How much growth will NBAF give Manhattan/KSU?

[ChiComCat]

http://www.infowars.com/homeland-security-plans-to-build-a-high-risk-virus-research-center-in-the-heart-of-america/#

We've made the big time. Alex Jones hates us.

I hate the crap where these assholes say "reducing is not eliminating" or some such line.  Show me the place that has absolutely 0 risk of anything ever happening.

[114Hickory]

Nebraska. Zero risk of winning an NCAA tournament game.

[ChiComCat]

Nebraska. Zero risk of winning an NCAA tournament game.

Well done

[114Hickory]

 

[WillieWatanabe]

People really need to be educated on tornadoes, and storms in general.

also, great post puniraptor.

[DQ12]

Barn.

No NBAF know cow AIDS
Know NBAF no cow AIDS

Oh my.

 

[puniraptor]

[p1k3]

There's no way a dam failure would reach the NBAF site. Good grief.

[Panjandrum]

no NBAF = cow aids

Billboard?

Barn.

No NBAF know cow AIDS
Know NBAF no cow AIDS

 

[sonofdaxjones]

We should put it out in middle of nowhere . . . because putting facilities like this in the middle of no where has worked out so well in the past.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/magazine/anthrax-island.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

[mocat]

no NBAF = cow aids

Billboard?

Barn.

No NBAF know cow AIDS
Know NBAF no cow AIDS

Puniraptor just single-handedly got me over the Cuse/Jamar/Currie fiasco. 

[Dugout DickStone]

And, another death twister pummels the crap out of a large Texas town...

Just imagine if those trucks were full of shipments of meatgoat chlamydia? 

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/03/tornado-thrashes-dallas-area/?hpt=hp_c1

[WildcatNkilt]

 

New cost estimates discussed Friday place the price tag at $1.14 billion to design and build the facility. DHS officials said the increased cost was attributed to changes in the design of the lab to mitigate the possibility of a release of deadly pathogen.

[WillieWatanabe]

goddamnit.

[TheCatFanSpeaks]

Public Hearing In Washington D.C. Looks At Alternatives For NBAF

In it's first public hearing today in Washington , D.C. a new panel of the National Research Council will discuss alternatives for the National Bio and Agro -Defense Facility  -- or NBAF.  The committee will NOT look at risk, or location.  A separate NRC committee is taking on those questions.

Chairman of the committee, Dr. Terry McElwain said in an interview last night that the group would be looking at several possibilities.  One would be to build the NBAF as currently designed.  Another would be to scale back the current design and work with  the existing capabilities at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center off the coast of New York.  That's where all the high security, large animal disease research is going on now.  Finally, McElwain says the committee could recommend scaling back NBAF and working with other high biocontainment  labs around the U.S. or abroad.

Critics of the NBAF don’t want the lab in Kansas, where such a huge number of livestock are raised.  They worry about the release of a deadly pathogen, especially the highly contagious Foot and Mouth Disease.  Others are criticizing the mushrooming expense of the lab in a time of  extreme budget cuts.

Supporters say the concentration of animal science and food safety research in the area  makes Kansas State University  the perfect site for the lab.

[Dr Rick Daris]

we're screwed bros.

[steve dave]

eff you currie

[hemmy]

We may need to tear down this plum island place

[Scary Smart]

We may need to tear down this plum island place

goEMAW should pay for a couple of bros to fly up to Plum Island and EMAW the crap out of the place, Paxico billboard-style.

[ben ji]

