Nation roundup for Aug. 23

Congress warned about recession

WASHINGTON (AP) — A stalemate between Democrats and Republicans that ends up boosting taxes and slashing federal spending in January would likely thrust the nation into a 2013 recession and cost 2 million jobs by the end of that year, Congress’ top nonpartisan budget analyst warned Wednesday.

The cautionary report by the Congressional Budget Office, drearier than a similar alarm it issued in May, immediately raised the political stakes in one of this election year’s signature conflicts between the two parties.

Without an agreement between President Barack Obama and Congress by January, tax reductions on virtually all taxpayers are scheduled to expire and spending cuts will be imposed on hundreds of popular domestic and defense programs.

That would plunge the nation off a so-called “fiscal cliff,” which each side is eager to blame on the other.

Together, the scheduled tax increases and spending cuts would total nearly $500 billion next year, the report said — a huge amount of activity to suck out of a $16 trillion economy that is already struggling.

That would be the largest annual reduction in the federal deficit compared to the size of the economy in more than four decades, said Douglas Elmendorf, the budget office’s director.

Doing that “would probably lead to a recession early next year,” Elmendorf told reporters.

Hiring push for
vets is announced

NAVAL STATION MAYPORT, Fla. (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama chose a naval station in the electoral battleground of Florida to announce Wednesday that 2,000 businesses around the country have hired or trained more than 125,000 military veterans and spouses in the past year, exceeding a White House goal of 100,000 by the end of next year.

Mrs. Obama also told a crowd of Navy personnel and their spouses at this Jacksonville base that the same companies have committed to hire or train an additional 250,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014. That includes hiring or training 50,000 military spouses within three years — and helping them keep those jobs as families move from one duty station to another.

“I thought this challenge was pretty ambitious and when we first started out, we only had two companies as our partners,” She said. “Soon, those two companies became 20, and then 200 and then 2,000 … These 2,000 companies have not just met our challenge, they’ve exceeded it.”

Mrs. Obama said that she is repeatedly hearing from companies that some of their best employees are military veterans or their spouses, so the Joining Forces effort isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s helping companies do better.

ACT scores show signs of progress

Associated Press

Average scores on the ACT exam held steady for the high school class of 2012 but the results show modest progress in the number of students who appear ready for college-level work in math and science.

The scores, released Wednesday, cover the first-ever class in which more than half of graduates nationally took the ACT. Traditionally the ACT has been a rival college entrance exam to the SAT, but it is now taken by almost all students in nine states, and by at least 60 percent of graduates in 26 states.

The average national composite score was 21.1 (on a scale of 1 to 36), unchanged from the class of 2011. The percentage who earned scores that ACT calculates indicate they’re ready for college in all four subjects — English, reading, math and science — was also unchanged at 25 percent.

But the percentage earning scores indicating readiness for college in science has increased from 28 percent to 31 percent since 2009, and in math from 42 percent to 46 percent.

Tattoo infections traced to bad ink

ATLANTA (AP) — An outbreak of infected tattoos has led to an unlikely source: the ink.

With the growing popularity of tattoos, health officials say they are seeing more cases of a nasty skin infection caused by a common bacteria traced to the ink. In the largest outbreak, 19 people in Rochester, N.Y., ended up with bubbly rashes on their new tattoos, researchers reported Wednesday.

Infections from tattooing are nothing new. Hepatitis, staph infections and even the superbug known as MRSA have been tied to tattoos. Dirty needles and unsanitary conditions are often to blame.

But all the New York cases were linked to an unidentified artist who wore disposable gloves and sterilized his instruments. The problem, investigators concluded, was in the ink.

“Even if you get a tattoo from a facility that does everything right, it’s not risk free,” said Dr. Byron Kennedy, deputy director of the health department in New York’s Monroe County.

He is lead author of a report on last fall’s Rochester cases was released by the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.

In the past year, there have been 22 confirmed cases and more than 30 suspected cases of the skin infection in Colorado, Iowa, New York and Washington state, health officials said. The infections were tied to ink or water used to dilute the ink. Tattoo artists and ink makers should use only sterile water to dilute ink, health officials advise.

Scattered reports of the illness in tattoo customers have been reported over the past 10 years. But they may be growing more common as more people get tattoos, experts said. An estimated 1 in 5 U.S. adults have at least one tattoo, an increase from years past, according to polls.

The illnesses were caused by a bacterial cousin of tuberculosis named Mycobacterium chelonae (pronounced chell-OH-nay). The bacteria can cause itchy and painful pus-filled blisters that can take months to clear up, and involve treatment with harsh antibiotics with unpleasant side effects.

The bacteria are common in tap water, and have been seen in the past when tattoo artists used contaminated water to lighten dark ink. The ink used in New York was “gray wash,” used for shaded areas of tattoos. The ink was recalled and has not returned to the market.

Companies that make gray wash sometimes use distilled water to lighten the ink, thinking it’s clean of infection-causing contaminants. But the bacteria can live in that too, said Tara MacCannell, who led a related investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her study appears in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released Wednesday.

Some ink manufacturers add witch hazel or an alcohol preservative to lower risk of certain viruses, but those additives don’t kill off the hardy chelonae bacteria, she added.

Investigators found the bacteria in opened and unopened bottles of ink at the New York tattoo parlor. They did not find it in water at the shop, MacCannell said.

Health officials say tattoo customers should ask what kind of ink is being used and what measures are in place to prevent infections.