NYC doctor being tested for Ebola went bowling, used Uber taxis

A 33-year-old Doctors Without Borders physician who recently treated Ebola patients in Guinea was rushed in an ambulance with police escorts from his Harlem home to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday, sources said. Craig Spencer, who was was suffering from Ebola-like symptoms — a 103-degree fever and nausea — spent Wednesday night bowling in Williamsburg, the sources said. He used Uber taxis to get there and back.

Mali becomes sixth West African nation hit by Ebola

Mali confirmed its first case of Ebola on Thursday, becoming the sixth West African country to be touched by the worst outbreak on record of the hemorrhagic fever, which has killed nearly 4,900 people. Mali’s Health Minister Ousmane Kone told state television that the patient in the western town of Kayes was a two-year-old girl who had recently arrived from neighboring Guinea, where the outbreak began. “The condition of the girl, according to our services, is improving thanks to her rapid treatment,” the minister told state television.

Bond funds stock up on Treasuries in prep for market shock

U.S. corporate bond funds this year are adding Treasuries to their holdings at more than twice the rate of corporate debt amid concern that the struggling European economy and potential changes in Federal Reserve policy will drag down profits at U.

Ebola Death Toll Could Actually Be Three Times Higher Than Reported

At least 4,877 people have died in the world’s worst recorded outbreak of Ebola as of Oct. 19, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, but the true toll may be three times as much. At least 9,936 cases of the disease had been recorded, according to the WHO, but the actual numbers may be three times higher.

Report: Palestinians accept US request to delay Security Council bid for statehood

The London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority has agreed to delay by two months its plan to seek a Security Council resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines within three years. The paper quoted Palestinian sources in Ramallah as saying that the PA leadership will give US Secretary of State John Kerry a two-month window to present his own plan for peace. The sources said that the PA leadership was nevertheless determined to proceed with the Security Council bid.

Obama puts Ebola-nation travelers on honor system

President Obama told reporters Wednesday he is “cautiously more optimistic” that the chances of additional infections from Liberian traveler Thomas Eric Duncan are ebbing. However, amid Obama’s optimism, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced the CDC is placing on the honor system travelers to the U.

Legendary virologist Dr. Jahrling warns today’s Ebola strain appears to be far more infectious than any previous Ebola

Dr. Peter Jahrling has been on the ground in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, studying the disease with a team of researchers, which is also helping to care for and treat patients. He says the viral loads that his team is witnessing exceed what has been observed during previous outbreaks, suggesting that, this time, the disease is far more deadly.

Canadian Shooter Was Recent Muslim Convert

Canadian authorities have identified the shooter who killed a soldier in Ottawa Wednesday as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau — a recent convert to Islam. Zehaf-Bibeau shot a soldier, 24-year-old Corporal Nathan Cirillo, at Ottawa’s National War Memorial, then entered the Canadian Parliament and fired several more rounds before the House of Commons Sergeant-At-Arms, Kevin Vickers, shot and killed him. (Read the rest of the story here…)

How Asset Forfeiture Allows Cops to Steal from Citizens

It probably seemed like a bright idea at the time: Let the police seize the ill-gotten gains of alleged drug dealers and other suspected criminals and sell it, using the proceeds to buy much-needed crime-fighting gear. Unfortunately, the process—civil asset forfeiture—did not require convicting anybody of a crime.

Vote Fraud? Video Shows Man Stuffing Hundreds of Ballots Into Ballot Box

Defenders of lax election laws say it rarely happens — but apparently it’s happening again. In what critics describe as a shocking example of likely vote fraud, a surveillance video (see below) from a Maricopa County, Arizona, polling place shows a man stuffing hundreds of ballots into a ballot box. The act was observed by A.

UNC report finds 18 years of academic fraud to keep athletes playing

For 18 years, thousands of students at the prestigious University of North Carolina took fake “paper classes,” and advisers funneled athletes into the program to keep them eligible, according to a scathing independent report released Wednesday. “These counselors saw the paper classes and the artificially high grades they yielded as key to helping some student-athletes remain eligible,” Kenneth Wainstein wrote in his report. He conducted an eight-month investigation into the scandal, which has plagued the university for nearly five years.

It Will Take 398,879,561 Years To Pay Off The US Government’s Debt

The current debt level of over $17.9 trillion would thus take more than 398 million years of working at the average wage to pay off. This means that even if every man, woman and child in the United States would work for one year just to help pay off the debt the government has piled on in their name, it still wouldn’t be enough.

Oh marone! Pasta prices set to spiral higher

One case where that is especially prevalent is with durum wheat, the key ingredient in most pasta making. The 2014 harvest looks to be weak in 2014, putting heavy pressure on a market that has shown consistent price movement higher. David Maloni, president of the American Restaurant Association, explained Wednesday in his daily note titled, “Pasta buyers beware”:

7 Things The Middle Class Can’t Afford Anymore

In its discussion of historical middle class societies, The Economist reports, “Their members are neither rich nor poor but somewhere in-between…’Middle-class’ describes an income category but also a set of attitudes…An essential characteristic is the possession of a reasonable amount of discretionary income. Middle-class people do not live from hand to mouth, job to job, season to season, as the poor do.” Some argue that the most sensible income amount to attach to the middle class would be the median household income, of around $54,000.

Low Inflation? The Price Of Ground Beef Has Risen 17 Percent Over The Past Year

Thanks to the Federal Reserve, the middle class is slowly being suffocated by rising food prices. Every single dollar in your wallet is constantly becoming less valuable because of the inflation the Fed systematically creates. And if you try to build wealth by saving money and earning interest on it, you still lose because thanks to the Federal Reserve’s near zero interest rate policies banks pay next to nothing on savings accounts.

Special report: America’s perpetual state of emergency

The United States is in a perpetual state of national emergency. Thirty separate emergencies, in fact. An emergency declared by President Jimmy Carter on the 10th day of the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 remains in effect almost 35 years later.

Tennessee Woman Goes to Jail for Not Mowing Lawn

If you are a resident of Lenoir City, Tennessee, you might want to remember to mow your lawn — otherwise, you will be spending the night in jail. Karen Holloway just spent six hours in a jail cell for failing to maintain her yard in accordance with the standards set by the city. The saga began last summer, when Holloway was sent a citation for her overgrown grass and shrubbery.