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Blue California-FineCap™ Microencapsulation Platform Serves the Purpose

Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., Dec. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Blue California, the producer of natural science-based ingredients, provides FineCap™ a comprehensive microencapsulation technology platform, equipped with 20 microencapsulation technologies, to deliver active ingredients and satisfy our clients’ needs.

Microencapsulation is the process in which tiny particles of solid, liquid, or gas are packaged within a matrix to form a capsule. The capsule is coated with a protective layer to avoid degradation from exposure to environmental factors such as water, oxygen, heat, and light.

“Brands that seek to expand their products’ qualities and boost their product portfolios will find many benefits to the FineCap platform,” said Dr. Cuie Yan, vice president of encapsulation. “FineCap takes microencapsulation a step further by offering a variety of technologies and targeting customers’ specific needs in tackling active ingredients with unique characteristics, such as strong odor, taste or stability problems that challenge formulators.”

Microencapsulation systems have been widely used across multiple industries, including the pharmaceutical, food, supplement, personal care, and fragrance industries, for active ingredients like medicines, nicotine, flavors/fragrances, polyunsaturated fatty acids, probiotics, natural pigments, vitamins, antioxidants, etc. Space agency NASA also uses encapsulation technologies for spacecraft. The pharmaceutical industry uses microencapsulation often to control the release of active pharma ingredients (API).
Blue California has created the FineCap platform to serve customers’ growing demands for better performance of API, functional ingredients, dietary supplements, flavors, fragrances, cosmetics, and personal care products.

 

For example, FineCap protects API from degradation, unpleasant tastes or aroma, and maintains its efficacy, by controlling its release. FineCap enables flavors to thrive in food and beverages with integrity, intensity, and extended shelf-life.

In fragrances, FineCap guarantees brands to control the precise fragrance release rate, location, and duration. Personal care products benefit from FineCap by protecting the delicate top-notes and cosmetic actives from oxygen, moisture, temperature, and light deterioration. A more comprehensive look into the benefits that FineCap delivers in these product segments can be found here.

“Our comprehensive FineCap platform has been serving and supporting formulators looking to launch market-winning products with better qualities and shelf-life that consumers are seeking,” said Dr. Yan. “We’re enabling brands to quickly create products from innovative concepts, benchtop development, to pilot and full commercial manufacturing, with improved efficacy, taste, color, texture, and shelf life, along with vegan, organic, Kosher, or Halal certificate.”

 

The FineCap platform investment builds on Blue California’s 25-year legacy of producing botanical extracts and now natural flavors and fragrances and focuses on developing sustainable ingredients made through bioconversion or fermentation.

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About Blue California
Blue California is an entrepreneurial, science-based solutions provider and manufacturer of clean, natural, and sustainable ingredients used in food, beverage, flavor, fragrance, dietary supplements, personal care, and cosmetic products. For more than 25 years, Blue California has built a strong reputation for creating value in these diverse natural products and nature-inspired industries.

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Ana Arakelian
Blue California
+1-949-635-1991
ana@bluecal-ingredients.com
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CUAMBA SOLAR PV and ENERGY STORAGE REACHES FINANCIAL CLOSE

MAPUTO, Mozambique, Dec. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Globeleq, the leading independent power company in Africa and its project partners, Source Energia, a Lusophone Africa energy developer and Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), the Mozambican national power utility, have reached financial close on the 19MWp (15MWac) Cuamba Solar PV plant with a 2MW (7MWh) energy storage system.

Globeleq - Powering Africa's Growth

The US$36 million project located in the Cuamba district, Niassa province (about 550 km west of the coastal town of Nacala) will supply electricity through a 25-year power purchase agreement with EDM. The project is the first IPP in Mozambique to integrate a utility scale energy storage system and includes an upgrade to the existing Cuamba substation.

Once operational, the Cuamba Solar plant will supply enough power for 21,800 consumers, and over the life of the project is expected to avoid the equivalent of more than 172,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. First power is expected to flow in the second half of 2022.

