SharonClark
SharonClark's JournalIowa certifies the election and Mariannette Miller-Meek (R) wins IA-02 by 6 votes!
This is a heartbreaker for Rita Hart and a loss of retiring Democratic Dave Loebsack's seat.
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"Under Iowa law, this recount process was designed to count ballots that had already been tallied, meaning that additional legal ballots may have yet to be counted," campaign manager Zach Meunier said in the statement. "Over the next few days, we will outline our next steps in this process to ensure that all Iowans’ voices are heard."
Hart's campaign must take legal action within two days of Monday's certification. If it does, Iowa Code calls for the formation of a contest court, including Iowa Chief Justice Susan Christensen and four appointed district court judges selected by the Iowa Supreme Court. That group would rule on which candidate would fill the seat by Dec. 8.
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Complete story at https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2020/11/30/iowa-panel-certifies-2nd-congresssional-district-2020-election-results/6464892002/
How state political parties helped big money pay for this year's elections
Interesting and brief read on how state parties engage in legal money laundering of campaign funds.
WASHINGTON — State parties played an unprecedented role in financing the presidential election this year, making it possible for the national political parties to raise eye-popping sums from individual donors — and keep more money than they might otherwise be allowed.
That’s all thanks to a 2014 Supreme Court decision that eliminated the overall limit on how much money an individual can donate over a two-year period to national political parties, federal candidates and state parties’ federal accounts combined. The limit had been in place since the Watergate era.
There’s nothing illegal about what happened, but a States Newsroom analysis of federal data shows how nearly every state Republican and Democratic party helped pump more big money into this year’s elections. The system also benefited swing states like Florida, North Carolina and Georgia more than states where races weren’t as close, like Maryland or Tennessee. . . .
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/11/25/how-state-political-parties-helped-big-money-pay-for-this-years-elections/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=be69747c-ce02-4d59-9195-8e130ab2cd4e
New favorite quote from Elie Wiesel - "Always take sides". . .
https://www.instagram.com/p/BisMEULAIt_/"Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented."
Stumbled across MOMXD on cable but I can't find
anything about it. It appears to have movies without ads.
Anyone else have this channel?
MSNBC special on Obama on now.
Tyson hires former AG Eric Holder to investigate claims of betting on worker infections
Tyson Foods’ CEO announced Thursday he has hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to lead an “independent investigation” into a lawsuit’s claims that managers in the company’s Waterloo plant placed bets on the number of workers who would contract COVID-19.
The claims of a betting pool at the food giant’s Waterloo plant, first reported by Iowa Capital Dispatch, are just one set of allegations Tyson is facing in lawsuits across the country.
In Iowa alone, at least three coronavirus-related cases, involving a total of five plaintiffs, are pending in state and federal court. Other COVID-19 lawsuits, filed on behalf of dozens of workers, are pending in Texas courts. . . .
More than 1,000 Tyson employees at the Waterloo plant — a third of the facility’s workforce — have contracted the virus since the beginning of the pandemic and at least five of the workers have died.
Nationally, at least 4,600 Tyson employees in 15 states have been infected with COVID-19, and at least 18 have died. According to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, there have been at least 42,000 infections tied to meatpacking facilities in at least 470 plants in 40 states, and at least 215 deaths are associated with 51 plants in 27 states.
In Iowa alone, at least 3,835 infections and nine deaths are tied to meatpacking plants. . . .
In Texas, at least three lawsuits have been filed against Tyson — one by a group of 12 employees at the company’s plaint in Center, Texas, one by 41 employees of Tyson’s Amarillo plant, and one by the family of a deceased Tyson employee. . . .
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/11/19/tyson-hires-former-ag-eric-holder-to-investigate-claims-of-betting-on-worker-infections/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=715e5393-4d83-4569-ad9f-923a5620ec2a
Mayo Clinic: 905 staff diagnosed with COVID in past 2 weeks
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — More than 900 staff members in the Mayo Clinic Health System in the Midwest have been diagnosed with COVID-19 over the last two weeks as the virus continues to surge across the region, officials said.
Dr. Amy Williams, executive dean of Mayo Clinic Practice, said Tuesday that the 905 newly diagnosed employees account for 30% of all staff that have contracted COVID-19 since the pandemic began. And 93% of those with the coronavirus were exposed in the community, not at work, she said.
