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SunSeeker

SunSeeker's Journal
SunSeeker's Journal
September 25, 2020

Truck plows through Hollywood crowd protesting Breonna Taylor's killing; at least 1 injured

Source: KTLA News

At least one person was injured after a truck plowed through a crowd of demonstrators in Hollywood, where protesters were demanding justice for Breonna Taylor.

Sky5 was overhead as the Ford pickup truck struck a large group of people walking down the 6500 block of Sunset Boulevard between Seward Street and Schrader Boulevard at 8:54 p.m.

The vehicle continued driving, and a green convertible car followed for some time until police caught up.

The driver eventually pulled over about three minutes later, exiting the vehicle and surrendering to police. The man was taken into custody moments later.

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/truck-plows-through-hollywood-crowd-protesting-breonna-taylors-killing-at-least-1-injured/

Read more: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/truck-plows-through-hollywood-crowd-protesting-breonna-taylors-killing-at-least-1-injured/



Any bets on what bumper stickers are on the truck?
September 22, 2020

The N95 shortage America can't seem to fix

Six months later, that shortage persists, leaving health-care workers exposed, patients at risk and public health experts flummoxed over a seemingly simple question: Why is the world’s richest country still struggling to meet the demand for an item that once cost around $1 a piece?When the country was short of ventilators, the companies that made them shared their trade secrets with other manufacturers. Through the powers of the Defense Production Act, President Trump ordered General Motors to make ventilators. Other companies followed, many supported by the government, until the terrifying problem of not enough ventilators wasn’t a problem at all.
...
But for N95s and other respirators, Trump has used this authority far less, allowing major manufacturers to scale up as they see fit and potential new manufacturers to go untapped and underfunded. The organizations that represent millions of nurses, doctors, hospitals and clinics are pleading for more federal intervention, while the administration maintains that the government has already done enough and that the PPE industry has stepped up on its own.
...
The Department of Health and Human Services did fund the invention of a “one-of-a-kind, high-speed machine” that could make 1.5 million N95s per day. But when the design was completed in 2018, the Trump administration did not purchase it.But ask the people inside hospitals, and the shortage is far from over. An August survey of 21,500 nurses showed 68 percent of them are required to reuse respirators, many for more than the five times recommended by the CDC, and some even more than Kelly Williams. One Texas nurse reported she’s still wearing the same five N95s she was given in March.Along with ordering 3M to import 166.5 million masks from China, the administration has used the DPA to invest $296.9 million in bolstering the N95 and filter-making supply chains. The Department of Defense, which oversees that funding, spends more per year on instruments, uniforms and travel for military bands.
...
“By not having a national strategy,” Hall said, “we have fewer masks.” Ask the PPE industry and the refrain is that without long-term guarantees that the government will keep buying respirators, N95 manufacturers are wary of investing too much, and other companies that could start making respirators or the filters for them are hesitant to do so.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/news/n-95-shortage-covid/?itid=hp-top-table-main

September 16, 2020

Maine wedding 'superspreader' event is now linked to seven deaths. None of those people attended.

Only about 65 close family members and friends were on the guest list for a bride and groom’s rustic wedding celebration in a small Maine town in early August.

But the nuptials began an outbreak now traced to more than 175 reported novel coronavirus infections and also to the deaths of seven people, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

The cluster of coronavirus infections that originated from the Big Moose Inn outside Millinocket on Aug. 7 continues to grow in Maine, state health officials said, after guests flouted social distancing and mask guidelines. Now people who have no association with the party have died, including six residents of the Maplecrest Rehabilitation and Living Center in Madison, Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah said in a news briefing Tuesday.

The Millinocket wedding is not the only rule-defying celebration linked to a growing number of cases, as contact tracers and public health officials across the country continue to track down infections that stem from summer “superspreader” gatherings, including a motorcycle rally in South Dakota and a choir practice in Washington.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/15/maine-wedding-covid/

September 15, 2020

Who needs another Zoom call? Why sending letters might help your loved ones.

Supporting friends and family who are going through a hard time used to involve meaningful chats at the local coffee shop, venting over a glass of wine on the couch or warm embraces followed by words of encouragement. Now, because of the coronavirus pandemic, those traditions are on hold.

But we can take another approach: sending handwritten letters. The old-fashioned gesture could be particularly beneficial now: The pandemic is adversely affecting Americans’ mental health, and research suggests that being contacted by letter can lower the risk of suicide. Besides, after months of remote work and virtual communication, many people might welcome a tangible alternative to yet another Zoom call. Feel awkward writing a nondigital missive? No worries, we have you covered.“[

Letters] help provide social support, even if you can’t be there with your friend or family member, holding their hand and being by their side,” says Spray, who is also the director of the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Center at NYU Langone Health.

Research indicates that such support can have a significant impact on recipients’ mental health. One study, conducted at Stanford University in the early 1970s, followed more than 800 people after they had been discharged from the hospital for depression or suicidal tendencies. One group of patients received handwritten letters from a health-care provider they knew in the five years following discharge, while the other group received no letters. Patients in the letter-receiving group had lower rates of suicide over the five-year period.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/letters-pandemic-depression-anxiety-help/2020/09/14/47b3bb3a-f3b1-11ea-b796-2dd09962649c_story.html

September 15, 2020

Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Speaks for the First Time Since Nerve Agent Attack