The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (“EAIF”), a member of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (“PIDG”) provided US$19 million in debt funding, with PIDG’s Viability Gap Funding (VGF) grant facility providing US$7million to enable an affordable tariff, fund essential grid upgrades and an energy storage system for EDM. CDC Plus, the technical assistance facility of CDC Group, has contributed a US$1million grant towards the battery energy storage system.

Olivia Carballo, a Director at Ninety One Ltd, the managers of EAIF, commented: “This is a pioneering project for EAIF and PIDG. We congratulate Globeleq, Source Energia, EDM and Mozambique on reaching a key milestone in deploying more solar technology to the northern grid, and on installing Mozambique’s first grid-scale battery energy storage system.”

Sarah Marchand, CDC Director, CDC Plus, said: “We are delighted to support one of sub-Saharan Africa’s first grid-scale battery energy storage systems through this grant for the battery storage system. In line with CDC’s ambition to catalyse more storage solutions across the continent, CDC Plus will also offer support to capture and disseminate learnings around the battery component’s operational, economic, and development impact.”

“With the ongoing challenges due to the pandemic, I am proud our team has achieved financial close, and we can begin building the first solar and energy storage facility in the country. We fully support the Mozambican Government in their initiatives to support the Paris Agreement and provide its citizens with reliable and clean alternative energy options,” added Mike Scholey, Globeleq’s CEO.

EDM’s Chairman, Marcelino Gildo Alberto said: “This project is a demonstration of EDM’s commitment to provide sustainable solutions to speed up energy access to Mozambicans. In compliance with the Government’s Five-Year Plan to introduce 200MW of renewable energy, EDM is at the forefront of the energy transition in line with the Paris Agreement.”

“We are very pleased to make another contribution to the Mozambique Energy sector and look forward to supporting the future growth of the industry in the country. Our thanks go to our project partners and funders for their unparalleled patience and commitment during the development phase,” said Pedro Coutinho, CEO of Source Energia

The project will require approximately 100 workers during construction, many of whom will be hired from the local community. The Spanish company Grupo TSK has been appointed as the project EPC contractor and will immediately commence mobilisation of its construction team. E22, part of the Spanish Gransolar Group, will supply the complete battery energy storage system. Globeleq will oversee the construction and operations of the power plant, supported by Source Energia.

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NHL Players Will Not Compete at Beijing Olympics: Reports

NEW YORK — National Hockey League players will not compete in February’s Beijing Winter Olympics in the wake of 50 NHL games being postponed over COVID-19 issues, according to multiple reports Tuesday.

ESPN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and other newspapers cited unnamed sources in saying the league and the NHL Players Association had reached agreement not to send talent to China.

Without the NHL’s elite millionaire stars, national teams at the Olympics will likely resemble those at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, when minor-league and recently retired players filled out rosters, with the Olympic Athletes from Russia capturing the gold medal.

The NHL and players union had agreed to send players to the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics unless league seasons were impacted by COVID-19 postponements.

With Tuesday’s Washington at Philadelphia game being postponed by an outbreak from the visitors, the NHL has been forced to postpone 50 games this season.

Staying home during the period of the Beijing Olympics would open two weeks to reschedule contests and still provide something of a rest for most of the players.

The NHL plans to pause the season after Tuesday’s lone contest, which finds Tampa Bay at Vegas.

Games planned for Wednesday and Thursday were called off ahead of a scheduled three-day Christmas weekend break, which was tweaked to have players return to work on Sunday.

Teams would be off Wednesday through Saturday and return Sunday for testing, with negative tests required to enter team facilities.

On Sunday, the NHL announced that all games involving cross-border travel for US and Canadian clubs would not be played. Nine teams had already shut down operations to the break by Monday.

That’s when concerns rose about the NHL skipping Beijing.

