January 11, 2023

Biden not in favor of a gas stove ban, White House says

Source: CNN

The White House on Wednesday asserted that President Joe Biden does not support a ban on gas stoves after a federal consumer safety official suggested that such a proposal was on the table.

The White House response follows a recent Bloomberg interview with Biden-appointed US Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr., who called the household appliance a “hidden hazard” and said that “any option is on the table” in relations to regulating them.

“Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” he added. Besides a ban, other options include “setting standards on emissions from the appliances,” Trumka said.

Pollutants from gas stoves have been linked to asthma and worsening respiratory conditions. A December 2022 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that indoor gas stove usage is associated with an increased risk of current asthma among children. The study found that almost 13% of current childhood asthma in the US is attributable to gas stove use.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/politics/biden-gas-stoves

January 9, 2023

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse officially steps down, opening up appointment to seat

Source: NBC News

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, officially resigned from the Senate on Sunday as he prepares to step back into academia as president of the University of Florida.

Sasse, who led Midland University, a small private collage in his home state, before he ran for the Senate, submitted his resignation last month saying he would leave office Jan. 8 — two years into his second term.

In farewell remarks last week, Sasse criticized the body that he had been a member of since 2015, saying, “This institution doesn’t work very well right now.”

“Each of us knows we should be taking a look in the mirror and acknowledging that lives lived in a politicized echo chamber are unworthy of a place that calls itself a deliberative body, let alone the world’s greatest deliberative body,” he said.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republican-sen-ben-sasse-officially-steps-opening-appointment-seat-rcna64818

January 7, 2023

Earl Boen, Actor in the 'Terminator' Films, Dies at 81

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Earl Boen, the busy character actor best known for his stint as the criminal psychologist Peter Silberman in the Terminator film franchise, died Thursday in Hawaii, his daughter told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 81.

Ruby Harbin said her dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in November and died quietly in his sleep.

Born on Aug. 8, 1941, Boen amassed dozens of credits during his career. In 1984, he landed his most notable role as Dr. Silberman in James Cameron’s The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Biehn. He reprised the role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).

One memorable scene in the first Terminator saw the character interrogate Biehn’s Kyle Reese, a freedom fighter from the future that the psychologist believed suffered from paranoid delusions. Nearly 40 years later, Biehn recalled fondly his time working with Boen on the scene.

Read more: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/earl-boen-dead-actor-terminator-franchise-1235292569/

---

January 3, 2023

Bills' Damar Hamlin suffers scary injury vs. Bengals on 'Monday Night Football'; game temporarily su

Source: CBS Sports

Bills' Damar Hamlin suffers scary injury vs. Bengals on 'Monday Night Football'; game temporarily suspended

An scary scene unfolded during the first quarter of Monday night's game between the Bills and Bengals. With 5:58 remaining in the opening quarter, Bills safety Damar Hamlin was injured after tackling Bengals wideout Tee Higgins. Hamlin initially stood up after making the tackle but quickly fell back to the ground.

Hamlin was receiving CPR from the medical staff on the field, according to ESPN. He was eventually placed on a stretcher and was given oxygen as he was taken off in an ambulance.

The game was temporarily suspended after coaches Sean McDermott and Zac Taylor spoke on the field.

Hamlin, 24, is in the middle of his third season with the Bills. He earned a spot in the Bills' starting lineup this season after appearing in 14 games as a rookie. Hamlin played collegiately at Pitt, where he tallied 276 tackles and six interceptions.

Read more: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bills-damar-hamlin-suffers-scary-injury-vs-bengals-on-monday-night-football-game-temporarily-suspended/

---

Huge tragedy, players are crying on the field and the game was temporarily suspended. It's not looking good.

December 31, 2022

Transgender Bathroom Ban Doesn't Discriminate, Court Holds

Source: Bloomberg Law

Separating school bathrooms based on biological sex is constitutional and doesn’t violate Title IX, an en banc Eleventh Circuit said Friday in a divided ruling that may have widespread consequences in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.

A Florida school board didn’t violate transgender high school student Drew Adams’ equal protection rights when it prohibited him from using the boys’ bathrooms at Allen D. Nease High School, the court said, reversing a trial court.

The US has a long tradition of separating sexes in certain situations, especially when it comes to the use of public bathrooms, Judge Barbara Lagoa said for the seven-judge US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit majority. Such sex-based classifications have never necessarily run afoul of the Equal Protection Clause, she said.

St. Johns County School Board showed its policy restricting bathroom use by “biological sex” was constitutional because it significantly furthered the student privacy interest the board claimed, Lagoa said. That interest included allowing students to use the bathroom away from the opposite sex and to shield their bodies from the opposite sex—an interest courts have long deemed valid “in a variety of legal contexts,” Lagoa said.

Read more: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/transgender-florida-students-bathroom-access-undone-on-appeal

December 20, 2022

When does Congress recess?

How many more bills are there to be worked on before Winter break?

December 17, 2022

Who here is obsessed with coquito?

For those of you that don't know, it's a Christmas rum beverage that's similar to eggnog. It originated in Puerto Rico, and is huge in states and towns with large Puerto Rican populations.

Anyway, I'm in NYC and it's big here. People actually sell them homemade by the bottle here. I just bought one for $35, and it was worth every penny. It is my favorite alcoholic beverage off all-time. Anyone else love them?

Coquito

December 16, 2022

What does the fusion energy breakthrough mean for the future of cars?

If a car is powered by it, what makes it different than a normal electric vehicle? Would the charge last a lot longer?

How about for other battery powered devices, such as cell phones?

December 16, 2022

Jack Dorsey Takes Blame for Twitter Failures, Will Give $1 Million to Signal

Source: Rolling Stone

Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey took the blame for Twitter’s controversial content decisions that the platform made under his leadership, while warning of content control by governments and corporations.

Dorsey started the statement in a Twitter thread but moved it to a blog post, explaining, “I don’t want to edit everything into 280 char chunks.” The founder said that he hoped to build a Twitter that was based on principles he had learned through his “past actions as a Twitter co-founder,” but that he “completely gave up pushing for those ideas after an “activist entered our stock in 2020.”

“I planned my exit at that moment knowing I was no longer right for the company,” he wrote.

The principles he hoped to achieve as a public company — social media resilience to corporate and government control, user-controlled content, and moderation implemented by algorithmic choice — were not present when he led the company, nor in today’s Twitter, he said.

Read more: https://rollingstoneindia.com/jack-dorsey-takes-blame-for-twitter-failures-will-give-1-million-to-signal/

December 13, 2022

Lauren Boebert, Far-Right Firebrand, Wins Re-election After Recount

Source: NY Times

After a recount in a remarkably close race, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, known for heckling President Biden during his State of the Union speech, arming herself on Capitol Hill and ignoring Covid mask rules, won her bid for a second term. Colorado’s secretary of state, Jena Griswold, announced the results on Monday.

Ms. Boebert, 35, staved off a fierce challenge from Adam Frisch, a Democratic businessman and former Aspen, Colo., city councilman, in the state’s Republican-leaning Third District.

Mr. Frisch, who faced a deficit of roughly 500 votes out of more than 327,000 cast, gained just two votes in the automatic recount. In the end, Ms. Boebert won with 50.06 percent of the vote, to Mr. Frisch’s 49.89 percent.

On Twitter on Sunday, before the recount was made official by the secretary of state, Ms. Boebert said: “Our conservative policies will help all Americans to overcome the challenges we face so each of us has the opportunity to live our very best life. Thank you for entrusting me to help lead the way. I’ll be working every day to prove I can get the job done right.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/us/politics/lauren-boebert-colorado-elected.html