“It shows how widely spread this is in our communities and how easy it is to get COVID-19 in the communities here in the Midwest,” she said.
In total, about 1,500 Mayo Clinic staff are out due to a COVID-19 diagnosis or exposure, Williams said. That number has been roughly unchanged over the last week, as some staff have returned while others go out.
The health system has Midwest locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, but didn’t specify where the affected employees were located.
Reported COVID-19 deaths in Iowa continue to be near-record levels as another 38 people died from the disease caused by the coronavirus.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, the state was reporting 2,102 COVID-19-related deaths, an increase of 38 deaths since the state's tally at 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to the state's Coronavirus.Iowa.gov website. On Wednesday, the state reported 40 deaths, the largest one-day increase since the pandemic arrived in Iowa.
The state was reporting at 10 a.m. Thursday that there are 198,674 confirmed cases of coronavirus, an increase of 4,195 since 10 a.m. Wednesday.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2020/11/19/905-mayo-clinic-staff-infected-covid-19-spreads-across-midwest/6341865002/
Lawsuit: Tyson managers bet money on how many workers would contract COVID-19
This article describes how Tyson worked with Iowa Gov Kim Reynolds and totally disregarded and even mocked the welfare of Tyson employees.
A wrongful death lawsuit tied to COVID-19 infections in a Waterloo pork processing plant alleges that during the initial stages of the pandemic, Tyson Foods ordered employees to report for work while supervisors privately wagered money on the number of workers who would be sickened by the deadly virus.
Earlier this year, the family of the late Isidro Fernandez sued the meatpacking company, alleging Fernandez was exposed to the coronavirus at the Waterloo plant where he worked. The lawsuit alleges Tyson Foods is guilty of a “willful and wanton disregard for workplace safety.” . . .
Fernandez, who died on April 20, was one of at least five Waterloo plant employees who died of the virus. According to the Black Hawk County Health Department, more than 1,000 workers at the plant — over a third of the facility’s workforce — contracted the virus.
The lawsuit alleges that despite the uncontrolled spread of the virus at the plant, Tyson required its employees to work long hours in cramped conditions without providing the appropriate personal protective equipment and without ensuring workplace-safety measures were followed. . . .
An earlier lawsuit, by the same law firm, represents three other Tyson workers' families.
The lawsuit seeks damages for the estates of employees Sedika Buljic, 58, who died on April 18; Reberiano Garcia, 60, who died on April 23; and Jose Ayala, Jr., 44, who died on May 25. Waterloo attorneys Tom Frerichs and John Rausch and the Spence Law Firm in Wyoming are representing the families.
More at links...
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/11/18/lawsuit-tyson-managers-bet-money-on-how-many-workers-would-contract-covid-19/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=262db44b-40a7-4239-8f3e-18b4aec7c655
https://apnews.com/article/780cd323a100bee5acf2bb15c0ff6d1b
Partisanship Is Making Americans Vote For Things They Don't Actually Want
Interesting response to when people ask "How can they vote against their own interests".
Why Americans vote against their interests, and why it’s just going to get worse.
By Michael Hobbes
Last week’s election was, as usual, utterly baffling.
Voters in Florida decisively passed a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage, but also decisively favored Donald Trump, a candidate who believes the minimum wage is just fine where it is. Deep-red Montana, Mississippi and South Dakota liberalized marijuana laws. Bright-blue California and Illinois rejected rent control and income taxes, respectively.
This is nothing new. Every election is a fresh demonstration that the United States is a nation of individuals, not groups, and that those individuals have beliefs that don’t fall neatly along partisan lines.
“Most people aren’t ideological in the way journalists, political scientists and talking heads are,” said Christopher Witko, a professor at Pennsylvania State University who researches inequality and American elections. “If you’re someone who follows politics closely, knowing your position on the minimum wage makes it pretty easy to predict your position on taxes and abortion. But that’s not how it works for most of the public.”
More here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-voter-behavior-makes-no-sense_n_5fac6010c5b6d647a39b7f1d
Gloria Bolger has been fact-checking Santorum
all morning on CNN. Santorum’s latest is that the PA SOS broke the law by allowing ballots to be “cured”. All his repug buddies in PA tell him so.
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