Below is the Executive Summary from the 2008–2009 Annual Report of the President’s Cancer Panel - REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL CANCER RISK... What We Can Do Now - April 2010. This report is submitted to the President of the United States in fulfillment of the obligations of the President’s Cancer Panel.

Executive Summary

Despite overall decreases in incidence and mortality, cancer continues to shatter and steal the lives of Americans.  Approximately 41 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, and about 21 percent will die from cancer.  The incidence of some cancers, including some most common among children, is increasing for unexplained reasons.

Public and governmental awareness of environmental influences on cancer risk and other health issues has increased substantially in recent years as scientific and health care communities, policymakers, and individuals strive to understand and ameliorate the causes and toll of human disease.  A growing body of research documents myriad established and suspected environmental factors linked to genetic, immune, and endocrine dysfunction that can lead to cancer and other diseases.

Below is the cover letter to the President of the United States from the 2008–2009 Annual Report of the President’s Cancer Panel - REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL CANCER RISK... What We Can Do Now - April 2010. This report is submitted to the President of the United States in fulfillment of the obligations of the President’s Cancer Panel.

The President
The White House
Washington, DC  20500

Dear Mr. President:

Though overall cancer incidence and mortality have continued to decline in recent years, the disease continues to devastate the lives of far too many Americans.  In 2009 alone, approximately 1.5 million American men, women, and children were diagnosed with cancer, and 562,000 died from the disease.  With the growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the unacceptable burden of cancer resulting from environmental and occupational exposures that could have been prevented through appropriate national action.  The Administration’s commitment to the cancer community and recent focus on critically needed reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act is praiseworthy.  However, our Nation still has much work ahead to identify the many existing but unrecognized environmental carcinogens and eliminate those that are known from our workplaces, schools, and homes.

I'm not a party politics guy, but I sure supported Obama from the first day I saw what he offered the world - and I well remember the awe of the moment I knew Obama was President. While I'm sure I could do much better, and so could you, I think he is doing an excellent job overall, and I am certain we want to stay the course with him and leaders who share his vision, through this administration and another - he is turning around a leaky rusting out of control supertanker here, hoping to get our economy back to safe harbour before we have another deepwater experience.... and this supertanker US Enterprise is running on empty.

To help the nation get and stay on course for the future, in the Blue state of Ohio, the Democratic party must be effective, and that means citizens need to get involved helping good candidates succeed... at least getting candidates engaged about what citizens believe and want from their leaders. That's one thing I feel realNEO enables well, and I know our core members make a point to get active in support for good in politics, to the core. Below is a message from Governor Strickland asking everyone to volunteer to " Fight for Ohio’s Future", and I look forward to dialog here on the candidates in the upcoming elections - there are certainly some big races being decided in November... best not sit this one out as a passive spectator in 2010, to find yourself a helpless victim in 2011!

I got chills today, scanning ongoing coverage of Cleveland City Hall's plans to lock citizens and their children here into a 10 year sole-source LED lighting contract with Sunpu Opto, of China - Cleveland council committee embraces LED lighting deal - when I made the interpretation my instincts about Sunpu Opto are the same as Councilman Polensek's... which means my instincts may be wrong, as how could he be right?

Polensek's take on the Sunpu Opto deal:

"When my gut tells me something is wrong, I've been around long enough to know it's not right," Polensek said during the hearing.

He accused the administration of conducting a faulty process in choosing Sunpu-Opto.

"We're going to pay for every one of those jobs five times, six times over," Polensek said.

I turned my Nexus One to Pandora tonight to stream some free music while I work. It launched to my Pere Ubu radio and the first track that played seems so fitting for this week - "Chinese Radiation". I just heard Pere Ubu play it live at their performance of Modern Dance, at the Beachland, but I can't find any place to stream the song to you from on-line... here is a sample on Pandora - so you will have to just read the lyrics below and imagine the rest of the tune in your head... the song does not remain the same, but the story does, 32 years since 1978... buy Modern Dance:

He'll be the red guard
She'll be the new world
He'll wear his grey cap
and she'll wave her red book
He'll tell her
One way?
I want you all ways
One way

