Idaho State News

Yellowstone’s grizzly numbers are up. Is it time to turn bear management over to states?

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 17:04:29 +0000

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Idaho Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo say grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, which includes eastern Idaho, are a conservation success story and Congress should remove them from the threatened species list.

But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling in July reversing the delisting of the great bear because of a lack of “concrete, enforceable mechanisms” to “ensure long-term genetic health of the Yellowstone grizzly.”

Now a bill making its way through the U.S. Senate’s committee process may remove the bear from the protected list, at least in the Yellowstone area.

So are grizzly bears recovered in Yellowstone? That’s not exactly an easy question to answer.

The large brown bears were listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1975, when their numbers dropped to around 150 in and around the national park. Today, biologists say there are at least 700 bears within the recovery area, which includes Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and adjacent areas in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

“From the population standpoint, they’re recovered,” said Jeremy Nicholson, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game regional biologist in Idaho Falls. “The issue is that they stay recovered.”

Nicholson spends most of the summer trapping bears and placing radio collars on them so he can track them. He also checks trail cameras to help provide the data that determines the population trends of the bear.

But part of his job is to help deal with problem bears and to educate people about keeping garbage and other attractants away from grizzlies. Managing garbage and other human foods is the foundation of grizzly bear management.

WHAT HAS WORKED FOR GRIZZLY BEAR RECOVERY

The success in the national parks of keeping bears away from garbage has led to the steady increase of grizzly numbers since the 1980s into the early 2000s. But over the last decade, the bear’s numbers in national parks and their best habitats in places like Island Park near Yellowstone have stabilized.

The population overall has spread into wilder public lands just beyond the recovery area into mountain ranges like the Centennials and near communities like Tetonia, Driggs and Victor near the Tetons.

Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney for the Center of Biological Diversity, lives in Victor and says she has seen the presence of the bears first-hand.

“There’s pretty much grizzlies in our back yard,” she said.

She was one of the attorneys who successfully sued to stop the delisting. Overall, she opposes the “piecemeal” approach to grizzly recovery, which allows delisting in Yellowstone — and perhaps the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem around Glacier National Park — while few bears live in the Bitterroot ecosystem in central Idaho, and smaller populations remain threatened in the Selkirk and Cabinet mountains in North Idaho.

That doesn’t mean she’s not worried about the future of grizzlies in the Yellowstone ecosystem as well. Over the last decade, human-caused mortality has increased, peaking in 2018 at 65. These deaths are caused by bear conflicts with livestock, elk hunters, cars and people who attract bears with garbage and bird feeders.

“Unless we can come up with solutions to addressing that mortality, we shouldn’t remove grizzly bears from federal protection,” Santarsiere said.

HOW TO KEEP BEARS FROM PEOPLE IN YELLOWSTONE AND BEYOND

Despite their reputation, grizzly bears avoid humans when they have a chance, Fish and Game’s Nicholson said. But they still come close to people all the time.

“I run into people that flat out argue with me that we don’t have grizzly bears in Idaho,” Nicholson said.

In the center of Idaho’s best grizzly habitat in Island Park, a popular tourist area southwest of West Yellowstone, Montana, many longtime residents have adjusted to the bears and keep their garbage secure. But a new threat and challenge to education efforts is the growing number of cabins that are rented by visitors for short stays.

These people have little awareness of grizzly safety issues or keeping garbage locked up, Nicholson said. “It’s an ongoing process,” he said.

A growing number of bear deaths are found beyond the animal’s traditional habitat as bears spread out, especially in Wyoming. Biologists want Yellowstone’s bears to connect with bears in Montana and to seed areas like Central Idaho.

But they don’t want them in agricultural areas such as Ashton, Rexburg or downtown Idaho Falls. So the debate is larger than what happens to them in Yellowstone.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission is on record opposing grizzly bears in central Idaho. But in 2019, several grizzly bears showed up, and, under federal law, the state must protect them under the Endangered Species Act. Idaho could help bears along by having a mandatory bear identification program for all bear hunters and by expanding the kind of community “bear proofing” programs that have been so successful in eastern Idaho.

But these program cost money.

Tony Hafla of the Safari Club said his group has worked hard on bear recovery and they want a hunting season, which he said was biologically justified. He envisions at least one bear hunt auctioned off for thousands of dollars which could pay for research and education.

“Having a hunting season will hopefully change the bears’ attitude toward humans,” he said.

But critics say dead bears don’t pass any lessons to the next generation, and trophy hunting is opposed by a coalition of American Indian tribes.

“(It) would not only represent a threat to tribal sovereignty, but also contravene the American Indian Religious Freedom Act,” the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes business council said in a 2016 news release.

“The grizzly is a spiritual animal, intricately tied to the ceremonies and practices of the Shoshone and Bannock peoples,” it said.

GRIZZLY MANAGEMENT ACT COULD REMOVE ANIMAL FROM LIST IN YELLOWSTONE

Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on S.614, the Grizzly Bear State Management Act, introduced by Republican Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and co-sponsored by Risch and Crapo. It would remove the grizzly bear from the endangered species list in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and place management in state control.

Meanwhile the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to complete a five-year status review of the grizzly bear throughout the 48 states by early 2021. Officials will examine the issues raised in the federal court’s decision, said Hilary Cooley, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Grizzly Bear Recovery coordinator in Missoula, Montana.

But the agency has not decided which way to go forward. Still, as more grizzly bears spread out from the core habitats, conflicts with humans will grow, especially on private land.

“You have to provide a little relief sometime,” she said.

3 people arrested in Oregon accused of setting up illegal roadblocks near wildfire evacuation zones

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:58:46 +0000

Three people in Multnomah County, Oregon, are accused of setting up an illegal roadblock north of the Riverside Fire evacuation zone this week.

The Sheriff’s Office says Joshua Smith, Travis Lucky and Michael Meier are being cited for disorderly conduct after allegedly blocking an intersection east of Corbett. It is unclear why the three men set up the roadblock.

More than 938,000 acres in Oregon have been destroyed by 12 fires burning in the state, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). There are 59 uncontained fires burning in the West, the NIFC said Friday. Multiple wildfires have burned nearly 6 million acres in Washington, Oregon and California, claiming the lives of at least 34 people.

Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese had issued a public warning last week telling people that civilian roadblocks are not allowed.

“The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office will not tolerate this type of illegal activity,” Reese said in a statement announcing the charges.

“If you see this activity or are stopped by a civilian, call 911, and a deputy will respond and investigate. We encourage people to call the Sheriff’s Office to report suspicious activity, and to not take action on their own.”

Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said Wednesday that his community was also getting complaints about illegal roadblocks.

Fifteen arrests have been made in connection with looting in evacuation zones, Roberts said, and some citizens are expressing concern.

Law enforcement agencies are also dealing with fears stoked by unfounded conspiracy theories that far-left activists are starting fires deliberately and cutting down power lines, added Roberts. He also said that it is illegal for any individuals to set up armed checkpoints.

“We do not want armed citizens inappropriately stopping people,” Roberts said.

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Bonneville vs Madison football game canceled

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:58:37 +0000

BONNEVILLE COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - Madison High School was just notified by Bonneville High School administration that the varsity football game for Friday, September 18 is canceled.

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Man asks to see diamond rings, grabs them, runs off

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:57:05 +0000

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OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) — Overland Park police are looking for a man who asked to see some diamond rings at a jeweler, then pocketed the rings and took off.

Police said the man walked into the Karats Jewelers around 12:20 p.m. on Sept. 7. While an employee was showing the man several diamond rings, the man forcibly took them and left the store. He got into a maroon Mitsubishi Mirage and drove off, according to the Overland Park Police Department.

The man was wearing a multi-colored Nike hat, a blue Nike shirt and designer blue jeans. A second man who was in the getaway car was wearing a black hat, a red shirt, grey sweat pants and black tennis shoes.

Police released photographs taken from surveillance video on the property.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

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New reports show White House politicking trumps science in telling coronavirus decisions

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:53:02 +0000

A series of new revelations about the federal government’s coronavirus response could reinforce concerns about whether the Trump administration’s political motives were a higher priority than the health of Americans.

The New York Times reported Thursday that a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation narrowing the scope of who should get tested for coronavirus was not written by CDC scientists, but “dropped” into the CDC’s public-facing website by the Department of Health and Human Services.

And The Washington Post recently revealed that this past spring, the US Postal Service and HHS were working on a plan to send masks to heavily infected areas and eventually nationwide. But the idea was reportedly nixed by the White House out of concern receiving masks could cause panic.

The new reports suggest President Donald Trump’s comments to journalist Bob Woodward in the early stages of the pandemic in the US trickled down to the different agencies responsible to the federal government’s coronavirus response — that despite knowing the coronavirus was “deadly stuff,” Trump “wanted to always play it down.”

Whether it was purposeful or not, in both stories, agencies appeared to opt for more Trump-friendly strategies downplaying the urgency of the pandemic.

According to the Times, the CDC’s guidelines dropped in by HHS were published despite the objections of CDC scientists. And when they were made public, HHS did not subject the language to the CDC’s rigorous scientific review process. A federal official close to the process similarly told CNN last month the new directive came from the top down. A source also told CNN on Friday that the guidance was sent to the CDC by HHS.

CNN previously reported that the change was made on August 24, updating its recommendation for coronavirus testing “for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection” to stating that some people without symptoms may not need to be tested, even if they’ve been in close contact with someone known to have coronavirus.

The change came after Trump said earlier in the summer that testing was a “double-edged sword” because, he argued, it showed more positive cases.

The President also said he wasn’t kidding when he told rallygoers he had asked staff to slow down testing. But federal health officials have maintained that they have not been told to slow down coronavirus testing.

Since the CDC published the controversial changes to its testing guidance, the CDC has said it is planning to clarify the guideline language.

The USPS and HHS, according to the Post, had a plan this spring to begin distributing face masks nationwide by first targeting shipments to the hardest hit areas of the country.

The plan had gone so far that the USPS had drafted a press release for the distribution plan.

But the White House scrapped the plan, instead opting for an HHS program, Project America Strong, to distribute “reusable cotton face masks to critical infrastructure sectors, companies, healthcare facilities, and faith-based and community organizations across the country.”

One administration official told the Post: “There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic.”

“If those masks had gone out, and you look at the calculations, you model this on other countries, you see what has happened, and it seems like maybe 80% of the people who died could have been saved,” Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, told “New Day” in response to the Post’s report.

There was evidence by April, when the USPS had prepared for the mask distribution, that coronavirus could spread between asymptomatic individuals. That month, the administration recommended Americans wear cloth facial coverings.

Trump said at the time that the recommendations, which came after a week of heated deliberations inside the White House, were voluntary and that he would not partake.

The President has since worn a mask infrequently in public and, most recently, questioned their effectiveness.

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Canadian police charge Tesla driver who was allegedly doing 90 miles per hour while asleep

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:53:02 +0000

Canadian police have charged a 20-year-old man with dangerous driving after he was arrested for allegedly being asleep at the wheel of a 2019 Tesla Model S while it was operating in its semi-autonomous “Autopilot” mode.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said it received a complaint of a car speeding near Ponoka, Alberta at around 4 pm on July 9.

The vehicle was traveling at more than 140 km (86.9 miles) per hour, with both front seats “completely reclined and both occupants appearing to be asleep,” the RCMP said.

When a police officer approached the vehicle with emergency lights the Tesla “automatically began to accelerate” to 150 km (93.2 m) per hour, the RCMP said.

After pulling him over, the officer charged the driver, who is from British Columbia, with speeding and suspended his license for 24 hours. After further investigation, police charged him with dangerous driving and he is summoned to appear in court in December.

“Although manufacturers of new vehicles have built in safeguards to prevent drivers from taking advantage of the new safety systems in vehicles, those systems are just that — supplemental safety systems,” Superintendent Gary Graham of Alberta RCMP Traffic Services said. “They are not self-driving systems, they still come with the responsibility of driving.”

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.

The company has been adamant that drivers maintain control of the vehicle while the Autopilot system is in use, with a warning before it is first used saying drivers must keep their hands on the steering wheel and be prepared to take over at any time.

While Autopilot can keep the vehicle in a highway lane and maintain distance from traffic, it is not a fully autonomous system and still requires driver oversight.

But it is not the first time the car manufacturer and Autopilot have been embroiled in a traffic incident — though the company has defended the technology.

Last year, a 50-year-old man died in a car crash after switching from manual mode to Autopilot, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

And in 2018, Apple employee Walter Huang died when his car veered off a highway to the left, accelerated and crashed before bursting into flames. The Autopilot feature had been engaged for nearly 19 minutes, the NTSB found. His family announced last year they were suing Tesla, claiming the feature caused his death.

At the time, Tesla said that the only way the vehicle could have crashed is if Huang had not “paid attention” to the road, “despite the car providing multiple warnings to do so.”

Another man, Joshua Brown, died in May 2016 when his Tesla crashed into a tractor-trailer in Florida while the software was active.

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Man dies after crashing into parked forklift on I-15

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:40:00 +0000

BLACKFOOT — A Blackfoot man is dead after crashing in a construction zone on Interstate 15 Friday morning.

Idaho State Police arrived at the crash around 7 a.m. near milepost 90 just south of Blackfoot, according to an ISP news release.

Leonard Wadsworth, 77, was driving southbound when his 2004 GMC Sierra pickup went to the right of constriction cones. The pickup slammed into a parked, unoccupied forklift.

Police say Wadsworth was wearing a seatbelt but died from his injuries at the scene of the crash.

The crash remains under investigation by ISP.

Unity Software shares surge 44% in Wall Street debut as IPO market sizzles

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:35:36 +0000

Shares of Unity Software, one of the leading platforms for video game developers, jumped 44% on their Wall Street debut Friday, becoming the latest in a flurry of tech IPOs that investors can’t seem to get enough of.

Unity debuted on the New York Stock Exchange at $75 a share. On Thursday, ahead of the initial public offering, the shares were priced at $52. And just last week, the company said it expected to price shares between $34 and $42.

