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First lady Michelle Obama’s weekend jaunt to Aspen, Colorado for a President’s Day ski holiday with her daughters Sasha and Malia makes the 16th time members of the first family have gone on extended vacations during their three years in office. Their stay at the home of a major Chicago fundraiser for President Obama makes the fifth time the first lady and her daughters have taken a break from Washington on their own. Only once has Obama had a long weekend out of town and alone, celebrating his 49th birthday in Chicago in August 2010.

A Kansas resident died this week from what was likely a rare infection by a brain-eating amoeba - the fourth such case in the U.S. this year. State and local officials warned residents to avoid activities in warm rivers, lakes and other bodies of heated, fresh water, including ponds near power plants. Single deaths from such infections also have been reported this summer in Florida, Louisiana and Virginia. ... Naegleria fowleri moves into the body through the nose and destroys brain tissue. It almost always causes meningitis Symptoms of an infection include headache, fever, nausea and vomiting, stiff neck, confusion,...

A tick-borne infection known as Babesiosis, which can cause severe disease and even death, is becoming a growing threat to the U.S. blood supply, government researchers said on Monday. There are currently no diagnostic tests approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that can detect the infection before people donate blood.

The third case, in Louisiana, was more unusual. It was a young man whose death in June was traced to the tap water he used in a device called a neti pot. It's a small teapot-shaped container used to rinse out the nose and sinuses with salt water to relieve allergies, colds and sinus trouble. Health officials later found the amoeba in the home's water system. The problem was confined to the house; it wasn't found in city water samples, said Dr. Raoult Ratard, Louisiana's state epidemiologist. The young man, who was only identified as in his 20s and from...

A parasite known as the "brain-eating amoeba" has claimed its second young American victim this month. Christian Strickland, a 9-year-old from Henrico County in Virginia contracted an infection after visiting a fishing camp in his state. He died of meningitis on August 5. This week, health department officials confirmed that the deadly amoeba--officially known as "Naegleria fowleri"--was to blame. "Sadly, we have had a Naegleria infection in Virginia this summer," Dr. Keri Hall of the Virginia Department of Health, told The Richmond Times-Dispatch. "It's important that people be aware of . . . safe swimming messages." Earlier this month, Courtney...

Putin Thinks The United States Is A "Parasite" On The Global Economy Adam Taylor Aug. 1, 2011, 4:58 PM Vladimir Putin said Monday that the dominance of the dollar was a threat to global markets and the United States was "a parasite", reports Reuters. The Russian Prime Minister was talking to a Kremlin youth group while touring its summer camp north of Moscow. "They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy," Putin said. "They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar."...

(Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States Monday of living beyond its means "like a parasite" on the global economy and said dollar dominance was a threat to the financial markets. "They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy," Putin told a Kremlin youth group while touring its summer camp north of Moscow. "They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar." President Barack Obama announced a last-ditch deal to cut about $2.4 trillion from the U.S. deficit...

Johns Hopkins expert calls for testing and mandatory reportingA Johns Hopkins infectious disease expert is calling for all sexually active American women age 40 and older to get tested for the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis after new study evidence found that the sexually transmitted disease (STD) is more than twice as common in this age group than previously thought. Screening is especially important because in many cases there are no symptoms. "We usually think of STDs as more prevalent in young people, but our study results clearly show that with trichomonas, while too many young people have it, even more, older...

A key senator has asked the Social Security Administration to investigate how people who live their lives role-playing as “adult babies” are able to get taxpayer-funded disability payments — after one of them was featured on a recent reality TV episode wearing diapers, feeding from a bottle and using an adult-sized crib he built. Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican and the Senate’s top waste-watcher, asked the agency’s inspector general to look into 30-year-old Stanley Thornton Jr. and his roommate, Sandra Dias, who acts as his “mother,” saying it’s not clear why they are collecting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits instead...

Led by union workers from across Texas, thousands of chanting marchers converged on the Capitol on Wednesday to protest the recently passed House budget's deep spending cuts to education, health care and state jobs. "We are all in this together," Judy Lugo, president of the Texas State Employees Union, told the raucous, cheering crowd on the south steps of the Capitol. "Every Texan, now and for years to come, will suffer the consequences if the Texas Legislature does not change course." Shortly before the rally, conservative and tea party activists held a news conference on the other side of the...

