{"question_id": "20220624_0", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220624_1", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/19/business/warren-buffet-lunch-19-million-trnd/index.html", "title": "Warren Buffett auction: Someone paid $19 million for a steak lunch ...", "text": "(CNN) There really is no such thing as a free lunch.\n\nAn anonymous bidder paid a record-breaking $19 million for a private steak lunch with legendary investor Warren Buffett. The sale was part of the 21st annual auction for a lunch with Buffett, produced in collaboration with eBay and the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based non-profit working on combating poverty, hunger, and homelessness.\n\nThe bidding started with $25,000 on June 12 and ended with $19,000,100 from an anonymous bidder on Friday, according to a news release from eBay.\n\nThis year's huge sum is more than four times the winning bid of $4,567,888 in 2019 — the last auction before a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 2019's winner was cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.\n\nThe mystery winner will enjoy a private lunch with Buffett and up to seven guests at Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in New York City, says eBay.\n\nUnfortunately for aspiring investors hoping to top this year's record, this is the last year of the \"power lunch\" with Buffett. The annual auction has raised over $53 million for Glide.\n\n\"On behalf of GLIDE and those we serve, I thank Warren Buffett for his unwavering generosity, partnership and dedication, and for his incredible contribution to our mission,\" said the organization's president and CEO Karen Hanrahan in the news release.\n\nThe auction was first started by the late Susie Buffett in 2000. Since 2003, eBay has managed the auction.\n\n\"We are incredibly proud that Warren Buffett's final Power Lunch has broken our all-time record of funds raised, with all proceeds supporting GLIDE's efforts to create pathways out of crisis and transform lives,\" said eBay CEO Jamie Iannone in the release.\n\nCorrected: An earlier version of this article misspelled Warren Buffett.", "authors": ["Zoe Sottile"], "publish_date": "2022/06/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_2", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/18/energy/new-jersey-oregon-pump-your-own-gas/index.html", "title": "Why New Jersey and Oregon still don't let you pump your own gas ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Most Americans facing record gas prices cringe when they fill up their tanks.\n\nBut not people in New Jersey and Oregon. They're not allowed to touch the gas nozzle. Seriously.\n\nIn New Jersey, it's been illegal for drivers to pump their own gas since 1949. A ban on self-service gas has been in place in Oregon since 1951, although the state relaxed restrictions for rural towns a few years ago. Violators can be fined up to $500 for breaking these states' laws.\n\nSo why don't New Jersey and Oregon let you pump your own gas? And what happened to the days of gas station attendants filling up your tanks in the rest of the country?\n\nIt's a strange, complex history that dates back more than a century.\n\nSelf-service bans\n\nThe United States has experimented with self-service gas since the first stations were built in the early 1900s. Yet it wasn't until about 1980 that self-service became the primary gas station model in this country.\n\n\"Their rise to the top was not a smooth one,\" write Ronald Johnson and Charles Romeo in a 2000 study on the growth of self-service.\n\nThe earliest self-service gas pumps in the United States appeared around 1915. They were designed primarily for emergencies or for after dark when gas stations were closed. People would pre-pay with coins to operate them.\n\nFull-service gas stations adamantly opposed self-service. They saw cheaper, self-service gas as a competitive threat to their business and wanted to limit its spread.\n\nFull-service gas stations with attendants to fill up drivers' tanks were the main form of gasoline retail for decades.\n\nFuel sales have slim profit margins. Gas stations made their money and distinguished their brands by offering a variety of services such as oil and battery checks, windshield wiping and vehicle repairs. Station attendants in full uniforms -- some wearing bow ties -- filled up customers' tanks, a key part of their larger service strategy to attract drivers in the first half of the 20th century.\n\nFull-service gas stations played up safety hazards around self-service, arguing that untrained drivers would overfill their tanks and start a fire. With support from local fire marshals, gas stations lobbied state legislators to pass bans on self-service. By 1968, self-service was banned in 23 states.\n\nIt was not until the success of self-service internationally and a crucial change in gas stations' business model that self-service began replacing attendants in the United States.\n\n\"Modern self-service gas stations actually were pioneered in Sweden,\" said Matt Anderson, the curator of transportation at The Henry Ford museum in Michigan. \"Drivers there paid less for self-service than for full-service. From there the concept spread through Europe.\"\n\nSelf-service gas stations, like this early one in 1948, became popular as stations lost their hold on the auto service and repair market.\n\nAt the same time, vehicle warranties began to stipulate that cars must be serviced at dealerships, a shift that eroded gas stations' service and repair business.\n\n\"Traditional full-service gas stations lost their profit center in automotive repairs and were forced to change their method of operation,\" said Wayne Henderson, the author of the book \"One Hundred Years of Gas Stations.\"\n\nGas stations had to look for new ways to grow profit. They moved to self-service, which reduced their costs and increased volumes on gas sales, and they diversified into selling food, tobacco, coffee, snacks and other items with higher margins.\n\nSelf-service \"ended up being more popular because it could create large volumes and opportunities for other profit,\" said Gary Scales, a doctoral candidate at Temple University writing a dissertation on the history of gas stations.\n\nGas station operators began pushing states to repeal their self-service bans. By 1992, around 80% of all gas stations nationwide were self-service, up from just 8% two decades prior.\n\n'Political third rail'\n\nDespite frequent legislative attempts, court challenges and opposition from the gas station industry, New Jersey and much of Oregon still don't permit self-service.\n\nOregon's law says it's in the public interest to maintain the ban. Allowing self-service would increase fire hazards, create challenges for elderly citizens and drivers with disabilities and lead to gas station attendant job losses, according to the statute.\n\nIn 1982, Oregon voters defeated a ballot measure to overturn the ban, but more recent polling shows attitudes in the state are split. A 2014 poll found that Oregon residents were almost evenly divided on the subject , with 44% backing a move to self-service and 46% in favor of keeping the ban.\n\nOregon relaxed its ban in 2018, allowing self-service for drivers in rural counties with populations under 40,000.\n\nIn New Jersey, the self-service ban, along with the state's reputation for low gas prices, is part of its culture. \"Jersey Girls Don't Pump Gas,\" proclaims a popular bumper sticker.\n\nSelf-serve gas is a \"third rail\" of New Jersey politics.\n\nAttempting to overturn the ban has been seen as a loser politically.\n\n\"On self-service gas, that's been sort of a political third rail in New Jersey,\" Gov. Phil Murphy said in April\n\nBut record gas prices and gas stations' struggles to find workers have led to renewed attempts by New Jersey gas station industry advocates to lift the ban. In May, 75 gas stations in the state lowered prices in an effort to gain support for allowing self-service gas.\n\nIt's unlikely that the state will allow drivers to pump their own gas anytime soon, however. The president of the state's Senate opposes a bill that would end New Jersey's ban.\n\nThe state's residents have little interest in self-service. A March poll found that 73% of them say they prefer having their gas pumped for them.\n\n\"There is apparently one thing all New Jerseyans can agree on nowadays,\" Ashley Koning, the director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, said when the poll was released. \"And that's the time-honored Jersey tradition of having your gas pumped for you.\"", "authors": ["Nathaniel Meyersohn", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/04/17/coronavirus-could-have-new-jersey-residents-pumping-own-gas/5151355002/", "title": "NJ coronavirus could have residents pumping their own gas", "text": "WOODLAND PARK, N.J. – Only during a global health emergency might New Jerseyans finally start handling a gasoline pump.\n\nA group of gas station owners believe Gov. Phil Murphy should combat what they call a budding safety and financial crisis at the pumps by suspending a singular, seven-decade old Garden State tradition: the ban on drivers fueling their own vehicles.\n\nIn the past month, attendants across the state's 2,200 stations have quit in droves over fears of contracting the coronavirus from customers, forcing some businesses to close shop, according to an industry trade group. Others have shuttered for a week or more after their employees tested positive – all while sales have reportedly plummeted with fewer cars on the road leading to lower demand.\n\nMurphy has remained mum on the issue, last remarking in late March that “we have no plans to turn our gas stations into self-service at this time.’’ His office didn't respond to a request for comment this week.\n\nThe gas station lobby, however, has proposed a solution, an executive order that relaxes the state law against self-service fueling, at least temporarily.\n\nIronically, the argument for the change is the same as the one that proponents have long used to justify a ban: public safety.\n\n“Providing gasoline stations with this option would allow motorists in New Jersey to refuel their vehicles more safely by eliminating close contact with gasoline station employees,\" reads an April 2 letter sent to the Murphy administration on behalf of 183 stations. That would \"contribute to the slowing of the spread of COVID-19 and minimize the risk to fuel supply lines within the state by the closure of gasoline stations.”\n\nNew Jersey and Oregon remain the only states with laws restricting self-serve gasoline. In late March, Oregon made the practice optional in response to the outbreak, leaving the Garden State as the nation’s lone holdout.\n\nA change would shift attendants to a more supervisory role, allowing them to sanitize handles and buttons on pumps and to assist the elderly or disabled if needed, according to Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline-Convenience-Automotive Association. The group represents hundreds of independently owned gas stations across the state.\n\n“You could pump your own gas and get back in your car after using your own credit card that you don’t have to hand to anybody,” Risalvato said. “I don’t see the sense in not permitting that when you are closing parks.”\n\nHelp can’t come soon enough for Kashmir Gill, the owner of 65 gas stations statewide, who helped author the letter to the governor. At peak employment, he enlisted 350 attendants across his Exxon, Mobile and BP locations, a majority of them immigrants. Within the last month, that number has dwindled to 150, forcing him to cut hours of operation, he said.\n\nThe problem, according to Gill, is that maintaining 6 feet of separation from a customer is “near impossible.”\n\nSince the coronavirus outbreak, Wawa convenience stores in Old Bridge, South River and Sayreville have been forced to close temporarily because employees tested positive for COVID-19.\n\n\"That scared gas station attendants,” Gill said. “Imagine you have to give me change. You're giving me the previous customer’s cash and you’re putting the same money in your pocket, and then giving that to 500 other customers throughout the day.”\n\nThe effects have trickled down to smaller operations like the two-pump Mobile in New Milford, operated by Vikram Kumar. He said his sales dropped 75% almost overnight, with his current clientele comprised of mostly hospital workers, police and other government employees. All of his attendants are outfitted with masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, but he still can’t keep a regular rotation.\n\n“I can’t guarantee their safety, so how can I force them to come to work?” Kumar said. “I’ll be out of business in the next five weeks if things don’t improve.”\n\nA majority of drivers wear masks and gloves themselves, according to Gill, and are sometimes hesitant to roll down their window.\n\n“Customers have come and asked to pump their own gas. And we have to tell them ‘Ma’am, sir, it’s illegal’. They don’t understand that it’s a New Jersey law,” he said.\n\nThe ban has its roots in a Bergen County price war dating to 1949, when local gas station owners banded together against entrepreneur Irving Reingold, the last businessman to offer self-serve fuel in New Jersey.\n\nStaying Apart, Together: A newsletter about how to cope with the coronavirus pandemic\n\nSign up here to get Staying Apart, Together twice a week in your inboxes.\n\nReingold’s prices undercut the competition, and rival station owners reacted by persuading state lawmakers to outlaw self-service, citing public safety as the reason. The state statute reads, in part, “Because of the fire hazards directly associated with dispensing fuel, it is in the public interest that gasoline station operators have the control needed over that activity to ensure compliance with appropriate safety procedures.”\n\nThrough the decades, the prohibition in New Jersey has stuck, even as improvements in credit-card payment systems and pump safety technology helped make self-serve gas available across the country.\n\nFormer Governor Chris Christie talked about lifting the self-serve prohibition on the campaign trail in 2009, but later seemed to change his view, citing public opposition and the risk of losing part-time service-station jobs. The industry says it employs more than 5,000 attendants in the state.\n\nThe law has survived despite thawing support among station owners. The businesses had long argued that relaxing the ban would allow big oil companies to open high-volume self-serve outlets on the busiest highways, undercutting smaller competitors. But that fear receded as the larger players shed most of their properties, saying the profit margin was too low.\n\nThe gas station trade group estimates that full-service adds at least a 15-cent premium per gallon at the pump.\n\nStill, some in the state Legislature remain dedicated to bringing New Jersey in line with the rest of the country.\n\nRepublican state Sen. Gerald Cardinale has introduced half a dozen bills since the 1980s to repeal the self-service law. None have reached a vote, even though advances in pump technology have rendered safety arguments obsolete, said Cardinale, whose district covers northern Bergen and Passaic counties.\n\nThe real obstacle, he said, is the belief that New Jersey residents are above self-serve, a cultural credo epitomized by the popular bumper sticker “Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas.”\n\n“We’re the only state left with this idiotic notion that people cannot pump their own gas safely,” Cardinale said. “I’ve always maintained that they have a choice.”\n\nFollow Tom Nobile on Twitter: @tomnobile", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/04/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/03/oregonians-freaking-out-over-law-requires-some-them-pump-their-own-gas/1000215001/", "title": "America is laughing at Oregon for having to pump its own gas", "text": "DETROIT -- Jan. 1 was a monumental day in the state of Oregon, and not just because it rang in a new year.\n\nA brand new state law went into effect that day, and it's a big one. It's a first for the Beaver State. And it's sending shock waves across all 98,000-plus square miles and all 4 million residents as we speak.\n\nFor the first time — in counties with fewer than 40,000 people — Oregonians are allowed to pump their own gas.\n\nReread that last sentence. Take a moment to process it. Oregon didn't pump its own gas. And it still won't in its major counties. The only other state that doesn't allow you to pump your own gas is New Jersey.\n\nWhat's so complicated about pumping gas?!\n\nIt gets worse.\n\nAt least several Oregonians are freaking out about the new law.\n\nCase in point: KTVL CBS 10 News in Medford, Ore., posted this Facebook poll on Dec. 29, asking followers if Oregon should allow self-serve gas stations statewide.\n\nHere are some of the, um, more concerned responses, and they're all quite serious:\n\n♦ \"Not a good idea, there are lots of reason to have an attendant helping, one is they need a job too. Many people are not capable of knowing how to pump gas and the hazards of not doing it correctly. Besides I don't want to go to work smelling of gas when I get it on my hands or clothes. I agree Very bad idea.\"\n\n♦ \"I don't even know HOW to pump gas and I am 62, native Oregonian.....I say NO THANKS! I don't want to smell like gasoline!\"\n\n♦ \"I've lived in this state all my life and I REFUSE to pump my own gas. I had to do it once in California while visiting my brother and almost died doing it. This a service only qualified people should perform. I will literally park at the pump and wait until someone pumps my gas. I can't even\"\n\nSo, to recap: Pumping your own gas is too difficult. It's too hazardous. It's too unsafe. And, heaven forbid, you might end up smelling like gasoline afterward. (Somewhere out there, Brian Fantana is smiling at that last one.)\n\nTo be fair, these Oregonians have a point: Pumping gas is a pretty difficult task, right up there with scraping your windshield and turning the heat on. And the fear of smelling like fuel is all too real when there isn't enough time in the day to shower.\n\nLook, Oregon, if you're reading this, we're here to help. Here's a handy guide from roadandtrack.com on how to pump your own gas. It's only 13 steps long.\n\nIn the meantime, while the rest of us point and laugh, maybe don't proclaim you're a better state than the rest of us for a while. Okay?\n\nFollow Brian Manzullo on Twitter: @BrianManzullo.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/01/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/28/coronavirus-oregon-lifts-ban-against-self-service-gasoline-stations-two-weeks-salem-covid-19/2932779001/", "title": "Oregon lifts ban against self-service gasoline stations for two weeks", "text": "This story is being offered free of charge as a public service. Please consider a subscription to the Statesman Journal so we can continue to offer stories like this. Thank you.\n\nOne of the most distinctive parts of being an Oregon citizen, never pumping your own gasoline, will change temporarily because of the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nAfter lobbying by gas station owners in recent days, the Office of State Fire Marshal announced early Saturday the state’s ban on self-service of gasoline will be suspended from Saturday through April 11.\n\n“During this unprecedented time of state emergency, we need to ensure that critical supply lines for fuels and other basic services remain uninterrupted,” said State Fire Marshal Jim Walker.\n\nOnly Oregon and New Jersey have bans on self-service gasoline.\n\nIn recent days the Oregon Fuels Association, which represents the state’s gas station owners, lobbied Gov. Kate Brown asking for the temporary change due to staffing shortages they are facing, according to Willamette Week.\n\n“This is an emergency and we need immediate, temporary relief from Oregon’s self-service ban until the coronavirus public health crisis is over,” the group said in a letter to Brown.\n\nOregon has banned self-serve gas since 1951 — excluding diesel — but in recent years has relaxed its rules.\n\nThe state allowed motorcyclists to pump their own gas starting in 2002 if they are handed a discharge nozzle by an attendant.\n\nCounties with a population of under 40,000, mostly in Eastern Oregon, were allowed to let consumers pump their own gas between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. starting in 2015.\n\nThen a 2017 law allowed stations in those counties to allow self-service pumping around the clock.\n\nTo allow self-service gas under Saturday's order, the owner of the station must have documentation there are no employees available to work as an attendant, including documentation of absences, hiring and employee retention efforts, according to the State Fire Marshal.\n\nIf attendants are working, they must implement social distancing policies and conform with sanitization efforts, such as disinfecting pumps.\n\nAnd station owners must post signs about how to safely operate a fuel pump and not allow self-service for over 10 hours consecutively.\n\nStation owners needing help finding employees covering shifts are advised to contact Miriam Nolte at Miriam.l.nolte@oregon.gov and 503-612-4252 for assistance in finding workers.\n\nThe price of gasoline has plummeted in recent days, dropping to as low as $2.19 per gallon for regular at the Salem Costco and the Arco at Lancaster and Hayesville in Salem.\n\nOne gas station in Kentucky is selling gasoline for 99 cents per gallon, and predictions are gas prices couple plummet in the wake of shut downs across the United States.\n\nThis is a developing story and will be updated.\n\nbpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/11/23/our-gratitude-list-17-reasons-thankful-salem-oregon/866667001/", "title": "Our gratitude list: 17 reasons to be thankful in Salem, Oregon", "text": "Family, health and friends are high on everybody’s gratitude list this time of year. So are personal freedom and safety and security.\n\nHelping determine the latter are our surroundings, where there is much beauty and wonder to be thankful for. Even native Oregonians and permanent Mid-Valley residents tend to take it for granted.\n\nSo, on Thanksgiving Day 2017, here are 17 things for us to give thanks for …\n\n1. Postcard beauty\n\nThe natural beauty around us is our greatest treasure. Breathtaking vistas can be seen from the ocean, the mountains, the forests and the desert. Around every bend are pristine rivers and lakes, majestic trees, fertile farmland, picturesque parks and vast vineyards.\n\n2. Outdoor playground\n\nWith all that beauty comes oodles of opportunity for outdoor recreation. From hiking at Silver Falls and biking on the backroads to skiing on Mt. Hood and fishing at Detroit Lake, the options are endless in our expansive backyard.\n\n3. Location, location, location!\n\nOur proximity to the big city, the beach and the mountains is a bonus. From the heart of the region, we are about an hour away from attending the opera, 90 minutes from whale watching and two hours from playing in the snow.\n\n4. U-pick flavor\n\nMarion County, with its rich volcanic soil, is the top agricultural producing county in Oregon. During the growing season, you can find fresh fruits and vegetables just about everywhere, not only on farms but at markets and roadside stands. U-pick outings are fun for the whole family.\n\n5. Tasting rooms\n\nGrapes and hops thrive in our climate, blessing us with an insane number of wineries and craft breweries. Tasting rooms are as much about the experience as the wine and beer, a place where you can actually meet the makers. And the panoramic views from area wineries as good as the pinots and the Rieslings.\n\n6. Green foliage\n\nTrees are an important part of our economy, our environment, and our identity. They provide food, shade and cleaner air, and we have an abundance of them. They also provide beauty (visualize the cherry blossoms at the State Capitol), tell stories (look up the Heritage Tree Program), and symbolize the holidays (get a whiff of those fresh Christmas trees).