Unity, which is trading under the ticker symbol “U,” is famous in the gaming world for its development software that studios use to create hits like “Fall Guys,” “Pokémon Go” and “Call of Duty: Mobile.” It sells that software to companies through a subscription plan and charges a starting price of $399 to $2,400 a year depending on the size of the studio. (It offers a limited version for free.)

The company’s debut caps a busy week for IPOs. On Wednesday, cloud data storage company Snowflake became the biggest software IPO ever, with shares more than doubling on their first day of trading. Another small software tools developer, JFrog, also went public Wednesday with shares rising nearly 50%.

Unity’s software is a rival to Fortnite maker Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, although Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello told CNN Business in February that he doesn’t think of Epic as a competitor.

Riccitiello, who joined Unity in 2014 after leaving Electronic Arts a year prior, said Unity’s advantage is in the mobile games market, where developers tend to gravitate toward its software to make puzzle games and 2D adventures.

“[Epic is] a very good and noble company, and they do some really cool things that we benchmark against,” he said. “But… I don’t think of them as competitors.”

Like many buzzy technology companies debuting on Wall Street recently, Unity is not a profitable company.

In 2019, it made a net loss of $163.2 million and continued to lose $54 million in the first half of this year, it reported in a regulatory filing to go public.

In the risk factors section of that filing, Unity admits it has a history of losses and scaled up recently.

Unity has been in the spotlight a lot less than its more fiery rival, Epic Games, which is currently in a legal battle against Apple and Google over the commissions app stores require from developers. Analysts say that could make Unity more attractive to investors.

“At his former post as CEO of EA, Riccitiello managed to create a credible company narrative that made sense to anyone interested in investing in games,” said Joost van Dreunen, founder of video game investment firm New Breukelen. “Compared to Epic, Unity will seem like the tamer option, led by someone with less of an ax to grind.”

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Madison County leaders endorse health orders

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:32:15 +0000

REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK)-Madison County Emergency Managers have unanimously endorsed Eastern Idaho Public Health’s recent health order, which includes a face covering mandate for the county.

The collective committee adopted a slogan, “United We Stand Against COVID-19”, to help stop the spread of the virus.

“In order to slow the rapid transmission of this virus within our community, we combine our efforts and voices to unitedly stand in support of wearing face coverings in public, in addition to the current physical distancing and other health-conscious recommendations we have been asked to follow,” said the joint statement. “We hereby call upon all community leaders, local business owners, and citizens to exercise good judgment to protect themselves and others from the current pandemic by doing so.”

The committee said it understood the effect of mass closures on businesses and schools, but it also knew that asymptomatic individuals can unknowingly spread the disease, unaware of the danger they present to other people.

“We must protect ourselves, as well as the most vulnerable in our families and our community, and we must avoid the possibility of overwhelming our healthcare system,” the statement continued.

The statement is signed by Law Enforcement, Health Care, City and County, and School leaders.

Emergency-Management-News-Release Download

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Trump administration announces $13 billion in additional aid to Puerto Rico

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:27:02 +0000

The Trump administration on Friday announced $13 billion in additional aid to Puerto Rico to help with rebuilding in the aftermath of 2017’s Hurricane Maria.

Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced tweeted Friday morning that Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Pete Gaynor told her that $13 billion has been approved. She thanked the White House and President Donald Trump.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany touted the $13 billion FEMA award as two of the agency’s “largest grants ever” in a statement. It will include a $11.6 billion federal share of funding for the projects.

In the three years since the storm made landfall, the rebuilding process has been slow and costly. In November 2018, White House officials told congressional leaders and appropriators that the President did not want any additional relief funding sent to the island.

The government’s $13 billion investment will directly address electrical and educational systems, McEnany’s statement said.

“Federal funding of $9.6 billion will allow the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority to repair and replace thousands of miles of transmission and distribution lines, electrical substations, power generation systems, office buildings and make other grid improvements. The $2 billion grant for the Puerto Rico Department of Education will focus on restoring school buildings and educational facilities across the island,” McEnany said.

The grants, she added, “exceed the total Public Assistance funding in any single federally-declared disaster other than Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.”

Trump’s handling of the 2017 storm, which devastated the island and killed nearly 3,000 people in its aftermath, has been widely criticized by locals and experts. Trump has consistently denied any fault for his administration, and has instead sought praise for his handling of Hurricane Maria, at one point calling it “an incredible, unsung success.”

The move is likely an attempt to appeal to Puerto Rican voters who moved to the battleground state of Florida after the hurricane struck the US territory.

Trump was lambasted for his visit to Puerto Rico weeks after the storm, where he was pictured tossing paper towels to a crowd of survivors.

Since then, he’s publicly slammed local officials, falsely railed against what he said was an overreported death toll, and questioned aid to the territory. Former acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, who was in the role as the hurricane hit, said in a July interview that Trump considered the idea of selling the island after the storm hit.

Tensions between the President and the island boiled over in March 2019 when then-Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló fired back after the White House officials warned his top aides that representatives of the territory were pushing too hard to arrange a meeting with the President aimed at discussing the island’s dire situation.

“If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth,” Rosselló told CNN at the time. “It would be a mistake to confuse courtesy with courage.”

And as Hurricane Dorian approached Puerto Rico in August 2019, Trump again trained his ire at its government.

“Puerto Rico is one of the most corrupt places on earth. Their political system is broken and their politicians are either Incompetent or Corrupt. Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time, more than anyplace else has ever gotten, and it is sent to Crooked Pols. No good!” he wrote, adding, “And by the way, I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico!”

Trump’s lack of empathy for Puerto Ricans has been at odds with his treatment of storm victims in the continental US during his tenure in office, prompting criticism of racism, including from some local officials defending their home.

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Justin Bieber and Chance the Rapper get ‘Holy’ in a star-studded new video

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:26:02 +0000

Justin Bieber and Chance the Rapper have released a new track, “Holy,” with a five-minute video starring Ryan Destiny from Fox series “Star” and Wilmer Valderrama from “NCIS.”

The track, which Bieber shared on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube late Thursday US time, is about love, hope and faith.

The video was directed by Colin Tilley, who recently shot Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s racy “WAP” video, and casts Bieber as an out-of-work oil worker and Destiny as his love interest, a nurse.

The couple are evicted from their home and find themselves on the street before Valderrama, who plays a US Army soldier, takes them in for a hot meal with his family. The final frames of the video show the characters around the dinner table, holding hands and praying.

Sharing the video, Bieber said on social media that it heralded a “new era.”

Chance the Rapper called Bieber his “best friend” in an Instagram post earlier this week ahead of the track’s release.

Sharing the video on Thursday, he said: “I made one of my most important songs with one of my most supportive friends and I really want yall to hear it tonight when it drops. I know this record will make you feel something and I know that feeling is love.”

Bieber and Chance the Rapper have already collaborated on a number of tracks, including “No Brainer” in 2018 along with DJ Khaled and Quavo, “I’m The One” in 2017 and “Confident” in 2013.

“Holy” is Bieber’s first new track since his album “Changes” — his first album in almost five years — was released in February.

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Fatal crash near Blackfoot

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:25:01 +0000

MGN Online

BLACKFOOT, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - A 77-year-old Blackfoot man succumbed to his injuries at the scene of a single-vehicle crash on Interstate 15 Friday.

At approximately 6:58 a.m., Idaho State Police investigated the crash near Blackfoot.

ISP reports Leonard Wadsworth was driving southbound on I-15 at milepost 90.4, south of Blackfoot in a 2004 GMC Sierra pickup when the pickup drove to the right of construction cones and struck a parked, unoccupied forklift.

Wadsworth succumbed to his injuries at the scene of the crash.

Next of kin has been notified.

ISP reports Wadsworth was wearing his seatbelt.

Idaho State Police is still investigating the crash.

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Unity Software shares surge 44% on Wall Street debut as IPO market sizzles

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:14:51 +0000

Unity’s software is a rival to Fortnite maker Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, although Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello told CNN Business in February that he doesn’t think of Epic as a competitor.

“[Epic is] a very good and noble company, and they do some really cool things that we benchmark against,” he said. “But… I don’t think of them as competitors.”

Like many buzzy technology companies debuting on Wall Street recently, Unity is not a profitable company.

In 2019, it made a net loss of $163.2 million and continued to lose $54 million in the first half of this year, it reported in a regulatory filing to go public.

In the risk factors section of that filing, Unity admits it has a history of losses and scaled up recently.

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Teenage cyclist rushed to hospital after crash in Boise intersection

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:12:00 +0000

BOISE — First responders rushed a teenager to the hospital with life threatening injuries Thursday evening after he’d been hit by a vehicle while riding his bike in Boise.

Here’s what’s going to happen to TikTok on Sunday

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:11:36 +0000

The Trump administration said it will restrict access to TikTok on Sunday, Sept. 20. What does that mean for users of the short-form video app?

The short answer is, you’ll still be able to use TikTok — if it’s already on your phone. But at midnight between Sunday and Monday, TikTok will vanish from US app stores, including those operated by Apple and Google.

That means US users looking to install the app anew, or who are looking for security patches or other updates, won’t be able to receive them, under Commerce Department restrictions announced on Friday that limit how the app can be distributed.

Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

TikTok said in a statement that it disagreed with and was disappointed by the administration’s announcement.

“Our community of 100 million US users love TikTok because it’s a home for entertainment, self-expression, and connection,” the company said, “and we’re committed to protecting their privacy and safety as we continue working to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform.”

For months, the Trump administration has alleged that TikTok is a risk to national security because the app is owned by a Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The administration has claimed ByteDance could be required to hand over TikTok’s user data to the Chinese government, compromising the safety and privacy of US users. In August, President Trump signed two executive orders aimed at banning the app and forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok.

TikTok has insisted that US users’ information is stored outside of China, beyond the reach of Beijing, and that the company would reject any effort by China to compel the information. Cybersecurity experts have said there is no evidence that TikTok has been compromised by the Chinese government and that the danger, while plausible, is largely hypothetical.

Some security experts have criticized the Commerce Department limitations because they would prevent security updates from being pushed to WeChat and TikTok users.

One senior Commerce official dismissed it as “simplistic criticism.”

“The argument that we’re eroding security because we’re not allowing an untrusted entity to push security updates to apps that are already untrusted, on its face falls flat,” the official said.

The new restrictions come as the administration weighs a partnership between TikTok and Oracle meant to address the national security concerns raised by the administration. On a call about the restrictions this morning, the Commerce Department declined to say what would happen if such a deal were finalized before Sunday evening.

If the companies aren’t able to complete a deal by Nov. 12, then further restrictions will be applied to TikTok that could degrade its functionality, Department officials said. The restrictions would apply to internet infrastructure companies in ways that could hinder the transfer of TikTok content, potentially slowing it down or creating outages on the service.

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Bannock County moved to ‘moderate risk’ level by SIPH

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:09:44 +0000

stock photo

POCATELLO — Another county in Southeastern Idaho Public Health’s district has landed in the moderate risk level of its COVID-19 Regional Response Plan.

SIPH’s Board of Health voted during a meeting Thursday to bump Bannock County up from the minimal risk level. To reach the moderate risk level, Bannock County’s rate of active cases — approximately 88 — had to be greater than 10 people for every 10,000 for a sustained three days period. Bannock’s numbers have continued to climb as of late, and Thursday, the county had 170 active cases.

As part of the moderate risk level, the health district recommends actions be taken by community members such as use face coverings when in public and limit events and social gatherings to no more than 150 people. Unlike Eastern Idaho Public Health, SIPH has not issued any mandates requiring masks or face-coverings.

“Our board’s approach has been to adopt a plan as a series of recommendations, so we are not doing any kind of order or mandate. It’s largely based on active case rate and current hospital status,” SIPH Director Maggie Mann said in Facebook video Thursday.

Bannock County joins Bear Lake, Bingham, Butte, Caribou and Franklin counties in the moderate risk level. Oneida County remains in the minimal risk, as it has no current active cases. Power County is still at a high-risk level.

Movement from one risk level to a lesser risk level is evaluated every 14 days, but advancement to a level of higher risk can happen at any time.

For more information on SIPH and COVID-19, click here.

More COVID-19 news can be found here.

Shots fired at home of two New Jersey police officers who were inside with their 10-day-old child

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:07:35 +0000

Police are searching for two suspects after shots were fired at the New Jersey home of two police officers earlier this week while they were on the second floor with their 10-day-old child, police say.

“I don’t know what the motive is at this time, but I do know that this is a targeted attack against this residence that the officers reside,” Camden Police Chief Joseph Wysocki said in a news conference. “It’s very common knowledge that these officers live there.”

The incident occurred on Tuesday night on Clinton Street and six of the at least seven rounds fired struck the home, Wysocki said. Two of the rounds went through the front door and into the home, but no one was injured.

One of the officers has been with the department for four years, the other for two years. Both officers are on leave and have not been identified.

“This attack on our officers was an affront to the department and will not be tolerated,” Wysocki added.

Police are offering a $20,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of the individuals involved. An unoccupied 1998 Honda Odyssey believed to have been used in the shooting was located early Thursday morning and police are combing through the vehicle for further evidence.

County, state and federal law enforcement officials are involved in the investigation, police said.

“I want to send a very clear message to the scumbag thugs behind this senseless act,” Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Capelli, Jr. said at the press conference. “We are coming to get you and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

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New reality show promises to send winner into space for 10 days

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:04:25 +0000

A planned reality show will seek to give the winner of its on-air competition “the greatest prize ever given out on Earth” — a 10-day stay on the International Space Station.

The winning contestant on the show, called “Space Hero,” could launch into orbit as soon as 2023, the production company behind the proposed series, which is also called Space Hero, said in a press release Thursday. The news was reported earlier by Deadline.

“Space Hero will provide an opportunity for anyone from any background to become the first globally-elected space explorer to take part in a mission to the International Space Station,” the press release reads.

The production company’s press release said that the team is “now looking for global brand and primary distribution partners.” Space Hero is planning to open the application process for the show in the first half of 2021 before broadcasting begins in 2022, a spokesperson said via email Friday.

Space Hero founding partner Deborah Sass previously described the show’s prize as worth $65 million, and the spokesperson said the group is currently in its “second stage of fundraising.”