Kansas bioterror lab: A money pit or a gold mine?
By LAURA ZIEBLER
Harvest Public Media
There’s a whole lot of uncertainly in the middle of Kansas.
Make that hole — as in the gaping construction site of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility on the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan.
The cost of the federally funded animal-research facility — NBAF for short, commonly pronounced “En-baf” — is now estimated at $1.14 billion, up from the original projected tab of $415 million. As the weeks and months go by, safety questions, funding obstacles and political fallout weigh down the project even further.
Tara O’Toole, an undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security, said at a public hearing this month in Washington that the threat of existing and emerging animal disease remained real, and that construction of NBAF should move forward. But the higher price tag — caused by changes in the design of the lab to address safety concerns — is a huge obstacle in this time of shrinking federal spending and revenues.
“You can’t do research without modern facilities, but the money for modern facilities comes out of the same piggy bank for research,” she said. “I think this is one of those wicked problems for which there is no complete or satisfying answer.”
The White House, which allocated $40 million for the NBAF in 2011, has frozen the $50 million that had been appropriated this year and eliminated funds in next year’s budget.
For Kansas, the stakes are high. Gov. Sam Brownback recently said Kansas could expect a fight for the next five years to get the lab up and running. The state has promised more than $200 million in direct payments and in-kind support for the lab — and has already spent almost a third of that on the site.
There is support at the highest federal levels. Earlier this month U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack talked about the NBAF after delivering a lecture at K-State. He said his department would work with Congress and the Department of Homeland Security to fund the project.
“I think it’s important for this project to be perceived as more than just a project for Kansas State or for the state of Kansas,” Vilsack said. “I think it’s a national priority, and we’re going to continue to advocate for it with the Department of Homeland Security.”
But it is an open question whether NBAF will fall victim to the federal money pit or fulfill its promise as a Kansas gold mine.
Threats in the air
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the new Department of Homeland Security said the Plum Island Animal Disease Center was too old to protect U.S. agriculture from a terrorist threat. The Cold War-era facility off the coast of Long Island, N.Y., was the only place in the country to have studied incurable germs such as foot-and-mouth disease.
In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to replace Plum Island with a facility on the U.S. mainland. Kansas won the job in 2008.
From the start, the plan was that the NBAF would not be just any animal lab. At a half-million square feet, it would be larger than the combined areas of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Army’s main biodefense research lab in Fort Detrick, Md.
But while opinion polls still rate terrorism as a serious concern, more people today worry about the economy. Lynn Vavreck, a professor of political science at the University of California-Los Angeles, said the net effect meant dwindling support for the NBAF.
“Nearly 40 percent of Americans told us that the U.S. has just been lucky to have avoided a large-scale bioterror attack,” Vavreck said. “Another 40 percent said they think it’s because the government is doing a good job. Either way, that’s 80 percent of the people who might think a new facility is not needed.”
The NBAF has even divided cattlemen. The state’s largest group of ranchers, the Kansas Livestock Association, supports the lab, although it is waiting for reassurances the facility will be safe.
But the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association, typically a more independent and activist group compared with the livestock association, opposes the NBAF.
At a recent board meeting of the cattlemen’s group in Wichita, member Aaron Winter, whose family has been in ranching for decades, said it is hard to trust the Department of Homeland Security.
“I’d like to have some faith that they are doing the best they can,” Winter said. “Are they doing that? I don’t think you can take someone in government that has no idea where (beef) comes from and that he can truly understand what we deal with every day.”
There also is a formerly sleepy local opposition that has gained traction as federal budget cuts delaying the project have given them extra time to air their grievances.
Many of those concerns have to do with safety. Studying diseases on large animals presents new and unique problems such as where to dispose of diseased carcasses and what to do with contaminated waste. In addition, some of the more exotic diseases — such as swine flu and the Hendra virus — can be fatal to humans.
Retired political science professor Linda Richter, a member of the group Biosecurity in the Heartland, said she didn’t feel Kansas “won” the NBAF, as supporters claimed when the site was selected.
Homeland Security and other supporters tried to suppress opposition early on by holding public meetings when no one was on the K-State campus and in places inaccessible to many people, Richter said. She said she was not surprised that opposition was growing.
“If it had been open and transparent all along and your view didn’t prevail, well, that’s the way it happens in a democracy,” Richter said. “On the other hand, if it appears to be slid through, I don’t think (supporters) should be surprised everyone isn’t wildly enthusiastic.”
Homeland Security officials say there was, in fact, a six-week period during the site-selection process during which anyone could register public comments. More than 3,500 comments about the final five sites came in from around the country. Homeland Security also held another public comment session in Manhattan this year as part of a new site evaluation.
At that session, Gary Covington, an engineer and a member of Biosecurity in the Heartland, said he was worried that Homeland Security omitted important information about the risk of natural disasters such as tornadoes, floods and earthquakes.
Homeland Security, on the other hand, said it addressed these concerns in its updated risk assessment, which a committee of the National Research Council is reviewing. That updated report is a response to the council’s highly critical review of a Homeland Security risk assessment in 2010.
The big report
The National Research Council is part of the National Academy of Sciences. The committee is examining the threat that infectious diseases, including current and emerging diseases and bioterrorist agents, pose to livestock. Its review will include studying relevant articles and reports.
Based on those findings, the committee will identify the laboratory and infrastructure that are needed to counter the threats to maintain public health, animal health and food safety in the United States.
The committee will look at whether the government should continue to build the lab as designed, scale the project back or maintain the Plum Island lab in New York and use “Level 4” labs in Canada and Australia to research and analyze diseases. The Kansas facility would be a Level 4 lab, with access to research at Kansas State and animal health companies in the region.
However, Homeland Security officials told the panel that time was a critical factor in detecting diseases and responding to outbreaks.
“It is not good policy to rely on foreign partners,” said James Johnson, the director of the Homeland Security Department’s Office of National Laboratories in the Science and Technology Directorate.
The committee is expected to issue its report by June 30.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat and the chairwoman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, said through a staffer that funding for the NBAF would remain on hold until the review was completed.
Then it will be up to policymakers to decide how much risk is acceptable for the new lab.
Tim Barr, the site manager for Homeland Security in Manhattan, acknowledged that the project contained risks but said the government would address all concerns. The lab’s opponents fear any human error would be disastrous.
“We have a lot of really smart folks who put together our recent updated risk assessment, and that document will speak for itself when it’s made available to the public,” Barr said.
Kansas costs
Kansans already are out of pocket for a bunch of NBAF-related costs.
The state donated 48 acres to Homeland Security, worth more than $1 million, and authorized $105 million in revenue bonds to prepare the site. About a third of that has been spent for specialized utilities.
Lyle Butler, the president and CEO of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, said the city has thrown $5 million into the pot, enticed by the NBAF’s economic development potential. A study commissioned by K-State estimated an economic impact on Kansas of about $2.5 billion, including more than 750 construction jobs and 320 permanent workers.
The state Commerce Department also committed $2 million early on to win the NBAF, low-interest loans to the develop and money to train a skilled workforce: $1,000 for each job created.
But the biggest state investment has come in the form of K-State’s Biosecurity Research Institute, which literally sits in the shadow of the NBAF construction site.
The center cost Kansas about $58 million to build, and the state has invested many more millions of dollars to support NBAF-related research there.
Stephen Higgs, the institute’s research director, said the facility had the capacity to handle additional animal disease research, including projects that would be transferred from Plum Island. A federal budget proposal would allocate $10 million to bring some of that work to Kansas in the next year.
Higgs said the institute has continued to go through training and certification since it opened in 2010. Those processes will allow scientists and researchers to work on a variety of animal diseases.
“The state of Kansas has invested a lot in this. We believe it has to be built,” Higgs said. “We’re ready, willing and able to be that springboard for NBAF.”
The state funds for the institute came through the Kansas Bioscience Authority, a public-private partnership that the state Legislature created to bring bioscience jobs to Kansas.
Early on, the NBAF was a top priority for the authority, said John Carlin, who was Kansas governor from 1979 to 1987 and is a former chairman of the authority’s board.
But the Kansas Bioscience Authority came under harsh scrutiny last year. Expense reports revealed what some state lawmakers felt was excessive spending — much of it related to lobbying for the NBAF. The Johnson County district attorney is reviewing a forensic audit to decide whether to file criminal charges.
Clearly, Kansas has a lot riding on the NBAF.
Last summer, Gov. Brownback gave Sen. Pat Roberts — the Kansas Republican who has long carried the torch for the NBAF in Washington — the pen he used to sign an executive order creating a steering committee that is pushing for the lab.
In explaining the need for the committee, Brownback underscored the state’s commitment to the NBAF but said federal funding would be a struggle.
“This is going to be tough. The budget environment in Washington is extraordinarily challenging,” he said. “We are putting our best team on the field.”
That was before President Barack Obama eliminated construction funds for the NBAF in the 2013 federal budget.
U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, the Republican whose district includes Manhattan, said the White House was misguided in steering money away from national security. She said the NBAF falls squarely within Washington’s responsibility.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Jenkins said. “It’s a priority of the federal government, and we’re going to get it done.”

