ecuadorean territory has sparked a growing crisis as Venezuela moved tanks and soldiers to the Colombian border Wednesday. Ecuador said Monday it had sent 3,200 soldiers to its border with Colombia.In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 0.39 cent to $2.9392 a gallon while gasoline prices were a tad lower at $2.642 a gallon. Natural gas futures added 5.5 cents to $9.796 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, Brent crude fell 22 cents to $101.42 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Stocks fall amid credit concerns By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer MAR 06,08

NEW YORK - Stocks tumbled Thursday as renewed concerns about the ailing credit market and a spike in home foreclosures intensified the market's worries about a sagging economy. Each of the major indexes lost more than 1 percent, with the Dow Jones industrials giving up more than 125 points. Worries about credit moved to the fore of Wall Street's concerns after Thornburg Mortgage Inc. and a Carlyle Group bond fund disclosed troubles with investments backed by mortgages. The entities failed to make margin calls, payments to guarantee much larger debt or investments.The genesis of the credit concerns that erupted last year — souring mortgage loans — again added to investors' worries after the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that home foreclosures rose to record levels in the fourth quarter. Worries about defaults have made lenders hesitant to extend credit, preventing the credit markets from functioning normally.Wall Street's sense that credit troubles are seeping further into areas of the financial sector once deemed safe weighed on financial stocks and the broader market.I think these are near-term, unfortunate events that if they had the luxury of time and capital they could probably weather but unfortunately with this leverage-based system we have, time is a very expensive luxury, Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago, said in reference to the difficulties at Thornburg and Carlyle.In early afternoon trading, the Dow fell 130.74, or 1.07 percent, to 12,124.25.Broader indexes also retreated. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 17.23, or 1.29 percent, to 1,316.47, and the Nasdaq composite declined 24.76, or 1.09 percent, to 2,248.05.The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 12.77, or 1.87 percent, to 670.98.

Investors are also fretting as they watch the dollar scrape new lows against the euro. And the greenback's weakness is a big culprit behind a recent string of new highs for oil prices. Gold — regarded as a defensive investment — has hovered near the psychological benchmark of $1,000 an ounce.Light, sweet crude rose to a fresh record Thursday after an unexpected decline in U.S. crude supplies and a widely anticipated decision by OPEC not to increase production. Oil recently slipped 30 cents to $104.22 per barrel.Bad news about the housing market further dented sentiment. The Mortgage Bankers Association said the proportion of all mortgages nationwide that fell into foreclosure jumped to a record 0.83 percent in the final quarter of 2007. The group also warned that foreclosures are likely to continue to rise as the number of homeowners behind on their mortgage payments has jumped to its highest level since 1985.The Federal Reserve added more unwelcome housing news in reporting that Americans' debt on their homes exceeds their equity for the first time since the central bank began tracking the figures in 1945. Homeowners' percentage of equity fell to 47.9 percent in the fourth quarter.

Wall Street is worried that Americans distressed about their home values or struggling with mortgage payments will pare their spending. Investors appeared to take an upbeat report from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as a mixed signal. While Wal-Mart reported stronger-than-expected sales for February, some investors are worried that success at the world's largest retailer reflects increased bargain-hunting by consumers. Reports from retailers such as J.C. Penney Co. and Limited Brands Inc., the parent of the Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works chains, indicated consumers are paring some spending that they don't regard as essential.Wal-Mart was one of only a few stocks among the 30 that comprise the Dow industrials to advance. The shares rose 57 cents to $50.12. J.C. Penney fell $5.35, or 11 percent, to $42.76, while Limited declined 39 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $14.97.A retrenchment among consumers is an alarming prospect for Wall Street as consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.Investors' fear of becoming ensnared in widening credit troubles weighed on the financial sector. Thornburg plunged $1.80, or 53 percent, to $1.62. Stock in Amsterdam-listed Carlyle Capital Corp. Ltd., a bond fund managed by private equity firm Carlyle Group, fell more than 50 percent after saying it received a note of default for missed margin calls.Other financial stocks retreated. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. fell $1.67, or 3.5 percent, to $46.39, while Merrill Lynch & Co. declined $2.98, or 6 percent, to $46.34. Washington Mutual Inc. fell 78 cents, or 6.1 percent $12.02.Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 5 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 819.2 million shares. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average closed up 1.88 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 finished down 1.49 percent, Germany's DAX index declined 1.38 percent, and France's CAC-40 closed down 1.65 percent. On the Net:
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