Details about the show’s format have not been released.

Space Hero also revealed this week that it’s working with Propagate, a prominent production company that works on other unscripted competition series such as Food Network’s “Chopped.” Propagate’s founders, Ben Silverman and Howard Owens, have previously worked on shows that include “The Office,” “Ugly Betty” and “MasterChef.”

Propagate did not respond to requests for additional comment.

Space Hero, which is headed by a former News Corp executive named Marty Pompadur, said it is working with Texas-based startup Axiom Space to coordinate the trip into orbit.

Axiom was co-founded and led by Michael Suffredini, who led NASA’s International Space Station Program from 2005 to 2015. The company plans to serve as a go-between for NASA, launch providers such as SpaceX and Boeing, and any private-sector individuals interested in booking rides to space for tourism, entertainment or other business purposes. Axiom has also said it can provide all the training necessary to prepare individuals for a trip to the ISS.

NASA has made a heavy push in recent years to drum up interest in commercial activity on the International Space Station, a multibillion-dollar orbiting laboratory that has hosted crews of astronauts and hundreds of scientific experiments for the past two decades.

Earlier this year, space agency head Jim Bridenstine announced that Tom Cruise is working with NASA on plans to film a movie aboard the ISS. Axiom will also handle the training and coordination for that project.

The US space agency issued a directive last year that laid out plans to allow non-government space travelers to pay the space agency for use of the ISS facilities. That document also laid out how much certain services could cost: Use of life-support equipment — and the toilet — were listed at $11,250 per day. Food, air, and other provisions were priced at $22,500 per day.

Several plans to send people to space for film or TV purposes, however, have fallen flat in previous years. An organization called Mars One gained widespread attention in 2013 with plans to have 100 people compete for one of four spots on a one-way trip to the red planet, predicting media coverage would provide the majority of the funding needed. But those plans never materialized, in part because the necessary technology does not exist. Various other announcements about ISS visitors have also fallen through, including one from pop star Lance Bass, of ‘NSYNC boyband fame, in the early 2000s.

Private citizens have visited the space station before: A company called Space Adventures previously organized eight trips to the International Space Station for ultra-wealthy travelers between 2001 and 2009 using Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Allowing tourists and other private citizens to make use of the space station — via SpaceX’s or Boeing’s new spacecraft — is part of NASA’s goal of commercializing outer space.

That effort started in large part with NASA programs that handed over the task of transporting cargo and crew to the ISS. SpaceX and Northrop Grumman routinely fly cargo, and earlier this year, SpaceX became the first commercial company in history to fly NASA astronauts to the station. Boeing is also developing a spacecraft that could be ready for crewed missions next year.

Under those programs, NASA helped fund the development of the new spacecraft, but SpaceX and Boeing own and operate their vehicles, allowing them to sell seats not occupied by professional astronauts — whether that’s Tom Cruise or a reality show competition winner.

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Michigan judge extends deadline for absentee ballots by 2 weeks

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:01:46 +0000

A Michigan state judge on Friday dramatically expanded the window for when absentee ballots can arrive and get counted after Election Day.

Judge Cynthia Stephens ruled that absentee ballots postmarked before Election Day can be counted if they arrive two weeks after the polls close. Previously, only ballots received by 8 p.m. on Election Day could be counted — a policy that led to thousands of ballots getting rejected in the state’s August primary.

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The ruling was a victory for Democratic groups that brought the lawsuit, who have been arguing in Michigan and other battleground states that many late-arriving ballots should still be counted. But it could also inject uncertainty into the post-election process because ballots arriving long after Election Day could still get counted and shift the outcome.

“This is a HUGE win for all Michigan voters who plan to vote by mail in November,” Democratic lawyer Marc Elias, who was involved in the lawsuit, said in a statement.

The judge also ruled that third-party ballot collection — sometimes pejoratively called “ballot harvesting” — can occur in the days leading up to Election Day. This means Michigan voters can give their ballots to “any third party of his or her choosing,” who will then return the absentee ballot. This process does somewhat increase the risk of fraud, but there are criminal penalties if third parties tamper with or destroy ballots.

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The Democrats fell short in their effort to have the state pay for return postage for all mail ballots. In rejecting their request to make this happen, Stephens wrote, “the Court finds that they are unlikely to succeed on their challenge to the postage requirement.”

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Trump-backed GOP Senate nominee Jason Lewis mocked elementary school sexual harassment in 1999

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:01:05 +0000

Jason Lewis, a former GOP congressman running for a US Senate seat in Minnesota, dismissed in a 1999 television show sexual harassment and assault in K-12 schools as being insignificant cases of children teasing each other and argued against a school’s legal responsibility to limit harassment between students.

Lewis made the comments on “Face to Face,” a public affairs television program he co-hosted in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Minnesota, in response to what was then a recent Supreme Court case, Davis v. Monroe County School Board.

At the center of Davis v. Monroe was a fifth-grade girl in Georgia who experienced months of sexual harassment from a male classmate, in which the classmate allegedly “would sexually taunt her by trying to grab at her breasts, rub against her in the hallways, or whisper that he wanted to ‘get in bed’ with her,” according to reporting from The Washington Post. The girl’s mother stated that she tried for months to get the school to stop the boy, but that she was ignored.

CNN’s KFile also reviewed other episodes of Face to Face from this time period in which Lewis also argued against the Sixth Amendment’s right to legal counsel, which he said was “already stretched” and that court-appointed attorneys went beyond the scope of the Sixth Amendment.

These newly unearthed comments about the harassment lawsuit are in line with Lewis’ history of deriding women who experience sexual assault and sexual harassment. CNN’s KFile previously reported Lewis mocked women who were traumatized by unwanted sexual advances and that he viewed sexual harassment law as an assault on First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, calling it both “ridiculous” and “unconstitutional,” in 2011 episodes of his former radio show.

The former GOP congressman, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump last year in the primary, faces a tough election battle against incumbent Democratic Sen. Tina Smith for the Minnesota seat. Winning Minnesota has long been a goal for Republicans and Trump, who plans to visit Minnesota on Friday and lost the state by fewer than 45,000 votes in 2016. His campaign is trying to add it to the Republican column this year but polling shows Trump trailing in the state by high single digits, and current polling for this Senate battle shows Lewis trailing Smith by high single digits.

In response to a comment request from CNN, Christine Snell, Lewis’ communications director, criticized CNN and KFile, but did not respond to the substance of Lewis’ comments.

Sexual harassment

In the June 1999 episode of “Face to Face” discussing the case, Lewis frequently bemoaned the court’s ruling, which found that a school can be sued by a student, and forced to pay damages, if it failed to stop sexual harassment committed by other students.

Lewis also dismissed allegations of sexual harassment in schools as innocent situations of “Billy” chasing “Susie,” two fictional stand-ins for elementary school boys and girls.

“This is such a boon to lawyers everywhere, they can sue school districts for not preventing Billy from teasing Susie,” Lewis said.

Lewis made the argument that the ruling endorsed superfluous lawsuits, despite the fact that the Supreme Court explicitly said in its ruling that harassment had to be so “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive” as to make it impossible for students to receive the benefits of a public education, and that “It is not enough to show… that a student has been ‘teased’ or ‘called offensive names.”

Lewis brought up the hypothetical examples of the nonexistent Billy and Susie five times in the half-hour episode to downplay sexual harassment in schools, and said that pursuing hypothetical sexual harassment cases distracted schools from preventing violence.

“While school districts are making certain that say, you know, romantic notes aren’t exchanged, or Billy isn’t harassing Susie, or all these things — that takes time,” Lewis said. “And some of us think that schools ought to be focused on violence perhaps in their hallways, instead of what some people deem to be sexual harassment.”

Lewis also complained about the increase in sexual harassment lawsuits, though not because he thought sexual harassment was rampant, but rather because he thought many were frivolous.

“Sexual harassment litigation has exploded in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, according to the EEOC, we’ve gone from 6,127 cases in 1990—to 14,420, just by 1994—we doubled in less than five years,” Lewis said to Wright Walling, an attorney and one of the show’s guests that episode

“You’re making an assumption that more lawsuits are a bad thing, and — ” Walling said.

“Yes, absolutely,” Lewis interrupted.

“The fact of the matter is that when you’re protecting the rights of, in this case, a 5th grader, of children, that some of these who should be looked at, and if that takes going to court to make the school districts, in fact, pay attention to what they should be doing to protect our children, then I don’t think—” said Walling.

“I agree with Judge Hand,” Lewis interrupted again, citing 20th century federal judge Learned Hand. “He said that more lawsuits were a bad thing and he was right then as he is today.”

Right to counsel

In an April 2001 episode of “Face to Face,” Lewis weighed in on a recent Supreme Court ruling, Texas v. Cobb, on the Sixth Amendment, which states that in all criminal prosecutions, the “accused” shall “have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.” Lewis argued that the right to a court appointed attorney went beyond the initial intent of the Sixth Amendment.

The court held in Texas v. Cobb that the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel is “offense-specific” and that a suspect in a criminal investigation may not have an attorney present for questioning in regards to a related crime if he already had access to a lawyer.

Lewis argued that the Sixth Amendment’s right to an attorney “has been tortured a bit over the years. If you really wanna look at the strict construction of the amendment, it says people have the right to counsel.”

Lewis added, “Somehow, we also have not only the right to counsel, we have the right for somebody else to pay for it and the right for it to be ever-present, omnipresent. I’m not saying [Texas v. Cobb’s] a good ruling. I’m just saying that we have already stretched the amendment.”

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The US economy needs more help. Congress is too divided to provide it

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:57:32 +0000

Small businesses are disappearing. Unemployment claims remain unbelievably high. And state and local budgets are imploding. Yet Congress is likely to skip town this month without providing additional emergency aid to the economy, according to Goldman Sachs.

“At this point, a major stimulus package before the election looks like a long shot,” Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a note Friday.

Republicans and Democrats are locked in a stalemate over the size and makeup of another round of stimulus. And the critical debate is being complicated by the looming election, which is less than two months away.

Goldman Sachs now expects Congress to depart Washington at the end of September without extending any stimulus, such as enhanced unemployment insurance payments, direct stimulus checks to households, aid to state and local governments or additional Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to small businesses.

That means economists, who had assumed Uncle Sam would provide another $1 trillion-plus in relief, may be overly optimistic on the economy.

‘Running out of steam’

Goldman Sachs said that Congressional failure to pass additional fiscal stimulus will force the Wall Street bank to downgrade its US economic growth forecast for the fourth quarter. By contrast, adoption of stimulus packages similar to the ones backed by President Donald Trump or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would cause the bank to boost its economic outlook.

“The economy seems to be running out of steam in the last few weeks,” Greg Valliere, chief US policy strategist at AGF Investments, wrote in a note to clients Friday. “Recent data have reinforced an overwhelming view among experts — including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell — that more stimulus is urgently needed from Congress.”

For instance, retail sales growth slowed in August. And another 860,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Yelp warned this week that more than half of the businesses that closed during the pandemic will never reopen — including tens of thousands of restaurants.

Meanwhile, bankruptcy filings are mounting, with Brooks Brothers, California Pizza Kitchen and SoulCycle competitor Flywheel all filing in recent months.

Large company bankruptcies spiked 244% in July and August from the same period in 2019, according to research from investment bank Jefferies.

After bottoming out at 59% in April, the CNN Business Back-to-Normal Index steadily improved this summer to nearly 80% in early September. However, the index, which was created with Moody’s Analytics and measures dozens of national and state indictors, has since retreated back to 76%.

“Without a stimulus package, more small businesses will close, state and local governments will lay off thousands of workers, and evictions will increase,” Valliere wrote.

Powell presses for aid

For all those reasons, Powell, the chairman of the Fed, has pressed lawmakers to act.

“The initial response from fiscal authorities was rapid. It was forceful and pretty effective,” Powell said during a press conference this week. “my sense is that more fiscal support is likely to be needed.”

The Fed chief noted that there are still about 11 million Americans out of work because of the pandemic — and many worked in industries that are likely to struggle.

“Those people may need additional support as they try to find their way through what will be a difficult time for them,” Powell said.

Recently, Goldman Sachs has been more bullish than other big banks on the economy. The Wall Street firm has been predicting US GDP will increase at an annualized rate of 35% during the third quarter, marking a sharp rebound from the 31.7% collapse in the second quarter.

Growth is expected to decelerate in the final three months of the year, especially now that stimulus odds have faded, Goldman Sachs said. The bank previously projected fourth-quarter GDP growth of 6%. It did not detail how much it will downgrade growth projections.

Blame politics

So why isn’t Congress acting? Not surprisingly, many are blaming pre-election partisan bickering.

“The election outlook might be influencing positions in the negotiation,” Goldman Sachs economists wrote.

The Wall Street bank noted that prediction markets, polls and external election models imply that a Democratic sweep of Congress and the White House is the “most likely outcome.”

If Congressional Democrats believe that a Blue Wave is coming, “they may prefer to wait to enact a larger fiscal relief measure in early 2021 rather than a smaller package this month that might drain momentum for a larger bill next year,” Goldman Sachs wrote.

The good news is that Congress could very well take action on the economy next year.

Even if one party controls Congress and the other the White House, Goldman Sachs said that a moderate stimulus package is likely to get enacted early next year.

If Democrats sweep in November, Congress will probably enact a stimulus package similar to the $2.2 trillion one that Pelosi has endorsed, Goldman Sachs said. That’s on top of the aggressive fiscal package that Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, has proposed.

In other words, more help is probably coming — it’s just a question of when and how large.

“This might explain why financial markets have not responded more negatively to the worsening outlook for stimulus this year,” Goldman Sachs economists wrote.

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Grant money makes free online tutoring program available to students

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:53:35 +0000

Click here for updates on this story

LITTLE ROCK, AR (KFSM) — The shift to online learning brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has parents everywhere realizing how much they need help and how much their kids could use a tutor.

An Arkansas non-profit, with help from the Walton Family Foundation, is set to offer a solution where money won’t be an obstacle.

“Free. F-R-E-E, free,” said Dr. Dionne Jackson, the executive director of AR Kids Read, on the cost to families who sign up for the tutoring program.