“The NHL and NHLPA are actively discussing the matter of NHL Player participation in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, and expect to be in a position to announce a final determination in the coming days,” a league spokesman said Sunday.

Source: Voice of America

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White House Says Democrats ‘Need to Work Together’ on Biden Safety Net Legislation

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration says it is looking to push ahead with work on a social safety net spending bill after a key Democrat in the Senate said he could not support it.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a briefing Monday that the administration is ready to “work like hell” with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and other members of the Democratic caucus in order to achieve its goal.

“What’s most on the President’s mind is the risk of inaction,” Psaki said. “And if we do not act to get this legislation done and the components in it, not only will costs and prices go up for the American people, but also we will see a trajectory in economic growth that is not where we want it to be.”

Manchin has been a focal point in talks within the Democratic Party as leaders pushed to get the $2 trillion package passed by this week. The legislation includes plans to expand health care for older Americans, provide universal pre-kindergarten classes, authorize new funding to combat climate change and offer more financial support for low-income Americans.

Manchin has expressed opposition to the amount of spending, and in a radio interview Monday he reiterated that in his view the bill included too much spending without enough restrictions on incomes or work requirements for recipients.

Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate would vote “very early in the new year” on a revised version of the bill already approved by the House of Representatives.

Manchin’s vote is essential for Democrats in the politically divided Senate as they try to pass one of the key elements of Biden’s legislative agenda. None of the 50 Republicans in the 100-member chamber supports the plan.

Democrats had hoped to push through the legislation on a 51-50 vote before Christmas, with Vice President Kamala Harris providing the tie-breaking vote.

Source: Voice of America

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Death Toll From Haiti Truck Explosion Rises to 90, Official Says

PORT-UA-PRINCE, HAITI — More than a dozen people severely injured in a gas truck explosion last week have died, raising the total number of deaths to 90, the deputy mayor of Cap-Haitien, the city in Haiti where the tragedy occurred, said Monday.

The count is “still unfortunately incomplete” due to severe injuries suffered by those still hospitalized, said Patrick Almonor.

The previous tally released last Wednesday by Haitian authorities stood at 75 deaths with 47 victims severely burned.

According to Almonor, during the night of December 13, the driver of the gas truck lost control when he swerved to avoid a motor-taxi, and subsequently overturned. Residents tried to collect the spilled fuel, which then exploded.

On Tuesday, national funerals will be observed in the city’s main cathedral, but only 25 caskets will be set up. The majority of the victims were buried shortly afterward in a mass grave in Cap-Haitien.

In a country plagued by natural disasters and political instability, more than 60% of Haiti’s 11 million inhabitants live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Fuel shortages have been a frequent occurrence in recent years, with authorities regularly running out of cash to pay gas distributors.

“Fuel is worth its weight in gold these days in the country, and there it was free for the taking,” Almonor said, describing the scene of the explosion. “That’s what worsened the toll.”

The tragedy also underscored the weakness of Haiti’s national health care system: the only structure specializing in the care of severe burns in the country is managed by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres, or MSF) which is located in the capital, 200 kilometers (120 miles) to the south of Cap-Haitien.

The international NGO dispatched an emergency team to the northern city to help local hospital staff.

Jean Gilbert Ndong, MSF’s medical coordinator, said the injured still in hospital included two children.

“We are at Justinien University Hospital where we have 15 patients including two children who should be discharged today,” he said.

“The care of these patients is long-term, it will be at least three to four months,” Ndong said, insisting that MSF professionals stand “ready to support the Haitian government.”

Lamenting the deaths of the injured over the weekend, both at the MSF hospital in Port-au-Prince and in Cap-Haitien, he said that the deceased had suffered “significant burns which ranged from 80 to 95% of the body.”

Source: Voice of America

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Ghana MPs Exchange Blows Over Proposed Electronic Payment Tax

ACCRA, GHANA — Lawmakers in Ghana exchanged blows late Monday evening over a proposed electronic payment tax.The government says the new tax would boost revenue for development, but parliament has been split over the idea and fights broke out when supporters tried to force a vote.