\n\n7. Thoughtful infrastructure\n\nA pair of pedestrian and bicycle bridges connects three parks in downtown Salem, providing convenient access to more than 1,000 acres and 20 miles of trails in Minto-Brown Island, Riverfront and Wallace Marine parks. Someday we’ll be thankful for a third vehicle bridge to West Salem.\n\n8. Seasonal bliss\n\nOregon is one of the few states that offers four distinct seasons while still allowing us to enjoy the outdoors all year long. The summers and winters are generally mild, and experiencing the changing of the seasons is cathartic, especially watching the leaves turn color in the fall.\n\n9. Comfortable climate\n\nAnyone who has spent time back east or in the south and now lives here cherishes our climate’s low humidity. Even the worst muggy day here can’t compare to a steamy summer day in Texas or Florida.\n\n10. Liquid sunshine\n\nSure, we complain about the rain, but it makes our rivers flow and our lakes full and keeps our plants alive and our landscape green. Without it, we wouldn’t be Oregon. And who doesn’t love curling up on the couch on a rainy day and listening to the pitter-patter on the roof? It’s cozy. It’s home.\n\n11. Disaster-free zone\n\nFlooding is an occasional problem, and the threat of the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake looms, but we aren’t in the constant path of natural disaster. Tornadoes and hurricane-force winds are extremely rare. The forest fires were devastating this year, but no one lost their life, and our forests will grow back in time.\n\n12. Gas jockeys\n\nSome people find the smell of gasoline pleasant. I’m not one of them, which is why I’m eternally grateful for gas station attendants. Oregon is one of only two states (New Jersey is the other) where it's illegal to pump your own gas. Our law was passed in 1951 with 17 justifications, most revolving around safety issues. There are a few exceptions.\n\n13. Tax-free shopping\n\nVacation out of state and you’ll be reminded how fortunate we are to not have a sales tax. All but five states tack on a tax to most purchases, from meals to souvenirs. We lament to having one of the highest personal income taxes in the country and middle-range property taxes, but no sales tax adds cheer to the holiday shopping season.\n\n14. Food fodder\n\nThe restaurant scene is always changing in Salem-Keizer. Restaurants come and go, which means there’s always something new to try. But we can always count on the classics, from White's to Kwan's. One of our best-kept secrets is our selection of vegan and vegetarian cuisine options.\n\n15. Givers and doers\n\nGenerosity and volunteerism are two of our strengths as a community. Mystery philanthropist Benny symbolizes our giving spirit and an active network of nonprofit organizations and neighborhood associations strive to improve and maintain our quality of life.\n\n16. Casual Fridays\n\nMid-Valley residents, in fact most Oregonians, are very casual in the way we dress. It reflects our relaxed attitudes and laid-back personalities. Not all Oregonians wear Birkenstocks, but we do consider jeans dressy, something you can wear almost anywhere. Being comfortable is a priority for us.\n\n17. Safe haven\n\nComparatively speaking, we live in a safe state. The violent crime rate in Oregon is lower than the national average, and our murder rate is among the lowest in the country.\n\nSo stay safe, be grateful for where we live, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!\n\n“Forward This” appears Wednesdays and Sundays and highlights the people,places and organizations of the Mid-Willamette Valley. Contact Capi Lynn at clynn@StatesmanJournal.com or 503-399-6710, or follow her the rest of the week on Twitter @CapiLynn and Facebook @CapiLynnSJ.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/11/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/06/09/costco-new-jersey-gas-price-inflation/7573012001/", "title": "Costco membership requirement for gas pumps might not be legal in ...", "text": "USA TODAY\n\nMOUNT LAUREL, N.J. – New Jersey residents are about to lose a unique perk that saved a few cents on gas.\n\nCostco next month plans to restrict gasoline sales to club members at its 17 locations in the state, as it does everywhere else in the country.\n\nSigns posted at Costco gas stations pumps in New Jersey this week carry the following announcement:\n\n\"Effective July 5, 2022, your active Costco membership card will be required for gasoline purchases.\"\n\nOn Tuesday at Centerton Square in Mount Laurel, six lanes of cars were waiting to get gas at multiple pumps at the Costco gas station, whose prices tend to be cheaper than many other stations.\n\nThe price for regular unleaded gas there was $4.83 a gallon, compared with $5 or more at many other stations.\n\nRefinery capacity:Gas prices surge again to record high but the driver is refineries, not oil prices\n\nInflation investments:Here are the stocks to buy as the market falls and inflation rises\n\nNew Jersey's Costco card exception\n\nIn 2004, Costco and other warehouse clubs were told restricting gasoline sales to members would violate state law after the retailer posted signs at pumps requiring drivers to present a membership card. The membership-card requirement was ultimately abandoned.\n\nWhile the state attorney general's office had not commented on Costco's move, a New Jersey Treasury Department spokeswoman told NJ Advance Media it has no restriction on gas sales, as long as motor fuels taxes are paid.\n\nCostco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti confirmed the change to USA TODAY, saying the company now will have a uniform policy nationwide requiring a membership for gas purchases.\n\nAn industry association official said he saw nothing wrong with the policy.\n\n\"I am learning they (Costco) are taking a position that it is not illegal to limit their customers to members at their New Jersey gas stations and I see nothing in state law that prevents them from doing this,\" said Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline, C-Store, Automotive Association headquartered in Wall Township.\n\nLast time around:I learned a painful lesson from inflation in the ’70s that's paying off as things get ugly again\n\nPaying the price:Biden and top aides misread threat of inflation as warning signs gathered\n\nSo I can't buy gas without a Costco card in New Jersey?\n\nRegardless, customers under the impression Costco cannot legally can limit gas to only its club members were confused.\n\n\"I always had to use my Costco card in Ohio, but here in New Jersey they never ask for it,\" said Carnita Brown of the Pemberton area. \"I wonder why it's going to change ... and I have no idea if it's legal to do that here.\"\n\nKelly Borreggine, a former Medford resident now living in Naples, Florida, and who is visiting New Jersey for a week, said she has no problem with Costco restricting gas to club members like her. She pulled in for a half tank of gas that cost her $46.33 for 8.7 gallons and saw the announcement sign.\n\nThe biggest concern with customers Tuesday, however, were the lines and gas prices. New Jersey and Oregon cities are the only places in the nation that ban self-service gasoline, which can slow the process of filling up.\n\nDriver Jeff Rollins of Marlton, who remembers the gas crisis and lines in 1973, said he waited 20 minutes in line at Costco three weeks ago; last week he said he left after seeing much longer lines because \"it's a waste of time to wait and save only a few cents.\"\n\nHe called the high prices \"awful\" but avoidable because, he said, the U.S. could produce more oil than other countries if it chose to.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/20/us/five-things-june-20-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for June 20: Travel chaos, Covid-19, Ukraine ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) Juneteenth -- the federal holiday which commemorates the end of slavery in the US -- was celebrated on Sunday, but will be observed in many places today, June 20 . Non-essential federal, state and city government offices will be closed, along with most banks, schools, post offices, and stock markets.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Travel chaos\n\nA combination of rough weather, staff shortages and infrastructure challenges have the left major airlines struggling to keep up with the surge in travel . Between Friday and Sunday, more than 3,200 flights were canceled and about 9,000 flights were delayed, according to the data group FlightAware . The increase in delays and cancellations comes just days after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged airline CEOs to improve their flight schedules and better respond to disruptions. This past Friday before Juneteenth clocked in as the most popular air travel day of 2022 , statistics from the TSA show. Airports haven't been that crowded since Thanksgiving 2021.\n\n2. Coronavirus\n\nThe CDC signed off on Covid-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months on Saturday, clearing the way for vaccinations to begin soon. The announcement came shortly after the CDC's vaccine advisers voted unanimously in support of recommending the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to the nation's youngest age group. President Joe Biden praised the CDC's decision, calling it a \"monumental step forward in our nation's fight against the virus.\" While vaccinations may not begin until Tuesday in some places, health officials must now contend with a large number of parents who remain reluctant to quickly vaccinate . Just 18% of parents of children under 5 said they would vaccinate their child against Covid-19 as soon as a vaccine became available, an April survey found\n\nJUST WATCHED Sanjay Gupta explains how scientists are trying to 'outsmart cancer' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Sanjay Gupta explains how scientists are trying to 'outsmart cancer' 04:41\n\n3. Ukraine\n\nUkraine's bid to join the European Union could bring \"greater hostile activity\" from Russia as the EU considers whether the country should be formally considered for candidate status , Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned. Leaders of the EU's 27 member states will meet this week to discuss the possible path forward for Ukraine. However, even though the EU and its members have broadly supported Ukraine in its war effort , Ukraine's ongoing fight raises several issues and could slow down the timeline. In fact, experts say it is highly unlikely that Ukraine will be able to meet the EU's criteria to start negotiations until after the war ends. The average time for a country to join the EU is four years and 10 months\n\nJUST WATCHED Hear ex-CIA director's prediction about who will win in Ukraine Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hear ex-CIA director's prediction about who will win in Ukraine 03:53\n\n4. January 6\n\nThe House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol will hold a hearing Tuesday that will show evidence of then-President Donald Trump's involvement in a scheme to submit fake electors , Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff told CNN on Sunday. Federal prosecutors are reviewing the fake Electoral College certifications created by Trump's allies that falsely declared him the winner of seven states that he lost in 2020. The fake certificates were sent to the National Archives by Trump's allies in the weeks after the election and had no impact on the electoral outcome. Schiff, a member of the panel, also said the committee plans to show \"courageous state officials who stood up and said they wouldn't go along with this plan to either call legislators back into session or decertify the results for Joe Biden.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Schiff: Trump himself was involved in fake elector plot Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Schiff: Trump himself was involved in fake elector plot 01:34\n\n5. Colombia\n\nLeft-wing candidate Gustavo Petro won the Colombian presidential race on Sunday , becoming the first leftist leader to do so. The former guerrilla with a checkered past won by a slim margin with over 50% of the votes, against 77-year-old entrepreneur Rodolfo Hernandez. In this historic win, his running mate Francia Marquez will now become the first Afro-Colombian to hold executive powers . During his victory speech on Sunday, Petro called for an agreement to end violence in the country, saying, \"What is coming here is real change, real change.\" Outgoing Colombian President Ivan Duque said he called Petro to congratulate him on his victory and will meet with him soon to initiate the transition.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nPrince William shares heartwarming Father's Day photo\n\nCheck out this casual photo of Prince William on dad duty ! So adorable.\n\nUS Open: English golfer Matt Fitzpatrick wins first major\n\nSomeone paid $19 million for a steak lunch with Warren Buffet\n\nWell, as Warren Buffet once said, \"The best investment you can make is in yourself... the more you learn, the more you'll earn .\"\n\nWhy New Jersey and Oregon still don't let you pump your own gas\n\nYes, people in these two states are still not allowed to touch the gas nozzle. Here's why\n\nPixar's 'Lightyear' fizzles at the box office\n\nUnfortunately, the film didn't get enough buzz at the box office this weekend\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n4 million\n\nThat's how many people have been impacted by monsoon flooding in northeastern Bangladesh , according to the country's Ministry of Disaster Management. The situation could soon worsen, with heavy rain forecast in the next 24 hours. Officials said that 90% of Sunamganj -- one of the hardest hit districts -- is underwater and almost entirely cut off from the rest of the country.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"We are having to look out for slogans that violate the rules of Islam and public morals like promoting homosexuality colors, targeting the young generation.\"\n\n-- Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Commerce, on the Saudi government's move to , on the Saudi government's move to seize rainbow-colored toys and clothing from shops in the country's capital, Riyadh, saying the items promote homosexuality. Authorities have seized items that were bright in color, ranging from children's hair accessories, pencil cases, and backpacks to rainbow stripes featured in crayon packets, all designed for children, according to Saudi state-run TV channel al-Ekhbariya. Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, which adheres to a strict interpretation of Sharia law.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Another round of hot temperatures expected this week Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Another round of hot temperatures expected this week 02:04\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nMeet the Epic Voice Behind Movie Trailers", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/politics/natural-gas-ban-preemptive-laws-gop-climate/index.html", "title": "Natural gas bans: 20 states have laws that prohibit cities from ...", "text": "(CNN) In 2019, the city council in Berkeley, California, held a stunning vote: it would ban natural gas hookups in all new building construction to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the city's impact on the climate crisis.\n\nNo gas furnaces in new homes, the council said. No gas stoves or ovens\n\nOther progressive cities followed suit with similar bans. San Francisco passed its own ban in 2020. New York City became the largest US city to pass a version in 2021, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowing to pass a statewide law that would ban natural gas by 2027.\n\nBut other municipalities looking to take similar action are running into a brick wall. Twenty states with GOP-controlled legislatures have passed so-called \"preemption laws\" that prohibit cities from banning natural gas.\n\nIt's bad news for municipal climate action: Taking natural gas out of the equation and switching to electric appliances is one of the most effective ways cities can tackle the climate crisis and lower their emissions, multiple experts told CNN.\n\n\"Natural gas bans are kind of low-hanging fruit,\" said Georgetown Law professor Sheila Foster, an environmental law expert. Foster said cities can make a significant impact by moving away from natural gas and toward electricity, especially considering what little federal action there's been on climate, and the mixed record of states.\n\nThe climate stakes are high. Residential and commercial emissions made up 13% of total US emissions in 2019, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. About 80% of those emissions came from the combustion of natural gas, the fuel that heats homes or powers a restaurant's cooking stoves, and emits planet-warming gases like methane and carbon dioxide in the process.\n\nBut clean alternatives exist: Electric heat pumps can heat homes more sustainably than gas furnaces; induction ranges can replace gas stoves. And experts stress that to fully transition to renewable energy sources like solar and wind, homes and businesses need to operate on electricity -- not gas.\n\nPresident Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill, which fizzled in the Senate after objections from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, contained billions in tax incentives to help consumers switch to cleaner ways of heating their homes. But people who own and rent homes in big, multi-unit buildings depend on developers and city planners to make the switch.\n\nAdvocates worry these preemptive bills could stall impactful climate action at a critical time.\n\n\"We're afraid that's going to have a chilling effect on cities that want to take action,\" said Alejandra Mejia Cunningham, a building decarbonization advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council. \"Many cities and towns have small staffs, they don't want to be taken to court, being seen as going outside state law.\"\n\nA 'new trend'\n\nIn November, a GOP bill to block natural gas bans in new buildings was passed in North Carolina but ultimately failed to make it into law when Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed it. Two more similar bills are being considered in Pennsylvania and Michigan this year.\n\n\"To me that's what's interesting about this new trend, it seems like states are trying to eliminate the possibility before cities try to catch onto this,\" Sarah Fox, an associate law professor at Northern Illinois University School of Law, told CNN. \"The natural gas industry realized this was in the water a while ago and has been very aggressive in getting this passed.\"\n\nThe American Gas Association, the natural gas industry's powerful trade group, told CNN it lobbies at the federal level but isn't directly lobbying in any state.\n\nBut many of the association's members, including gas utilities, have gotten involved at the state level, according to an analysis by independent climate think tank InfluenceMap for CNN.\n\nInfluenceMap \"found high levels of engagement on preemption bills within the power sector, including its key trade associations.\" The American Gas Association and its members \"appears to have played an early role encouraging these bills,\" according to the analysis.\n\nThere's also evidence that suggests the AGA is running the playbook for its members to lobby state lawmakers for the preemptive laws.\n\nIn audio of a private AGA call obtained by watchdog group Energy and Policy Institute and shared with CNN, the AGA's Vice President of Advocacy and Outreach Sue Forrester discussed the group's strategy modeling \"preemptive legislation\" in certain states.\n\n\"We launched in partnership with Southwest [Gas]. Well, they launched it, but we were helping on the back end: Energy choice language in Arizona that was passed and signed by the governor at the beginning of the year,\" Forrester said in the recording.\n\nWhen asked about Forrester's comments, an American Gas Association spokesperson reiterated the trade association doesn't get involved in state-level legislation.\n\n\"Sue's comments make it sound that way, and that's unfortunate, but the American Gas Association is not set up with lobbyists on the ground in the states,\" the spokesperson said, adding the \"we\" Forrester was referring to is \"we as the industry and all who have an interest in gas.\"\n\nCEO of the American Gas Association Karen Harbert told CNN in a statement that \"AGA is educating policymakers at every level about the supportive policy frameworks necessary for natural gas and our infrastructure to help achieve our nation's ambitious environmental goals.\"\n\nWhile the AGA and other industry groups are messaging that they are advocating for more fuel choices for consumers, climate advocates say the preemption laws are having the opposite effect.\n\n\"I'd say the industry has put decades of effort and resources into fine tuning their messaging to the American public -- and they do it well,\" NRDC's Mejia Cunningham told CNN.\n\nSome cities in the US want to ban natural gas hookups in new homes and buildings, to reduce their fossil fuel emissions and meet their climate targets. Natural gas is primarly made of methane, an extremely potent planet-warming gas.\n\nMost cities and towns in the US that are pursuing natural gas reforms are not shooting for stringent bans like what Berkeley passed -- many are trying to find a middle ground that incorporate and encourage electrification and heat pumps as an alternative to gas.\n\nBroadly written state laws can discourage that transition, Mejia Cunningham said.\n\n\"We don't expect Berkeley to be the right model for most of America,\" she said. \"That doesn't mean we should completely slash out a whole bucket of policies that could work for communities across America.\"\n\nAn attempt to electrify gets quashed\n\nIn 2019, officials in Flagstaff, Arizona, were working on their city's plan to get to net-zero emissions by 2030. Building emissions were an obvious target; the built environment is the largest contributor to Flagstaff's greenhouse gas emissions, Nicole Antonopoulos, Flagstaff's sustainability director, told CNN.\n\nFlagstaff's plan didn't include an explicit ban on natural gas; instead, it said the city would promote \"aggressive building electrification,\" thereby decreasing reliance on fossil fuels.\n\nThat was still enough to get the attention of members of the Republican-controlled Arizona state legislature, which in 2020 passed a bill preventing cities and towns from passing their own natural gas bans.\n\n\"It was a huge setback, in a nutshell,\" Antonopoulos told CNN. \"The state preemption threw a huge kink in our efforts towards carbon neutrality. This isn't the first time the state has preempted things that have made us go back to the proverbial drawing table and figure out how we get creative and innovative in a space where we don't have funding.\"\n\nArizona's 2020 law -- the first natural gas preemption law of its kind -- was a harbinger of what was to come. Since then, 19 other states have adopted them. These laws have largely been concentrated in red states in the Rust Belt and Southwest, a cluster of southwestern states including Utah and Wyoming, and New Hampshire.\n\nAnd currently, there's not much favoring cities' ability to sue states. The 1907 US Supreme Court case Hunter v. Pittsburgh favored states' authority to craft laws for their cities, and gave cities little legal recourse to sue.\n\n\"It's not a very coherent line of case law, but that's the official stance,\" said Fox, who added she'd be very surprised if the current conservative Supreme Court majority allowed a challenge to the current law from progressive cities.\n\n\"There's a lot of legal uncertainty,\" Foster said, adding that there's not much current litigation to speak of around natural gas bans and preemption laws.\n\nIn Flagstaff, Antonopoulos said her office is trying to find ways around Arizona's law. It's meant a lot of active outreach to local developers building in Flagstaff, encouraging them to build all-electric housing developments. It's also reaching out to residents whose gas appliances are at the end of their lifecycles to consider buying electric.