I try hard to ignore what folks at Cleveland City Hall and City Council do, day to day, their performance is so depressing. I just expect the worst and hope that won't harm my children. So I have not been following the odd trade missions Jackson's people have apparently been making to the Far East lately (when, on what Fundation's dime, why) cutting odd long-term deals with Chinese lighting companies promising to bring clean jobs to America (does "clean jobs" even translate into Chinese?). Jackson... 10 year deal... "Far East" trade mission... Sunpu-Opto... yeah, right. I like touring China too... sounds well worth the effort?!?! 77% of Clevelanders did just re-elect Jackson, and the Foundations and PD love the man, so let it ride...

But then I noticed GE has attacked the Mayor for his jet-setting wheeling-dealing economic development ways and I realized I'm not alone in this backwater slum of East Cleveland noticing what a mess Jackson and his cronies are making of the region and world, now that he has gone global. Some important people like the shareholders at GE are starting to care.

One of my kids' favorite videos these days is an animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss' 1984 The Butter Battle Book - we're watching it now (in legal VHS, no less).

Source: Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index

Ceridian reported today the Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index™ (PCI) fell 0.3 percent in April, suggesting the economic recovery may have stalled. "The latest PCI numbers are disappointing and cast considerable doubt on the strength of the recovery and the strength of GDP numbers for 2010," said Ed Leamer, the PCI's chief economist. Five of the nine US census regions were weak in April. With a decline of 1.7 percent, the PCI in Ohio's East North Central region fell the most.

The ICEarth Welcome Wagon stopped by Sansai Environmental Technologies this weekend to tour the world's largest indoor vermitechnology facility and meet Cleveland's greenest, meanest, fighting machine - the 60 million worm team bringing the world "Magic Dust". See Sansai for more information on their amazing processes and products... here are some pictures of their crib, right in the heart of South Collinwood - Cleveland - Ohio.

                               Today I walked through one of the most exciting plants in the Collinwood community. and I learned that this plant is for health, and I saw some of the most interesting things. And seeing the product that this company produce is incredible. This company is producing something that is good for us all, and also trying to create jobs for the community, and as needed how cool is that.

Dear realNEO Members and so Real Coop owners,

realNEO was founded October 7, 2004, making this our 6th year providing a free, open source content management system and social computing platform to the citizens of Northeast Ohio and the world... for the past few years as a cooperative. In this 6th year, we have reached a stage of ad hoc organizational maturity whereby we have a large, real, engaged community of members who have been active with realNEO for years, who share foundational commitments to openness, truth and freedom, and who are working in concert for the sustainability of our communities... both our virtual realNEO/coop community and our real NEO neighborhoods, around the world.

With maturation comes the opportunity to evolve, with the knowledge we have gained in our lives, now including over 5 years of realNEO.

IT Update - Change To Blog Submission Form - Promote Your Own Pages To Home, If Authorized

In response to problems with some real coop members posting content on realNEO that is harmful or objectionable to other members, and some members abusing the coop trust structure, it has been found advisable to change how content is promoted to the home page of realNEO. In the past, all content has automatically been promoted to the home page for all members, regardless of content. Now, when you post your content, you must select to post it to the home page yourself, if authorized - you will see that option available to you in the last section of the blog (and other content type) submission form - "Publishing Options"... check "Promoted to front page". If you have been asked not to promote your content to the home page, please respect that request and leave this option unchecked. Otherwise, check this option to send your content to the home page as usual.

I may hate old time politics, but I love this video - thanks Channel 5 - found on the Cleveland.com website. According to a poll on realNEO, "Does Jimmy Dimora deserve the privilege of being considered innocent until proven guilty?", 63% voted "Yes, Jimmy Dimora deserves the privilege of being considered innocent until proven guilty".

CLEVELAND, OH— Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones will discuss the State of the County at The City Club of Cleveland at noon on Monday, May 10, 2010, at The City Club of Cleveland, 850 Euclid Ave, Second Floor. 

Although county government will look different come January, it will function as is until that time. Lawson Jones will address issues and challenges facing the current administration.