Ghanaians in general, and the opposition in particular, have vehemently opposed the proposed 1.75% tax on electronic transactions, popularly known as e-levy, contained in the 2022 budget.

If passed, the law would include taxes on mobile money payments, which is used by 40% of Ghanaians 15 years and older, according to a 2021 data by the central bank.

Up against a deadline, the government wanted the bill passed under a certificate of urgency on the last day of sitting. But a brawl broke out on the floor when the first deputy speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, pushed for the vote.

The regular speaker was absent from the session. Opposition MP Mahama Ayariga says the deputy was circumventing normal procedure in an attempt to force the bill through parliament.

“The house is governed by rules. And so when you make it right for persons to undermine those rules what do you expect the MPs to do. They won’t just sit aside and watch the person undermine the rules,” he said.

The acting speaker, Osei-Owusu, says he operated within the standing orders of Ghana’s parliament and had the right to vote for the bill under consideration.

“As long as we can change over then that advantage is restored. In my view and I still hold that view strongly that as long as we can change the seat at any time there should not be that disadvantage,” he said. “Otherwise, no proceedings will go on. Why should I come and preside so that I can’t take any decision, what is the point?”

About 50 lawmakers took part in the brawl.Only one was injured, the minister of youth and sports who got a cut in the face.

The executive director of the African Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Rasheed Draman, told a local radio station that Ghana should brace for more gridlock in the current parliament.

“I have never seen anything like this. And for me I have said this since the beginning of the year that if we’re not careful this is how the eighth parliament is going to be. It will be characterized by a lot of confusion and a lot of gridlock,” he said.

Parliament has now been adjourned until January 18 to give lawmakers more room to consult on the controversial electronic levy.

Source: Voice of America

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Despite Bonanza, Aid Trickles Slowly to US Homeless Students

Frank Hardy, 18, has been homeless for the past eight years, moving in and out of shelters with his mom, or staying with his sister’s family while his mom has been in jail.

As part of an economic stimulus package to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Congress voted in March to fast-track $800 million and urged educators to move quickly to aid the estimated 1.5 million students like Hardy who are homeless across America.

But the cash has yet to reach the Los Angeles Unified School district, which oversees Hardy’s high school. Some states and school districts rushed their millions to those in need. But California has only begun disbursing the first quarter of its allotment of $98.7 million.

The federal government authorized sending out a first $200 million in April followed by the rest last summer.

Other big states such as New York and Florida are even further behind, having yet to deliver a dime to the districts, because of bureaucratic logjams or because some districts are ill-equipped even to find students in need.

“In the early part of the pandemic, the most stable place in the lives of homeless students – school – disappeared,” said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, a Washington-based non-profit that addresses student homelessness.

Even with the return to in-class learning that followed initial moves to remote tuition, Duffield said, “We know we’re missing tons of students.”

SchoolHouse Connection and the University of Michigan conducted a survey in October of 700 school districts and found a 4% increase in student homelessness, compared to the same period the year before the pandemic.

A story of perseverance

Hardy is on track to graduate in June from the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts, even after losing most of his junior year to the pandemic, living in a motel without a proper internet connection and trying to work off a faulty laptop.

“I was never going to let being homeless stop me from achieving what I want to achieve,” said Hardy, who dreams of becoming a professional singer.

Only 68% of homeless students graduated high school in 2019, some 18 percentage points below the national average.

Hardy currently lives with his mother Cherie Hardy, 51, at a People Assisting the Homeless shelter in Los Angeles.

Cherie Hardy said she has a record for robbery, theft and other offenses, but has straightened her life out in part because “I have a son that needs me.”

Many other homeless students have slipped through the cracks.

At least 420,000 homeless students lost contact with their schools during the pandemic, according to Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who along with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia championed the last-minute amendment that provided the $800 million.