\n\n\"Our challenge here is we have a 2030 deadline\" to get to net-zero, Antonopoulos told CNN. \"The urgency is so great so sometimes we don't have that luxury in time.\"\n\nCORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct that Mejia Cunningham was speaking on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council.", "authors": ["Ella Nilsen"], "publish_date": "2022/02/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/08/politics/joe-biden-saudi-arabia-venezuela-iran-russia-oil/index.html", "title": "Oil prices: Biden turns to countries he once sought to avoid to find ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) President Joe Biden's urgent global search for help shutting off Russia's oil revenues is leading, in some instances, to regimes he once sought to isolate or avoid.\n\nBiden administration officials traveled to Venezuela over the weekend for talks on potentially allowing the country to sell its oil on the international market, helping to replace Russian fuel. Biden may travel to Saudi Arabia as the US works to convince the kingdom to increase its production. And a looming nuclear deal could bring significant volumes of Iranian oil back to the market.\n\nCaracas, Riyadh and Tehran would have been unlikely sources of relief for a Biden-led Western alliance before the start of the war in Ukraine. But Russia's invasion has upended international relations, forcing the US and other nations to seek out solutions in places they'd previously shunned.\n\nIn deciding the next steps, Biden administration officials are weighing a host of factors. Russia's invasion of its neighbor, which has left scores of civilians dead, has generated immense pressure on Western nations to cut their energy ties to Moscow, including from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. In a videoconference call with American lawmakers Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for a ban on Russian energy.\n\nUS imports from Russia make up a small slice of the energy universe -- roughly 8% in 2021, of which only about 3% was crude oil. White House economic officials have been engaged for more than a week in how to manage any decision to cut off those imports, officials say. The Department of Energy reported that in the last two weeks of February, Russian oil imports dropped to zero as US companies cut ties with Russia, effectively implementing their own ban.\n\n\"Today I am announcing the United States is targeting the main artery of Russia's economy. We're banning all imports of Russian oil and gas and energy,\" Biden said in remarks from the White House. \"That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin's war machine.\"\n\nIn both public and private conversations, top American allies have said the US would likely be acting on its own should it target Russian energy imports. That has raised its own concerns, as US officials remain wary of pursuing any action that would fragment the carefully coordinated alliance that has served as the focal point of the response up to this point.\n\nRussia has typically exported roughly 5 million barrels of crude per day, half of which goes to Europe. Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven oil reserves, could help make up the gap, but the country has suffered persistent output issues. Before sanctions were applied on Iran, it produced about 4 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia has spare capacity to ramp up production, though it has so far been unwilling.\n\nFor Biden, the effort to identify oil supplies -- even in autocratic regimes -- demonstrates the lengths he is willing to go to inflict serious pain on Moscow. He has long framed his presidency around defending democracy from creeping authoritarianism and accused his predecessor of cozying up to the world's strongmen. But reducing the world's dependance on one autocrat's energy supplies could mean turning to another's instead.\n\nIt's far from clear that the administration's efforts will yield results. Venezuela's socialist leader, Nicolás Maduro, is Russian President Vladimir Putin's top ally in Latin America. So far, Saudi Arabia has refused to increase production, though officials remain hopeful of a breakthrough. And a revived Iran nuclear deal remains elusive -- in part because of new demands by Russia, a partner in the international negotiations.\n\nStill, Biden administration officials remain intent on identifying potential supplies of energy that could replace Russia's exports. While US officials have assessed it would not be in Russia's interest to weaponize its energy exports, the risk that it may come to pass and the need to protect European allies -- particularly when it comes to natural gas -- has factored into the efforts, officials said.\n\nGasoline prices skyrocketing over supply fears\n\nIntensifying discussion of bans on Russian energy has already caused the price of oil to surge.\n\nIt soared to its highest level since 2008 on Monday . Brent crude, the global benchmark, briefly spiked as high as $139 a barrel -- a leap of more than 35% in just one month. The ramifications of significant price spikes have been a significant concern inside the White House, with Biden bringing up the need to mitigate the issue in private meetings.\n\nRon Klain, Biden's chief of staff, has also been a regular voice in meetings underscoring the need to limit the domestic pain to the extent possible as the administration seeks to maintain domestic support for its wide-ranging efforts, according to two people familiar with the matter. It's a reality Biden has publicly and repeatedly emphasized when he outlines the stakes and necessity of the US role in responding to Russia's aggression.\n\nThe President and some of his most senior advisers in the West Wing view high fuel prices as one of the most tangible economic pains for average Americans, according to multiple sources, and there is concern that the situation may get worse just as travel picks up heading into the summer.\n\nWith midterm elections around the corner, the White House is keenly aware of the political problems that sticker shock at the gas pump can pose for their party and has been strategizing for weeks on ways to try to contain the rise in gas prices while turning voters' attention to bright spots in the economy.\n\nSome Biden officials also view attempts by Republican lawmakers to pressure the administration into banning Russian oil as cynical, given they are likely to pin higher gas prices on the White House should they inch up even more.\n\nIntentionally quiet diplomacy with oil-supplying nations\n\nTop US officials have engaged in a wide-ranging but intentionally quiet effort to rally major suppliers and states to meet any demand issues that came from a Russian invasion or the bite of the sanctions that followed, according to multiple senior administration officials.\n\nAmos Hochstein, senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, has led the effort and has worked closely with Brett McGurk, the National Security Council's Middle East and North Africa coordinator. The efforts have included meetings with major energy producers in northern Africa, including Algeria, as well as the Middle East and Asia, and with key players in domestic production. Countries including Japan and Qatar have signaled they are willing to contribute to a broad-based effort to fill gaps in supply.\n\nHochstein and McGurk met with Saudi officials last month \"to discuss a collaborative approach to managing potential market pressures stemming from a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.\"\n\nBiden had once sought to \"recalibrate\" the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, effectively refusing to speak to the Kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman , who the US accused of authorizing journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder. Biden's direct conversations have been limited to King Salman, the crown prince's father, and included a call last month that reiterated a commitment from both countries to \"ensuring the stability of global energy supplies.\"\n\nThe frosty reception Saudis have received from the US since Biden came into office has deeply irritated the Persian Gulf country, leading to a lack of willingness on its part to be helpful by pumping more oil into the market, US officials have said. While some US officials believe that the Biden administration should make an even more concerted effort to engage Saudi Arabia, Biden -- who called the crown prince a killer last year -- has been resistant, the officials said.\n\nSome US officials are deeply wary of the prospects of Biden engaging the crown prince on energy production.\n\n\"Who's he going to call -- (someone) who he hasn't spoken to because he's a loathsome toad, because he dismembered a journalist?\" said one senior Democratic official who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely. \"I'm not expecting that to happen. I'm not recommending it.\"\n\nBut the war in Ukraine has caused its own global recalibration, and now Biden officials are weighing a possible presidential trip to Saudi Arabia in the coming months, three people familiar with the talks confirmed. Axios was first to report on the discussions around the trip.\n\n\"There's no current plans for the President to travel to Saudi Arabia,\" White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.\n\nStill, she acknowledged that discussions with the Saudis had ramped up, both on oil and on regional security issues.\n\n\"It's in everyone's interest to reduce the impact on the global oil marketplace, and that was part of that discussion,\" she said.\n\nSo far, Saudi officials have remained steadfast in their commitment to the OPEC+ production schedule agreed to with Russia. But one official familiar with the conversations said the Saudis expressed an openness to addressing major market disruptions. What that would entail -- or what kind of disruption would lead to a shift in posture -- remains unclear.\n\n\"There are actions that energy producers can take in terms of their spare capacity and there are actions that energy producers can undertake to increase their production of energy in the current circumstance,\" a senior administration official said in describing the overall US effort in recent months.\n\nWhile the official declined to give a specific timeline, \"the collective power of those actions and all the other tools and authorities that are at our disposal, plus diplomatic maneuvers ... that are at our disposal, collectively, we think, will be effective in bringing down the price of gas and the price of oil.\"\n\nMaintaining a tight-knit alliance\n\nWhile minimizing price spikes has been central to the overall approach, so has the effort to maintain an alliance with countries that have far more acute concerns about the effects of energy sanctions on their respective economies.\n\nIn a call with European leaders on Monday, Biden discussed potential ways to limit Russian oil purchases. One of the leaders on the call, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said Europe cannot secure its energy supplies without imports from Russia. In a news release, Scholz said energy had been deliberately left out of previous rounds of sanctions, adding that Russian energy is of \"essential importance\" to the daily lives of its citizens.\n\nMeanwhile, Hungary's finance minister, Varga Mihaly, said in a Facebook video posted Monday that his government would not support any sanctions on Russian energy.\n\nEurope relies on Russia for 40% of its natural gas supply and a quarter of the crude oil it imports. Efforts to secure options to backfill natural gas supply have been seen as particularly crucial, officials said.\n\nEngaging with the Venezuelans\n\nThe administration has made plain it won't leave options untapped, including in places where the US may have other concerns.\n\nWhen senior Biden administration officials -- including the National Security Council's director for the Western Hemisphere, Juan Gonzalez, and the US special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens -- were dispatched to Caracas over the weekend for talks on the issue, they were the highest-ranking Americans to have visited the country in years.\n\nAside from sanctions relief and oil, they also discussed American citizens currently detained in Venezuela who the US wants to see freed. They include two Green Berets accused of plotting to remove Maduro and a group of energy executives arrested in 2017.\n\nWashington imposed sanctions on Venezuelan oil in 2019 and closed its embassy in Caracas after deeming Maduro's election victory in 2018 to be a sham. A US official said Venezuela would need to take several steps before sanctions were lifted, though didn't specify the conditions.\n\nEngaging Venezuela now could also isolate Russia from its top ally in South America, officials said.\n\nOne day before the trip, the US made a strange move: The Treasury Department quietly announced a general license -- allowing transactions that would otherwise would be prohibited -- for a Russian oligarch who is a big investor in Venezuela's energy market and has close relations with the Maduro regime, according to the announcement posted on the Office of Foreign Assets Control website. The oligarch -- Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov -- is also an ally of Putin.\n\nNot sanctioning all of Usmanov's entities created the appearance, to some, of trying to grease the wheels before the trip to Caracas. But the Treasury Department said that all of his personal assets had been blocked and there would likely be more sanctions to come.\n\n\"We are going to work with our allies and partners to design a set of mitigations that allow us to target companies under Usmanov's control without driving up the price of commodities like nickel, which could inadvertently enrich him,\" said a Treasury Department spokesperson.\n\nAlready, however, the political costs of engaging Venezuela have been plain.\n\nRepublican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida -- a state that's home to a large population of Venezuelan Americans who oppose the Maduro regime -- has already criticized the discussions. He said over the weekend that \"rather than produce more American oil,\" Biden \"wants to replace the oil we buy from one murderous dictator with oil from another murderous dictator.\"\n\nAnd Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who is the head of the Senate GOP campaign committee, said: \"We should stop importing Russian oil, period. And we shouldn't be going to Venezuela. ... When are we going to learn that we can't be relying on these thugs?\"\n\nRank-and-file Republicans had equally harsh words for Biden: Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, called it \"kind of nuts\" and warned it would \"empower Venezuela\" and \"enrich Iran.\" And Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida said he was \"speechless\" and hoped the reports weren't true.\n\n\"I don't think anybody could be this much of an imbecile. And I say that painfully because it's too reckless, too stupid, too idiotic, too dangerous for it to be true,\" Diaz-Balart said. \"This will do nothing, by the way. Venezuelan oil? They're barely producing right now.\"\n\nIt's not only Republicans who are criticizing the idea. Sen. Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who's the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would \"strongly oppose\" any action that enriched Maduro.\n\n\"In the last month, the international community has come together in an unprecedented way to reject military aggression by Russia and stand up for democracy. But the Biden administration's efforts to unify the entire world against a murderous tyrant in Moscow should not be undercut by propping up a dictator under investigation for crimes against humanity in Caracas,\" Menendez said.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak", "Phil Mattingly", "Natasha Bertrand", "Mj Lee", "Kylie Atwood"], "publish_date": "2022/03/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/21/us/biden-climate-social-cost-of-carbon-court/index.html", "title": "Climate change: Biden administration freezes new oil and gas ...", "text": "(CNN) The Biden administration has once again put a pause on new leases and permits for federal oil and gas drilling after a judge blocked the administration from using a metric that estimates the societal cost of carbon emissions.\n\nEarlier this month, US District Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana issued an injunction preventing the Biden administration from using what's known as the \"social cost of carbon\" in decisions around oil and gas drilling on public land, or in rules governing fossil fuel emissions. The ruling has consequences for a range of Biden administration actions on climate change, but especially on the Interior Department's federal oil and gas leasing program.\n\nIn an appeal filed by government attorneys on Saturday night, the Biden administration argued Cain's injunction necessitated a pause on all projects where the government was using a social-cost-of-carbon analysis in its decision-making.\n\nThe appeal is the latest in a legal battle in the courts between several Republican-led states and the Biden administration over the social cost of carbon, a metric that uses economic models to put a value on each ton of carbon dioxide emitted. The idea is to quantify the economic harm caused by the climate crisis like sea level rise, more destructive hurricanes, extreme wildfire seasons and flooding.\n\nThe metric was first implemented during the Obama administration and substantially weakened by the Trump government.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ella Nilsen"], "publish_date": "2022/02/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_3", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/19/americas/colombia-elections-peace-accord-women-as-equals-intl-cmd/index.html", "title": "Colombia elections: peace accord and, with it, safety of women at ...", "text": "This story is part of As Equals , CNN's ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs .\n\nBogota, Colombia (CNN) Today, Colombians will return to the polls to vote in the second round of the country's presidential elections. Six years after the peace deal between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) brought five decades of conflict to an end, voters will choose between two different futures for Colombia.\n\nThe fate of the country's historic peace process -- and how it impacts Colombians living amid a fragile truce -- may well be at stake. Both candidates have said they are going to support the implementation of the peace process but the detail of that support isn't always clear. This has understandably made those most impacted by the conflict, who worked hard to broker peace, apprehensive.\n\nThe contest has a number of firsts. If 62-year-old former guerrilla Gustavo Petro wins on June 19, he will be Colombia's first leftist leader. Petro won the first round with just over 40% of the vote . In this second round he is running against 77-year old centrist construction magnate Rodolfo Hernández, a populist.\n\nAlso for the first time, the running mates for both final-round candidates are Afro-Colombian women. Francia Márquez, a 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize winner with a long history of rural social activism, is on the ticket with Petro. With Hernández is Marelen Castillo Torres , who has spent her professional life in academia. She is currently Academic Vice Chancellor at Universidad Minuto de Dios.\n\nIn a country where women's representation at many levels of government is low and Indigenous and Afro-Colombian women are disproportionately affected by violence derived from conflict, the fact that Colombia seems on course to have its first Black vice president is noteworthy.\n\nThe two women have taken different roles in the campaigns. Márquez -- who after leading women in her community to protest illegal mining and community eviction has been a public figure in Colombia since the 2010s -- has rallied against the country's political and economic status quo while on the campaign trail. Márquez has long championed women's rights, economic empowerment programs, and access to land for the poor.\n\nBeyond a woman at the right hand of the president, what can Colombians -- and specifically Colombian women who bore the brunt of the Western Hemisphere's longest running armed conflict -- expect from their future leaders?\n\nA history of conflict-related violence\n\nWomen in Colombia disproportionately suffered in the 50-plus years of conflict between government forces, guerilla and paramilitary groups. Yet, women also played important roles as peace builders in ending that conflict, and in rebuilding their communities in its aftermath.\n\nSexual violence was widely used to gain social and territorial control. The most up-to-date data from Colombia's victims' registry documents more than 31,000 cases of sexual violence reported. Millions of women have also been affected by forced displacement, with many taking on economic responsibility for their families after their husbands were killed, and they had to flee their homes and communities.\n\nStudies have shown that displaced women face high risk of gender-based violence, including sexual violence. As a direct result of the gendered fallout of the conflict, gender equality featured prominently in the peace accords -- as did the recognition of the need for racial and ethnic justice\n\nWomen played important roles during the negotiations, even forming a 'Gender Sub-commission' , a unique space made up of representatives from the FARC, the government, and civil society and intended to ensure that all experiences of conflict were recognized and addressed in the final deal.\n\nWhen it was finalized, the Colombian Final Accord included commitments in key areas including rural reform, security and protection guarantees, and victims' rights.\n\n\"The recognition of racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination as underlying forces in the conflict, and the inclusion of provisions to directly address them ... was a hard-fought accomplishment of civil society, notably women's, LGBTIQ, Afro-Colombian, and Indigenous organizations,\" wrote associate professor of law at the City University of New York Lisa Davis in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review\n\nDavis added: \"Afro-Colombian organizations, with strong leadership from Afro-Colombian women, developed a vision for the peace process that recognized and remedied historic injustices and discrimination committed against them, including gender discrimination, in order to ensure an inclusive and lasting peace.\"\n\nYet the conservative government of Iván Duque, that came into power in 2018, has not yet implemented 42 of the 133 gender commitments that had been agreed upon, according to t he Kroc Institute , in charge of monitoring the implementation of the Accord.\n\nSpeaking more broadly about the agreement, Washington-based research and advocacy organization WOLA wrote on the fifth anniversary of the accords that \"implementing the accord has gone more poorly than anticipated, and opportunities to break the cycle of violence are evaporating.\"\n\nAlthough the peace deal is legally binding , the rigor with which it is applied is subject to the interest of the government in power.\n\nPetro and Márquez have a clear outline of how they plan to implement the peace process if elected. While Hernández and Castillo also say they will implement it, their promises are more vague. Hernández has already come under international media scrutiny for what critics say is the gap between the campaign and the man behind the campaign. CNN, for example, reports that while Hernández's \"clearest pitch has been his promise to 'get rid of corruption'\"... [he] has had his own troubles with allegations of corruption -- and some are ongoing.\" Hernández has denied the charge that is expected to go to court next month, saying: \"With current laws, every candidate can be sued by anyone.