Melissa Amen conceived her 3-year-old daughter, Kayah, seven days after Kayah's father died of cancer. "It's my miracle," the 28-year-old Nebraska resident told FoxNews.com. Melissa and her husband, Joshua, struggled for two years to have a child before she conceived through intrauterine insemination. Joshua had stored his sperm in a bank in case treatments for his cancer rendered him sterile. They were planning to raise a family together despite his three-year battle with cancer. Now Amen faces her own battle: Winning Social Security benefits for Kayah from a federal government that, in essence, doesn't recognize Joshua as the father. The...

Extinct humans left louse legacy By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff The evolutionary history of head lice is tied very closely to that of their hosts Some head lice infesting people today were probably spread to us thousands of years ago by an extinct species of early human, a genetics study reveals. It shows that when our ancestors left Africa after 100,000 years ago, they made direct contact with tribes of "archaic" peoples, probably in Asia. Lice could have jumped from them on to our ancestors during fights, sex, clothes-sharing or even cannibalism. Details of the research appear...

When Eugene Jenkins showed up at St. Paul AME Church at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, he didn’t know he would be one of the last people to get a ticket for assistance with his heating bill.He waited in line until 7 a.m., when officials started to hand out the tickets, then went home for a few hours before returning at 10 a.m. By the time he had finished up his paperwork, it was 1:15 p.m., making for a long day. Jenkins was one of the lucky ones in Macon, though. Other people were turned away because the Macon-Bibb County Economic Opportunity...

Columbus, Ohio (CNN) - Retiring Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said Monday that the upcoming lame duck session of Congress should work together on a handful of key issues to demonstrate a commitment to problem-solving rather than partisan bickering. (snip) He suggested that in the lame duck session, the 18-member bipartisan debt commission should endorse recommendations to help repair the country's deep budget deficit. He called on lawmakers to listen to the commission and have "the courage to move forward and do the tough things that need to be done for our country." (snip) "Once we are elected we ought to...

My wife and I seem to have become the hosts for a skin parasite. Mine is localized, however my wife's condition is much more serious. Most of the literature we have seen does not recongize collembola as a parasite able to impact humans. My wife has been told by a dermatoligist that the bugs only exist in her mind. We have been able to extract whole specimens from our skin and take a look at it under a microscope. What we have seen isn't any figment. Nasty looking bug.

WASHINGTON--Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha returned from Spain on Sunday, a vacation at a lavish hotel on the Mediterranean coast that triggered her first controversy since becoming first lady. I'm told she made the trip because she promised one of her closest friends, a longtime Chicago pal who just lost her father, she would spend time with her. (snip) So why did Mrs. Obama go to Spain at this time? She's not tone-deaf politically. What was behind the "mother-daughter" vacation? A White House source told me that Blanchard's father passed away and Mrs. Obama was not able to make the...

This absolutely rocks guys.  The 'Community Organizer in Chief' Gets smacked upside the head by JoeDanMedia. Parasite (code name: POTUS)

This rocks.  Cool guitar too.  Parasite (code name: POTUS)

'Rich' bum who sues for a livingHe's filthy, rich. The city's most litigious bum, Richard Kreimer -- infamous for winning a $230,000 suit 20 years ago after being kicked out of a Morristown, NJ, library for his body odor -- is about to file his 18th lawsuit since 1988. The 61-year-old hobo plans to go after Amtrak in Philadelphia because he claims police forcibly removed him from the train station. He already has another lawsuit pending against NJ Transit for the same thing. Kreimer agreed to meet The Post at Penn Station, where he often spends his nights. He is...

The Duchess of York is "devastated" and "regretful" after she was filmed apparently offering to sell access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew for £500,000, sources said today. A News of the World video showed Sarah Ferguson promising to introduce an undercover reporter posing as a wealthy businessman to the Prince, who has been the UK's special representative for international trade and investment since 2001. The Duchess who said she could 'open doors' is expected in Los Angeles later today where she is scheduled to pick up an award for her charity work.