Schools are using the funds to buy food, clothes and school supplies. In some cases they are paying for car repairs or car insurance to get kids get to school, or cell phones so counselors can check in with students. Cincinnati and Nashville schools have hired Spanish-speaking social workers.

Cherie Hardy said she would have welcomed help buying her son clothes or a laptop.

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s homeless liaison, Angela Chandler, said the district is exploring hiring staff to identify and reach out to homeless students, and she would like to help high school students continue their education by funding college tours that might inspire kids who otherwise would never visit a campus.

“The possibilities are endless,” Chandler said.

But the second largest district in the country has yet to receive any of the nearly $8 million it is due. Funds from the first tranche of $883,000 should be sent out “shortly,” a California Department of Education spokesperson said on Wednesday. A second tranche of $7.1 million will be received in January. The spokesperson did not address why the process has taken so long.

Florida school districts could only begin applying for their share of $43.8 million as of Dec. 2, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Education said.

New York state has yet to issue any of its $58.9 million from the new funds. The application period of the first tranche was opened on Dec. 1 and closes on Dec. 22, its Education Department said.

Even Murkowski’s state Alaska “is a little bit overwhelmed with all this money,” said Dave Mayo-Kiely, a program coordinator for homeless students and families in Anchorage.

Elsewhere some states were applying time-consuming rules the federal government had said were unnecessary, while in others state legislative or local school board approvals were slow to come, according to the education news site Chalkbeat.

“There are a million things that go wrong, things you don’t expect to happen,” said Phyllis Jordan, associate director of the FutureEd independent think tank at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., describing schools failing to find tutors to hire.

Some states have moved more quickly.

Lisa Phillips, North Carolina’s coordinator for the education of homeless children and youth, said her state followed federal guidelines and set up an approval process before districts made requests. Districts are getting funding within 10 days of making a valid application, she said.

More than half of North Carolina school districts have received their share of funds in the second phase of the program, with another 25% being processed.

Source: Voice of America

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Biden Announces New Effort to Fight Omicron Coronavirus Surge

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden laid out a new concerted effort Tuesday to combat the surging omicron variant of the coronavirus, dispatching federal health care workers to short-handed hospitals, pre-positioning the national stockpile of medical equipment around the country and offering 500 million free COVID-19 test kits to Americans.

Biden detailed his attack plan in a White House address as the number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. is markedly increasing again, with 143,000 recorded on Monday, along with another 1,300 deaths. Nearly three-fourths of the new cases are linked to the highly transmissible omicron variant.

But Biden said that fully vaccinated people, and especially those who have gotten booster shots, can safely celebrate the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s holidays with family and friends.

“We should all be concerned about omicron, but not panicked,” he said.

He warned, however, “If you’re not fully vaccinated, you have reason to be concerned.” Biden said the 40 million unvaccinated people in the United States “have an obligation, quite frankly, a patriotic duty, to your country” to get inoculated.

Moreover, he emphasized, “Your choice [whether to get vaccinated] can be a choice between life and death. Please get vaccinated. It’s the only responsible thing to do.”

But even with the growing omicron threat, he said the United States is not returning to the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, when thousands of businesses and schools were shut down.

“Absolutely no,” Biden said.

He told Americans, “I know you’re tired. I know you’re frustrated. We’ll get through this. There’s no challenge too big for America.”

The government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said about 204 million Americans, or 61%, are fully vaccinated, up from less than 1% at the beginning of 2021. But only 60.8 million people so far have gotten booster shots that health experts say provide the most protection against the omicron variant.

Biden said about 40 million Americans have not gotten any vaccination shots, many of them objecting to the government’s effort to get more people inoculated, saying it violates their freedom to make their own medical choices.

The president, however, said vaccine mandates he has imposed on government workers and the military, and is hoping to require at large companies with 100 or more employees that could affect 84 million workers, are “not to control your life, but to save your life.”

Among some groups of people, getting vaccinated remains controversial — often, according to surveys, those who voted for former President Donald Trump in his unsuccessful 2020 reelection bid against Biden.

