The point is that you don't want to mess up on either of these two expressways.

If the vehicle that's being driven does not have a PanaPass sticker with a credit balance, it would be advisable to take another route.

This notice concerning fines for infractions committed on the Corredores was published in today's LaPrensa.

ATTT Transit Authority: Electronic Fines come into effect

From this Monday, 18 July, a new method of electronic fines will be used by the Transit Authority (ATTT) to punish drivers who commit offenses along the northern and southern corridors.

This is the so called "electronic fine" which is to punish the users of the corridors that do not have a balance on their PanaPass when they reach the toll booth. The notification of the fine will get to your registered email address at the time you have installed the PanaPass.

On many occasions, the National Company of motorway (ENA) has reported that there are drivers who have no balance but cross anyway despite that the mechanical arm is down.

Also, cameras will be used to punish those who commit traffic offenses on these highways, as for example, driving on the shoulder.

Equally sanctioned will be drivers who leave or pick up passengers on these fast roads.

http://www.prensa.com/sociedad/Autoridad-Transito-multa-electronica-corredores_0_4530297005.html

The resumption of banana production is critically important for Panama, Chiriqui, and the District of Baru, imo.

The folks around Puerto Armuelles need the economic and social benefits which would be stimulated by the return to growing in the area.

http://www.prensa.com/provincias/Obreros-reactivacion-negociaciones-gobierno-Monte_0_4529547175.html

Baru

Expectations of an Early Reactivation of Banana Production due to a Reboot of Negotiations between the Government and Del Monte

With the resumption of negotiations between the government and the transnational Del Monte, former workers expect a prompt reactivation in Baru banana.

One of the spokespersons of the former workers, Alexis Morales, explained that during the meeting with the government it was explained that the difficulty that there is in negotiations with the company Del Monte is the sale of the land, since the Constitution prohibits foreign to be owners of lands that are less than 10 kilometers from the border.

In this case, 90% of the lands in which will explode the multinational are located less than 10 kilometers [of the border with Costa Rica].

Before this fact has been proposed that the government would buy the land to the exobreros and lease it to Del Monte or that the exobreros leased the land to him of Mount for a period of 25 years, Morales said.

He also said that he asked the authorities to investigate to persons who have invaded the land.

The Minister of the Presidency, Alvaro German said that were going to look for mechanisms to resolve the problem of the land. Assured that efforts are made to enable the firm to make an investment of up to $220 million, which would generate important sources of work.

Mention that after the agreement with the multinational, the document will be brought to the Cabinet Council for then to be submitted to the National Assembly.

"I am confident that the draft law will be submitted in this legislative period to that in the summer the company can start its investment in the area," said German.

Here's a Panamanian gentleman's blog that was published as an op-ed piece in today's LaPrensa.

freetranslation 

The Battle for the Future of Sexual Education

Rodrigo Noriega 15 jul 2016 - 11:04h

Temas: Proyecto De Ley 61 Salud Sexual

At a dinner a few friends started a fierce discussion. The diners of other tables were impressed by the intensity of the debate. The reason for the exchange was very simple. One individual was opposed to the Project of Law 61 and the guides of sex education currently under discussion. When asked if they had read the documents of discord, the answer was no, and that it was not necessary to read, because they "knew" what these documents were saying.

When I was in fourth grade of primary school, back in 1977, our teacher Rosa, a mature woman and very affectionate, educator of vocation, gave me my first class of sex education and affectivity, which consisted of a brief scientific explanation and health of the sexual organs which concluded with a series of tips that until today I repeat to all the young people I know: "Take good care because you have a great future ahead which you should not risk for a brief moment of pleasure".

Like so many young people of my generation I searched busily in the encyclopedias, magazines and in literature in general about the mysteries of sex. Anais Nin, D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Emmanuelle Arsan and other authors i fantasized what sex could be. It was also the time of the great Erotic films as: "The Last Tango in Paris", "Caligula", "The Empire of the Senses" and "Emmanuelle". The acquis of the sexual culture of Generation X is enormous, and therefore we are generating more frustrated and unsatisfied sexually that has had the history.