The literacy-focused organization is branching out to other subjects and teaming up with the Central Arkansas Library System to match troops of volunteer tutors with families looking for help.

“They can click on the tab for tutoring and there they can register a student to be placed on our list for tutoring,” Dr. Jackson said, referring to the website ArKidsRead.org.

The grants arrived after both CALS and AR Kids Read began virtual programs last spring, brought on by the pandemic. The foundation established by the heirs to the Walmart fortune dedicates much of its philanthropy to improving education. After surveying parents of all income levels in Little Rock and Pulaski County, they pushed $500,000 to expand the tutoring concept.

“This is one of the first times that we’ve had a more organized effort to connect tutors and students,” said Ellen Samples, the youth services coordinator for CALS. “Through our website, people will be able to log on and get sort of one-on-one virtual help from a real, live tutor.”

The programs will service all subjects and be available for all ages and feature both humans and computers able to help with homework. Volunteers can sign up and partnerships with college teaching programs are expected to bring instructors into the program.

The whole concept sells itself, even with the free price tag, if you’ve spent any time trying to navigate the new school landscape.

“We’ve had great success with it this summer. One hundred percent of our parents were very pleased with the experience their kids had, so we’re excited to take this to another level,” Dr. Jackson said.

The fall term begins October 19, and will last eight weeks. Students who miss that first term can try again for winter, spring, and summer programs.

CALS also plans to build on the virtual effort and have in-person offerings once the virus calms down.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

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Controversial coronavirus testing guidance came from HHS and didn’t go through CDC scientific review, sources say

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:53:08 +0000

A controversial update to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s testing guidance last month was not written by CDC scientists and was posted online before it had undergone the normal scientific review process, two sources confirm to CNN.

Details about the testing guideline changes were first reported Thursday by The New York Times.

The document, which included guidance about testing people without Covid-19 symptoms, was sent to the CDC by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the two sources told CNN. It was supposed to go through a vetting process that includes a director of science, fact-checking, cross-checking and several back-and-forths for scientific review — a process that can take several days.

As the document was going through the process, one of the sources told CNN they woke up one morning and saw that the unaltered document had been posted on the CDC’s website in its original form and including some errors.

In a statement Thursday night, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told CNN, “The guidelines, coordinated in conjunction with the White House Coronavirus Task Force, received appropriate attention, consultation and input from task force experts.”

A senior federal health official close to the process had previously told CNN that the sudden change in Covid-19 testing guidance was the result of pressure from the Trump administration, saying, “It’s coming from the top down.”

Admiral Brett Giroir, the White House coronavirus testing coordinator, said in a briefing just after the changes in August that the guideline updates were “a CDC action,” saying, “As always, guidelines received appropriate attention, consultation and input from task force experts — and I mean the medical and scientific experts.”

“There is no direction from President Trump, the Vice President, or the (Health and Human Services) secretary about what we need to do,” Giroir said at the time.

Giroir said White House Coronavirus Task Force members had signed off on the testing guideline document during a task force meeting in August.

Task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, confirmed to CNN that he was under general anesthesia for vocal cord surgery during that particular task force meeting.

More testing guideline changes expected

Before the guidance was updated, the CDC website said: “Testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Because of the potential for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, it is important that contacts of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection be quickly identified and tested.”

The site was changed on August 24 to say: “If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms, you do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.”

The guidance is expected to see more changes. Redfield testified on Wednesday that the CDC will “clarify” changes made to its guidance about testing people who do not have symptoms of coronavirus.

“We have never recommended against asymptomatic testing. You’ll see in the clarification we are making it very clear asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission is important, and making it very clear if you have been exposed to somebody, you need to be tested and contact traced,” Redfield told a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

In its pandemic planning scenarios, the CDC says its current best estimate is that 40% of infections are asymptomatic and 50% of transmission occurs before onset of symptoms.

More reports of pressure on health agencies

This isn’t the only report of political interference in US health agencies by administration officials.

CNN reported this week that Trump-appointed communications officials at HHS pushed to change language of weekly science reports released by the CDC so as not to undermine President Donald Trump’s political message, according to a federal health official. Politico first reported about pressure on the CDC regarding these reports.

A senior administration official told CNN that former Trump campaign official turned chief HHS spokesman Michael Caputo and his team had demanded to see reports out of the CDC before they are released. Officials within HHS had defended the demand, saying the CDC fell under the agency’s umbrella and that all communications and public documents needed to be cleared at the top.

Caputo is taking a two-month leave of absence from his post, HHS announced Wednesday, a day after he apologized for a conspiracy theory-laden rant he made against career government scientists in which he accused them of “sedition” and working to undermine Trump.

C
DC’s Redfield told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee this week, “At no time has the scientific integrity of the MMWR been compromised” — referring to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

“I can say that, under my watch, it will not be compromised,” Redfield said.

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Red Cross assisting Badger Fire evacuees

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:47:32 +0000

USFS

Badger Fire 9-17-20

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK)-The Idaho Red Cross has opened a temporary evacuation center at the Eastside Southern Baptist Church in Twin Falls to assist those who have been displaced by the Badger Fire.

Evacuations have been ordered for the community of Rock Creek and additional notices are pending for the South Hills area.

The fire was estimated at 35,706 acres Friday morning about 290 miles southwest of Oakley. 216 people are assigned to the fire.

The fire pushed to the west Thursday, burning another 8,000 acres. A Red Flag warning is posted Friday.

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Unity, popular video game-making software, set to go public amid IPO flurry

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:44:46 +0000

Unity Software, one of the leading platforms for video game developers, plans to raise as much as $1.3 billion in its Wall Street debut Friday.

Unity, which will trade under the ticker symbol “U,” is famous in the gaming world for its development software that studios use to create hits like “Fall Guys,” “Pokémon Go” and “Call of Duty: Mobile.” It sells that software to companies through a subscription plan and charges a starting price of $399 to $2,400 a year depending on the size of the studio. (It offers a limited version for free.)

The company’s debut will cap a busy week for IPOs. On Wednesday, cloud data storage company Snowflake became the biggest software IPO ever, with shares more than doubling on their first day of trading. Another small software tools developer, JFrog, also went public Wednesday with shares rising nearly 50%.

Its software is a rival to Fortnite maker Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, although Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello told CNN Business in February that he doesn’t think of Epic as a competitor.

“[Epic is] a very good and noble company, and they do some really cool things that we benchmark against,” he said. “But… I don’t think of them as competitors.”

Unity priced its IPO at $52 per share on Thursday. Just last week, the company said it expected to price shares between $34 and $42.

Like many buzzy technology companies debuting on Wall Street recently, Unity is not a profitable company.

In 2019, it made a net loss of $163.2 million and continued to lose $54 million in the first half of this year, it reported in a regulatory filing to go public.

In the risk factors section of that filing, Unity admits it has a history of losses and scaled up recently.

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US coronavirus case rates are ticking up after weeks of decline

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:38:02 +0000

Daily US coronavirus cases have been ticking up recently, a trend medical experts have said they won’t want to see as a potentially complicated flu season approaches.

New daily cases averaged about 39,700 over a week as of Thursday. That average has risen the past few days, to 13% higher than the week before, data from Johns Hopkins University show.

This comes after weeks of decline from a summer surge. It’s well below the summer peak average of 67,300 on July 22.

But health experts have said they fear it might be too high to prevent big spikes this fall, as colder weather sends more people indoors, increasing the risk of spreading both COVID-19 and the flu.

“We really need to see flu vaccination uptake increased across the Northern Hemisphere … especially this year,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead for coronavirus, said Friday. “Because we have a tool against flu … that will help, and it will particularly help vulnerable populations.”

Health experts have said COVID-19 colliding with flu season could strain health care capacity, partly because in normal years many Americans are hospitalized with flu.

A possible silver lining: The nation’s top infectious disease expert says the US won’t necessarily see the worst of flu seasons.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pointed Thursday to the Southern Hemisphere, where it’s late winter, and where Australia has experienced an almost non-existent flu season.

A new study published by the CDC also suggests that measures taken against COVID-19, like social distancing and teleworking, could lead to a mild flu season.

“The key point here is still this: No. 1, if we don’t want to see a double whammy (of COVID-19 and flu), get your flu shot,” Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, epidemiologist and former Detroit health commissioner, said Friday.

“No. 2, make sure you wear a mask. No. 3, keep practicing safe social distancing.”

More than 6.6 million COVID-19 infections have been officially reported in the US since the start of the pandemic, and at least 197,633 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins.

The country has averaged 838 COVID-19 deaths a day over the past week — a rate below where it was weeks ago. Daily deaths hovered above 1,000 for 25 straight days from late July into mid-August.

Report: White House nixed plan to distribute 650 million face masks through USPS

The US Postal Service had planned to distribute 650 million face coverings for the Trump administration in April to curb coronavirus, according to newly obtained internal documents reviewed by CNN.

But the White House scrapped those plans to avoid sparking “concern or panic” among Americans, senior administration officials told The Washington Post.

The documents obtained by the transparency group American Oversight show the Postal Service was doing this in partnership with the White House Coronavirus Task Force, the Department of Health and Human Services, and “a consortium of textile manufacturers.”

USPS was planning to ship the masks in April and to prioritize areas “which HHS has identified as experiencing high transmission rates of COVID-19,” according to a draft USPS release.

A separate draft media response statement said the packages would include “five reusable face cloths, which can be used up to 15 times each.”

The scrapped plan provides a fresh look at how the White House was responding to the pandemic in its early days. When reached by CNN, the White House declined to comment.

Teachers at risk across US

The country has continued to navigate its response to the crisis amid a back-to-school season like no other. While dozens of districts across the country opted to begin the year virtually, other students returned to class — and with them came more COVID-19 cases.

In Massachusetts, almost 30 teenagers were asked to quarantine after parents sent a child to school despite knowing the student was infected, according to the school district and town’s mayor. In Florida, the number of children under 18 who have contracted the virus statewide has jumped 26% since many public schools opened their doors last month.

The school openings come despite weeks of protests from education leaders who feared a return to school could be deadly.

The results of a new study now show between 42% and 51% of all school employees in the US met the CDC’s criteria for either having an increased risk for COVID-19 infection or potentially increased risk for Covid-19 infection.

The CDC says underlying health conditions like obesity, diabetes and heart disease and older age put people into the highest risk groups.

“Among all adults with CDC risk factors for severe COVID-19, between 33.9 million and 44.2 million had direct or within-household connections to schools,” the researchers with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality wrote.

The results, the researchers wrote, highlight the “public health challenge that arises when the risk of school-related exposure is coupled with the potential for within-household transmission.”

Within-household transmissions have also been a concern among experts when it comes to college students, many of whom could return home for upcoming breaks or already are living with their parents.

It’s why Fauci has urged colleges and universities to isolate students infected with the virus on campus instead of sending them home. Colleges in all 50 states have reported positive cases of COVID-19.

“You send them back to their community, you will in essence be reseeding with individuals who are capable of transmitting infection, many communities throughout the country,” Fauci said earlier this month.

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Fact check: Boasting and attacking Biden, Trump makes at least 25 false claims at Wisconsin rally

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:23:51 +0000

As former Vice President Joe Biden was participating in a CNN town hall in Moosic, Pennsylvania, on Thursday night, and making a handful of false or misleading claims, President Donald Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin.

And repeating at least 25 of his usual false claims.

We’ll address them in brief because we’ve fact checked them before:

Pre-existing conditions

Trump claimed again that Biden would “destroy protections for pre-existing conditions.” He later said that he, Trump, would “always protect patients with pre-existing conditions.”

Facts First: This is not only false but a complete reversal of reality. The protections for people with pre-existing conditions were created by the very Obama administration in which Biden served as vice president — as part of Obamacare, the 2010 law Biden has vowed to preserve and strengthen if elected President.

Trump, conversely, has tried repeatedly to get bills passed that would have weakened these protections. He is now trying to get the entirety of Obamacare struck down by the courts.

Veterans Choice

Trump claimed again that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice health care program passed.

Facts First: President Barack Obama signed the Choice program into law in 2014; it was an initiative of two senators Trump has repeatedly criticized, Bernie Sanders and the late John McCain. In 2018, Trump signed a law, the VA MISSION Act, that expanded and modified the Choice program.

“Acid washed” emails

Trump claimed again that Hillary Clinton had both deleted and “acid washed” emails.

Facts First: “Acid washed” emails are not a real thing. A company working for Clinton deleted some emails in 2015 using a free software program called BleachBit; Trump has, for years now, turned “bleach” into “acid.”

The estate tax

Trump claimed again that he “got rid of” the estate tax.

Facts First: Trump has not eliminated the federal estate tax. His 2017 tax law raised the threshold at which the tax must be paid, from $5.5 million to $11.2 million for an individual, but did not get rid of the tax entirely.

Trump began by saying that he “virtually” eliminated the tax, not completely eliminated it, but that’s still an exaggeration. And then he added, “We got rid of it.”

Harris and Biden

Trump spoke again about disputes between Biden and vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris when they were rivals during the Democratic primary: “She accused him of — that he was a racist, right? That he was a racist.”

Facts First: Harris criticized Biden during a June 2019 debate for having spoken positively about his past work with two segregationist senators, saying this was “hurtful,” but she began her remarks by explicitly saying, “I do not believe you are a racist.”

CNN cameras

Trump repeated his regular suggestion that CNN turns off its cameras at his rallies when he criticizes CNN, saying he can see the red lights go off on cameras at the back of the room.

Facts First: CNN does not turn off its cameras when he criticizes CNN, and CNN’s photojournalists at his rallies do not use any red light when they are recording.

Penalties for damaging monuments

Trump said he had found an old law under which “you get 10 years in prison if you knock down a statue or a monument.”

Facts First: Ten years is far from a guaranteed penalty under the two laws Trump might have been referring to. Rather, it is a maximum discretionary sentence a judge could choose to impose but also could choose not to; judges are also free to impose fines on guilty people.

Tariffs on China

Trump claimed again that China is paying the billions in tariff revenue Trump’s administration has distributed to farmers.