Vladimir Putin’s nemesis Alexei Navalny has posted on social media for the first time since a nerve agent attack left him critically ill last month. On Instagram, the Russian opposition leader posted a photo from his hospital bed Tuesday morning and addressed his supporters four weeks after he was poisoned after drinking a cup of tea at a Russian airport. “Hi, this is Navalny,” he wrote. “I miss you. I still can hardly do anything, but yesterday I was able to breathe on my own all day... I did not use any outside help, not even the simplest valve in my throat. I liked it very much.” The poison that struck down Navalny has been identified as Novichok—a nerve agent concocted by Soviet scientists during the Cold War. Navalny’s second-in-command told The Daily Beast last week that she suspects her boss was attacked by men sent by close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin. https://www.thedailybeast.com/alexei-navalny-speaks-for-the-first-time-since-nerve-agent-novichok-attack?ref=home

September 14, 2020

L.A. deputies tackled and arrested a reporter. Her videos contradict their claims about the incident

Source: Washington Post

NPR executives and reporters groups condemned Huang’s arrest, demanding her charges be dropped and the sheriff’s department explain why officers forcefully tackled her.As Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies tackled Josie Huang to the street on Saturday night, the reporter for NPR affiliate KPCC screamed repeatedly she was a journalist. Deputies arrested her anyway, leaving her with scrapes, bruises, a five-hour stay in custody — and an obstruction charge that carries up to a year in jail.

Police claimed Huang, who also reports for LAist, didn’t have credentials and ignored demands to leave the area. But those claims are contradicted by video Huang shared on Sunday showing her quickly backing away from police when ordered to do so and repeatedly identifying herself as a journalist. Huang said she also had a press badge around her neck.

Early on Sunday morning, the sheriff’s office told a different story in recounting her arrest. The department said that as officers were struggling to arrest a protester, “a female adult ran towards the deputies, ignored repeated commands to stay back as they struggled with the male and interfered with the arrest.”

Huang “did not identify herself as press,” the department claimed, “and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person.” Asked by The Post to clarify those claims in light of Huang’s videos showing her clearly identifying herself as a reporter, a department spokesperson declined to comment citing an ongoing investigation.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/14/la-sheriffs-josie-huang-npr/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most



The war on journalists must stop.
September 14, 2020

California Is the Most Diverse State, Report Says

Racial diversity is a major theme of 2020, with the death of George Floyd, other killings and subsequent protests sparking broader discussions on racism and racial inequality. Diversity is reflected in the U.S. population, which is composed of myriad cultures, economic statuses, educational levels, religions and other demographics.But just as some aspects of society aren't as diverse as others – just 29% of state legislators nationwide are women, for example – some areas are more diverse and promote diversity more than others. California, Texas and Hawaii are the most diverse U.S. states, according to personal finance site WalletHub.

The states were ranked according to their scores on 14 metrics in six categories: socioeconomic diversity, political diversity, religious diversity, cultural diversity, household diversity and economic diversity. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, and states were ranked based on their overall scores, determined by their weighted average across the metrics. The data sources include the U.S. Census Bureau, the Association of Religion Data Archives and the American Values Atlas.

Top-ranked California scored in the top five in three categories: socioeconomic diversity, household diversity and cultural diversity. The state scored highest of any state for linguistic diversity, part of the cultural category. Hawaii ranked third overall, in part from its top score in racial and ethnic diversity.

Most Diverse States

1. California
2. Texas
3. Hawaii
4. New Jersey
5. New York
6. New Mexico
7. Maryland
8. Florida
9. Nevada
10. Arizona

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-09-10/california-is-the-most-diverse-state-in-the-us

September 11, 2020

ICE flew detainees to Virginia so the planes could transport agents to D.C. protests. A huge coronav

Source: Washington Post

Full headline: ICE flew detainees to Virginia so the planes could transport agents to D.C. protests. A huge coronavirus outbreak followed.


The Trump administration flew immigrant detainees to Virginia this summer to facilitate the rapid deployment of Homeland Security tactical teams to quell protests in Washington, circumventing restrictions on the use of charter flights for employee travel, according to a current and a former U.S. official.

After the transfer, dozens of the new arrivals tested positive for the novel coronavirus, fueling an outbreak at the Farmville, Va., immigration jail that infected more than 300 inmates, one of whom died.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency moved the detainees on “ICE Air” charter flights to avoid overcrowding at detention facilities in Arizona and Florida, a precaution they said was taken because of the pandemic.

But a Department of Homeland Security official with direct knowledge of the operation, and a former ICE official who learned about it from other personnel, said the primary reason for the June 2 transfers was to skirt rules that bar ICE employees from traveling on the charter flights unless detainees are also aboard.
The transfers took place over the objections of ICE officials in the Washington field office, according to testimony at a Farmville town council meeting in August, and at a time when immigration jails elsewhere in the country had plenty of beds available because of a dramatic decrease in border crossings and in-country arrests.





Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/ice-air-farmville-protests-covid/2020/09/11/f70ebe1e-e861-11ea-bc79-834454439a44_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most



A man died because Trump brought ICE agents to gas peaceful protesters in DC.
September 4, 2020

Hundreds more have died at home in L.A. Experts say COVID-19 is the culprit



In the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner Dr. Jonathan Lucas — charged with reviewing the causes of nearly 10,000 deaths a year — saw a disturbing trend: the number of people dying at home had jumped drastically.

Though he did not know the cause at the time, and some mystery still remains, Lucas now believes he was seeing firsthand the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic which would soon sweep the country — killing more than 180,000 Americans by the end of August.

When COVID-19 cases began to surface in the U.S., home deaths started to escalate and continued to build through the following months, according to records compiled by Lucas’s office and obtained by The Times.

In the first six months of the year, there were 330 more home deaths in Los Angeles County than in a typical year, according to a Times analysis. In April alone, the number jumped by nearly 60% over April of last year —

https://www.latimes.com/projects/coronavirus-home-deaths/#nt=0000016f-e424-d31d-abef-e4f6e55c0001-liA5promoSmall-1col-7030col1-main

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