\"\n\nFor their part, the social leaders I have been speaking with in recent weeks are not confident that the implementation of the process would be a central focus of Hernández's government, meaning that security conditions in rural areas could stay the same or even become more dangerous.\n\n\"Whether, how, and when the next president of Colombia will implement the peace accord could be the difference between life and death for women leaders.\" Researcher Julia Margaret Zulver\n\nSeeking peace and speaking out against drug trafficking, child recruitment into armed groups, and environmental degradation, has come at great cost to Colombia's women leaders.\n\nFor the past seven years, I have been researching how women pursue justice in high-risk contexts. In that time, I have heard dozens of accounts of activists threatened, targeted, and attacked.\n\nMany of the women I interviewed, often with their government-issued bodyguards following closely, said that not only has the 2016 peace process never actually materialized, the threats they face are more intense than ever\n\nTheir names have, for example, been included in public death threats circulated by armed groups with a simple message: stop their social activism or die. As a result, many no longer live in their home communities, isolating from their families in order to protect their children.\n\nLast week, a colleague and I spent time with Afro-Colombian women leaders in the north of Cauca province, a conflict-stricken region in the southwest of the country, where Márquez was herself born and began her activism. In recent weeks, many of these women told me they have received death threats via phone calls or messages. Some say they have narrowly survived assassination attempts.\n\nCommunity leader Doña Tuta suffered a worse fate. She was murdered in the nearby the city of Cali just last week. She is the latest in a long line of women human rights defenders who have lost their lives in Colombia since the signing of the Peace Accords.\n\nFor Colombia's grassroots women leaders all around the country, what is at stake in these elections is their ability to live safely in their communities. Whether, how, and when the next president will actually implement the peace accord could be the difference between life and death for them.\n\nSupporters of Colombian left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro paste banners before a rally at the Fontibon neighborhood in Bogota on June 12, 2022.\n\nThe peace process is more important than ever\n\nThough Colombia is now a post-conflict state on paper, the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) continues to rise as other armed groups continue to violently clash.\n\nColombia now has the third largest number of IDPs in the world, coming only behind Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Latin American state has been described by Reuters as \"the world's most dangerous country for environmentalists\".\n\nAs the FARC demobilized in 2016, other armed groups took their place. Vying for control of valuable resources like coca and illegal mining, and transport routes, these groups intensified their targeting of social leaders who were promoting the implementation of the peace accords in their communities.\n\nPetro and Márquez's platform recognizes that women have suffered during the conflict in particular ways. It promises to fully implement the peace deal with the FARC, and will focus on the rural land reform, protection guarantees, and environmental protections, that are essential for women to have the ability to earn an income and support their families.\n\nHernández has also said that he would implement the peace accord and would seek a deal with the National Liberation Army, the largest leftist guerrilla group in the country, known by its Spanish acronym, ELN. Compared to Donald Trump in part for his controversial comments , including about women's roles as \"ideally...[devoting] themselves to raising children\", Hernández has however not detailed how women's unique needs would be included in this implementation of the peace process.", "authors": ["Analysis Julia Margaret Zulver", "For Cnn"], "publish_date": "2022/06/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/17/americas/gustavo-petro-profile-intl-latam/index.html", "title": "Colombia election results: Left-wing candidate and former guerrilla ...", "text": "Bogota, Colombia CNN —\n\nGustavo Petro will become Colombia’s first leftist leader, after winning the country’s presidential race on Sunday.\n\nThe former guerrilla won by a slim margin with over 50% of the votes, against 77-year-old entrepreneur Rodolfo Hernandez. In this historic win, his running mate Francia Marquez will now become the first Afro-Colombian to hold executive powers.\n\nDuring his victory speech on Sunday night, Petro said he is open to dialogue with Hernandez. He also called for a Great National agreement to end violence in the country, saying, “What is coming here is real change, real change. That is what we are committing our lives to. We will not betray the electorate that has demanded that Colombia change from today.”\n\n“Let’s celebrate the first popular victory. May so many sufferings be cushioned in the joy that today floods the heart of the homeland,” Petro tweeted in celebration on Sunday night.\n\nOutgoing Colombian President Ivan Duque said he called Petro to congratulate him on his victory and that they had “agreed to meet in the coming days to initiate a harmonious, institutional and transparent transition.”\n\nPetro, left, and Noemi Sanin, of the Conservative Party, gesture as they take part in a televized presidential debate in Bogota in May 2010. Ariana Cubillos/ASSOCIATED PRESS\n\nShortly after Petro claimed victory, rival Hernandez gave a speech saying he accepted the result.\n\n“I accept the result as it should be if we want our institutions to be strong. I sincerely hope that this decision that has been taken is beneficial for all and that Colombia is heading towards the change that prevailed in the vote in the first round,” he said.\n\nHernandez also said he hopes Petro knows how to lead the country and that “(Petro) is faithful to his speech against corruption and that he does not disappoint those who trust him.”\n\nBoth candidates had run on promises of change, seeking to take advantage of how many Colombians are fed up with Duque – a leader whose tenure has been defined by his administration’s handling of police conduct, inequality, and clashes between organized criminal groups.\n\nPetro, 62, had already seen two failed presidential bids in 2010 and 2018. Sunday’s run-off vote suggests that he has finally overcome the hesitation of voters who once saw him a radical left-wing outsider – no small feat for a politician looking to win over one of South America’s most conservative countries.\n\nThe support Petro has garnered can be partially attributed to Colombia’s worsening socioeconomic situation, including deteriorating living conditions, made worse by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of the war in Ukraine.\n\nWhile Colombia has seen impressive economic growth in recent years, inequality rates remain among the world’s highest, with nearly half of Colombians saying that the economy is headed in the wrong direction, according to a recent Gallup poll.\n\nPetro has historically campaigned in favor of higher corporate taxes and public subsidies for the working class and the poor, a tactic that might help him draw more people from that demographic to his camp.\n\nPetro’s party and allies were already the largest bloc in the Senate – though they do not control a majority of seats.\n\nA chequered past\n\nBorn in the rural north Colombian town of Ciénaga de Oro, Petro spent his youth in the ranks of a leftist guerrilla movement, the 19th of April Movement (M19) — founded to protest against allegations of fraud in the 1970 elections.\n\nThe group was part of a so-called second wave of guerrilla movements in the country that swept the region in the 1970s under the influence of the Cuban Revolution.\n\nM19 was associated with illegal activity – including alleged kidnappings for ransom – but Petro says he carried out legal activities that aimed to mobilize people to stand up to what he called a “false democracy,” even serving as a councilman in the city of Zipaquirá.\n\nPetro was detained by the police in 1985 for concealing weapons. Shortly after, M19 launched an attack to take over Bogota’s Supreme Court building that left at least 98 people killed, including 12 magistrates (11 are still missing). Petro denies he was involved in the assault, which took place while he was behind bars.\n\nColombian military protect a group of magistrates leaving the Palace of Justice in Bogota on November 6, 1985. AFP/Getty Images\n\nBy the time Petro was released in 1987, after 18 months in military jail, his ideological perspective had changed. He said that time helped him realize that an armed revolution was not the best strategy to win popular support.\n\nTwo years later, M19 entered peace negotiations with the Colombian state, with Petro ready to fight the system from the inside.\n\nA steady campaign\n\nSince losing the 2018 election, Petro has consistently tried to play down fears that his economic plan – which also proposes a halt to fossil fuel explorations and renegotiation of international trade agreements – is “too radical” for Colombia. He has since surrounded himself with more traditional politicians who could build bridges with the establishment.\n\nNow, he’s presenting himself as a new type of progressive.\n\nIn April, he signed a pledge not to expropriate any private land if elected. He’s also tipped a moderate to be his economic minister, and has sought to make international ties with new progressives, such as the United States’ Congressional Progressive Caucus, rather than traditional left-wing leaders like Bolivia’s Evo Morales.\n\nPetro speaks during his closing campaign rally ahead of the first round of the presidential elections, in Bogota, Colombia on May 22. Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters\n\nHis critics have said he is too intellectual and detached – if not outright pedantic, with even his own campaign team referring to him as “the Petroxplainer,” given his tendency to lecture.\n\nTo counter this, he’s been campaigning in some of the country’s most impoverished areas, where he’s been chatting with locals in conversations streamed on Instagram.\n\nPetro bet on Colombians to believe in him as an evolved politician, telling CNN that he’s managed to successfully combine his revolutionary zeal with practice public management.\n\nNext, the former guerrilla – whose nom-de-guerre Aureliano Buendia is taken from writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s magical realism classic, One Hundred Years of Solitude – hopes to trigger a scientific revolution in Colombia, asking economists to run through his proposals.\n\n“Magical realism comes from the heart while my scientific proposals are from the brain. To rule you need them both,” he said.", "authors": ["Stefano Pozzebon"], "publish_date": "2022/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/06/20/colombia-elections-left-wing-candidate-gustavo-petro-wins/7680605001/", "title": "Colombia elections: Left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro wins ...", "text": "Regina Garcia Cano and Astrid Suarez\n\nAssociated Press\n\nBOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia will be governed by a leftist president for the first time after former rebel Gustavo Petro narrowly defeated a real estate millionaire in a runoff election that underscored people's disgust with the country's traditional politicians.\n\nPetro's third attempt to win the presidency earned him 50.48% of the votes Sunday, while political outsider Rodolfo Hernández got 47.26%, according to results released by election authorities.\n\nThe election came as Colombians struggle with rising inequality, inflation and violence — factors that led voters in the election's first round last month to punish long-governing centrist and right-leaning politicians and pick two outsiders for the runoff contest.\n\nPetro's win in Latin America's third most populous nation was more than a defeat of Hernández. It puts an end to Colombia's long stigmatization of the left for its perceived association with the country's half-century of armed conflict. The president-elect was once a rebel with the now-defunct M-19 movement and was granted amnesty after being jailed for his involvement with the group.\n\nPetro issued a call for unity during his victory speech Sunday night and extended an olive branch to some of his harshest critics, saying all members of the opposition will be welcomed at the presidential palace \"to discuss the problems of Colombia.\"\n\n\"From this government that is beginning there will never be political persecution or legal persecution, there will only be respect and dialogue,\" he said, adding that he will listen to those who have raised arms as well as to \"that silent majority of peasants, Indigenous people, women, youth.\"\n\nThe vote is also resulting in Colombia having a Black woman as vice president for the first time. Petro's running mate, Francia Márquez, 40, is a lawyer and environmental leader whose opposition to illegal mining resulted in threats and a grenade attack in 2019.\n\nHernández, whose campaign was based on an anti-corruption fight, conceded his defeat shortly after results were announced.\n\n\"I accept the result, as it should be, if we want our institutions to be firm,\" he said in a video on social media. \"I sincerely hope that this decision is beneficial for everyone.\"\n\nAnother Latin American nation picks a leftist leader\n\nPetro's showing was the latest leftist political victory in Latin America fueled by voters' desire for change. Chile, Peru and Honduras elected leftist presidents in 2021, and in Brazil former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is leading the polls for this year's presidential election.\n\nBut the results were an immediate reason to fret for some voters, whose closest reference to a leftist government is the troubled neighboring Venezuela.\n\n\"We hope that Mr. Gustavo Petro complies with what was said in his government plan, that he leads this country to greatness, which we need so much, and that (he) ends corruption,\" said Karin Ardila García, a Hernández supporter in the north-central city of Bucaramanga. \"That he does not lead to communism, to socialism, to a war where they continue to kill us in Colombia. ... (H)e does not lead us to another Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, Chile.\"\n\nAbout 21.6 million of the 39 million eligible voters cast a ballot Sunday. Abstentionism has been above 40% in every presidential election since 1990.\n\nPetro, 62, will be officially declared winner after a formal count that will take a few days. Historically, the preliminary results have coincided with the final ones.\n\nSeveral heads of state congratulated Petro on Sunday. So did a fierce critic, former President Álvaro Uribe, who remains a central figure in Colombia's politics.\n\nPolls ahead of the runoff had indicated Petro and Hernández — both former mayors — were in a tight race since they topped four other candidates in the initial May 29 election. Neither got enough votes to win outright and headed into the runoff.\n\nPetro won 40% of the votes in the initial round and Hernández 28%, but the difference quickly narrowed as Hernández began to attract so-called anti-Petrista voters.\n\nPetro's domestic, international agendas are ambitious\n\nPetro has proposed ambitious pension, tax, health and agricultural reforms and changes to how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups. But he will have a tough time delivering on his promises as he does not have a majority in Congress, which is key to carrying out reforms.\n\n\"The people who do support him have very high hopes, and they are probably going to be disappointed pretty quickly when he can't move things right away,\" said Adam Isacson, an expert on Colombia at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.\n\n\"I think you might find a situation where he either has to strike some deals and give up a lot of his programs just to get some things passed or the whole country could be gridlocked,\" Isacson added.\n\nPetro is willing to resume diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which were halted in 2019. He also wants to make changes to Colombia's relations with the U.S. by seeking a renegotiation of a free trade agreement and new ways to fight drug trafficking.\n\nU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the Biden administration looks forward to working with Petro.\n\nPolls say most Colombians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction and disapprove of President Iván Duque, who was not eligible to seek reelection. The pandemic set back the country's anti-poverty efforts by at least a decade. Official figures show that 39% of Colombia's lived on less than $89 a month last year.\n\nThe rejection of politics as usual \"is a reflection of the fact that the people are fed up with the same people as always,\" said Nataly Amezquita, a 26-year-old civil engineer waiting to vote. \"We have to create greater social change. Many people in the country aren't in the best condition.\"\n\nBut even the two outsider candidates left her cold. She said she would cast a blank ballot: \"I don't like either of the two candidates. ... Neither of them seems like a good person to me.\"\n\nGarcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/27/americas/colombia-presidential-election-explainer-intl-cmd-latam/index.html", "title": "Colombia's presidential election: A rattled country looks left, but will ...", "text": "Bogota, Colombia (CNN) Colombians are heading back to the polls on Sunday to elect their next president in a runoff vote .\n\nNo major reports of violence or unrest marred the first round of voting in South America's second largest country, which is going through one of its most turbulent times in its modern history.\n\nSix candidates contended for Colombia's highest post in May after campaigning on how to fix a country plagued by the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, social unrest and a deteriorating security situation\n\nIn the first round, left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro won just over 40% of the vote, with populist real estate magnate-turned-politician Rodolfo Hernandez taking 28% -- edging out Petro's expected competitor, the right-wing former Mayor of Medellin, Federico \"Fico\" Gutierrez.\n\nSince none of the candidates won by an absolute majority, Petro and Hernandez will now face off in a second round of voting.\n\nHere's what you need to know about Colombia's election.\n\nThe last election was 4 years ago. Why is there another so soon?\n\nColombian presidents are only elected for a single, four-year term. And Colombians are ready for change: Right-wing President Iván Duque's approval rating is at a low, with his tenure marred by his administration's handling of police conduct, inequality, and clashes between organized criminal groups.\n\nThat discontent has placed the left in sight of the presidency for the first time in the country's history. Meanwhile, more conservative candidates have rallied voters to trust a more gradual series of reforms to correct Colombia's course.\n\nWho are Petro and Hernandez?\n\nPetro is a former mayor of Bogota, whose 2022 bid marks his third presidential campaign. The 62-year-old ran on a platform that proposes a radical overhaul of the country's economy to combat one of the highest inequality rates in the world. Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, who today preaches reconciliation and an end to violence, has framed his campaign around whether Colombia is ready to elect a revolutionary. He's campaigned on attracting foreign investment in clean energy, new technologies, transportation and telecommunications.\n\nGustavo Petro speaks at an election debate in Bogota on Monday.\n\nMeanwhile, 77-year-old entrepreneur Hernandez surged in popularity in the few weeks leading up to May's vote, attracting centrist voters who reject Petro's revolutionary calls and Gutierrez's traditionalism. Hernandez's unique social-media campaign has drawn comparisons to that of former US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The self-proclaimed \"King of TikTok\" has adopted a confrontational stance with traditional media: He did not appear in several of the televised debates organized by Colombia's main broadcasters, and rarely gave interviews to foreign outlets -- although he did appear on CNN, wearing his pajamas, saying that he was a \"man of the people.\"\n\nRodolfo Hernandez greets supporters at the Palonegro International Airport in Bucaramanga, Colombia on May 21.\n\nThe first Black VP?\n\nPetro's running mate, vice-presidential candidate Francia Marquez, has sent shockwaves through Colombia's political scene. The 40-year-old Black feminist and single-mother garnered the third-most votes in March's primary elections, with her charismatic rallies attracting supporters across the country. If elected, she would become the first Afro-Colombian to hold executive powers.\n\nColombians of African descent, the second largest community of its kind in South America, have long been marginalized in politics and in society. Marquez's candidacy has given millions of Afro-Colombians a chance to identify themselves with a national politician -- and hope for societal change in their country.\n\nFrancia Marquez is seen at a vice-presidential campaign event in Bogota on March 22.\n\nDuring a recent speech in Bogota, she quoted Martin Luther King saying she also had \"the dream to see my country at peace.\"\n\nCompared to Petro, who has been in politics for 20 years, Marquez is part of a new wave of progressive leftists in Latin America who are prioritizing issues like the environment. In 2018, she won the Goldman Environmental Prize for successfully organizing a women's group to stop illegal gold mining on their ancestral land. She's also an advocate for LGBTQ rights, gender issues, and economic equality.\n\nThe economy, security and drugs\n\nColombia has been among the fastest growing countries in Latin America in recent years, but that growth is not trickling down to working families and poorer populations.\n\nPetro is relying on voters disillusioned by the country's economic outlook and who have suffered the most in the last four years, as wages stagnated under Duque's watch.\n\nAs a whole, the country is richer than it was since Duque came to power in 2018, however the value of the average worker's annual salary has dropped significantly as the Colombian peso has plunged 40% in value against the dollar since. That situation is only exacerbated by rising inflation and the war in Ukraine.\n\nWhile Hernandez is also trying to exploit some voters' discontent with the traditional political system, his approach on the economy -- with a focus on corruption -- is more moderate than Petro's.\n\nA shopper buys produce at the Silvia Market in Cauca, Colombia, this month. Colombian inflation accelerated to its fastest pace since July 2000 in April.\n\nOn neighboring Venezuela, Petro has said he plans to re-establish diplomatic relations, even with strongman Nicolás Maduro in power. Hernandez, too, is in favor of thawing Colombia's relationship with Venezuela.\n\nThe election is also being held as the country's security situation is deteriorating.\n\nLast month, the notorious \"Clan del Golfo\" drug cartel imposed an \"armed curfew\" in retaliation to the US' extradition of Diaro Usuga \"Otoniel,\" one of its bosses, with six people killed and over 180 vehicles attacked across the country's Caribbean coast.\n\nAnd during the first three months of this year alone, nearly 50,000 Colombians were forcibly confined as a result of ongoing clashes between armed groups, according to the United Nations.\n\nA Colombian soldier stands guard near the port city of Buenaventura, Colombia, this month.