Facts First: Study after study has found that Americans are bearing the cost of these tariffs. And American importers, not Chinese exporters, make the actual tariff payments to the US government.

The history of tariffs on China

Trump said the US had never before received “10 cents” from China.

Facts First: Again, it’s not true that China is paying the tariffs — and Trump’s claim that the Treasury has never received “10 cents” from tariffs on China is also false. The US has had tariffs on China for more than two centuries; Obama imposed new tariffs on China; FactCheck.org reported that the US generated an “average of $12.3 billion in custom duties a year from 2007 to 2016, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission DataWeb.”

China also made tens of billions of annual purchases of US exports under Obama — more than $100 billion in goods purchases every year from 2011 through 2016.”

The legitimacy of polling

Trump said polls that showed him trailing in 2016 were “suppression polls” designed to deflate his supporters.

Facts First: There is simply no evidence that any major scientific poll was manipulated to hurt Trump.

Judicial vacancies

Trump said of the federal judiciary: “I want to thank President Obama. He left us 142 openings.”

Facts First: Trump was exaggerating. There were 104 court vacancies on January 1, 2017, 19 days before Trump took office, according to Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution who tracks judicial appointments.

The history of judicial vacancies

Trump continued by saying again that other presidents were not left any judicial vacancies at all: “Nobody gets left one opening; a federal judgeship is a big deal. Nobody gets left any openings.”

Facts First: It’s not true that presidents are usually left no openings. According to Wheeler, there were 53 vacancies on January 1, 2009, just before Obama took office; 80 vacancies on January 1, 2001, just before George W. Bush took office; 107 vacancies on January 1, 1993, just before Bill Clinton took office.

Travel restrictions on China and Europe

Trump claimed again that he “banned” travel from China and Europe to combat the pandemic.

Facts First: While Trump did restrict travel from China and from much of Europe, neither policy was a “ban”: both made exemptions for travel from US citizens, permanent residents, many of their families, and some others — and the restrictions on Europe exempted entire European countries.

The Iran deal

Trump said again that the Obama administration’s nuclear deal gave Iran $150 billion.

Facts First: The 2015 nuclear deal with Iran allowed Iran to access tens of billions in its own assets — not US government money — that had been frozen in foreign financial institutions because of sanctions; experts say the total was significantly lower than $150 billion.

NASA

Trump said again that NASA was “closed down” under Obama.

Facts First: Trump is entitled to criticize Obama’s handling of NASA, but it’s a clear exaggeration to say NASA was “closed down.” A launch Trump attended in June, in which NASA astronauts were aboard a private company’s spacecraft, was the product of a commercial crew program created under Obama.

“It is NOT correct that NASA was dead under the Obama administration,” said John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, where he is a professor emeritus, and a former member of the NASA Advisory Council; “much was started, like the commercial crew program.”

Charter schools

Trump claimed Biden has “vowed to ban charter schools.”

Facts First: Biden has not vowed to ban charter schools. Rather, a task force appointed by Biden and his former rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, proposed to ban for-profit charter schools in particular from receiving federal funding.

The task force took a skeptical approach to charters more broadly, but it did not propose anything close to a complete ban.

A Democratic primary in New York

Railing against mail-in voting, Trump said again that “they can’t even find the ballots” in a New York Democratic congressional primary won by Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

Facts First: It’s not true that the ballots have gone missing in this primary. There was a legal dispute about the fact that a large number of ballots were rejected for non-fraud reasons, such as missing signatures, but those ballots didn’t vanish.

The Green New Deal and planes

Trump claimed again that the Democrats’ Green New Deal proposal would mean “getting rid of your planes. No more airplane trips.”

Facts First: The Green New Deal does not call for the elimination of planes. The resolution calls for “overhauling transportation systems in the United States to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.“

Trump was likely referring to a “FAQ” document that appeared on the website of a leading Green New Deal proponent, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — but that document, which was quickly deleted, was never endorsed by the other backers of the Green New Deal. You can read a longer fact check here.

Hirono and the Green New Deal

Trump told his familiar story about how Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono praised the Green New Deal, then was told “you basically can’t fly in an airplane.” He joked that they then said they would build a bridge from the mainland to Hawaii.

Facts First: That is not what happened. When told by a reporter that the Green New Deal would try to eliminate air travel and move to high-speed rail across the country, Hirono said that would be “pretty hard for Hawaii,” then laughed. She did not explain her laughter at that moment, but as she explained later, the Green New Deal resolution Hirono had endorsed does not actually call for the elimination of air travel.

Wind power

Trump told his usual semi-comedic story about how, using wind power, you won’t be able to watch Trump speeches on television if the wind isn’t blowing at the time.

Facts First: Using wind power as part of a mix of power sources does not cause power outages, as the federal Department of Energy explains on its website. “Studies have shown that the grid can accommodate large penetrations of variable renewable power without sacrificing reliability, and without the need for ‘backup’ generation,” the Department of Energy says.

The Department of Energy explains that although power grid operators need to account for the variability that comes with using wind and solar power, they know how to manage, since “all forms of power generation,” including non-renewable sources, “may sometimes not operate when called upon.”

Biden and private health insurance

Trump claimed again that Biden “wants to wipe out 180 million private health care plans that people love.”

Facts First: Biden does not. While Biden does endorse a “public option” to allow people to opt in to a Medicare-like government insurance plan, Biden has not agreed to anything like the “Medicare for All” single-payer proposal Sanders is known for, which would eliminate most private insurance plans. In fact, Biden and Sanders clashed on the issue during the Democratic primary.

It’s possible that, over time, a popular public option would affect private insurers’ willingness to offer some private plans. But the Trump campaign is suggesting Biden is actively proposing to wipe out private insurance, and that’s not the case at all.

Pelosi and impeachment

Trump said again that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was blindsided by an inaccurate account, offered by Rep. Adam Schiff, of Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Ukraine’s president. Trump claimed that Pelosi had decided to pursue impeachment of Trump when she thought Schiff’s version was actually what was said on Trump’s call, but then, when Trump revealed the truth, Pelosi said, “What the hell did you get me into?”

Facts First: Trump’s timeline was the reverse of reality: Schiff delivered his at-least-confusing rendition of Trump’s call after, not before, the White House released a rough transcript of the call; the reason for the controversy about Schiff’s rendition at a congressional committee hearing was that people could see that it was an embellished paraphrase.

The National Guard and Minnesota

Trump took credit for quelling unrest in Minneapolis after the killing of George Floyd. He then said, “Now, they shouldn’t have allowed it go to on for 11 days. They should’ve called us immediately.”

Facts First: It was the Democratic governor of Minnesota, National Guard veteran Tim Walz, who activated the Guard to deal with violent protests; he did so before Trump publicly threatened to send in the Guard himself. And Walz didn’t let the violence go on for 11 days: he activated the state Guard two days after the first protest violence, then activated the entire state Guard two days after that.

You can read a full timeline here.

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Man makes stop in Quad Cities on homemade boat

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:22:18 +0000

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BETTENDORF, IA (WQAD) — The Mississippi River was calm Thursday afternoon, but only until a visiting boat stirred up a wake.

“There’s not much elegant about it,” Erich Mische said as he prepared to leave his dock. “It doesn’t drive like a sports car. It’s a little boxy.”

The vessel isn’t quite what boaters may expect.

“This is a Home Depot garden shed that has been modified to sit atop a 50-year-old rotting pontoon deck,” Mische said.

Mische has made some necessary improvements along the way to the “S.S. Hail Mary” as he calls it. Plus, he said he had the right tool for the job.

“Duct tape is one of the most essential things you can have if you’re taking a raft down the river,” Mische said.

He has also encountered some more serious issues.

“You don’t want leaks in your pontoons, but if you’re gonna have leaks in them, you want ‘em to be small leaks,” Mische said. “Then those small leaks you want to make sure you get the water out as soon as you can.”

Mische is from Minnesota. He is the executive director for Spare Key, a national nonprofit with services in nearly every state.

“Spare key is a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to families that are dealing with significant medical crises,” Mische said. “Try to imagine the worst illness or injury there is, and names you can pronounce and don’t pronounce, and since 1997 we’ve helped those families.”

He’s floating down the Mississippi River to raise awareness for Spare Key. He started the journey in St. Paul, Minn., in August.

COVID-19 impacted Spare Key, too.

Mische says the financial deficit for the current fiscal year is somewhere between $500,000 and $750,000.

“We don’t have a wealthy benefactor,” Mische said. “We don’t have an endowment.”

Mische also said Spare Key cancelled nearly every fundraising event this year because of the pandemic.

“I’m a big believer in hope,” Mische said. “I think that’s what this country needs more than anything right now.”

Mische is spreading his message of hope and positivity all the way to Baton Rouge, La. He said he plans to arrive in mid-October.

Mische said Louisiana is the last state in the country in which Spare Key needs to register to provide their services.

“I’ve got the paperwork in a box somewhere,” Mische said. “I’ll file that paperwork, and we’ll be officially licensed to serve families in all 50 states.”

If you’d like to follow Erich’s journey down the Mississippi, you can visit the Spare Key website. There, you’ll find a live video stream and ways to donate to the organization.

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Trump administration to announce $13 billion in additional aid to Puerto Rico

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:21:13 +0000

The Trump administration on Friday is expected to announce $13 billion in additional aid to Puerto Rico to help with rebuilding in the aftermath of 2017’s Hurricane Maria.

The government’s $13 billion investment will directly address electrical and educational systems, Garced said.

The move is likely an attempt to appeal to Puerto Rican voters who moved to the battleground state of Florida after the hurricane struck the US territory.

Trump was lambasted for his visit to Puerto Rico weeks after the storm, where he was pictured tossing paper towels to a crowd of survivors.

“If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth,” Rosselló told CNN at the time. “It would be a mistake to confuse courtesy with courage.”

And as Hurricane Dorian approached Puerto Rico in August 2019, Trump again trained his ire at its government.

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Chrissy Teigen accidentally reveals the gender of baby #3

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:15:51 +0000

Chrissy Teigen let the cat out of the bag regarding her third pregnancy.

Teigen, who is married to singer John Legend, was updating fans via her Instagram stories on Thursday when she let the gender of her baby-to-be slip.

While talking about complications with her placenta she said, “It’s so weird because the baby’s really really healthy. He’s big.”

She quickly realized her mistake but laughed it off, “He’s probably, oops! That was stupid.”

Teigen posted the clip on her Instagram stories and captioned it, “Hahahahaha might as well tell you.”

Teigen and Legend already have a 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.

They revealed they were expecting another child in Legend’s “Wild” music video in August, when she was seen holding her baby bump at the end.

She previously went through IVF for her two children but explained that this third pregnancy happened naturally and unexpectedly.

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US coronavirus case rates are ticking up after weeks of decline

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:03:54 +0000

Daily US coronavirus cases have been ticking up recently, a trend medical experts have said they won’t want to see as a potentially complicated flu season approaches.

New daily cases averaged about 39,700 over a week as of Thursday — and that average has risen the past five days, data from Johns Hopkins University show.

This comes after weeks of decline from a summer surge. It’s well below the summer peak average of 67,300 on July 22.

But health experts have said they fear it might be too high to prevent big spikes this fall, as colder weather sends more people indoors, increasing the risk of spreading both Covid-19 and the flu.

Health experts have said Covid-19 colliding with flu season could strain health care capacity, partly because in normal years many Americans are hospitalized with flu.

A possible silver lining: The nation’s top infectious disease expert says the US won’t necessarily see the worst of flu seasons.

A new study published by the CDC also suggests that measures taken against Covid-19, like social distancing and teleworking, could lead to a mild flu season.

“The key point here is still this: No. 1, if we don’t want to see a double whammy (of Covid-19 and flu), get your flu shot,” Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, epidemiologist and former Detroit health commissioner, said Friday.

“No. 2, make sure you wear a mask. No. 3, keep practicing safe social distancing.”

More than 6.6 million Covid-19 infections have been officially reported in the US since the start of the pandemic, and at least 197,633 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins.

The country has averaged 838 Covid-19 deaths a day over the past week — a rate below where it was weeks ago. Daily deaths hovered above 1,000 for 25 straight days from late July into mid-August.

Report: White House nixed plan to distribute 650 million face masks through USPS

The US Postal Service had planned to distribute 650 million face coverings for the Trump administration in April to curb coronavirus, according to newly obtained internal documents reviewed by CNN.

But the White House scrapped those plans to avoid sparking “concern or panic” among Americans, senior administration officials told The Washington Post.

USPS was planning to ship the masks in April and to prioritize areas “which HHS has identified as experiencing high transmission rates of Covid-19,” according to a draft USPS release.

A separate draft media response statement said the packages would include “five reusable face cloths, which can be used up to 15 times each.”

The scrapped plan provides a fresh look at how the White House was responding to the pandemic in its early days. When reached by CNN, the White House declined to comment.

Teachers at risk across US

The school openings come despite weeks of protests from education leaders who feared a return to school could be deadly.

The results of a new study now show between 42% and 51% of all school employees in the US met the CDC’s criteria for either having an increased risk for Covid-19 infection or potentially increased risk for Covid-19 infection.

The CDC says underlying health conditions like obesity, diabetes and heart disease and older age put people into the highest risk groups.

“Among all adults with CDC risk factors for severe Covid-19, between 33.9 million and 44.2 million had direct or within-household connections to schools,” the researchers with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality wrote.

The results, the researchers wrote, highlight the “public health challenge that arises when the risk of school-related exposure is coupled with the potential for within-household transmission.”

Within-household transmissions have also been a concern among experts when it comes to college students, many of whom could return home for upcoming breaks or already are living with their parents.

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Governor Little to hold Idaho Rebound press conference Friday

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:00:00 +0000

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - Governor Little will host a press conference regarding Idaho Rebounds Friday at 1 p.m.

You can watch it below.

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Mission nurses say patient care prompted union vote

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:59:27 +0000

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ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Mission Health is refuting allegations made by nurses that the HCA-owned hospital has increased nurse caseload assignments compared to before the hospital went to corporate ownership.

“Our nurse to patient ratios have not changed,” said Nancy Lindell, spokeswoman for Mission HCA.