1/3RD OF SHIPS DESTROYED

REVELATION 8:8-9
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

14 feared dead as oil tanker sinks off southern Vietnam MAR 06,08

HANOI (AFP) - A Vietnamese oil tanker has sunk and rescue crews were Thursday searching for 14 crew missing and feared dead while trying to contain an oil slick in the South China Sea, authorities said. The MT Duc Tri carrying 1,700 tons of crude oil was battered by bad weather and capsized near the southern seaside resort of Mui Ne in the night to Wednesday, said authorities in the communist country.One sailor, identified as Luong Van Luu, 50, was rescued by a fishing boat and recovering in nearby Ba Ria hospital, but the other 14 men, including the captain, remained missing on Thursday, officials said.We fear that all the missing are dead, and we are now trying to recover the bodies, Le Van Tien, a senior official at the Binh Thuan province environment and natural resources department, told AFP.

We plan to send down divers in the next few hours.Tien said the seas were now calm, and rescue crews had observed an oil slick measuring about 1.5 by four nautical miles (2.7 by 7.4 kilometres) spreading near the shipwreck, 10 nautical miles off the coastal town of La Gi.The ship had left Saigon port in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday, en route to the central city of Danang, but sailed closer to the coast to seek shelter from bad weather and high seas late on Tuesday night.The reason for the accident was the bad weather, Tien said. We will investigate further.Rescue boats arrived at the location about 8am Wednesday, he said.It is our biggest ship and it was on the first voyage of the year, said Huynh Lam Son, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City-based Duc Tri Limited Company, which owns the ship.

THATS ALL THE ARABS NEED MORE MONEY FOR MORE ROCKETS....GET OUT UN AND THE US.....GET REAL.

UN gets 148 million dollars in US aid pledge for Palestinians Wed Mar 5, 4:03 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government has pledged 148 million dollars this year to the UN refugee agency to aid Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and neighboring countries, both said Wednesday. The UN Relief and Works Agency said the amount includes 91 million dollars to UNRWA's fund for refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria as well as 57 million dollars to its 2008 West Bank and Gaza emergency appeal.The statement on the UNRWA website follows a similar one on the US State Department's website.This support is essential for improving the daily lives of Palestine refugees who face hardship in the region, UNRWA's Commissioner-General Karen Abu Zayd said in a statement of gratitude to the US government.The US contribution to the general fund will support UNRWA's provision of basic and vocational education, primary health care and relief and social services to over 4.4 million registered Palestinian refugees in the region.The 57 million dollar contribution to the emergency appeal will allow UNRWA to provide food assistance to 895,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, create approximately 190,000 temporary jobs and provide temporary shelter and shelter repair to refugees where needed, UNRWA said.Every year UNRWA educates approximately 490,000 children in more than 650 schools, hosts nine million patient visits in 127 health clinics and one hospital, and provides special hardship assistance to 250,000 of the most vulnerable refugees, it said.

UNRWA's tolerance education program promotes human rights, conflict resolution and tolerance in every UNRWA school, it added.Since the inception of its microfinance program in 1991, UNRWA has awarded 126,000 loans to help Palestinian refugees become self-sufficient and to promote private sector growth, it said.UNWRA said the United States is its single largest donor.Nita Lowey, who chairs a leading Congressional subcommittee, asked Monday to hold 150 million dollars in aid for the Palestinians after questioning how they will use the money and whether they were committed to peace with Israel.

Lowey said she wanted answers from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department before ordering the release of the funds to president Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority.The State Department has provided Lowey with a copy of the cash transfer assistance agreement, according to a statement read by Gonzalo Gallegos, the department's director of the office of press relations.We are working to address the remaining legislative requirements laid out for the cash transfer and expect to provide this information to Congress shortly, Gallegos told AFP Wednesday.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

Vegas clinic may have sickened thousands By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, Associated Press Writer MAR 06,08

LAS VEGAS - Nearly 40,000 people learned this week that a trip to the doctor may have made them sick. In a type of scandal more often associated with Third World countries, a Las Vegas clinic was found to be reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years. The shoddy practices may have led to an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus and exposed patients to HIV, too. The discovery led to the biggest public health notification operation in U.S. history, brought demands for investigations and caused scores of lawyers to seek out patients at risk for infections.Thousands of patients are being urged to be tested for the viruses. Six acute cases of hepatitis C have been confirmed. The surgical center and five affiliated clinics have been closed.