BSLC just emailed me this article. Should have their opinion on whether it happens shortly.

[ben ji]

From BSLC

Well, last week the Kansas House and Senate budget committees both confirmed that they plan to transfer the remaining $5M that they were holding up so that is good on Kansas' end.  I think NBAF will happen but not the degree it was planned - there won't be as much investment from the Feds and it will be a continual fight for funding.  Unless the Tea Party takes over more seats in the next election...gotta cut gov't spending!

[MakeItRain]

This is another reason to hope Manhattan doesn't end up in the 1st congressional district.  Even Boehner hates Huelskamp.
http://www.kansas.com/2012/04/20/2305234/kansas-senate-president-says-manhattan.html

Kansas Senate president says Manhattan lab’s funding could be at risk
By Dion Lefler The Wichita Eagle

A split between Kansas’ U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner is complicating efforts to redraw the state’s congressional districts to ensure the new map doesn’t threaten funding for a federal bioterrorism lab in Manhattan, the president of the state Senate said Friday.

A spokeswoman for Huelskamp said there is no split with the speaker that would threaten the funding for the lab.

Kansas Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, told a Wichita Republican club that the Legislature will have to keep Manhattan in Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District, rather than including it in Huelskamp’s sprawling western-Kansas 1st District.

He said conflict between Huelskamp and Boehner could threaten efforts to get funding for the National Bio and Agro -Defense Facility, also known as NBAF. The $650million national laboratory has been planned as a center to research and counter possible biological terrorism directed against the nation’s food supply.

“Not to get into too many details, there’s a pretty good-sized conflict between the U.S. speaker of the House and our congressman from the 1st District,” Morris told the Wichita Pachyderm Club. “He’s (Huelskamp) told people that if Manhattan and Riley County stay in the 1st District (as was proposed in some early redistricting maps), funding could be a problem for NBAF. That’s out there, so we’re dealing with that.”

[steve dave]

Tim Huelskamp is a US rep now?  JFC, that weird rough rider is from Fowler, KS.  Used to have a pretty epic mustache. 

[MakeItRain]

The jackass still lives in Fowler sans 'stache.

[ben ji]

We may need to tear down this plum island place

goEMAW should pay for a couple of bros to fly up to Plum Island and EMAW the crap out of the place, Paxico billboard-style.

  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-24/mad-cow-case-confirmed-in-central-california-usda-says.html

The first U.S. case of mad cow disease in six years has been found in a dairy cow in central California, John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief veterinarian, told reporters today in a briefing in Washington.