Nurses, who voted 965-411 to unionize, have said certified nursing assistants are also greatly needed for patient caseload.

Don Warren, who has been a registered nurse at Mission for 13 years and has worked as a registered nurse for more than 20 years, said there was elation that nurses may now have a way to press Mission’s corporate owner to focus on properly staffing the hospital.

“Our concern is patient care,” Warren said. “We need resources. We can have anywhere from six to seven patients assigned to us. We also may not have enough CNAs on the floor.”

Warren said in recent days he’s had to take responsibility for feeding patients who could not feed themselves, using 30 minutes for each patient, when he had other responsibilities on his acute patient care floor.

Warren said there are CNA shortages, as well as housekeeper shortages, that can impact how well a hospital can operate for patients who are waiting for rooms.

While unionizing often focuses on pay disputes and benefits, Warren said a survey taken by Mission nurses showed those issues weren’t the biggest concern.

“It had to do with patient-staff ratio. It didn’t have to do with increased pay,” Warren said.

“It’s really necessary that the hospital respect the results of the election,” said Bradley Van Waus, spokesman for National Nurses United, the union the Mission nurses will join.

The vote was conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, a federal entity charged with enforcing labor laws.

“As divisive as this election has been over the last few months, we respect the right of nurses to decide for themselves whether or not they supported NNU,” Lindell said. “The National Labor Relations Board process allows both parties time to review the election. The hospital may utilize that process to ensure that all of our nurses had the fair election that they deserve.”

Lindell said HCA has made tremendous investments in Mission in the short time it has owned the hospital.

“In our first year of partnership (2/1/19–1/31/20), HCA Healthcare invested $200 million in capital to bring leading -edge technology to Western North Carolina. Investments in staff have also been made by welcoming more than 460 new Mission team members since March, including more than 100 new graduating registered nurses. Since this time last year, our registered nurse team has grown by almost 200 full-time and part-time nurses across 37 different nursing units, an increase of more than 73%. We value our nurses and the exceptional care they provide,” Lindell said.

The next step for NNU at Mission is to elect a nurse representative board that will eventually go before HCA administrators to negotiate on behalf of the newl-formed union.

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An Idaho pastor skeptical of masks lands in the ICU for Covid-19

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:56:44 +0000

(CNN) — A pastor in Idaho who called himself a “no-masker” during a service and repeatedly questioned the veracity of coronavirus case reporting is in the ICU after contracting Covid-19.

Paul Van Noy, senior pastor at Candlelight Church in Coeur d’Alene, has spent two weeks in the hospital with a Covid-19 diagnosis, ministry coordinator Eric Reade confirmed to CNN. Five other church staff were infected with coronavirus, too, but they’ve all recovered, he said.

In a comment shared through Candlelight Church, Van Noy said he’ll soon move out of the ICU into another room in the hospital and then recover at home.

“At present I feel OK but still need quite a bit of oxygen support — especially if and when I try to get up out of the bed,” he said in a statement through the church.

His wife also contracted Covid-19 but wasn’t hospitalized, according to the church. The couple are two of over 3,050 cases in the Northwest Idaho area, local health data shows.

Candlelight Church shut its doors temporarily in March but reopened for in-person services in early May. Van Noy’s church doesn’t require parishioners to wear masks, though they’re welcome to, Reade told CNN.

In a July 22 service that was posted online, Van Noy said while he doesn’t mind if other people wear masks, he didn’t “want to be told” he needed to wear a mask.

He also said he wouldn’t comply if the city ordered him to halt in-person services, though the church also livestreams its services. Nationwide, church leaders have been fined — and even arrested — for holding services during the pandemic.

In a July Facebook post, Van Noy falsely claimed that wearing masks doesn’t prevent Covid-19 transmission, and he urged his parishioners not to fear the “cause or effect of Covid-19.”

Multiple international studies have shown that wearing masks, paired with persistent social distancing, are the most effective ways to prevent transmission of coronavirus. Effective face masks keep asymptomatic people from sneezing, coughing or spitting out droplets that contain the virus and prevent the wearer from breathing in someone else’s virus-bearing droplets.

“May we keep our heads at a time like this,” Van Noy wrote. “And, may we defend our freedoms lest they quickly disappear. We will not close down our church, we will not stop singing praises to the Lord, and we will not be required to wear masks or refrain from allowing those who wish to wear one the opportunity.”

Nebraskans celebrate 85th anniversary as Americas longest-living couple

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:56:41 +0000

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OMAHA, NE (WOWT) — If we told you we were doing a story on a Nebraska couple living past the century mark — that’s an incredible feat of health and endurance.

But this isn’t one of those stories.

This couple has something else to tout — something none of us can claim.

The year: 1935. A young couple comes here to the Burt County Courthouse in Tekamah to get married.

He’s 17; she’s 16. The first judge wouldn’t marry them. But then they found another one who did.

“Everybody said it would never last,” said Ralph.

Boy, were they wrong.

Thursday marked Ralph and Dorothy Kohler’s 85th wedding anniversary. Think about that: 85 years together in marriage.

“You don’t ever think you’d make it. We did. That’s the main thing,” said Ralph.

A few years ago, when Ralph and Dorothy were in their 90′s, they moved from Nebraska to California to be close to one of their daughters.

You would need a limo to fit in all the words of the accomplishment.

They claim the title of “America’s oldest, longest-living married couple.”

“Neither one of us ever smoked and drank,” Ralph said.

“I cooked, and he liked to eat,” Dorothy said.

In life, there’s something to be said for being agreeable. Each grew to love the passions of the other — the ying and yang of a couple with three kids and countless grandchildren and beyond.

“Love for one thing, and we enjoy the same thing. And if we didn’t, we accepted it,” Ralph said. “Dorothy loves ballroom dancing, and I loved shooting clay targets. I joined her with ballroom dancing, and she joined me with trap shooting.”

Dorothy even became a trap shooting national champ in 1952.

Ralph spent most of his years outdoors as a commercial waterfowl guide. He wrote a book about it and shares space with other legends of the outdoors in a hall of fame.

When it comes to advice, Ralph has 102 years of experience.

So what should we do if there’s conflict at home?

“If we ever had a problem, I agreed to it. That’s the best way to get out of them,” Ralph said.

And for a couple who knows the importance of setting goals, why not shoot for a 100th anniversary?

“That’s 15 years, isn’t it? I’d like to be, but I doubt it,” Ralph said. “I think we’re pretty fortunate to be this far along.”

So much for the doubters.

Happy 85th anniversary Ralph And Dorothy!

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Church offering desks for virtual learners

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:54:37 +0000

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WILKES-BARRE, PA (WNEP) — It’s been more than a decade since students were taught inside the former St. Aloysius School on Barney Street in South Wilkes-Barre.

“They’ve educated so many people of this area, over the years, it’s over 100 years old. And in 2009, unfortunately, but through consolidation and mergers of schools,” explained Fr. Richard Cirba of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish. “It just, unfortunately, ended up where the school would close.”

But with so many students learning at home and all these desks sitting unused, it gave Fr. Cirba an idea.

“Because schools are going virtual and hybrid and so forth, I thought we have these classrooms full of desks upstairs that we don’t use,” added Fr. Cirba. “Parents are trying to make use of their homes to become a school, and some were asking oh we wish we had a desk, and I thought, well, if you want a desk, why not take them from here? Make a donation and take them because they’re only sitting here anyway.”

When you come to the former St. Aloysius School in South Wilkes Barre for a desk, you’re also going to get a chair of the proper size to go with it.

“We’re all in this predicament together and trying to make the best as we can out of what we have and what we could do to make things easier for people. Especially parents, because it’s difficult for parents right now when they have to, you know, create a school out of their home,” said Fr. Cirba.

If you are interested in a desk and chair, you can contact the parish office at 570-823-3791 ext. 2.

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Unity, popular video game-making software, set to go public amid IPO flurry

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:50:45 +0000

Unity Software, one of the leading platforms for video game developers, plans to raise as much as $1.3 billion in its Wall Street debut Friday.

Its software is a rival to Fortnite maker Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, although Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello told CNN Business in February that he doesn’t think of Epic as a competitor.

“[Epic is] a very good and noble company, and they do some really cool things that we benchmark against,” he said. “But… I don’t think of them as competitors.”

Unity priced its IPO at $52 per share on Thursday. Just last week, the company said it expected to price shares between $34 and $42.

Like many buzzy technology companies debuting on Wall Street recently, Unity is not a profitable company.

In 2019, it made a net loss of $163.2 million and continued to lose $54 million in the first half of this year, it reported in a regulatory filing to go public.

In the risk factors section of that filing, Unity admits it has a history of losses and scaled up recently.

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71 students and staff members quarantine after COVID positive students attend school

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:48:25 +0000

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GWINNETT COUNTY, GA (WGCL) — Parents with kids at Mill Creek High School were shocked to learn 71 people from the school are in quarantine after the principal says individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 came to school while sick.

“My daughter has not set foot in that school yet so that’s a relief to me and my family. It’s scary to think she could have been one of those kids,” said Alex M. whose daughter attends the school.

The school says there are three confirmed cases, one suspected case and 67 close contacts who are now in quarantine.

In a letter to parents the schools principal writes, “In my opinion, the vast majority of the close contacts could have been prevented had some of the individuals who are now sick, or awaiting test results, not come to school when they were not feeling well or if they had stayed home as they knew they had been exposed to someone who had received a positive test.”

Parents online are calling out each other for putting others in harms way. Mill Creek students have had the option to learn digitally since classes started back up.

One parent, whose children learn digitally at the school, told CBS46 reporter Jamie Kennedy they believe only around 20-30 percent have taken up the option. They said this careless behavior reassures them they made the right decision.

“Right now I don’t feel safe at all in the near future, not until we figure out what this thing is, how to control it and how to stop it. Right now the only way to avoid it is by avoiding each other,” said Alex.

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A firefighter has died in the California wildfire sparked by a gender reveal party

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:46:26 +0000

A firefighter has been killed in the El Dorado Fire, the blaze sparked this month by a botched gender reveal party, according to the San Bernardino National Forest Service.

The firefighter was killed Thursday, the forest service said in a brief statement. The cause of death is under investigation, it said, and the firefighter’s identity was withheld pending the notification of next of kin.

“Our deepest sympathies are with the family, friends and fellow firefighters during this time,” the forest service said in a brief statement on Twitter.

The El Dorado Fire was started by a “smoke-generating pyrotechnic device” used at a party over Labor Day weekend in El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, according to Cal Fire investigators.

Fire officials told CNN at the time that those involved were cooperating with fire investigators.

As of Friday morning, the El Dorado Fire had scorched more than 21,000 acres and was 66% contained.

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Kaua’i teacher raises funds for school’s stolen farm equipment

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:39:26 +0000

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HI (KITV) — For years one Kaua’i High School teacher has been committed to growing her agriculture program through the campus farm.

However, a theft over the summer put the brakes on maintenance and production and that teacher is now looking for help.

Ever since Caitlyn Madrid took the reigns of Kaua’i High Schools Natural Resources program she’s been determined to cultivate it.

Pre-pandemic he and more than one hundred students have dedicated much of their time to sustainability as stewards of the schools campus farm.

“It’s about two acres at the end of our campus, on the backside of our campus up against Nawiliwili Road,” Madrid said.

In the past daily maintenance kept the farm functioning, providing produce.

“We maintain our banana patch, we grow fresh fruits and vegetables,” Madrid said.

A fruitful farm that at one point even kept livestock, raised by students, that would support school fundraisers.

“That’s one of the things the students really really enjoy is the animal husbandry portion of that. So it’s been a really good experience for them,” Madrid said.

According to Madrid, summer is when things went downhill.

Thieves stole majority of the programs farming equipment.

No tools, and no money to replace them Madrid says her departments budget has been slashed.

“We went from $57K in federal funds last year to around $25K this year. And that’s between 10 CTE teachers we split that money,” Madrid said.

So she’s turning to the community for help.

Madrid started a crowd funding campaign hoping Kaua’i residents will step in for her students.

The link to it can be found here.

From a monetary donation to even used appliances, Madrid says every bit helps the program, and those who are part of it.

“We really wanna produce students out of our school that can be contributing members of our community,” Madrid said.

Because she believes sowing seeds of sustainable learning will reap benefits everyone can enjoy.

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‘Cheer’ star Jerry Harris arrested on charge of production of child pornography

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:37:33 +0000

Jeremiah “Jerry” Harris, one of the students featured in Netflix’s breakout docuseries “Cheer,” has been arrested on a production of child pornography charge, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Fitzpatrick.

Harris, 21, is accused of “enticing an underage boy to produce sexually explicit videos and photos of himself,” according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The minor was 13 at the time, the complaint said.

A representative for Harris did not immediately return CNN’s request for comment via email.

Harris appeared in federal court in Chicago on Thursday afternoon, where the government sought his detention as a danger to the community.

Harris’s attorney said he will seek his release saying he is “asthmatic” and at risk for Covid-19.

Production of child pornography is punishable by a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years, a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office stated.

Harris was interviewed by law enforcement this week on these accusations, according to the criminal complaint.

Earlier this week, Harris was accused of child sexual exploitation and abuse in lawsuit filed by an attorney representing two alleged victims.

A spokesperson for Harris told CNN at the time, “We categorically dispute the claims made against Jerry Harris, which are alleged to have occurred when he was a teenager. We are confident that when the investigation is completed the true facts will be revealed.”

“Cheer” recently won two Emmy Awards and is nominated for outstanding unstructured reality program, which will be announced during the last night of the virtual Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday.

On Thursday, a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to CNN: “Like everyone we are shocked by this news. Any abuse of minors is a terrible crime and we respect the legal process.”

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Colorado couple’s 20-year search for extinct fruit finally pays off

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:36:43 +0000

(CNN) — On a crisp December afternoon, as the sun slowly fell behind the nearby Sawatch Range, Addie and Jude Schuenemeyer stared at a nearly dead tree, a few apples dangling off its last living branch.

“In that moment, I felt hope,” recalls Addie.