Trump, a coronavirus victim while president, was booed by some supporters at an appearance in the southwestern state of Texas over the weekend when he told them he had gotten a booster shot.

Biden, who also has gotten a booster shot, said it was “one of the few things” he and his predecessor agree on, the need to get a booster shot in the arm.

The White House said the actions Biden announced Tuesday “will mitigate the impact unvaccinated individuals have on our health care system, while increasing access to free testing and getting more shots in arms to keep people safe and our schools and economy open.”

Biden said he is mobilizing an additional 1,000 military doctors, nurses and other health care workers to send to hospitals that need them in January and February. The White House said emergency medical response teams have been dispatched to six states with a shortage of health care workers.

The U.S. is also expanding hospital bed capacity on an emergency basis ahead of the expected surge of the omicron variant cases, the White House said, while deploying hundreds of ambulances and emergency medical teams to transport patients to open beds.

A White House fact sheet on Biden’s address said the government has hundreds of millions of N-95 face masks, billions of gloves, tens of millions of hospital gowns and more than 100,000 ventilators in its strategic national stockpile, “all ready to ship out, if and when states need them.”

It said there are now 20,000 free COVID-19 testing sites across the U.S., and that the government is buying a half-billion at-home, rapid test kits for distribution to Americans who want them, starting next month.

The White House said that in recent months the government had added 10,000 vaccination sites across the country and now has 90,000. It plans to add new pop-up vaccination sites at some scattered spots across the U.S. and said private pharmacies are adding workers to administer more vaccinations.

Source: Voice of America

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Fewer Police, Medics, so Mardi Gras Parade Routes Shortened

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans is shortening parade routes for the upcoming Mardi Gras season because there are fewer police officers, medics and other first responders to handle the crowds, officials said Tuesday.

The city canceled Mardi Gras parades this past February because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2020 parade crowds are considered a big reason that New Orleans was an early pandemic hot spot.

“The big news and the best news is that Mardi Gras is returning to the city of New Orleans and to the world in 2022,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.

As city officials announced their Carnival plans, Governor John Bel Edwards said Tuesday that he’s again extended Louisiana’s public health emergency, which was first enacted by the Democratic governor in March 2020.

He’s modified it several times since then, and the latest version contains few restrictions for businesses and no statewide mask mandate.

But Edwards announced that agencies led by his Cabinet secretaries will again start requiring employees and visitors to wear masks inside their offices, including at Office of Motor Vehicle locations around the state.

“While vaccines and booster doses are the strongest tools we have in the fight against COVID, public health experts also agree that masks are an important way to slow the spread of the omicron variant now. This means you should be masking indoors around people who aren’t in your household,” Edwards said in a statement.

The face covering recommendation comes as infectious disease experts say Louisiana appears to be entering its fifth surge of the coronavirus outbreak, driven by the fast-spreading omicron variant of the virus. The number of new cases of COVID-19 has doubled over the past week, and hospitalizations of patients with the coronavirus illness are starting to grow again.

That hasn’t derailed Mardi Gras plans in New Orleans, however.

Weeks of Carnival season parades lead up to Fat Tuesday, which will be on March 1. Members of each parade krewe pay for that group’s parade.

Some krewes have not decided whether to roll, but none has given pandemic guidelines, mandates or restrictions as the reason for their uncertainty, Cantrell said.

“Clearly it’s about the bottom line and the impacts COVID has had on our community and on our economy and particularly on their krewe members. … They pay the price for us to enjoy our Mardi Gras,” the mayor said.

She said krewes will have to follow city pandemic restrictions.

Cantrell noted that “if things go wrong in our city” she might have to change its plans for Carnival and Mardi Gras.

But she said she is confident the city can make it through the omicron variant, flu season and the holiday season.

With 80% of its residents fully vaccinated, New Orleans is a national leader, she said.

Source: Voice of America