\n\nThe violence is tied to the country's narcotics production and trafficking, with Colombia's cocaine production having significantly increased in recent years. The pandemic has coincided with an uptick of criminal activity, with several groups exerting de-facto control over swathes of Colombian territory including the Arauca , Cauca and Catatumbo regions.\n\nHow to restore state control over those areas -- and fight back the cartels -- is a key conversation in this election, and will prove a formidable challenge for the next president.\n\nPetro has proposed to tackle the problem by legalizing cannabis and partially de-criminalizing the consumption of cocaine and other drugs. He has said that he favors engaging with criminal groups through peace agreements akin to the 2016 peace deal with the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) that brought to an end to over half a century of guerrilla conflict between the state and communist rebels. Petro has been the target of criticism for his promises of \"land democratization\" and \"social forgiveness\" to convicted criminals, including those charged for corruption.\n\nHernandez is also in favor of ending the war on drugs. But he has flip-flopped on his view of the peace agreement. In 2016 he revealed that he voted against the historic deal, but in his presidential campaign pledge, he said that he would respect the treaty -- and even proposed \"a copy-paste solution\" to negotiate with the National Liberation Army, the largest leftist guerrilla group in the country, known by its Spanish acronym ELN.\n\nWhile the candidates are presenting their plans for the future, how Colombia mends the wounds of its past will be just as present on the ballot.", "authors": ["Stefano Pozzebon"], "publish_date": "2022/05/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/21/australia/australia-election-results-morrison-albanese-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Australia election results: Labor leader Anthony Albanese will be the ...", "text": "Brisbane, Australia (CNN) Australian voters have delivered a sharp rebuke to the center-right government, ending nine years of conservative rule, in favor of the center-left opposition that promised stronger action on climate change.\n\nAustralian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese claimed victory Saturday, though it was unclear as counting continued if his party would have the 76 seats required to form a majority.\n\nEarly counting showed a strong swing towards Greens candidates and Independents who demanded emissions cuts far above the commitments made by the ruling conservative coalition.\n\nAmanda McKenzie, CEO of the research group the Climate Council, declared climate action the winner of the vote.\n\n\"Millions of Australians have put climate first. Now, it's time for a radical reset on how this great nation of ours acts upon the climate challenge,\" she said in a statement.\n\nOther than climate, this election focused on the character of the leaders. Incumbent Scott Morrison. was deeply unpopular with voters and seemed to acknowledge as much when he admitted during the last week of the campaign that he had been a \"bit of a bulldozer.\" He was referring to making hard decisions during the pandemic and severing a submarine deal with France, but it reflected claims about his leadership style as being more authoritarian than collaborative.\n\nSpeaking to his supporters late Saturday night, Morrison said he had called Albanese and congratulated him on his election victory. \"I've always believed in Australians and their judgment, and I've always been prepared to accept their verdict,\" he said.\n\nJust before midnight, Albanese walked out to to cheers from his supporters and said he would seek to unite the nation. \"I will work every day to bring Australians together. And I will lead a government worthy of the people of Australia.\"\n\nHe added: \"I can promise all Australians this no matter how you voted today, the government I lead will respect every one of you every day.\"\n\nScott Morrison, flanked by his wife and daughters as he concede defeat to Labor leader Anthony Albanese.\n\nWhat Albanese will do as Prime Minister?\n\nOne of Albanese's first priorities as Prime Minister will be to rebuild relations with foreign leaders he says Morrison has neglected in recent years. They include Pacific Island leaders, including the Solomon Islands whose leader signed a security pact with Beijing, stoking fears that China plans to build its first military base in the Pacific.\n\nOn Tuesday, Albanese intends to travel Tokyo with Foreign Minister Penny Wong for talks with Quad members from the United States, India and Japan, where they'll discuss priorities to safeguard free passage in the Indo-Pacific.\n\nThe climate crisis was one of the defining issues of the election, as one of the few points of difference between the coalition and Labor, and a key concern of voters, according to polls.\n\nMarija Taflaga, lecturer in politics and international relations at the Australian National University, said the swing towards the Greens was remarkable. \"I think everyone has been taken by surprise by these results...I think it will mean there will be greater and faster action on climate change more broadly.\"\n\nLabor has promised to cut emissions by 43% by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050, partly by strengthening the mechanism used to pressure companies to make cuts.\n\nBut research institute Climate Analytics says Labor's plans aren't ambitious enough to keep global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius, as outlined in the Paris Agreement.\n\nLabor's policies are more consistent with a rise of 2 degrees Celsius, the institute said, marginally better than the coalition's plan.\n\nTo speed up the transition to renewable energy, Labor plans to modernize Australia's energy grid and roll out solar banks and community batteries. But despite its net zero commitment, Labor says it'll approve new coal projects if they're environmentally and economically viable.\n\nIn inner-city seats, results show voters threw their support behind Independents, mostly highly-educated female candidates standing on a platform of higher cuts to greenhouse emissions and integrity in government. They targeted traditionally safe Liberal seats, challenging voters to take a stand on decades of government inaction.\n\nAlbanese is supporting a rise in the minimum wage of 5.1%, though he doesn't have the power to impose it, only leeway to submit a recommendation to the Fair Work Commission that the minimum wage keeps pace with inflation.\n\nAustralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny cast their votes at a polling booth in Sydney on Saturday.\n\nA modest upbringing to PM\n\nAlbanese often refers to his background as the son of a single mother to demonstrate his commitment to making life better for struggling Australians.\n\nHis mother, Maryanne, suffered rheumatoid arthritis and lived on disability benefits while she raised him alone in council housing in the 1960s.\n\n\"It gave me a determination each and every day to help the people like I was growing up to have a better life. And I think that's what Australians want,\" he told the National Press Club in January.\n\nAlbanese repeatedly credited his mother for her strength during his campaign, most recently on Friday when he paid tribute to a \"incredible woman.\"\n\n\"She'd be proud as punch because she made the courageous decision in 1963 to keep a child that she had out of wedlock,\" he said.\n\nAlbanese's father was a steward on a cruise ship, and the new Australian Prime Minister was born of a brief liaison that was scandalous at the time for a single Catholic woman.\n\nSo she told him that his father had died to spare him the truth, he said.\n\n\"That was a tough decision,\" he said. \"It says something about the pressure that was placed on women and pressures that are still placed on women when faced with difficult circumstances. The fact that that young kid is now running for Prime Minister says a lot about her and her courage, but it also says a lot about this country.\"\n\nAlbanese may have won over Australians, but one of his challenges as Prime Minister will be to unite the factions of his party, said Zareh Ghazarian, a lecturer in politics at Monash University.\n\n\"He's presented himself as someone who's going to be a level-headed leader. The challenge that he will have is getting on top of and keeping on top of the Labor party caucus,\" he said.\n\nAlbanese served as a minister in the previous Labor government under prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, before taking over as Labor leader after the party's most recent election loss in 2019.\n\nThat loss knocked the wind out of Labor and they returned to this election campaign with more modest promises to avoid scaring off voters worried about radical change.\n\nPaul Williams, a political scientist with Griffith University, said Albanese lacked experience in major portfolios but predicted he would \"grow into the job.\"\n\n\"I think it will be a steep learning curve for Albanese because he hasn't had a very senior portfolio like treasurer or foreign affairs minister. And he's going to be thrown into the mix of the Quad meeting next week. So it's going to be baptism by fire,\" he said.\n\nAlbanese said he hoped his win would show young Australians that \"the doors of opportunity are open to us all.\"\n\n\"Every parent wants more for the next generation than they had. My mother dreamt of a better life for me. And I hope that my journey in life inspires Australians to reach for the stars.\"", "authors": ["Hilary Whiteman"], "publish_date": "2022/05/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/15/australia/australia-election-xi-jinping-china-relations-intl-hnk-dst/index.html", "title": "Australia election: Xi Jinping looms large over political campaign ...", "text": "Brisbane, Australia (CNN) The faces of Australian election candidates are plastered on campaign posters across the country -- but there's one face that stands out, and it belongs to Xi Jinping.\n\nThe Chinese leader, though not a participant in any modern democracy, has become a familiar presence in a campaign dogged by allegations of foreign interference and partly fought on issues of national security.\n\nXi's face is not only on billboards, his name has come up in press conferences, interviews, and election debates between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who leads a Liberal-National coalition, and the Labor Party leader who wants to replace him, Anthony Albanese.\n\n\"Xi has changed the nature of the Chinese Communist Party ... It's more forward leaning. It's more aggressive. And that means that Australia, of course, must respond,\" said Albanese during a leaders' debate, in words that appeared to echo the government's hardline stance.\n\nBefore the federal election campaign even started, accusations were being hurled that China wanted a Labor win. One week out from the vote on May 21, public opinion polls -- though notoriously unreliable -- suggest that it may actually happen, putting a Labor government in power for the first time since 2013.\n\nHow that may change Australia's relationship with China has been a common question ahead of the vote. The coalition has suggested Labor will be soft on China -- a serious accusation by a government whose defense minister recently warned that, in order to preserve peace, Australia must \"prepare for war.\"\n\nOn paper, it seems there is little difference between both major parties on foreign policy. Labor says it's committed to the AUKUS security pact, the deal Morrison struck with the United States and United Kingdom, to the detriment of Australia's relations with France. And both support the Quad, the loose four-way alliance between Australia, the US, India and Japan that is set to meet in Tokyo next week, after the election.\n\nIt's not clear yet who will attend on Australia's behalf, but analysts say that person faces a tough challenge when it comes to China -- especially after a bitter election campaign that has put Xi and his intentions front and center.\n\nAustralian opposition leader Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister Scott Morrison debate on live television ahead of the federal election, during the second leaders' debate on May 8.\n\nThe unraveling of relations\n\nChina was always going to play a role in the Australian election, as a regional heavyweight with significant trade ties to a smaller nation that it relies on for iron ore and coal, if not other sanctioned exports.\n\nXi's rise to power in China neatly aligns with the coalition's latest stint in government -- both took office in 2013, and since then relations have deteriorated, most rapidly in the last six years.\n\nSome of the angst stretches back to 2016, when links emerged between a senior Labor senator and a wealthy Chinese businessmen, prompting a closer inspection of alleged foreign political interference. Under then Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, laws were passed preventing foreigners from donating to Australian political campaigns, among other measures, and a ban was imposed on Chinese telecoms giants Huawei and ZTE from building Australia's 5G network. After the 5G ban, China's foreign affairs spokesman urged the country to \"abandon (its) ideological prejudices.\"\n\nRelations soured further in 2020 when the Australian government -- then led by Morrison -- called for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19. China responded with sanctions against Australian exports, including beef, barley, wine, and rock lobster.\n\nCharles Edel, the inaugural Australia Chair and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said China's aim was to make Australia more compliant, but it hasn't worked.\n\n\"It has had the opposite effect,\" he said. \"It hardened public attitudes in Australia and pushed Canberra to lead the charge against China's coercive actions.\"\n\nAccording to the Lowy Institute's 2021 poll of Australians on China , the vast majority were negative about China's system of government and China's military activity in the region, though they were positive about China's people and Chinese culture. China's tacit support of Russia's actions in Ukraine has also hardened attitudes, and the Australian government has rushed to supply Ukraine with tanks, coal, and humanitarian aid.\n\nWhile sanctions have undoubtedly hurt Australian businesses, the loss of the Chinese market forced some to diversify and they've found replacement markets. China meanwhile continues to buy Australia's iron ore at near record prices. So in that respect, Australia hasn't lost.\n\nIn fact, Edel says Australia's tough response to Beijing's coercion has created another model for other countries in the region to follow.\n\n\"Australia has reacted to a deteriorating strategic environment by investing in its own capabilities, increasing its cooperation with the United States, and reaching out to strengthen its connections with other countries in the region,\" he said. \"Pursuing a proactive foreign policy while investing in its own resilience offers a model for other states under pressure from revisionist powers.\"\n\nChances of a reset\n\nBut there's no consensus on the success of the Morrison government's approach to China. During the election campaign, even as the coalition touted its superior experience in foreign affairs, Beijing signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands, a Pacific Island nation that also has a security deal with Canberra.\n\nSuddenly the specter of a Chinese military base on a nation just 2,000 kilometers (1,600 miles) from Australia's shores became a live election issue -- even as the Solomon Islands and Beijing denied they had any such plans. The issue was so contentious that in the first few weeks of the campaign mentions of China and the Solomon Islands outpaced that of climate change across Australian media, according to media monitors Isentia.\n\nLabor slammed the deal as \"a massive foreign policy failure\" that occurred despite warnings that Honiara was moving closer to China. In the heat of an election campaign, it suits Labor to call out the coalition's foreign policy failings -- in fact, the timing of the deal was so opportune for Labor that Home Minister Karen Andrews speculated, without evidence, that it was deliberately timed by Beijing to fall just weeks before the vote -- a claim Labor attacked as \"unhinged.\"\n\nEarly voting has begun in Australia's federal election ahead of the official polling day on May 21.\n\nBoth sides say \"China has changed.\" In recent years, Beijing has stepped up the militarization of the South China Sea, committed alleged human rights abuses against the minority Uyghur population in Xinjiang, and clamped down on freedoms in Hong Kong, where police recently arrested a 90-year-old cardinal under national security laws.\n\nBut James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, said the Morrison government must accept some responsibility for deteriorating relations.\n\n\"Rhetoric and posturing and a lack of diplomacy has actually played a pretty major role in how we got there,\" he said.\n\n\"We haven't just protected our sovereignty. We've gone out on a limb in front of any other country in the region to, I would argue, be pretty provocative,\" he said, citing Defense Minister Peter Dutton's comment that Australia should \"prepare for war\" as one example.\n\nLaurenceson doesn't see relations with Beijing improving under a re-elected Morrison government. \"I think they have given up on the Morrison government,\" he said, but added that a Labor win wouldn't necessarily mean a reset either.\n\n\"No one's talking about going back to the way the world was five years ago. But putting our relationship on a less adversarial stance, I think that's within our capacity. And I think Labor has options where it can make some subtle shifts in its diplomacy and that will make that a realistic option.\"\n\nIn an opinion piece published in Australian media last week, China's ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, said Canberra should not see \"China's rise\" as a threat.\n\n\"The cooperation between China and the South Pacific island countries is conducive to people's well-being on both sides and regional prosperity and stability, and will by no means threaten Australia's security,\" he wrote.\n\nWhere to from here\n\nUnder Australian law, there are no rules on truth in political advertising, so using Xi's image on posters claiming he supports candidates of various political persuasions is entirely legal.\n\nXi's face is not only on ads alleging he supports Labor but also on billboards claiming he's backing a Liberal candidate, as well as at least one independent. Appealing to Xi, it seems, is the highest political insult.\n\nA poster that claims Chinese President Xi Jinping backs a Liberal candidate.\n\nAndrew Hughes, a marketing expert at the Australian National University, says Australia is known as the \"Wild West\" when it comes to political advertising, but the use of China in this campaign had nonetheless been remarkable.\n\n\"It's actually more noticeable, I think, in this election than I've ever seen the use of a foreign government in election campaigns outside wartime,\" Hughes said.\n\nHughes said the coalition was using China to establish the connection in people's minds that \"Labor equals fear,\" though he questioned the effectiveness of that strategy with an audience with only half an eye on the issues.\n\n\"Most people don't have that level of engagement with politics in the first place to make that messaging effective. Hence why (the coalition) is probably going a little bit more negative, and a little bit harder on things.\"\n\nEdel, from CSIS, said no matter who wins, Australia has a better chance of improving its relationship if it stands its ground, and that's possible under either leadership.\n\n\"While there may be differences in tone and approach, both parties now support increasing Australia's defense budget, working more closely with the United States and other like-minded countries, countering China's push into the Pacific, calling out Beijing's egregious human rights violations, and taking actions to protect Australia's democracy,\" he said.\n\nHowever, Laurenceson said a calmer approach and the realization that Australia can't dictate China's relationships in the Pacific would go a long way towards putting the relationship on a firmer footing.\n\n\"There's a track record of overreaction and panic, that's for sure. And how does that actually help you respond?\" he said. \"Having a strategy with a goal of denying the Beijing enhanced relationships in the region is just ridiculous. It's unrealistic. So yes, let's take it seriously, let's respond with a clear strategy. But let's make sure our assessments and our strategy are at least based on reality.\"", "authors": ["Hilary Whiteman"], "publish_date": "2022/05/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/06/20/israel-government-dissolves-parliament-new-elections/7682659001/", "title": "Israel's coalition government disbands, calls new elections", "text": "Jotam Confino\n\nSpecial to USA TODAY\n\nJERUSALEM – Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced in a televised speech on Wednesday that his government would put forward a bill to dissolve parliament next week, effectively sending the country to a fifth election in three years.\n\nBennett said he had “exhausted all options to stabilize” his fragile minority coalition, which has suffered from rebellious lawmakers in recent weeks.\n\nAccording to Israeli media, Bennett’s decision took a number of his colleagues by surprise, among them Defense Minister Benny Gantz.\n\nThe most recent pressing issue that brought the coalition on a verge of collapse was a failure to pass a bill that would extend Israeli law to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.\n\nBennett ousted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June 2021, ending his 12 years in power. The right-wing leader and former Netanyahu ally’s eight-party coalition consisted of his own nationalist party, as well as right-wing, centrist, leftist parties and for the first time in the country’s history, an Arab-Israeli party.\n\nDespite portraying itself as a “government of change,” a number of Netanyahu policies have remained in place, such as the opposition to a Palestinian state, expansion of West Bank settlements, air strikes against Iranian targets in Syria and an opposition to a nuclear deal with Iran.\n\nMore:Who is Naftali Bennett, Israel’s next prime minister if Benjamin Netanyahu is ousted?\n\nRight-wing lawmakers hopeful\n\nOppositions leader Netanyahu welcomed Bennett’s decision to dissolve parliament next week, saying he intends to form “a wide, national government headed by Likud,” his party.\n\nThe former prime minister also accused the government of being “dependent on supporters of terrorism,” a reference to the Arab-Israeli coalition party, United Arab List.\n\nNetanyahu’s closest confidant, Likud lawmaker Micky Zohar, told USA TODAY that he hopes the elections will result in a “right wing government” headed by Netanyahu.\n\nNetanyahu, the longest serving prime minister in Israel’s history, is on trial in three different corruption cases, one of the main reasons why a number of right-wing lawmakers and former allies refuse to join a government headed by him.\n\nAccording to recent polls in Israeli media, the Netanyahu block, which consists of Likud, two ultra-orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, and the right-wing nationalist Religious Zionism party, won’t be able to form a government, falling short of one mandate.\n\nForeign Minister Yair Lapid, who will become interim prime minister when parliament dissolves, as per the coalition agreement, hailed Bennett as a “vital Israeli leader, while promising to continue to “wage the campaign against Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.”\n\nLapid will welcome U.S. President Joe Biden when he makes his first visit to Israel next month. The political crisis, however, is now threatening to overshadow Biden’s visit to Israel, which is still expected to take place.