But was this moment when the sun finally set on their nearly 20-year hunt for something many long believed was extinct?

‘We knew it was something unusual’

Growers will tell you Colorado is not the easiest place to grow fruit. The high altitude and extreme temperature fluctuations in spring and fall cause problems for farmers trying to grow apples, peaches, pears, cherries and plums in the Centennial State.

But, despite the thin air, late frosts, lack of rain and abundance of grasshoppers, fruit orchards have long adorned the valleys across the state.

“When many people were coming in to go after gold in the Pike’s Peak gold rush in the late 1800s, other people realized those miners and those folks would need to be fed,” explains Jude, Addie’s husband and her Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project co-director. “People thought they were insane and laughed at them for thinking that you could even grow fruit here.”

The couple created MORP after they purchased a nursery in 2001. Their mission: to create and preserve a genetic bank of Colorado heritage apples and reintroduce those varieties into current orchards.

“Preserving genetic diversity of the apple is historically important and provides a valuable resource to today’s farmers and consumers,” says Addie.

“These varieties represent a real economic opportunity for growers in rural Colorado to put orchards back in these historical areas and give them a chance to make a living on the legendary quality fruit that was once a hallmark for our state,” adds Jude.

One of those fruits the Schuenemeyers hoped to preserve: the Colorado Orange apple.

“We first saw the Colorado Orange in a county fair. When we saw it, we knew it was something unusual,” says Jude. “It had tremendous complexity to it. It was sweet but had the taste of tangy subtleties to go with the sweetness,” the Schuenemeyers explained, though their assessment at the time was based solely on what they had read — not what they’d tasted.

When industrial farming took root in the US at the turn of the 20th century, the appetite for fewer apple varieties, grown in more favorable climates, increased.

“When the Red Delicious came out around 1900, it was just another apple,” explains Jude. “By 1920, it became the dominant apple. It was a shiny red apple that grew pretty well everywhere. And even though other places couldn’t grow as high a quality of Delicious as Colorado could, Colorado couldn’t grow as many, especially since [the Red Delicious] is a little more frost sensitive.”

Orchards that grew a wide range of different apples slowly disappeared.

“We’ve documented over 400 varieties of apples historically grown in Colorado, 50% are now considered lost,” says Addie. “The Colorado Orange was one of these.”

It’s been long-believed the Colorado Orange apple was extinct.

Going crazy to find it

In doing research to find apples grown in Colorado, Jude and Addie discovered the Colorado Orange in an old county fair record as having won several awards. But there was no indication where the apple originated. In the late 1800s, apples were grown all over the state … from the Denver metro area, all the way to the state’s far southwest corner in Montezuma County where the Schuenemeyers live.

They had no specific location to start looking.

“It took us a couple of years trying to realize what is, where it was, and then going crazy trying to find it,” explains Jude.

Looking through state horticulture records, they eventually narrowed down that the variety was first planted in Fremont County, about a two-hour drive south of Denver.

Many trips to the county, visits with farmers and samples of possible Colorado Orange apple tree all ended in disappointment.

Then, in December of 2017, while returning samples taken of other trees to a man in Fremont County, he wanted to show the Schuenemeyers another tree in his orchard … one that his father-in-law once told him was a Colorado Orange.

“This was the exact age and location of an orchard where we would expect to have a chance of finding this elusive apple,” says Addie. “The apples looked the part: oblate, ribbed, yellow and orange in color, obviously a late winter apple. We realized the owner had taken us to the wrong tree before. This one just might be the one we were looking for.”

Apples to apples

The Schuenemeyers collected several apples hanging from, and lying around, that tree. Having experienced disappointment before, they were guarded in their excitement but moved to prove what they may have finally found.

The couple’s next step was to dig into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s collection of pomological watercolors. Amongst its library of nearly 4,000 watercolor paintings of apples, the USDA had four depictions of Colorado Orange apples. The Schuenemeyers cut open their apples and compared them with the paintings. They were extremely similar.

DNA samples of the apples and tree were sent to horticulture scientists at the University of Minnesota to be compared against other apple varieties in their vast databank.

More than a year after they first saw the tree, the Schuenemeyers received the results: “unique, unknown.” The apples they had found in Fremont County matched none of the thousands of apple genotypes in the scientists’ DNA databank. It was good news.

“There was no control. They had no DNA for the Colorado Orange because it was believed to be extinct,” says Jude.

But Jude and Addie were not ready to tell the world the extinct apple was not actually extinct. They needed more proof.

The day before the DNA results had arrived, Addie and Jude received an email from an archivist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. She had the possible key to solving the Colorado Orange apple mystery.

“We became aware of a wax apple collection sitting in boxes in a retiring professor’s office,” says Linda Meyer, a CSU archivist. “And the apples had a listing with them. One of the apples listed was a Colorado Orange.”

The Schuenemeyers knew this could be the moment for which they had long waited. “We were able to compare apples to apples,” says Jude.

Nearly seven months passed before Jude and Addie could drive the eight hours from their home to Fort Collins to meet with Meyer.

They were eager to see the wax collection created in the early 1900s by Miriam Palmer, a former professor at the school. Palmer had been tasked by the school’s agriculture department with making wax replicas of the state’s popular, award-winning apples. Each apple was meticulously crafted, painted and marked with a number as a reference guide.

“She inscribed a very tiny number on the bottom side of each apple,” explains Meyer. “She then made a card with that number, identifying the apple, which orchard it had come from, and the year she had collected it.”

Amongst the collection of 83 apples the university found was #30 – Colorado Orange. Once the Schuenemeyers were able to compare the wax apple with real ones from the tree that December afternoon two years earlier, they could finally celebrate.

“98% sure, give or take 3%,” says Addie. A nearly 20-year journey scouring the state, trying to find a small piece of Colorado history and prove it still existed, had finally paid off.

“The Colorado Orange is the greatest thing we’ve ever found,” proclaims Jude.

An apple with a story

Since their discovery, Jude and Addie have taken samples from the old tree and begun growing new Colorado Orange apple trees.

“We are the beneficiaries of the gift given to us from 150 years ago,” says Jude. “But, it does us no good to be the only persons growing [the Colorado Orange apple]. Our steps now are to get it out to the people.”

The Schuenemeyers say they have given some of their new trees to a half-dozen Colorado farmers to be planted and grafted in much larger orchards, with the hope that in the next five to 10 years, the Colorado Orange apple will appear in grocery stores, farmers markets and restaurants for consumers to enjoy.

“This apple has a story,” says Steve Ela, a fourth-generation fruit grower in Hotchkiss, Colorado, who received some of the new Colorado Orange trees this spring. “You need to get people in the door and get them excited for the food. It’s local, it’s rare, and it grows late in the fall. That adds value.”

With issues such as climate change and the global pandemic, Ela believes consumers are demanding more produce grown closer to their homes. And, he believes, if consumers are wanting to buy more Colorado apples, grocery stores will want more of what’s growing in his orchards.

“This is a commodity market. We can’t compete against China and Washington in terms of size,” says Ela. “But there are people out there that really care about the taste of their food and relish something different. When we have something like [the Colorado Orange apple], we can compete because we’re the only ones that have it.”

Van Morrison protests Covid-19 lockdowns in three new songs

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:26:06 +0000

Van Morrison is railing against UK lockdowns and pandemic restrictions in three new songs, despite the government’s success at containing Covid-19 transmissions.

The 74-year-old Northern Ireland musician is best known for the soft-rock classic “Brown Eyed Girl.” But he is no longer so dulcet. His new singles feature lyrics so specific and incendiary they sound as though they were designed to be played at rallies and protests.

In a statement, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer described the forthcoming songs — “Born to Be Free,” “As I Walked Out” and “No More Lockdowns” — as “songs of protest” that criticize the government’s decisions to shut down businesses, including live music venues.

Morrison said his personal freedoms are being impinged upon.

“I’m not telling people what to do or think. The government is doing a great job of that already,” he said in the statement. “It’s about freedom of choice. I believe people should have the right to think for themselves.”

Morrison’s publicists shared the lyrics to his upcoming songs with CNN. In “As I Walked Out,” he gets hyper-specific, listing off dates when the UK’s guidance around coronavirus changed rapidly.

In “Born to Be Free,” he sings that UK residents seem to have amnesia “trying to remember about the Berlin Wall.” Morrison does not expound upon the comparison.

“No More Lockdown” is perhaps the most blunt of the bunch. Morrison rages against the government-imposed lockdown, singing that officials are “pretending it’s for our safety when it’s really to enslave.”

The Grammy-winner previously has criticized the government for canceling live music shows. In a now-deleted post on his website from August, Morrison called on members of the music industry to “fight the pseudo-science” around Covid-19, the Guardian reported.

Covid-19 is a novel illness, but the science surrounding it is sound. A study released this summer found that US shutdowns prevented about 60 million Covid-19 infections in the country. Shortly after lockdown restrictions were lifted nationwide, Covid-19 cases began to balloon.

In the UK — the government Morrison specifically condemns in his songs — officials are considering a second lockdown. Many of the country’s restrictions were lifted earlier in the summer, but now that the country is seeing new cases surge upward of 3,000 every day, local officials have imposed targeted lockdowns.

Morrison’s three new songs will roll out digitally every two weeks beginning next week with “Born to Be Free.” He plans to perform them later this month at live shows.

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Small stocks may thrive in 2021 — no matter who wins the election

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:25:49 +0000

The stock market is, to put it mildly, having a strange year.

The S&P 500, a market cap weighted index heavily influenced by the FAANGs, is up nearly 4% in 2020 while the tech-laden Nasdaq has soared more than 20%. But the Russell 2000, the index that is home to America’s small cap public companies, is down almost 8%.

And some strategists think 2021 might finally be the time for the Davids of the market to start outperforming the massive Goliaths of tech.

This year, smaller companies are taking the hit: They tend to have more exposure to the United States economy versus overseas markets, and America is in the midst of a recession while facing a possible second wave of Covid-19 cases.

Meanwhile, multinational tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google owner Alphabet and Facebook, are currently benefiting from the nascent recovery abroad as Europe and Asia move past the worst of their coronavirus outbreaks.

But this tech rally won’t last forever: “The run-up we’ve had in large caps and big tech has been so big that a rotation into small caps is going to happen,” said Dan Pipitone, co-founder of TradeZero America, an investing app similar to Robinhood.

“The election is traditionally a dynamic catalyst for this — and it could be more pronounced this year,” he added.

Smaller companies outperform in post-election years

Small caps often do well just after a presidential election in party because there’s a renewed focus on domestic issues. After the contentious political race is finally over, the president and Congress can actually get down to the real business of governing.

The average return for the Russell 2000 is 15% in the year after a presidential election since 1980, according to research from Citi strategist Scott Chronert. That’s about 4 percentage points better, on average, than large cap stocks.

And if the current polling turns out to be accurate and Joe Biden defeats President Trump, small caps could get a particularly big boost. That’s because, as Chronert points out, the economy has often slumped in an election year — which means a new president needs to focus on fixing that.

“Since 1980 four elections, and party changes, have taken place during, or related to, recessionary conditions,” Chronert wrote in a report late last month.

With that in mind, Chronert thinks the president — be it Biden or Trump in a second term — will need to prioritize issues like tax and trade policies, health care reform and Big Tech oversight to get the US economy back on track.

Other market experts are also predicting that smaller companies will rebound in 2021.

“Small caps definitely could do better next year. They’ve lagged versus blue chips and usually in a recovery, small caps…lead,” said Todd Lowenstein, managing director and equity strategy executive of The Private Bank At Union Bank.

Assuming that the economy is still weak after November, which seems like a safe bet, Lowenstein is cautiously optimistic that Democrats and Republicans will finally work together on more stimulus.

“Small caps should be beneficiaries after the election. Fueling the domestic economy should be an easy win and provide some common ground for bipartisanship,” he said.

Of course, that may be easier said given the rancorous state of national politics.

Investors will need to be selective with small caps

Meanwhile, smaller companies face another pressing concern. Several weaker companies — those with lots of debt, in particular -— may not be able to stage a comeback.

“Yes, small companies can do well after election, But the universe of smaller firms has shrunken,” said Judith Lu, CEO and founder of Blue Zone Wealth Advisors.

“The market is weeding out small and midsized companies now due to Covid. Companies that don’t have strong enough balance sheets may not survive,” Lu added.

That’s why investors may need to pick and choose their spots wisely. Not all small companies wlil do well. Lu said the key is to look for companies that have attractive valuations — those trading at discounts to larger tech firms.

Growth stocks may also continue to outperform value stocks.

“Interest rates are exceedingly low and that’s likely to continue. That favors growth stocks,” said JoAnne Feeney, portfolio manager with Advisors Capital Management.

Feeney said she looks for rapidly growing companies that have businesses which are comparable to larger, more well-known stocks.

For example, her firm has a stake in StoneCo, a Brazilian payments firm that’s similar to PayPal, as well as financial tech firm Q2. Feeney said her firm has also invested in handheld barcode reader maker Zebra as a way to capitalize on the explosive growth of Amazon and e-commerce, as many workers in Amazon warehouses use Zebra’s scanners.

TradeZero America’s Pipitone said his firm’s clients are starting to gravitate toward smaller biotechs that could benefit from vaccine news or partnerships with Big Pharma. Vaxart and iBio are two in particular that have soared thanks to strong demand from mom-and-pop retail traders.

Investors are flocking to consumer staples companies too as more people stay home — like booze. Pipitone said Sam Adams owner Boston Beer is a popular stock among TradeZero America customers.

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Judge rules censorship clause in former Director of School’s severance agreement unconstitutional

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:21:27 +0000

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NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) — A Davidson County judge ruled in favor of three school board members who sued Metro and former Director of Schools Dr. Shawn Joseph over the legality of the School Board censorship clause in Joseph’s severance agreement.

Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle issued an order on Tuesday striking down the censorship clause as unconstitutional on multiple grounds and permanently enjoined its enforcement.

Last year Joseph announced he would not seek to renew his contract, which was set to expire June 30,2020. The school board voted to buy out Joseph’s contract and approved his severance agreement at a school board meeting on April 9, 2019. Part of Joseph’s severance agreement included a clause prohibiting the school board from making “any disparaging or defamatory comments regarding Dr. Joseph and his performance as Director of Schools.