The Draft Law 61, which has had more than a year in the first debate, is not what its critics say, but nor what its advocates propose. This project is an honest effort and minimalist to codify in a single standard the principles that govern the management on the part of the Government to provide sexual and reproductive health services to the population. This project gives guarantees unpublished. For example, the "conscientious objection" to health officials that for moral reasons are opposed to provide sexual and reproductive health services.

The project is the best attempt that i have known, of part of the Panamanian State, to combat abortion and to help mitigate the sexual violence who suffer, mainly women and children. The project does not set any prerogative for people of different sexual orientations to the heterosexual, has nothing to do with civil unions between people of the same sex or the abolition of the parental authority.

For its part, the guides of sex education - in draft - are subject to all of the changes that the broad working group that the drafts can add. This group includes representatives of government agencies and civil society, of all colors and perspectives. Are 60 participants in the group preparing these documents, which are intended only for teachers.

The guide has with the advice of the United Nations Population Fund. Surely, the United Nations has helped produce guides of various calibers for different countries, without impositions, and with a criterion of respect for human dignity. The Population Fund (UNFPA by its initials in English or FONUAP, United Nations Fund for Population Activities), has been characterized as a great villain that pushes the ideology of the comprehensive sexuality education (EIS) and something even more perverse, the gender approach.

A few years ago, when I was in El Salvador, an extremely polite person who was opposed to sex education, explained to me that it was all part of a Jewish and Masonic conspiracy. According to this politician, the Masons controlled the UN, so that the good members of their religious brotherhood should reject these proposals. That gave me so much laughter, i thought that this conversation was something I had read in a novel by Umberto Eco.

The Conspiracy of UNFPA (Jewish-Masonic) is added to another great villain, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) by its initials in English. The IPPF is the black beast of the Americans' Catholics and Evangelicals conservative groups. Some of the local chapters of the organization, such as several of its clinics in the United States, have been the subject of sabotage, shootings, pumps and the constant harassment against doctors and activists working for that organization, product of the fundamentalist fanaticism and extremism that shakes the United States.

Can the the sexual education guides be improved?

Yes, surely. The guides are in draft version and still lack much to reach a final version. In addition, the guides are not for students, nor have instructions on the anal sex or the best techniques of masturbation. Are boring and I doubt that to be read in its entirety by some young.

What are the reasons for opposition to these two separate efforts?

Honestly it seems to me that there is a lot of good people who do not understand, do not have read or that, in the background, are reacting to a process of accumulation of events and incidents that perceive that goes against their "ideal family model".

In the United States last year, the Supreme Court of Justice legalized marriage between homosexuals. A famous Olympic athlete and stepfather of a celebrity, was changed from sex. In Panama, the gay pride parade is becoming more and more popular and the first girl transsexual obtained its recognition by the Electoral Tribunal.

There are four reasons for fund for that we have sex education guides, after more than a decade to be trying to produce them:

1. There are 32 daily pregnancies in adolescents and young girls. Do not know the number of abortions that accompany this figure;

2. HIV is the third leading cause of death for young people between 15 and 24 years. If we consider that the incubation period of the disease is between four to eight years, wants to say that many of those killed by AIDS in Panama were infected at least 11 years of age.

3. It is estimated that up to 95 % of the cases of rape, incest and rape are totally unknown by the apparatus of justice. Sexual violence is not a monopoly of the poor in the ghettos. Occurs every day, in all social classes and in the complicit silence we let wither the soul of children and young people who have no one to defend him. Sexual harassment in schools and universities, in the work and in cyberspace is extremely strong. And has been an important number of suicides and very deep psychological damages, without that there are the right tools to confront it;

4. Prostitution, Child Pornography and the sex trade have gone in growth thanks to the internet. It is estimated that at least 30 per cent of everything that happens on the internet has to do with pornography. Now the guys are sexually by Celular, while the girls (many minors) compete with their intimate photos in the cellular his comrades and friends.