\n\nElections are expected to be held at the end of October. Elections can however be avoided if 61 lawmakers rally behind a candidate to form a new government in the coming days.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/world/gallery/photos-this-week-june-16-june-23/index.html", "title": "Photos this week: June 16-June 23, 2022", "text": "Bakhtar News Agency/AP Afghans evacuate after a deadly magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more on Wednesday, June 22. See photos from the earthquake The week in 36 photos\n\nBakhtar News Agency/AP Afghans evacuate after a deadly magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more on Wednesday, June 22. See photos from the earthquake\n\nAfghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 quake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more.\n\nThe earthquake hit in the early hours of the morning near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border and the death toll is expected to rise as many of the homes in the area were constructed out of materials vulnerable to damage.\n\nThe humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.\n\nHere are some of the stories that made headlines over the past week, as well as some photos that caught our eye.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/politics/summit-of-the-americas-joe-biden/index.html", "title": "Snubs from key leaders at Summit of the Americas reveal Biden's ...", "text": "(CNN) The decision by Mexico's President to boycott this week's summit for regional leaders in Los Angeles rendered futile months of work by President Joe Biden and other top officials to convince him to attend.\n\nNow, key nations in Central America are following President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's lead, dispatching only lower-level delegates instead of their leaders. And by the time Biden arrives to the summit Wednesday, questions over the event's invitation list and attendees will have obscured its larger purpose, a source of frustration to administration officials who didn't necessarily expect the mess.\n\nThe decision by several countries to stay away from the southern California gathering, a protest of Biden's decision not to invite three regional autocrats, has underscored the struggle to exert US influence in a region that has become fractured politically and is struggling economically.\n\nAnd it has exposed the difficulties and contradictions in Biden's vow to restore democratic values to American foreign policy. Even as he takes a stand against inviting dictators to a summit on US soil, prompting anger and boycotts from those key regional partners, his aides are simultaneously planning a visit to Saudi Arabia — seen as a necessity at a moment of a global energy crisis, despite the kingdom's grave human rights record. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday the kingdom is an \"important partner,\" though Biden once said it must be made a \"pariah.\"\n\nIn the end, the White House announced Tuesday that 23 heads of state will attend this week's Summit of the Americas, which administration officials said was in line with past iterations of the triennial confab. One leader who was on the fence, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, will attend and meet Biden for the first time.\n\nYet the absences of the presidents of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are still notable since the United States has worked to cultivate those leaders as partners on immigration, an issue that looms as a political liability for Biden.\n\nAdministration officials on Monday dismissed concerns about attendance at the summit, saying they did not believe lower-level delegates from certain countries will alter the outcome.\n\n\"We really do expect that the participation will not be in any way a barrier to getting significant business done at the summit. In fact, quite the opposite, we are very pleased with how the deliverables are shaping up and with other countries commitment to them,\" one senior administration official said, adding the commitments will range from short term to long term.\n\nAnd the White House insisted the President was firm in his view that the autocratic leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua should not be invited to participate — even if it means widening rifts with other countries in the region.\n\n\"At the end of the day, to your question, we just don't believe dictators should be invited. We don't regret that, and the President will stand by his principle,\" Jean-Pierre said.\n\nTroubles have been on the horizon for months\n\nBiden, who arrives in Los Angeles on Wednesday, is expected announce a new partnership with countries in the Western Hemisphere during the gathering as part of a broader effort to stabilize the region, according to the officials.\n\nHe and his administration have been working since last year to organize the summit, which was formally announced last August. The city of Los Angeles was selected as the venue in January. Biden named former Sen. Chris Dodd, his friend and former colleague on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the special adviser for the event.\n\nDodd traveled in the region to muster support, one of a number of administration envoys to Central and South America that included Vice President Kamala Harris and even first lady Jill Biden. Yet as the summit approached, it became evident an event designed to reassert American leadership in the region was facing serious hurdles.\n\nFor weeks before the summit began, López Obrador hinted that he would boycott unless all leaders from the region were invited -- including those from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, each of whom has faced US opposition because of their human rights records. Other, mostly leftist leaders signaled they, too, may not attend if invitations did not go to everyone.\n\nAdministration officials privately cast doubt those leaders would follow through on their threats, suggesting they were instead attempts to play to domestic audiences that are often skeptical of the United States.\n\nDuring an April telephone call between Biden and López Obrador, the subject of the summit arose. In a readout, the White House said the men \"looked forward to meeting again at the June Summit of the Americas,\" a sign the administration believed then the Mexican president would attend.\n\nOver the past weeks, Dodd spent lengthy virtual sessions lobbying López Obrador to reconsider his threat of a boycott. Members of Congress -- including Sen. Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- began to publicly agitate against inviting any leaders from Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua. And frustration mounted among administration officials that questions over the invitations and attendees were clouding out the summit's intended goals.\n\n\"The biggest problem is that the focus on attendance takes us away from the focus on substance, but that is the logical thing that happens ahead of a summit. It's like the sausage-making period. We don't talk much about the substance because the summit hasn't started yet, we talk only about who might be there,\" said Roberta Jacobson, the former US ambassador to Mexico who also served as an adviser to Biden on southern border policy.\n\nUltimately, the weeks of speculation were put to rest — but not in the way the White House had hoped.\n\n\"There cannot be a Summit of the Americas if all countries of the Americas cannot attend,\" López Obrador said at a news conference in Mexico City. \"This is to continue the old interventionist policies, of lack of respect for nations and their people.\"\n\nMexican President's absence not a part of a larger rift, officials say\n\nMexican officials had conveyed their President's decision to the White House beforehand, and Biden was made aware before the news became public. Instead of meeting at the summit, Biden and López Obrador will meet in Washington next month.\n\n\"The fact that they disagree about this issue is now very clear,\" a senior administration official said.\n\nOfficials sought to emphasize the decision to boycott was rooted in a specific disagreement over the invite list and was not indicative of a larger rift.\n\n\"What we have done in recent weeks, going back almost a month now, is consulted -- consulted with our partners and friends in the region so that we understood the contours of their views,\" the senior administration official said. \"In the end, the President decided and very much made this point in all of the engagements that we had ... which is that we believe the best use of this summit is to bring together countries that share a set of democratic principles.\"\n\nBiden is turning his focus to the Americas after a series of foreign policy crises in other parts of the world, including the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He completed his first visit to Asia at the end of last month.\n\nThat region is one where his animating message of \"autocracy versus democracy\" is playing out in real time, as China works to make inroads and economically challenged nations look for support from abroad.\n\nIn opening remarks Wednesday, Biden will unveil the so-called \"Americas partnership\" that will focus on five issues, including economic recovery, mobilizing investments, supply chains, clean energy and trade -- all with the hopes of strengthening US partnerships in a region many US leaders have been accused of ignoring.\n\nDuring the summit, Biden is also expected to announce more than $300 million in assistance to fight food insecurity, in addition to other private sector commitments, as well as health initiatives and a partnership on climate resilience.\n\nBiden to unveil new initiatives at summit\n\nWhile at the summit, the President and his team will be unveiling a series of new initiatives.\n\nHarris, who arrived in Los Angeles earlier in the week, on Tuesday announced two updates to her work in addressing the root causes of migration to the southern border. First, she announced that through her \"Call to Action,\" which aimed to promoting economic opportunity, she has now secured more than $3.2 billion in private investment for the region.\n\nCNN previously reported the new commitments come from 10 companies totaling more than $1.9 billion, including the Gap Inc. which has pledged $150 million by 2025 to increase their sourcing from Central America, according to a fact sheet from the White House. Other companies include Millicom, Yazaki, Unifi, San Mar, Pantaleon and Fundación Terra.\n\nHarris also said she will be launching \"In Her Hands,\" a new private sector program aimed at empowering, training and protecting men in the northern Central America region and across the Western Hemisphere.\n\nAnd on Wednesday the Biden administration will unveil an \"Action Plan on Health and Resilience in the Americas,\" which is aimed at helping partner nations \"prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemic threats and other public health emergencies while also expanding the equitable delivery of healthcare and public health services to remote, vulnerable, and marginalized populations,\" a senior administration official said. The senior administration official said the plan is expected to be fully implemented by 2030.\n\nHealth and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is expected to announce the initiative at the CEO Summit Plenary Session as well..\n\nAs part of Wednesday's announcement, the administration is slated to announce roughly $100 million in funding, in concert with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), to provide basic and specialized training for 500,000 public health, health science and medical professionals through the next five years through the newly launched Americas Health Corps, or Fuerza de Salud de las Americas.\n\nCaravan highlights need to work fast on migration\n\nAs the summit was getting underway, the imperative to make progress on immigration was being starkly illustrated in southern Mexico. A new migrant caravan there set out on foot Monday, timed to bring attention to the issue as leaders were gathering in Los Angeles.\n\nAn official with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said a group of about 2,300 people left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on Monday heading north. The official said the group is comprised mostly of Venezuelans, but also includes migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, El Salvador and Honduras.\n\nA regional immigration group, Colectivo de Observación y Monitoreo de Derechos Humanos en el SE Mexicano, said in a bulletin that the group included principally families and children \"who demand access to migration procedures and dignified treatment by the authorities.\" Tapachula, located just across the border from Guatemala, is a popular way station for migrants traveling from Central America.\n\nUnder Mexican immigration laws, migrants and asylum-seekers are often made to wait in the area for several months with limited opportunities for work. Northward caravans of migrants have left Tapachula regularly in the past year, although this week's appears to be one of the largest. This caravan gathered partially in protest to immigration policies and it would be weeks before they arrived to the US southern border, assuming they all do.\n\nIn Los Angeles, Biden and other leaders are expected to agree to a new migration document, dubbed the Los Angeles Declaration, during their Friday meetings. It's meant to spell out how countries in the region and around the world should share responsibility for taking in migrants.\n\nOfficials said they were confident Mexico would sign on.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak"], "publish_date": "2022/06/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/politics/primary-elections-june-7-california-iowa/index.html", "title": "Primary election: California voters send a stark message to ...", "text": "(CNN) Voters in two of the most liberal cities in America sent a clear message to the Democratic Party on Tuesday: they want their leaders to refocus on the most basic functions of government by ensuring their safety, protecting their quality of life and restoring order.\n\nFor months now, voters in San Francisco and Los Angeles have voiced their concerns that daily life in their cities appears to be spiraling out of control. Residents in San Francisco have been contending with a rise in burglaries and car thefts, as well an alarming spate of hate crimes directed against Asian Americans. Los Angeles residents have witnessed a sharp increase in violent crime, while city leaders have been grappling with a homelessness crisis that has led to the proliferation of tents and trash across parks, sidewalks and public spaces, while exposing an untreated mental health emergency on their streets.\n\nOn Tuesday, San Francisco voters registered their disquiet by recalling District Attorney Chesa Boudin amid concern that he was advancing progressive policies as a national criminal justice reform advocate at the cost of their safety. It was a move that signaled just how far the political pendulum has swung since the 2020 election cycle when many Democratic voters cited police accountability and criminal justice overhauls among their top concerns -- a debate that reached a crescendo following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.\n\nOn the same night, voters in the overwhelmingly progressive city of Los Angeles signaled their unease with Democrats' handling of crime and homelessness by elevating billionaire shopping mall magnate Rick Caruso, a former Republican who became a Democrat earlier this year, into a runoff race to replace term-limited Mayor Eric Garcetti.\n\nSix-term US Rep. Karen Bass was once viewed as the frontrunner in the mayor's race, but Caruso mounted an unexpectedly strong challenge against her, spending $40 million to push the argument that city leaders have failed to keep people safe and have proven inept in finding solutions to house some 41,000 people living on the streets.\n\nBass, a Democrat who led the House negotiations on legislation to increase police accountability after Floyd's death, has promised to make public safety a priority. She pledged to restore the Los Angeles Police Department to its authorized force of 9,700 officers, in part by hiring more civilians to free up 250 officers to return to street patrols. But she has not gone as far as Caruso, who has promised to hire 1,500 additional officers and to bring on some 500 sanitation workers to clean up the streets -- proposals that his critics say the city cannot afford.\n\nFor months now, the crosswinds facing Democrats nationally as they struggle to find an effective message on crime and inflation have been apparent in races across California, where Democrats currently hold all the statewide offices and dominate the congressional delegation.\n\nThe new map that was drawn by the state's nonpartisan redistricting commission last year yielded as many as ten competitive House races in California, where Democrats were bullish about the potential for pickups.\n\nBut those ambitions have been tempered by the fact that Golden State voters are contending with the highest gas prices in the nation, unsettled by the spike in violent crime and frustrated by the fact that they see no improvement in homelessness even though billions of dollars are flowing to build housing and shelters. All those issues have surfaced in close races in the state, emboldening Republicans who are advancing the notion that Democratic policies are leading to chaos.\n\nThe low turnout in Tuesday's elections in California and New Jersey was another sign that Democrats are failing to energize their voters in states that will be key to their hopes of holding control of Congress.\n\nJUST WATCHED Hear Elizabeth Warren's plan to avoid an election loss for Democrats Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hear Elizabeth Warren's plan to avoid an election loss for Democrats 01:19\n\nDespite an array of competitive House races -- where the top two vote-getters regardless of party will advance to the general election -- only 19% of California ballots had been returned as of Tuesday even though they were mailed to nearly 22 million voters weeks ago, according to ballot tracking data from the California-based firm Political Data Intelligence.\n\nMississippi, Montana, Voters also cast ballots in Iowa New Mexico and South Dakota on Tuesday in primary contests that offered a window into how much voters intend to blame the party in power for their dissatisfaction about the state of the economy and the country.\n\nSeveral California Republican incumbents faced their own challenges as the various factions of the GOP continue to wrestle for dominance. Rep. David Valadao, one of ten GOP members who supported Trump's 2021 impeachment, faced a challenge on his right in his Democratic-leaning Central Valley seat -- the new 22nd District. Former Fresno City Councilmember Chris Mathys said he decided to run because of Valadao's impeachment vote, but Trump has not gotten involved in the race.\n\nGOP Rep. Young Kim confronted strong competition from her right flank in the newly drawn 40th District in Orange County from Marine veteran Greg Raths, another Trump loyalist.\n\nOn the flip side, Democrats hope to use GOP Rep. Mike Garcia's ties to Trump against him in California's 27th District after redistricting made his northern Los Angeles County seat more Democratic. (Garcia voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania.) Former state Assemblywoman Christy Smith, a Democrat, will advance to a runoff in the district with Garcia, CNN projected.\n\nIowa Democrats delivered an upset on Tuesday night by rejecting a onetime star in the party, former Rep. Abby Finkenauer, in her bid to take on veteran GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley in November.\n\nFollowing Finkenauer's recent blunder -- where she almost failed to qualify for the ballot when a judge found that she had not met the signature requirements -- as well as her loss two years ago to Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, Democrats in the Hawkeye State went in a different direction. They chose retired Navy Adm. Mike Franken to go up against Grassley, the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, who will win his party's primary as he seeks an eighth term, CNN projected.\n\nFinkenauer served for one term in Congress after she won a district in 2018 that former President Donald Trump had carried two years earlier. At that time, she was the second-youngest woman ever elected to Congress, at the age of 29.\n\nElsewhere in Iowa, one of the most competitive races is in the 3rd District, where Rep. Cindy Axne, the only Democrat in the congressional delegation, hopes to hold her seat in a district that Trump would have won by less than half a point. CNN projected that state Sen. Zach Nunn, an Air Force veteran, will win the Republican primary in the Des Moines-area district.\n\nThe other two competitive House races in Iowa are set. GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks will face Democratic state Rep. Christina Bohannan in the new 1st District. In the 2nd District, Hinson will face Democratic state Sen. Liz Mathis, who is also a former local TV news anchor.\n\nThere were also several high-profile congressional races in New Jersey. In the state's 7th District, a battleground that became more Republican in redistricting, CNN projected that Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski and Republican Tom Kean Jr., the former state Senate minority leader and son of former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, will face off in the general election.\n\nIn the 8th District in northern New Jersey, Democrat Rob Menendez Jr., son of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, will win the Democratic primary, CNN projects, as he runs for the seat of retiring Democratic Rep. Albio Sires.\n\nGOP Rep. Chris Smith, who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, fended off an array of primary challengers in the 4th District in central New Jersey, including Mike Crispi, a talk show host endorsed by Trump allies such as Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani.\n\nIn Montana, Trump backed his former Interior secretary Ryan Zinke -- despite his history of controversy -- as the candidate attempts to return to Congress . The state won a second congressional seat following the 2020 census results. Zinke faced four other candidates in the GOP primary, including former state Sen. Al Olszewski and pastor Mary Todd, as questions swirl about Zinke's residency\n\nIn South Dakota, Rep. Dusty Johnson will win the GOP primary for the state's only congressional seat, CNN projected. He faced a primary challenge after voting to certify the 2020 presidential election results. CNN also projected that South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem , a potential 2024 contender, will defeat her primary challenger, state Rep. Steven Haugaard, who had accused her of being insufficiently conservative and spending too much time as governor tending to her ambitions for higher office.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional developments.", "authors": ["Maeve Reston"], "publish_date": "2022/06/07"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_4", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/taxes/2022/01/10/irs-allowing-you-to-file-taxes-starting-jan-24/9163934002/", "title": "IRS: 2022 tax season set to begin 2 weeks early on Jan. 24", "text": "Associated Press\n\nWASHINGTON – This year’s tax filing season will begin on Jan. 24, 17 days earlier than last year, the Internal Revenue Service announced Monday.\n\nThe IRS is warning that a resurgence of COVID-19 infections on top of less funding authorization from Congress than the Biden administration had requested could make this filing season particularly challenging.\n\n“The pandemic continues to create challenges, but the IRS reminds people there are important steps they can take to help ensure their tax return and refund don’t face processing delays,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said.