School Board members Jill Speering, Fran Bush and Amy Frogge voted against the terms of the agreement. The motion passed 5-3.

Earlier this year the three school board members filed a lawsuit against Joseph and the Metro government claiming the clause in Joseph’s severance agreement violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Among other things, the clause prohibited elected School Board members even from truthfully criticizing “Dr. Joseph and his performance as Director of Schools.”

Upon review of it, Lyle ruled that the clause violated the Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights, unlawfully prohibited them from speaking honestly with their constituents, and violated established Tennessee public policy. As a result, the clause was invalidated as unenforceable. Metro and Joseph will additionally be required to pay the Plaintiffs’ “reasonable costs and attorney’s fees,” which have been pledged to charity.

“This is a landmark victory on behalf of both elected officials’ free speech rights and citizens’ right to hear from their elected representatives,” said attorney Daniel Horwitz, who represented all three Plaintiffs, in a news release. “Metro and Joseph should be ashamed of their efforts to gag elected officials and prevent them from speaking honestly with their constituents about issues of tremendous public importance, and their illegal attempt to do so should serve as a costly warning to other government officials to think twice before violating the First Amendment.”

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Concerns about children getting less physical activity

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:17:29 +0000

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NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) — For some children, PE class at school may be the only physical activity they get during a day, and with kids learning from home, there’s concern they’re getting even less movement than a typical school year.

“We definitely know that kids are not getting as much activity, the safer at home policy, things being canceled have definitely led to decreases in activity.”

Dr. Elizabeth Martin is a professor of pediatric physical medicine at Vanderbilt University, and while it may be too early to study the data on how much activity kids are missing out on, there’s cause for concern.

“Exercise as we know is really important, not only for physical health, but for mental health, for boosting our immune system, for helping with sleep and learning,” Dr. Martin said.

The good news in this, children have an ally – parents also need to make sure they’re getting enough exercise, so Dr. Martin suggests the whole family find an activity each day that everyone can do together.

“Getting out and getting some fresh air is wonderful,” she said. “If you need to be indoors, there are lots of great indoor activities, so be creative, some up with scavenger hunts, obstacle courses in your backyard.”

Dr. Martin also suggests online programs designed to keep your kids moving right now.

She specifically suggests one called “Go Noodle” and “Fit Kids.”

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A deal to create Spain’s largest lender could signal more bank mergers in Europe

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:17:15 +0000

Two big Spanish banks have announced a deal to create the country’s largest domestic lender in a move that could signal the start of further consolidation in Europe’s beleaguered banking sector.

CaixaBank said in a statement on Friday that it will buy state-owned Bankia in an all-share deal that will help the companies tackle falling profitability as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The deal values Bankia, which was bailed out by the government during Spain’s banking crisis in 2012, at €4.3 billion ($5.1 billion), according to Jefferies analysts.

The new entity will have 20 million customers and a quarter of all loans and deposits in Spain. Total assets will exceed €664 billion ($786.6 billion), making it the largest bank in the domestic market, the companies said. Santander and BBVA, which have extensive overseas operations, are Spain’s largest banks.

“We will become the leading Spanish bank at a time when it is more necessary than ever to create entities with a significant size,” José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, Bankia’s current chairman and the chairman of the new entity, said in a statement.

The companies said the merger made strategic sense against the backdrop of the pandemic along with other structural challenges faced by eurozone lenders, including the shift to digital banking and low interest rates.

Other deals could be on the horizon for Europe’s overcrowded financial sector. Swiss bank UBS is reportedly examining a potential deal with rival Credit Suisse. A merger of Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender, and crosstown competitor Commerzbank, was under consideration as recently as last year.

The deal in Spain comes amid a trying year for Europe’s banks, which have had to raise billions of dollars to cover bad debts as they brace for one of the worst global recessions on record. Banks are also contending with ultra-low interest rates, which make lending less profitable, prompting them to find other ways to support dwindling income.

“The clearest way to improve profitability is to gain the benefits of scale and extract synergies from a merger,” said Jefferies analyst Benjie Creelan-Sandford.

CaixaBank and Bankia expect the combined entity will benefit from cost savings of €770 million ($911.8 million) a year. They are targeting additional revenue of €290 million annually ($343 million).

Creelan-Sandford expects to see further consolidation among European banks, including in Spain and markets such as Germany and Italy, which are less concentrated.

In July the European Central Bank clarified its supervisory approach to consolidations, which was interpreted as being supportive of further tie-ups. “The regulator has become increasingly explicit that they would like to see more mergers and acquisitions in the sector,” Creelan-Sandford said.

But cross-border mergers are more complex and come with less low-hanging fruit when it comes to cost savings, such as being able to combine branch networks.

“There are multiple differences in regulations across countries [within Europe] and also in terms of products,” said Morningstar analyst Johann Scholtz. An even bigger hurdle is that there is no deposit insurance regime covering the European Union or the eurozone, he told CNN Business.

Where Scholtz does see opportunity, however, is among investment banks, which are less tied to particular countries and need scale to compete in an environment of thinning margins and undifferentiated products.

“European investment banks have found it very hard to compete against US rivals, even in Europe,“ he said.

Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported UBS chairman Axel Weber had drawn up plans for a proposed tie-up with Credit Suisse to create a Swiss banking champion, although a later Reuters report said it was considered internally as unlikely, citing a person familiar with the matter. The companies told CNN Business that they do not comment on “rumors” or “speculation.”

While a merger between the two groups would likely add value to shareholders, it would face considerable regulatory hurdles in Switzerland pertaining to competition and rules that seek to prevent banks from becoming “too big to fail,” said Scholtz.

— Streisand Neto contributed reporting.

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Workers fear humans implanted with microchips will steal their jobs

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:14:29 +0000

Workers worry that in the not-too-distant future they will be sidelined by humans implanted with performance-enhancing microchips.

Two-thirds of employees believe that in 2035, humans with chips implanted in their bodies will have an unfair advantage in the labor market, according to a Citrix survey of employees in the United States and Europe that was shared exclusively with CNN Business.

Although cyborgs may sound like the stuff of science fiction, they could be here before long.

Thousands of people in Sweden have inserted microchips in their hands that could one day replace keys and cards. Elon Musk recently showed off a working brain implant in pigs made by Neuralink, his brain-computer interface company.

And Synchron, a San Francisco startup funded in part by the US Defense Department, is already testing an implantable wireless device that can stimulate the nervous system from the inside of a blood vessel. It has been implanted in patients with upper-limb paralysis.

There is a sharp divide between employees and C-Suite executives over the pros and cons of implanted chips. And that gap echoes a broader difference of opinion between workers and leaders over artificial intelligence and the future of technology and the role of workers at the nexus of the two.

“Leaders are consistently more positive about the benefits that technology and AI will bring, while workers are more skeptical and concerned about their own role in the changing world of work,” according to Citrix Work 2035, a research study done by the software company whose Workspace service helps employees to work from anywhere.

Seventy-seven percent of business leaders believe that under-the-skin chips and sensors will boost worker performance and productivity by 2035. By comparison, just 43% of workers share that positive view on chips.

“I look at it much less as a Hollywood-version of cyborgs,” Citrix CEO David Henshall told CNN Business. “I see it more concentrated in wearables. You can imagine someone at a job site with augmented reality who can overlay a schematic diagram.”

AI will soon overtake humans in revenue generation

Although employees seem more fearful of implanted devices, they may also be more likely to embrace them — perhaps if only in an effort to protect their livelihoods.

Fifty-seven percent of workers would be willing to have chips implanted in their own bodies — if they felt it was safe and would boost their performance, the Citrix survey found. By contrast, only 31% of business leaders were open to implants themselves.

Broadly, CEOs and employees agree that technology, especially artificial intelligence, will play a critical role in the future.

In fact, 72% of professionals (workers and business leaders combined) polled by Citrix believe that by 2030 AI will replace humans as their organization’s top revenue generator.

And by 2035, AI technology investment will be the biggest driver of growth for their organization, according to 90% of business leaders.

But what do these trends portend for humans?

“We are already in the midst of the greatest winner-take-all economy in the history of the world. AI will drive those inequities up, not down,” former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang told CNN Business.

Yang, whose signature issue is a $1,000-a-month universal basic income for all adults, said that if CEOs see more value coming from AI, they will devote fewer resources to humans.

“Workers are getting replaced and automated in everything from meatpacking factories to accounting firms. Over time, you will have fewer workers,” said Yang, who is a CNN political commentator. “We need to be more clear-eyed and realistic about what this means for our society,”

Workers share those concerns.

Sixty percent of employees surveyed by Citrix think that by 2035, permanent employees will be a rarity.

‘Robots are not going to replace humans’

The good news is that C-Suite executives, presumably the ones making the decisions, are much more bullish on the role of humans in the future. Most leaders (81%) think permanent employees will still have a place by 2035.

Moreover, 70% of business leaders polled by Citrix said the pandemic made them believe human workers are more important to their business relative to technology.

And it’s easy to see how technology will continue to make employees better at their jobs, just as PCs, smartphones and the internet have.

By 2035, technology such as AI personal assistants and augmented reality glasses will make workers at least twice as productive, according to 51% of professionals in the Citrix survey.

“Robots are not going to replace humans,” Henshall, the Citrix CEO, said. “Technology will make people better and smarter. It’s an enabler, not a replacer.”

Yet it seems likely that technology, especially AI, will shift the role that humans play in companies in the future.

Eighty-three percent of professionals say that by 2035, technology will automate low-value tasks. In theory, that would free up workers to focus on more meaningful work.

“Technology over the last 100 years has done nothing but help people become more productive and efficient,” said Henshall. “The types of tasks will have to evolve over time.”

Will AI eventually replace the C-Suite?

But there is no guarantee that the humans being “freed” from mundane tasks will be the same ones hired for the more exciting work. Countless workers, especially those without the right skills training, could be left behind in the disruption.

“The workers that will suffer the most will be the majority whose work can be automated away,” said Yang. “There will be a handful of executives and investors who end up profiting at unprecedented levels.”

Yang pointed out that Google recently launched an AI call center that will enable companies to push some of their customer service calls to Google instead of their own workers. He noted more than 2 million Americans work in call centers — and predicted that most companies will not shift those workers to other positions.

“That’s not how organizations function,” said Yang, whose devoted following during the presidential campaign was known as the Yang Gang. “They will say, ‘You are no longer needed, thank you for your service. Here’s a week’s severance.'”

Management may not be immune to the coming wave of disruption, either.

The Citrix survey found that most professionals believe that in the future, organizations will have a central AI department that oversees all areas of business. Even CEOs will work in a human-machine tandem with an office of chief artificial intelligence.

Not just that, but more than half (57%) of all professionals believe that by 2035, there will be no traditional leadership team at all — just AI making most business decisions.

Perhaps that will boost the CEO ranks in the Yang Gang.

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Oregon environmentalist George Atiyeh remains missing after wildfire destroys his home

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:11:50 +0000

An Oregon environmentalist who fought to protect the pristine Opal Creek Wilderness has been missing since a devastating wildfire swept through his home in the Oregon woods last week.

George Atiyeh, the 72-year-old activist and nephew of former Oregon Gov. Victor Atiyeh, was last seen on September 7 before the Beachie Creek Fire exploded overnight last week.

The fire began August 16 in the Opal Creek Wilderness, about 2 miles south of Jawbone Flats and 6 miles north of Detroit, Oregon, according to the US Forest Service’s InciWeb system. A historic windstorm September 7 transformed the fire overnight from 469 acres to more than 131,000 acres.

In all, the fire has burned more than 191,000 acres, caused four deaths, injured three people and destroyed nearly 500 homes. The Beachie Creek Fire was still just 20% contained as of Thursday and is estimated to be fully contained at the end of October.

Dwayne Canfield, the executive director of the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, told CNN in an email Thursday that he last spoke with Atiyeh the Monday before the fire exploded.

“I did urge him to leave, and he said it was only a level two evacuation so he didn’t need to yet,” Canfield said in an email.

The Opal Creek Wilderness is a 20,000-acre refuge of steep and rugged forested hillsides boasting Douglas fir trees, creeks, mountain peaks and lookouts, according to the Forest Service.

The wilderness refuge was protected by federal legislation in 1996 after activists, including Atiyeh, pushed back against plans to open the area for logging.

Scott Fogarty, a longtime friend of Atiyeh, said Thursday he was holding out hope that his friend survived the fire and escaped to the local river.

“So in my mind’s eye, he’s potentially sitting on one of those shelves, those benches in the water, the natural rock benches in the water and hopefully, you know, he’s going to be able to either head downriver at some point, or once the fire subsides completely he’ll be able to walk up out of there,” Fogarty said.

“That’s my hope.”

The post Oregon environmentalist George Atiyeh remains missing after wildfire destroys his home appeared first on Local News 8.

Teenager brings awareness, diversity to Windsor Locks community discussion

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:07:58 +0000

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WINDSOR LOCKS, CT (WFSB) — A Windsor locks eighth grader is leading an important discussion about racism in the community tonight.

This evening, the town held an “erasing racism’ conversation – after a 14-year-old was inspired to make a difference in their town.

“People really need to know about it because they are the change,” Jasmine Hurdle said Thursday.

The Windsor locks middle school student says she has faced some prejudice in her life.

And after reflecting on what’s going on across the country, and her own town, she contacted first selectman Chris Kervick to let him know what needs to be done.

“A lot people feel that it’s uncomfortable to talk about,” Hurdle said. “So I really want to bring awareness.”

All eyes were on Jasmine and a panel of diverse speakers. All sharing their experiences being a person of color in Windsor Locks.

“I went to my mom and asked why people don’t like me for my skin color,” Hurdle said. “Am I wrong, am I dirty? And she really had to explain to me that I had value. That I am important.”

Jasmine says racism, diversity and inclusion is an important topic for her.

She hopes it will be just as important for the people who attended tonight.

“I want them to learn that just because you don’t see racism, doesn’t mean its not happening,” Hurdle said.

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