Latest E. coli O157:H7 News...

...As of Thursday, June 25, 2009, 69 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 29 states.
Ill persons range in age from 2 to 65 years; however, 64% are less than 19 years old; 73% are female. Thirty-four persons have been hospitalized, 9 developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS); none have died.

(http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2009/0625.html)
A newer update will be out at around 9 pm eastern time, and it will be posted at this site.
Also, as you can still see, I am still not able to get my freakin' links to display as they are supposed to. Anyone have any ideas?

Celebrity Deaths...

...have been a big happening this week, in case you've been on a deserted island and haven't heard about them yet.
Fisrt off, we had Johnny Carson's sidekick Ed McMahon die on Tuesday at the age of 86. Cause of death has not been released as of yet.
Next up, we had Farrah Fawcett die on Thursday after a three year battle against cancer.
Also on Thursday, pop star Michael Jackson bit the dust at the age of 50 from cardiac arrest.

Cardiac arrest is a condition in which the electrical signals to the heart become abnormal, making it impossible for it to properly pump blood through the body. In over 90 percent of victims, death occurs.

The first sign that something was wrong with Jackson likely occurred when an ambulance arrived at his home and took him to the medical center just a few miles away. But even if paramedics responded immediately, Jackson's chances would not have been good.

"This is something where minutes count," said Cannon. "Survival tails off from 50 percent survival down to 1 percent over a 10-minute period."

Cannon said cardiac arrest is different from a heart attack, which is normally the result of a blockage in an artery that supplies the heart with blood.

abcnews.go.com

Jackson's death came as quite a shock to many of his fans, who did not know that Jackson had been having some serious health and drug problems over the past few years. It is reported that stress had been a major issue with Mr. Jackson.
It has been said by some Jackson Acquaintances that Jackson was a heavy user of the drug Demerol, a pain killer. (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MichaelJackson/story?id=7934491&page=1)
I am not a very big fan of Michael Jackson, even though he did release a few tunes that I did happen to like. " Dirty Diana" and " Billie Jean " being a couple of them. Mr. Jackson was a very real talent who was popular with most everyone no matter what race. It is a shame that we will never see Michael doing his comeback tour, which would have kicked off next month.
Another " American Gothic " comes to an early end.