\n\nAvoiding a paper tax return will be more important than ever this year to avert processing delays, Rettig said. He urged taxpayers to file their returns electronically and to get their refunds by direct deposit.\n\n► Want to file your tax return for free? TurboTax opts out of major program\n\nIt is also important for taxpayers who received a COVID-19 relief Economic Impact Payment last year or who got an advance Child Tax Credit payment to make sure they report the correct amount on their tax returns to avoid processing delays, Rettig said.\n\nThe IRS will send letters to recipients of the impact payments and the advance Child Tax Credit payments and taxpayers can also check for the amounts they received on the website IRS.gov.\n\nThe deadline for tax returns to be filed is Monday, April 18 this year, three days later than the normal April 15 deadline for filing taxes. The later date is a result of the Emancipation Holiday in the District of Columbia. By law, District of Columbia holidays impact tax deadlines for everyone the same way federal holidays do.\n\n► The Daily Money: Get our latest personal finance stories in your inbox\n\n► 'Questionable' tax refunds: How Ryan LLC helps companies get rich", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/03/12/stimulus-checks-irs-says-payments-start-hitting-bank-accounts-weekend/4674379001/", "title": "COVID relief checks: IRS says stimulus will hit accounts this weekend", "text": "The third round of stimulus checks will start hitting bank accounts for eligible Americans as soon as this weekend, the IRS said late Friday.\n\n“Following approval of the American Rescue Plan Act, the first batch of payments will be sent by direct deposit, which some recipients will start receiving as early as this weekend, and with more receiving this coming week,” the IRS said in a statement.\n\nIn fact, the payments have already arrived for some people just one day after President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law.\n\nIn the coming weeks, more batches of payments will be sent via direct deposit and through the mail as a check or debit card, according to the agency. Some people may see the direct deposit payments as “pending” or as provisional payments in their accounts before the official payment date of March 17, the IRS added.\n\nFrom stimulus checks to Tax Day 2021:Answers to your questions about IRS changes, COVID relief and more\n\nSave better, spend better:Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nIs the stock market boom helping you? In the year of COVID-19, who has really benefited from the stock market boom?\n\nThe IRS announcement confirms what the Biden administration had said Thursday that people would start seeing direct deposit of the checks as soon as this weekend.\n\nSocial Security and other federal beneficiaries will generally receive this third payment the same way as their regular benefits, the IRS said. A payment date for this group is expected to be announced soon.\n\nOn Saturday, the IRS updated the \"Get My Payment\" tool on IRS.gov, which allows people to check the status of their payment. The IRS had originally said the tool would be updated on Monday.\n\nThe third round of Economic Impact Payments will be based on a taxpayer’s latest processed tax return from either 2020 or 2019. That includes anyone who used the IRS non-filers tool last year, or submitted a special simplified tax return. If the IRS received and processed a taxpayer’s 2020 return, the agency will make the calculation based on that return instead.\n\nFor those who received the first two stimulus checks, but didn’t receive a payment via direct deposit, they will receive a check or a prepaid debit card.\n\nWho gets a third stimulus check?:Your COVID-19 relief questions, answered\n\nUnemployment taxes:Jobless Americans get a tax waiver of up to $10,200 on unemployment benefits\n\nThe payments would amount to $1,400 for a single person or $2,800 for a married couple filing jointly, plus an additional $1,400 for each dependent child. Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get the full payments, as would married couples with incomes up to $150,000. Payments would decline for incomes above those thresholds, phasing out above $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.\n\nThe third stimulus payment isn’t restricted to children under 17 like the first two rounds. Eligible families will get a $1,400 payment per qualifying dependent claimed on their tax return, including college students, adults with disabilities, parents and grandparents.\n\nUnder the American Rescue Plan relief package, the third stimulus check can’t be offset to pay past-due federal debts or back taxes.\n\nWells Fargo: Stimulus payments still days away\n\nWhile some people have reported on social media that they have been notified that their stimulus payment is a pending deposit in their bank or credit union account, others have taken to Twitter wanting to know their status.\n\nWells Fargo was trending on Twitter Saturday after a tweet the banking giant sent out late Friday. “Customers who are eligible to receive direct deposit of their stimulus payment may expect it as soon as March 17, 2021,” Wells Fargo tweeted.\n\nStill, some bank customers complained on what they saw as a delay and asked why competitor banks and credit unions customers were getting their payments earlier.\n\n“Wells Fargo will process all of the direct deposits according to the effective date provided by the U.S. Treasury,” the bank tweeted and directed consumers to check their status using the IRS Get My Payment tool, which is scheduled to be updated Monday.\n\nH&R Block also said March 17 is the day the IRS has told them most people will receive payments.\n\nContributing: Kelly Tyko, USA TODAY", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/03/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/03/22/check-my-stimulus-check-2021-irs-third-covid-payment-update/4801162001/", "title": "IRS says more stimulus checks on the way: But when will seniors ...", "text": "More stimulus checks are on the way through direct deposit and the mail.\n\nThe Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Treasury said Monday that the next batch of Economic Impact Payments will be issued this week with many coming as paper checks or prepaid debit cards. Some direct deposits began processing Friday with an official pay date of Wednesday, March 24.\n\nAdditional payments are expected to be released on a weekly basis going forward, the IRS said in a news release.\n\n“The IRS continues to send the third round of stimulus payments in record time,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement. “Since this new set of payments will include more mailed payments, we urge people to carefully watch their mail for a check or debit card in the coming weeks.”\n\nThe checks' arrival comes amid a recovering economy. Many Americans are eager for the cash, either to make up for income lost during the COVID pandemic, or to spend on dining out, travel, and, in some cases, to invest in a booming stock market.\n\nWaiting for the herd:Many Americans won't eat out or fly until most people are immune to COVID-19\n\nGrape-Nuts shortage is over:Cereal brand to reimburse consumers who paid inflated prices during COVID shortage\n\nIf your first two stimulus checks came as paper checks, it is possible you will get a direct deposit this time.\n\n\"The vast majority of taxpayers receiving EIPs will receive it by direct deposit. In addition, the IRS and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service leveraged data in their systems to convert many payments to direct deposits that otherwise would have been sent as paper checks or debit cards,\" the Treasury said in a news release. \"This accelerated the disbursement of these payments by weeks.\"\n\nLast week, the IRS said it had sent out coronavirus relief checks to more than 90 million Americans under the initial round of payments made under President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan.\n\nFrom stimulus checks to Tax Day 2021:Answers to your questions about IRS changes, COVID relief and more\n\nWork from home or always working? Remote workdays during COVID-19 are longer thanks to technology\n\nGet updates on the status of your next stimulus payment using the IRS \"Get My Payment\" tool.\n\nBefore you start entering your information hourly, the IRS says the tool “updates once per day, usually overnight” and that people should not call the IRS. \"Our phone assistors don't have information beyond what's available on IRS.gov,” the agency says.\n\nThe third round of Economic Impact Payments will be based on a taxpayer’s latest processed tax return from either 2020 or 2019. That includes anyone who used the IRS non-filers tool last year, or submitted a special simplified tax return.\n\nSocial Security and other federal beneficiaries will generally receive this third payment the same way as their regular benefits, the IRS said. But a date hasn’t been announced yet for when payments are expected for individuals who receive benefits but didn’t file taxes in 2019 or 2020 and also didn’t use the IRS’s Non-Filer tool.\n\nOn updated details about the third stimulus payments, the IRS said again Monday that updates on the timing of \"payments for federal beneficiaries, including non-filing beneficiaries with a Direct Express card, is expected soon.\"\n\nHow to use IRS 'Get My Payment'\n\nThe \"Get My Payment\" tool is available at www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment. To use it, you'll need to enter your full Social Security number or tax ID number, date of birth, street address and ZIP code.\n\nFor those who are eligible, the tool will show a \"Payment Status\" of when the payment has been issued and the payment date for direct deposit or mail, according to the IRS' frequently asked questions.\n\nNot everyone who is eligible will have a payment date under \"Payment Status\" when they log in initially, the IRS said. According to the agency, the tool will be updated when the payment date is known.\n\nSave better, spend better:Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nFrom chef to carpenter:How a children's furniture maker in Brooklyn found a growing market during the pandemic\n\n'Payment Status Not Available' or 'Need More Information'\n\nSome will get a message that says \"Payment Status Not Available.\"\n\n\"If you get this message, either we have not yet processed your payment, or you are not eligible for a payment,\" the IRS said. \"We will continue to send the 2021 Economic Impact Payment to eligible individuals throughout 2021.\"\n\nAnd others will get a \"Need More Information\" message when using the tool if the payment was returned to the IRS because the post office was unable to deliver it for another reason.\n\nIf your address has changed the IRS says the easiest way to update is to \"file your 2020 tax return with your current address, if you haven’t already done so. Once we receive your current address, we will reissue your payment.\"\n\nWhen do taxes need to be filed in 2021?:IRS tax deadline changes with income taxes and payments due May 17 to give taxpayers more time amid COVID-19\n\nCOVID-19 relief payments are going to the wrong accounts:Stimulus checks going to wrong bank accounts for some Americans\n\nContributing: Jessica Menton, USA TODAY\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/03/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/success/irs-tax-letters-suspended/index.html", "title": "IRS to temporarily stop sending many taxpayer notices - CNN", "text": "Imagine having filed and paid your taxes last year, then months later you get a letter in the mail from the IRS saying you didn't.\n\nThat's what's happening to many taxpayers this year thanks to automated notices being sent by the IRS.\n\nBut if you got one, don't panic. There's a fair chance the IRS simply hasn't seen what you already sent in. That's because it's dealing with a mountain of returns and correspondence that has built up over the past two years. During that time, the agency was called on to deliver several rounds of economic impact payments and other financial Covid-19 relief , while trying to protect its own workforce from Covid.\n\nThe good news is thatyou're not likely to get another notice for awhile.The IRS announced this week that it will temporarily suspend issuing more than a dozen different types of automated notices indicating balances due, unfiled returns and other deficiencies so that it can work through its pandemic-induced backlog. [Here is the list of notices being suspended.]\n\nAutomatic notices typically require you to respond -- for example, by filing a return, making a payment, providing requested information or explaining why the notice is inaccurate.\n\nBut the IRS is too busy at the moment to respond in a reasonable amount of time.\n\nLast year, the agency took an average of 199 days to process 6.2 million responses from filers to IRS-proposed adjustments on their returns, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate\n\nTax preparer and enrolled agent Donna Byrne herself got a notice asserting she hadn't filed her 2019 tax return, even though she did, she said. \"It drives you nuts, because you know you did stuff.\"\n\nAnd trying to reach an IRS representative by phone to address a matter can feel futile: The agency has been getting 1,500 calls per second, according to a recent IRS letter to lawmakers.\n\nThis week's announcement is a good first step but more still needs to be done, according to the American Institute of CPAs. The AICPA is part of a coalition of tax professional associations that has been urging the IRS to implement four short-term recommendations to provide relief for tax filers this year, of which notice suspension is one.\n\n\"We are encouraged by recent actions taken by the IRS to suspend more automated notices and pleased to know that the IRS is listening and acting. Taxpayers, practitioners and IRS will benefit from reducing unnecessary contact, such as erroneous notices or warnings of levy, and provide much-needed relief during an already stressful and overwhelming tax season,\" the AICPA said in a statement Thursday.\n\nWhat to do if you already got an automated notice\n\nThe IRS did not provide an estimate of how many tax filers may have already received the automated notices in the past few months. But it did note that some notices may still be on their way to tax filers and may be received over the next few weeks.\n\nIf you already have received a notice or soon get one, \"Generally, there is no need to call or respond to the notice as the IRS continues to process prior year tax returns as quickly as possible,\" the agency said in a statement. That is, unless you or your tax preparer think the information in the notice is accurate. In that case, the IRS said, \"act to rectify the situation for the well-being of the taxpayer.\"\n\nBut Edward Karl, AICPA's vice president of taxation, recommends you respond in either case. The letter should indicate where to send your response.\n\nOtherwise, he said, \"you could continue to get additional notices when they turn the [automatic notification] machine back on. And you want to make sure you try to stop it as soon as possible.\"\n\nHere's why, Karl said: At some point, if the assertion is you owe more in tax and penalties and IRS records show you haven't responded at all, it could escalate to the point where the agency can garnish money from your wages or bank account.\n\nCorrection: The original version of this article incorrectly stated the reason Byrne got an IRS notice.", "authors": ["Jeanne Sahadi", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/02/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2022/01/10/irs-2021-tax-returns/6510096001/", "title": "IRS will begin processing 2021 tax returns as soon as Jan. 24", "text": "Early tax filers will get a chance now to e-file their 2021 tax returns as soon as Jan. 24.\n\nThe Internal Revenue Service announced Monday that it will begin accepting and processing tax returns in two weeks.\n\nThat's earlier than the delayed start of Feb. 12 last year when the IRS needed extra time for many pandemic-related reasons, including being able to program its systems to reflect new tax rules that were signed into law in late December 2020.\n\nThe Jan. 24 kickoff puts the IRS back on a more normal track. In 2020, for example, the IRS began processing 2019 tax returns on Jan. 27.\n\nWhile people file early to get their refund money more quickly, it's important to note why some tax refund money won't arrive in just a few weeks.\n\nSome early filers won't get refunds until mid-February\n\nBy law, the IRS cannot issue a refund involving the Earned Income Tax Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit before mid-February, even though returns can be filed beginning Jan. 24.\n\nThe law provides this additional time to help the IRS stop fraudulent refunds from being issued.\n\nIRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement Monday that the pandemic continues to create challenges. But he stressed that taxpayers can take steps to keep returns moving more smoothly.\n\n\"Filing electronically with direct deposit and avoiding a paper tax return is more important than ever this year,\" Rettig said.\n\nTaxpayers also can avoid holdups in getting their tax refunds by not moving too hastily if they received stimulus money and advance payments for the child tax credit in 2021.\n\n\"We urge extra attention to those who received an Economic Impact Payment or an advance child tax credit last year. People should make sure they report the correct amount on their tax return to avoid delays,” Rettig said.\n\nWhile you can file early, tax experts warn, it's best to wait until later in the season if you do not have all the information you need to file an accurate return.\n\nSome who don't normally file returns need to file\n\nLike last year, the IRS said, some individuals will need to file tax returns even though they are not required to file because of a low income. They would need to file to claim a \"Recovery Rebate Credit\" to receive the tax credit from the 2021 stimulus payments or reconcile advance payments of the child tax credit.\n\nMore:Want to file your tax return for free? TurboTax opts out of major program\n\nMore:Special tax break for charitable donations packs extra incentive for giving\n\nMany tax preparation software sites and offices are already up and running even though the IRS won't accept e-filed returns until later in January. The prepared returns will be electronically submitted to the IRS when filing season officially begins.\n\nThe deadline for federal income tax returns is April 18. (Those who live in Maine or Massachusetts have until April 19 because of the Patriots Day holiday in those states.)\n\nLast year, the average income tax refund was $2,827 as of May 21, according to IRS data.\n\nThe IRS issued 95.6 million refunds and a total refund amount of $270.3 billion. The tax deadline was extended last year to May 17.\n\nWhat's the official timetable for refunds?\n\nMost taxpayers will receive their refund within 21 days of when they file electronically if they choose direct deposit and there are no issues with their tax return, according to the IRS.\n\nSome tax filers are still complaining that they did not receive their refund yet from federal returns filed last year.\n\nRettig noted that IRS employees continue to work hard on critical areas affected by the pandemic, including processing of tax returns from last year.\n\nLast filing season, COVID-era tax changes and pandemic challenges drove up calls. The IRS phone systems received more than 145 million calls from Jan. 1, 2021, though May 17, 2021. That was more than four times the calls than in an average year, the IRS said. Taxpayers are encouraged to go to IRS.gov first.\n\nAs of Dec. 3, the IRS has processed nearly 169 million tax returns. All paper and electronic individual 2020 refund returns received prior to April 2021 have been processed, the IRS said, if the return had no errors or did not require further review.\n\nTaxpayers generally will not need to wait for their 2020 return to be fully processed to file their 2021 tax returns and can file when they are ready.\n\nBut taxpayers should also realize that a stressed IRS system — and ongoing challenges relating to the spread of the omicron variant — are likely to take a toll on this year's tax season.\n\n“In many areas, we are unable to deliver the amount of service and enforcement that our taxpayers and tax system deserves and needs,\" Rettig said.\n\n\"This is frustrating for taxpayers, for IRS employees and for me,” Rettig said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/10"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/us/five-things-june-16-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for June 16: Interest rates, Covid, January 6, Buffalo ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) Major retailers are facing a backlash for selling themed products in an attempt to monetize Juneteenth , the upcoming federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the US. Inclusion experts say \"tone deaf\" marketing campaigns -- including Walmart's Juneteenth ice cream and Dollar Tree's Pan African-themed plates and napkins -- promote stereotypes and often fail to provide any historical context.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Interest rates\n\nThe Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday in an aggressive move to tackle inflation. It's the biggest increase in 28 years and will affect millions of American businesses and households by pushing up the cost of borrowing for homes, cars and other loans. Many consumers who are already concerned about the soaring cost of living will now face higher mortgage rates that will make it harder to afford homes. However, that weaker demand could cool off prices in the future. The goal of the Fed's interest rate hikes is to get inflation under control while keeping the job market recovery intact, but experts say the war in Ukraine, supply chain issues, and Covid-19 could impact that progress.\n\n2. Coronavirus\n\nCovid-19 vaccines could be available for children as young as 6 months as early as next week, according to the White House. FDA vaccine advisers voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines for emergency use in the youngest children. The FDA, which typically follows the committee's decisions, is expected to vote on the authorization this weekend. Children younger than five are the only age group not currently eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19. About 17 million kids will become eligible for vaccines once they're authorized for this age group. Separately, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, has tested positive for Covid-19 and is receiving treatment.\n\n3. January 6\n\nThe House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol will use its third hearing today to make the case that then-President Donald Trump's pressure campaign on his vice president to overturn the 2020 presidential election \"directly contributed\" to the violence on January 6, 2021, according to committee aides. The hearing, aides said, will also reveal new materials about then-Vice President Mike Pence's movements on January 6, including his whereabouts and what he was doing when rioters breached the Capitol. This comes as Republican candidates across the country are running and winning primaries on Trump's false assertion that he won the election -- despite the fact such claims have been dismissed by former members of his administration testifying under oath.\n\nJUST WATCHED Liz Cheney reveals how Trump reacted to chants to hang Mike Pence Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Liz Cheney reveals how Trump reacted to chants to hang Mike Pence 01:30\n\n4. Buffalo shooting\n\nThe suspect in the racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket last month that killed 10 people faces multiple federal hate crime charges carrying the potential of the death penalty, the US Justice Department said Wednesday. The 18-year-old suspect is accused of shooting 13 people at the Tops Friendly Market on May 14. Eleven were Black and two were White, Buffalo police said. During a search of the gunman's home, federal authorities found a laptop with a document containing a detailed plan of the attack he had allegedly been planning for years, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities believe he visited the store multiple times, including the day before the attack and again, hours before he allegedly fired about 60 shots.