Location

About two months ago I asked the question: Should ICEarth Be Developed In Real NEO Or Elsewhere In The World? In general, the response has been to develop here, and a Strategic Technology Analyst for the Cuyahoga County Department Of Development has asked for a brief overview of my development plans for the activities I propose for Cuyahoga County to help make Northeast Ohio

Friends of Charlie Mosbrook (seems nearly everyone in Cleveland) have been concerned for his sudden health issues this year, and gladdened to see him back up, around, and performing stronger than ever. Featured above is a video from Charlie's website - inspiring, as is all his work - and he has many events upcoming - two in Lakewood may interested realNEO readers (we have lots of traffic in Lakewood)...

On April 29, 2010, EPA proposed a set of regulatory proposals under the Clean Air Act that address emissions from boilers, process heaters, and certain solid waste incinerators. These rules would significantly cut emissions of pollutants that are of particular concern for children. Mercury and lead can cause adverse affects on children's developing brains -- including effects on IQ, learning, and memory. The rules would also reduce emissions of other pollutants including cadmium, dioxin, furans, formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid. These pollutants can cause cancer or other adverse health effects in adults and children. Together, these rules would cut mercury and other air toxics emissions from nearly 200,000 units across the U.S.

In the past 24 days The Courage Express, a converted school bus bought on eBay from Southwest Licking Schools, has taken me to 96 stops in 43 cities, traveling over 6,000 miles. I have helped fill potholes in a Tuscarawas County township with one paved road, been welcomed into the home of Somali immigrants in Columbus, played "corn hole" on Fountain Square in Cincinnati, worshipped with congregations in Akron, Columbus, Cleveland and Youngstown, met with health care advocates in Xenia and students in Toledo and spoken to crowded rooms from Athens to Bowling Green to Lorain to Brecksville.

I know that this is the real Ohio. I know that when I meet people face-to-face, they can really judge for themselves what they want in a leader--and I can learn firsthand what they need. I've tried to set the tone in this campaign that we are one Democratic family, because it is in unity that Democrats will prevail in November.

Over the next 8 months, Cuyahoga County must remake itself, in designing and preparation for an entirely new government - that is a challenge of epic proportions under the best of circumstances, and this is happening under the worst of circumstances for nearly all in Cuyahoga County. While our nation may be rising out of recession, parts of Cuyahoga County reside in states of true economic depression.

ICEarth Bigbang computers, our Linux distro, and our optimal open source data and application configurations are designed to handle the most processor (CPU and GPU), memory and transaction intensive challenges in the world, to save Earth. Doing that requires an integration of our regional and global geographic information systems with layers of valuable insight not yet integrated, like environmental, atmospheric and topographic data, to drive analyses of life impacting factors in our neighborhoods like environmental fallout from all sources of pollution, to the home and child, for free to them. A good explanation of the type of data and analyses included in such capabilities is described below, helping you make sense of what just doesn't make sense, by doing things like growing GRASS...

I was watching the Pere Ubu "We Have The Technology" video over and over today and I was thinking why doesn't everyone in NEO appreciate David Thomas like they appreciate LeBron James. Not in tennis shoe sponsorships, but with pride and celebration. Do area residents realize the king of ubu projex is from Cleveland and still makes this his home court? Very few places in the world may make such an important claim to modern cultural significance, and David Thomas is in his prime.

Yesterday, before falling into a fever-induced sleep--some 24-hour flu bug--I meant to look up the words to this song.  We've had some awfully beautiful days here in NEO. It's worth remembering:

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

The Courage Express is making a stop near you on Saturday, May 1st. 

We would love for you to come out and share the excitement as our grassroots campaign continues to gather momentum. This is your opportunity to meet Jennifer face to face. Come step aboard the Courage Express and snap some photos while you are at it!

Location

Whether you care about childhood lead poisoning or not, I think you'll be interested by important insight on Lead, Diabetes, Hypertension, and Renal Function that everyone in the world should understand. Think of the cost of this on society - the suffering, reduced quality of life, and lost years for so many people, caused by lead harming kidney function. Here's the intro and abstract - you'll need to set up an account on WebMD to read the rest (apparently free - this is not an endorsement of WebMD... I am not a member... I will join to read the rest of this  and let you know my thoughts)...