When I was in primary school, the teacher Rosa repeated incessantly about the need to take care of ourselves and protect us. This generation does not have so many teachers like Rosa and parents do not always exist in the world where young people now live. Their sexual education no longer comes from literature or the cinema. They learn by watching and doing by cellular, social networks and other means that nobody controls and, therefore, are not the subject of debate in the National Assembly, or in meetings of experts, officials and civil society. If we want to leave a better world and to give them a chance to pursue a life of dignity, these guides are a tool that can save many lives.

http://www.prensa.com/blogoterapia/batalla-educacion-sexual-futuro_7_4529616995.html

Liquidation - this vehicle needs to be sold quickly

2007 Toyota Tundra Pickup

• 4 Wheel Drive
• Automatic Transmission
• 4 Door Crew Cab
• TRD Option
• 5.7 litre V8 Gas Engine
• 20" Rims and Tires
• Bed Liner and Rollaway Bed Cover
• Full Options
• Good Condition
• only 101,000 Miles
• Underpriced at $13,500 for quick sale

keithwoolford@gmail.com

These are stock photos but the truck is similar body style and color

Doesn't look big enough to be a main line, that's for sure.

Not sure but I'm thinking that they started the pipelaying here because this is the lower end of Calle Central, and it will provide their elevation reference or 'ground zero' for the entire project.

Once the fresh and waste water plants are built, and the trunk lines are installed down the centre of the streets, we can look forward to the even messier task of making tie-ins to each individual property.

There were major protests against this project in the streets of David today.

It's a very positive enhancement to the page, imo.

On the east side of the Via Boquete highway near Los Molinos in El Francés.

The reason for opposition to sex education in Panama by various religious groups continues to be it's relationship to genetics and evolution.

This article is about a protest march to be held.

http://www.tvn-2.com/nacionales/Marcharan-rechazo-proyecto-salud-sexual_0_4528047153.html

What's the latest from Alto Al Crimen?

The Museo de Café is another ATP Tourism project in Boquete which has legs.

43 minutes ago, Dennis Philpot said:

Thanks all for the input.  Much appreciated.  Just fyi today I bought the HP 4729 at Panafoto.  It seems to be a new offering, with high efficiency cartridges (uses one black and one tri-color, with black good for 1,500 pages and tri-color for 750 pages -- as advertised).  It's a wireless three-in-one and comes with three each of the cartridges and Panafoto sells each replacement for $10.95 each.  Seems like a good improvement to me (have used HP printers for years with full understanding of the razor / razor blade business model).  Seems like they've moderated that formula a bit.  I'm satisfied and really appreciate the community help and input.  Dennis

Cost, Dennis?

TOURISM

Warning issued for El Pianista

The sales return and refund policies here are no doubt very rational from the business owner's perspective.

They are stupid from your perspective.

That's all, it's not personal, and has nothing to do with whether I like them or not. Offering a plausible explanation for something doesn't have to relate to preference.

The short response is that we're not in the U.S. and national merchants in Panama aren't going to change their sales return policies anytime soon just to suit North Americans who feel they should be different.

Although a different more consumer-friendly return policy may make sense to you, a change is probably not going to come anytime soon.

Giving a refund for anything that's been 'bought and paid for' is a very uncommon business practice here. Merchants make their return policies in accordance with their internal security controls.

ie: No Refunds means no cash* goes out of the till, ever.  *(or credit card voucher) Giving employees at any level of a store hierarchy the authority to approve refunds makes financial controllers shudder.

While searchers from SINAPROC and other agencies were out recovering a lost hiker on the weekend, the Minister of Tourism, Gustavo Him, was also in town and he announced that the Boquete Convention Center project is a reality which will soon be going out to tender.

He also hinted at a re-evaluation of direct flights from the U.S. to Chiriqui.

Un centro de convenciones ‘verde’ para Boquete

Luis Bellini 11 jul 2016 - 01:56h

With the objective of promoting the western area of the country (the Bocas del Toro region Ngäbe Buglé and Chiriqui), the Panama Tourism Authority (ATP) is preparing to tender the construction of a convention center "green" in Boquete, Chiriqui.

The ATP said in a statement that the structure, which will have green areas, wastewater management and use a system that will allow energy savings, will be built in an area of 4 thousand square meters and will have a capacity for 2 thousand people.

Once the specifications are finalized, it is expected that the phase of construction will start next year.

"It will be a unique structure in the region to promote events, congresses and the green tourism that attracts visitors from Europe and the United States," said the administrator of the ATP, Gustavo Him.

Panama City, Boquete and Bocas del Toro sites are those most sought by tourists, according to Him, who also noted that evaluates the possibility of bringing direct flights from United States to Chiriqui.

