President Obama and Ebola

The Dallas County Commissioners Court is planning to call a special meeting for Thursday to discuss whether to request that Gov. Rick Perry declare a local emergency because of the Ebola crisis.The meeting will be at 2 p.m. at the County Administration Building, 411 Elm Street in Dallas.According to state law, a declaration of emergency “activates the appropriate recovery and rehabilitation aspects of all applicable local or interjurisdictional emergency management plans and authorizes the furnishing of aid and assistance under the declaration.” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said they probably will include restrictions on using public transportation and visiting areas where they’d be at risk of transmitting Ebola.President Barack Obama vowed a more aggressive federal role.He offered assurance that a “serious outbreak” remains extremely unlikely — a somewhat weaker promise than one last week, when he said the threat of any outbreak remained “extremely low.”“I want people to understand that the dangers of you contracting Ebola, the dangers of a serious outbreak, are extraordinarily low,” Obama said. “But we are taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government.”Dallas Morning News