I find it baffling, frankly, that in this day and age anyone would think it was safe to reuse a syringe, said Michael Bell, associate director for infection control at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.One of the infected patients is retired airplane mechanic Michael Washington, 67, who was the first to report his infection. On the advice of his doctor, he received a routine colon exam in July at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.In September, he started to get sick. He was losing weight fast. His urine turned dark. His stomach hurt. By January, it was clear what had happened.Washington describes his virus as a creeping death sentence and worries that others will hear his story and think twice before getting preventive care they need.In letters that began arriving this week, patients who received injected anesthesia at the endoscopy center from March 2004 to mid-January were urged to get tested for hepatitis B and C, and HIV.Because all three viruses are transmitted by blood, they could have been passed from one patient to the next by the unsafe practices at the clinic.

The mass notification is the result of a health district investigation that began in January when officials linked an uptick of unusual hepatitis C cases to the clinic.Health officials say they are most worried about the spread of hepatitis C, which targets the liver but shows no symptoms in as many as 80 percent of infections.Hepatitis C results in the swelling of the liver and can cause stomach pain, fatigue and jaundice. It may eventually result in liver failure. Even when no symptoms occur, the virus can slowly cause damage to the liver.Officials estimate that 4 percent of the patients already had the virus when they entered the clinic, compared with 0.5 percent for hepatitis B and less than 0.5 percent for HIV. Hepatitis C also is easier to transmit than HIV, they said.

You put the two together and hepatitis C is really our big concern, said Brian Labus, senior epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District.Health inspectors say they observed clinic staff using the same syringe twice to extract anesthesia from a single vial, which was then inappropriately used to treat more than one patient. The practice allows contaminated blood in a used syringe to taint the vial and infect the next patient.Of the six patients so far diagnosed with acute hepatitis C, five received treatment at the clinic on the same day in late September.Since 1999, the CDC counts 14 hepatitis outbreaks in the U.S. linked to bad injection practices.The largest outbreak occurred in Fremont, Neb., where 99 cancer patients were infected at an oncology center from 2001 to 2002. At least one died. The doctor involved in the case acknowledged reusing syringes and settled scores of lawsuit. But he never explained why the syringes were reused. Bell said such improper procedures appear to be more common in outpatient surgical centers like the endoscopy center. Unlike hospitals, such centers often do not have employees whose sole responsibility is to monitor and educate staff on best practices. In Las Vegas, clinic staff told inspectors they had been ordered by management to reuse the vials and syringes. Labus described the practice as an unwritten, but long-practiced policy. Investigators were told the practice was an attempt to cut costs, according to a letter of complaint from the city, which revoked the facility's business license Friday. Five other facilities affiliated with the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada also had their licenses revoked. The clinic's majority owner, Dipak Desai, a political contributor and member of the governor's commission on health care, has refused to comment on the allegations.

He released a statement expressing concern for the patients and assuring the public the problems had been corrected. He later took out a full-page ad in Sunday's edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal insisting that needles had not been reused and that the chances of contracting an infection at the center in most of the last four years were extremely low.Of the thousands of people who have rushed to be tested, many will get positive results, Labus said. More than 15,000 people already have called the health district for information. But it takes a more sophisticated test, a complete evaluation of risk factors and a clear pattern of infection to determine whether the virus was caught at the facility. Plenty of lawyers are wading into the mess. Television ads called health alerts are soliciting clients. At least a handful of class-action lawsuits have been filed. On Tuesday, the office of Las Vegas attorney Ed Bernstein was buzzing with phone calls — nearly 1,000 a day, he said. Bernstein said he represents about 1,200 patients at the facility, eight who have tested positive for hepatitis C. Washington, the infected airplane mechanic, is one of Bernstein's clients. His wife, Josephine, a registered nurse, wonders how any health care professional could be so reckless: To maximize profit? For what? What are you going to save? On the Net:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/