The announcement of Him was given during the Annual Conference of Business Executives (CADE), in which the central theme was: "Challenges and opportunities of tourism in the western region".

The meeting of CADE took place this past weekend in Boquete, with the assistance of tourism entrepreneurs (hotels-restaurants), operators and tourist guides, corporate executives, transporters, universities, entrepreneurs, representatives of the Government, among others.

http://impresa.prensa.com/economia/centro-convenciones-verde-Boquete_0_4526547342.html

freetranslation.com

Al Jazeera reports that the U.S. Migration crisis is now located at the Colombian-Panamanian border near Turbo.

Migrants stranded in Colombia as route to US closed

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/migrants-stranded-colombia-route-closed-160707092815421.html

Turbo, Colombia - Thousands of refugees and migrants from Cuba, Haiti and as far away as Africa and Asia are stranded on the Colombia-Panama border, where they are seeking an overland route to the United States and the possibility of a better life.

"We sold everything we had in Cuba. Our house and everything in it," Lisbet Franco, one of more than 1,000 Cubans stranded in the small Colombian port town of Turbo, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

"Coyotes [people smugglers] cheated us along the way and now with the border shut off we can't continue our trip," said Franco, who, with her family, has spent two months travelling in a bid to reach the US.

Migrants from Latin America have long travelled overland to reach the US border. More recently, they have been joined by a surge in migrants from Cuba, as well as from Africa and Asia.

With the numbers of migrants increasing, Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela announced in May that key border crossing with Colombia would be sealed.

Thousands of are now stranded in Turbo - their last stop before Panama.

Danger in the Darien Gap

Unable to move forward and with little to return home to, many migrants are attempting to enter Panama though the Darien Gap, one of the most forbidding stretches of mountainous jungle and swamplands in the Americas - as well as an operations base for Colombian FARC rebels and drug traffickers.

Boarding boats in Turbo, the migrants - men, women and children - are dropped off near the border where they continue their journey on foot through the Darien Gap. It is a journey that takes days, and Cuban migrants in Turbo told Al Jazeera that people get lost in the inhospitable jungle and can die there.

Raicel Rosaval was among a group of Cubans who attempted the trek but were intercepted by Panamanian soldiers and sent back to Turbo.

"We asked for help but the soldiers told us no one could cross into Panama," Rosaval said.

"They gave us a little water and we started walking back. When we reached a small ... village one of our companions fainted and started shaking - we thought he would die."

Nicaragua was the first country to close its borders in November, following an influx of Cuban migrants attempting to reach the US. Though initially facilitating the transit of several thousand Cubans migrants through its territory, Costa Rica also closed its borders in April as numbers grew.

Unlike migrants from other countries, Cubans who make it to US borders have special entry privileges under the Cold War-era Cuban Adjustment Act, which gives them special welfare benefits and allows them to apply for permanent residency after 366 days in the country.

The surge in Cubans taking the land route to the US coincides with the restoration of diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana, and fears among ordinary Cubans that they will lose their more privilieged migrant status.

'We are just trying to find a place to better our life'

Running short of food and camped in warehouses in Turbo, hundreds of Cubans risked deportation when they took to the streets of the port town this week to protest about their situation. They held banners calling on US President Barack Obama to help and demanding that Colombia airlift them to Mexico.

In May, Panama struck a deal that allowed around 4,000 Cubans inside its borders fly directly to Mexico. 

The Colombian government is refusing to help the migrants, saying doing so would encourage more to travel to the area and play into the hands of human traffickers.

"Giving them food would turn into a bigger problem, increasing the number of people coming to Turbo and staying here," Emelides Munoz, Turbo government secretary, told Al Jazeera.

The migrants say they only want to continue their journey, and with more people arriving in Turbo every day, they believe it will be difficult for Colombia to avoid finding a solution as the situation deteriorates.

"We are just trying to find a place to better our life," said Chaly Luma, a migrant from Haiti.

"To make a living, you know."

This is interesting.

It's the time of year when experts crunch the numbers to see how well the flu shot worked. The result? Better than last year, but still not good enough.

"Overall, just shy of 45 to 50 per cent," said Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the BC Centre for Disease Control, who presented the data to the Global Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness meeting at the World Health Organization last week. 

"That's lower than we would like to see, but it's an improvement over the previous year, because it couldn't be worse, frankly"

In 2014-15, the flu shot offered essentially zero protection against the circulating influenza virus of that season. Back then, the prevailing strain was H3N2. 

'It's an improvement over the previous year, because it couldn't be worse, frankly.'  - Dr. Danuta Skowronski, BC Centre for Disease Control

This year's main circulating virus was H1N1, which flu watchers will remember from the pandemic of 2009-10.

Skowronski said the vaccine was well-matched, but overall, the protection was disappointing.

• Flu vaccine paradox adds to public health debate
• Flu deaths reality check
• Flu vaccine effectiveness study signals 'no protection' this year in Canada

"We would like to see it higher than 50 per cent," she said. "Previously we have measured H1N1 protection closer to 60 or 70 per cent, so we would like to know why now it's lower."

Made-in-Canada protocol reveals vaccine weakness

Experts used to believe the annual flu shot protection was much higher, around 70 to 90 per cent. But not anymore. Those early estimates were based on industry-funded clinical trials that were extrapolated to apply across all ages and flu seasons.

"It was a blanket assumption that is simply not true," Skowronski said. 

That assumption changed dramatically, after Skowronski and colleagues developed a protocol that revealed the true picture of vaccine efficacy. It's called the test negative design (TND) first piloted in Canada in 2004.

"The test negative design has opened our eyes to all kinds of variables that we were blind to for years. We were flying blind," said Skowronski. 

The TND system tracks people who show up with flu-like symptoms at several hundred doctors' offices across Canada. Doctors take a sample from every patient for lab testing. They also record whether the person got the flu shot. That simple protocol reveals how often the flu shot fails. 

In April, The Lancet published a meta-analysis of test negative design studies, now used globally, and cited Canada as the pioneering group.  

"It is no exaggeration to say that the TND has transformed our understanding of the variability in influenza vaccine protection — by season, by subtype, by age group, by vaccine product," said Skowronski.

'There's no use promoting a vaccine that isn't working well.' - Dr. Danuta Skowronski, BC Centre for Disease Control

The good news is the data is more reliable. But the bad news is that experts now realize the flu vaccine protects only about half of the time.

"Our public health goal is to minimize the serious health problems association with the flu," said Skowronski. "There's no use promoting a vaccine that isn't working well. The only way you can do better is to recognize the problem in the first place."

This year's data also shows that only about a third of Canadians got the flu shot, about five per cent less than last year.

"That's not a surprise coming out of a year where effectiveness was so low. That had to have an impact," said Skowronski. 

Flu shot paradox 

Scientists also once again observed the paradox that previous vaccination against the flu seemed to lower protection.

The so-called "Canadian problem" was first identified by Skowronski's team during the H1N1 pandemic.

So far, scientists have not been able to explain why people who get the shot with no prior vaccine exposure seem to have better protection than people who get the shot year after year. 

• Ouch! Flu spray fails again, U.S. panel urges shot instead

This year's Canadian data also reveals a trend, observed in the U.S., that the flu mist vaccine is not working.

The mist, made with a live, but weakened virus, was originally believed to be more effective in children and less upsetting than getting a needle.

But last month a U.S. expert panel advised doctors to stop using it, after it performed poorly for three years in a row. 

As for a recommendation about whether people should still get the flu shot if it's only working half the time, Dr. Skowronski said it is strongly recommended for elderly people and for those who are immunocompromised. 

"For people at high risk of serious complications of influenza, like hospitalization or death, the stakes can be especially high. For them, a 50 per cent reduction in risk compared to if they had not been vaccinated is a very important." she said.
"They are strongly recommended to receive the vaccine."

Apparently there were three people in the group. This one stopped to rest and became separated from the other two.

Former Controller General Gioconda Torres de Bianchini passed away today in hospital.

In her position, she was the person responsible for oversight of fiscal (mis)conduct during the Martinelli administration and she had been notified to appear in several cases.

 It will be interesting to see how her passing will affect criminal procedures against others.

http://www.prensa.com/locales/Muere-excontralora-Gioconda-Torres-Bianchini_0_4525047544.html

Found!

SINAPROC assembled a team and spent much of the night searching for a 33-year old Colombian woman in the El Pianista pass.

They have re-organized and re-initiated the search this morning

No background at this time as to why she became lost or why she was there alone.