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'I'm exhausted. It's suffocating': Black Americans tell CNN they are just tired of the same story Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'I'm exhausted. It's suffocating': Black Americans tell CNN they are just tired of the same story 03:17\n\n5. Baby formula\n\nIn a move to address the nationwide baby formula shortage, the Biden administration announced it is shipping 44,000 pounds of specialty formula from Switzerland to the US today. The supply \"will be available primarily through a distribution pipeline serving hospitals, home health companies, and WIC programs around the US,\" the White House said. But even as the government airlifts tons of formula in from other countries, getting regular supplies back to retailers could take weeks, with some estimates from stakeholders that there might not be relief until mid-July. Meanwhile, Abbott Nutrition -- the baby formula manufacturer that once produced a significant amount of the powdered formula sold in the US -- is now experiencing more delays after flooding at its Michigan plant.\n\nJUST WATCHED See how whistleblower complaint led to baby formula shortage Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See how whistleblower complaint led to baby formula shortage 02:12\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nWatch Hong Kong's iconic floating restaurant get towed away\n\nGenerations of locals and tourists will miss this iconic attraction , billed as the world's biggest floating restaurant. No one knows where it will end up next...\n\nA first look at Ryan Gosling in 'Barbie' has sent the internet into a frenzy\n\nWho could play a better tanned and toned Ken doll than Ryan Gosling ? (That's a trick question... there is literally no one more perfect for this role.)\n\nFive guys take the same photo for 40 years\n\nThis group of friends took pictures in the same pose from 1982 to 2022. Check out their cool tradition\n\n'Floating' airplane cabin could be the future of travel\n\nA futuristic cabin concept with \" floating furniture \" recently won a prestigious aviation award.\n\nReal estate job cuts: Redfin and Compass announce layoffs\n\nMortgage rates are climbing, home sales are dropping and some of the largest real estate companies are announcing layoffs\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n2.9 million\n\nThat's how many vehicles Ford is recalling due to issues that could prevent certain models from shifting into the correct gear, which might cause them to move in unintended directions. The National Highway Safety Administration says it has six reports of property damage and four reports of injuries potentially related to the problem. The vehicles involved are the model year 2013 to 2019 Escape, the 2013-2018 C-Max, 2013-2016 Fusion and the 2013-2021 Transit Connect.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The security support from the United States is unprecedented. It brings us closer to a common victory over the Russian aggressor.\"\n\n-- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, thanking President Biden on Wednesday for providing an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The latest weapons package comes as Ukrainian officials have pleaded with the West to send additional heavy weaponry as the war grinds on. A Pentagon spokesman said the US has now committed more than $5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February. Separately, the leaders of France, Germany and Italy arrived in Kyiv today, where they are expected to meet with Zelensky and express \"a message of European unity.\"\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Record heat continues across much of the East Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Record heat continues across much of the East 01:44\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nThe California Roll Was Invented in Canada", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/05/16/obama-new-irs-commisioner/2165901/", "title": "Second IRS official resigns after scandal", "text": "Aamer Madhani and Gregory Korte\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nIRS commissioner of tax-exempt entities division to retire%2C after acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller fired\n\nAgency officials had targeted Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny\n\nPresident taps a trusted budget official%2C Daniel Werfel%2C to head IRS through September\n\nWASHINGTON — President Obama said Thursday he is naming a trusted White House budget official, Daniel Werfel, to serve as his new acting IRS commissioner.\n\nThe appointment of Werfel comes as a second top IRS official announced Thursday that he is stepping down in the aftermath of revelations that the agency targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny.\n\nJoseph Grant, commissioner of the agency's tax-exempt and government entities division, will retire on June 3, according to an IRS statement. Grant joined the IRS in August 2005 and became the deputy commissioner of the tax exempt division in 2007. He became the second senior IRS official in as many days to offer his resignation.\n\nGrant had only be elevated to the position of commissioner of the division last week -- two days before the agency confirmed the targeting of Tea Party groups and conservative organizations applying for tax-exempt status.\n\nMeanwhile, Obama announced that the controller of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Werfel, will move into the job of acting IRS commissioner next week, replacing Steven Miller.\n\n\"Throughout his career working in both Democratic and Republican administrations, Danny has proven an effective leader who serves with professionalism, integrity and skill,\" Obama said in a statement. \"The American people deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to lead the agency at this important time.\"\n\nObama announced Wednesday that he'd accepted Miller's resignation, saying the agency needed a change in leadership.\n\nMiller will face questions Friday when he appears before the House Ways and Means Committee, where lawmakers plan to ask him why he didn't inform Congress about the IRS's treatment of Tea Party groups last year -- even under direct questioning.\n\nCommittee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Thursday, \"It seems pretty clear that he was aware of this ongoing targeting. And he didn't tell Congress.\"\n\nAnd Camp said the inquiries won't stop with Tea Party groups, whose applications for tax-exempt status were delayed simply by virtue of their group name. Camp also wants to know if pro-Israel groups and individual donors to conservative causes were also targeted for invasive questioning and audits.\n\nWerfel, 42, will start the job Wednesday and has agreed to serve in the position through September.\n\nWerfel, who is known around the White House as Danny, will lead the IRS efforts to restore its reputation that has taken a beating since it was made public that the organization was targeting conservative groups.\n\nHe has served in a number of other positions at OMB, including deputy controller, chief of financial integrity and as a policy analyst. He also served during the George W. Bush administration as a member of the Federal Accounting and Standards Advisory Board.\n\nTreasury Secretary Jack Lew, who has known Werfel for more than 15 years, said Werfel has the makeup to help the agency get through a difficult period.\n\n\"He is an immensely talented and dedicated public servant who has ably served presidents of both parties. Danny has a strong record of raising his hand for -- and excelling at -- tough management assignments,\" Lew said in a statement.\n\nSeparately, Obama on Thursday dismissed the idea of appointing a special counsel to investigate the IRS scandal. He noted that the Treasury Department's inspector general is expected to recommend an investigation and the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation. The Senate Finance Committee is also launching an investigation into the IRS' actions.\n\n\"Between those investigations, I think we're going to be able to figure out exactly what happened, who was involved, what went wrong, and we're going to be able to implement steps to fix it,\" Obama said at a joint news conference with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.\n\nFollow @aamerismad and @gregorykorte on Twitter.\n\n\n\n", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/05/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/us/five-things-january-24-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for Jan. 24: Covid, Ukraine, Congress, Capitol riot ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) Bitcoin is off to a dismal start in the new year, tumbling almost 50% since hitting a record high of $68,990 in November. Some countries are even considering banning cryptocurrencies entirely to curb their growing popularity.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can also get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Coronavirus\n\nThe Biden administration is expected to begin distributing 400 million free N95 masks to Americans this week, the latest federal step aimed at reining in the spread of Covid-19. The masks -- which are coming from the Strategic National Stockpile -- will be made available at a number of local pharmacies and community health centers . A White House official described the distribution as \"the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in US history.\" The huge allotment amounts to more than half of the 750 million N95 masks currently stored in the reserve, a figure that tripled over the last year as the administration sought to boost reserves. The move comes as the US grapples with an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.\n\n2. Ukraine\n\nThe US is amplifying calls for Russia to cease its aggressive actions along the Ukrainian border, where more than 100,000 troops have been amassed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned yesterday that there would be a severe response by the US and its allies if \" a single additional Russian force \" enters Ukraine in an aggressive way. In preparation for a possible invasion, the US sent Ukraine a second weapons supply shipment of close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid. Some political leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, are urging the US and its allies to penalize Moscow with sanctions now before any lives are lost. The US, however, has shown unwillingness to punish Russia preemptively. The Biden administration and its NATO allies are instead focused on bolstering troop levels in the region to support Eastern European and Baltic allies.\n\nJUST WATCHED Blinken: 'Single additional Russian force' in Ukraine would trigger sanctions Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Blinken: 'Single additional Russian force' in Ukraine would trigger sanctions 09:12\n\n3. Congress\n\nThe Arizona Democratic Party announced over the weekend that it has formally censured Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema after she voted to maintain the Senate's filibuster rules, effectively blocking Democrats' voting legislation, a key priority for the party. The symbolic gesture from Arizona Democrats adds to the mounting pressure Sinema is facing from those in her state who helped her flip a Senate seat in 2018. Sinema -- who started her political career as a progressive -- has been a target on the left during Biden's administration for her stances. Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, both centrists, were the only two Democrats to join all Republicans last week in voting to maintain the Senate's 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster on legislation\n\nJUST WATCHED 'In some political peril': Commentator on Sinema censure Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'In some political peril': Commentator on Sinema censure 01:45\n\n4. Capitol Riot\n\nThe House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol has been having conversations with former Attorney General William Barr . Barr, a staunch defender of former President Donald Trump, pushed the administration's \"law and order\" message, but resigned in December 2020 after rebuking Trump's false claims about widespread election fraud. Separately, Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, acknowledged late last week that he was part of the effort to prop up so-called \"alternate electors\" to support Trump in key states. Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani supervised that effort, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the scheme . It involved helping pro-Trump electors access state Capitol buildings, drafting language for fake electoral certificates to send to the federal government, and finding replacements for electors who refused to go along with the plot.\n\nJUST WATCHED January 6 committee chairman says panel is speaking with Barr Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH January 6 committee chairman says panel is speaking with Barr 01:35\n\n5. Boris Johnson\n\nBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing increasing pressure this week over alleged garden parties and Christmas gatherings held at Downing Street while the rest of the country was under strict Covid-19 lockdowns. His approval ratings are plunging and the parliamentary rebellion is growing. This is worrying some parts of his ruling Conservative Party that he is becoming a liability . Adding fuel to the fire, Johnson's former senior adviser Dominic Cummings said he would swear under oath that the Prime Minister was warned about the true nature of one of the parties, but Johnson denied that vehemently. Johnson launched an inquiry into the gatherings and that report is due to come out this week.\n\nJUST WATCHED See Boris Johnson grilled by British Parliament amid 'Partygate' scandal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See Boris Johnson grilled by British Parliament amid 'Partygate' scandal 02:33\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nNFL Playoff upsets\n\nWas that not the greatest playoff round OF ALL TIME?\n\nNetflix's 'Ozark' begins fourth and final season\n\nGlass ceiling shattered!\n\nMeet the first female captain of the historic USS Constitution in its 224-year history.\n\nMysterious ice formations showed up in Chicago\n\nHave you ever seen ice pancakes ? They kind of crepe me out.\n\nIndian couple plan country's 'first metaverse marriage'\n\nHAPPENING LATER\n\nThe three former police officers who helped Derek Chauvin restrain George Floyd on a Minneapolis street in May 2020 are set to stand trial in a federal courtroom later today for violating Floyd's civil rights. The three officers previously pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, while Chauvin admitted guilt in December as part of a plea deal.\n\nIN MEMORIAM\n\nThierry Mugler, has died. Iconic French fashion designer,has died. He was 73 . Mugler, who was born in Strasbourg, France, launched his eponymous label in 1974. He was known for his broad-shouldered, avant-garde designs. The designer's brand said they will remember their founder as a \"visionary\" who \"empowered people around the world to be bolder and dream bigger every day.\"\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n11\n\nThat's how many hours a stowaway spent in the nose wheel of a cargo plane that flew from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport yesterday. Due to the extremely cold flying conditions, Dutch officials were surprised the stowaway was found alive. Once the stowaway was revived and stabilized, they said they would work to determine his status, if he indeed is looking for asylum.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The IOC [International Olympic Committee] deserves all of the disdain and disgust that comes their way for going back to China yet again.\"\n\nFormer NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, who has covered 12 Olympic Games as a host and commentator, says journalists will face --, who has covered 12 Olympic Games as a host and commentator, says journalists will face unique challenges during the Beijing Winter Olympics next month. It is currently unclear how the host country may censor journalists and how they will allow reporters to cover events in and around the games.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Clipper bringing more chances for snow to the Great Lakes Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Clipper bringing more chances for snow to the Great Lakes 01:57\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nIt's Monday, and you're going to crush it today!", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/01/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/us/five-things-february-17-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for Feb. 17: Ukraine, Covid, Government funding ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) There's one thing we can all agree on -- none of us are pumped up about rising gas prices. But experts are warning that $5 a gallon may soon be the norm for people living on the West Coast. Here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day .\n\n(You can also get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Ukraine\n\nRussian forces along Ukraine's borders have increased by about 7,000 troops in recent days, despite claims from Moscow it was pulling back military units. That is according to a senior US administration official, who warned President Vladimir Putin's public openness to diplomacy was a guise. New estimates indicate Russia now has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine. Western leaders have previously expressed skepticism about Moscow's assertion it was sending some troops back to base, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview Wednesday that there is \"a difference between what Russia says and what it does.\" Separately, Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this weekend to discuss new ways the US and allies can possibly deter Russia from an invasion.\n\n2. Coronavirus\n\nThe US government plans to make high-quality masks available for kids , a senior adviser to the White House told CNN yesterday. The move appears to be an extension of the Biden administration's ongoing effort to distribute 400 million free N95 masks from the Strategic National Stockpile for the public to access at pharmacies and community health centers nationwide. About 230 million of those masks have already been delivered to those locations. Last month, the federal government began distribution of 1 billion free Covid-19 tests directly to households. More than 50 million households have already received their tests , and millions more are on the way, officials said.\n\nJUST WATCHED WH Covid-19 adviser: Government will make high-quality masks for kids Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH WH Covid-19 adviser: Government will make high-quality masks for kids 01:34\n\n3. Government Shutdown\n\nUS lawmakers have less than two days to pass a short-term funding extension to avoid a government shutdown on Friday . It remains unclear when the Senate will vote on the continuing resolution, which would keep the government open by extending funding through March 11. Discussions about the measure are being delayed by some Republicans who are making demands tied to the vote. A group of six conservative senators specifically said they would oppose the expedited passage of the resolution unless they get a vote to defund the remaining vaccine mandates the Biden administration imposed. Complicating matters further, some Democrats are absent due to personal and family reasons, causing concern the party may be short of votes needed to defeat the Republican amendments.\n\nJUST WATCHED What a government shutdown could mean for you Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What a government shutdown could mean for you 00:56\n\n4. Brazil\n\nAt least 94 people have died in the Brazilian mountain city of Petropolis after heavy rains triggered landslides that washed out streets, swept away cars and buried homes, local officials said yesterday. The city, located in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, had more rain in one afternoon than the historical average for the entire month of February, the Civil Defense of Rio said. The department also declared a state of public calamity. More people are missing, but it's unclear how many at this time, Rio officials said. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently on a trip to Russia, said he had spoken to ministers and asked for \"immediate assistance\" to be sent to the victims.\n\nJUST WATCHED Terrifying scene as floodwater carries a car after torrential rain Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Terrifying scene as floodwater carries a car after torrential rain 01:55\n\n5. No-fly list\n\nSeveral major US airlines are asking the federal government to create a coordinated \"no-fly list\" for violent and disruptive passengers , but their request is being met by pushback from GOP lawmakers. A group of Republican senators is arguing the mandate would seemingly equate unruly passengers to terrorists \"who seek to actively take the lives of Americans and perpetrate attacks on the homeland,\" the senators wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland this week. While airlines may ban an unruly passenger from their own flights, competition rules mean that information is not shared with other carriers, so unruly individuals can easily fly on different carriers after violent or disruptive incidents. Nearly 500 unruly passenger incidents have been reported in the first six weeks of 2022, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration, and 80 incidents have been referred to the Justice Department to consider criminal prosecution.\n\nJUST WATCHED An airline is asking for an unruly passengers no-fly list. See Buttigieg's response Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH An airline is asking for an unruly passengers no-fly list. See Buttigieg's response 01:52\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nDisney plans to build residential neighborhoods across the US\n\nNASA's newest explorer shared its very first images\n\nMost remote workers don't want to go back to the office\n\nHome sweet office! Nearly 60% of US workers want to continue working from home when the pandemic is over.\n\nAMC movie theaters wants to sell its popcorn at retail stores\n\nNot to be corny, but I'm glad this idea popped into their minds ... movies at home would be so much butter with this!\n\nUber now lets you see how many 1-star ratings you received from drivers\n\nDon't be down if you have a couple of low ratings . There's always next ride!\n\nOLYMPICS UPDATE\n\nRussian figure skater Kamila Valieva is expected to take to the ice today for her free skate . The 15-year-old is at the center of a doping scandal as officials work to determine whether her team broke any rules following her positive drug test.\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n$53 billion\n\nThat's how much revenue America's gambling industry rolled in last year. That figure breaks the previous record from 2019 by more than 20%, making 2021 the highest-grossing year eve r. Despite some restrictions related to Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, gambling surged mainly due to massive increases in sports betting, online gambling and traditional gaming at casinos.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"Big Tech has brazenly failed children and betrayed its trust, putting profits above safety.\"\n\n-- Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, pushing for , pushing for a new bill called the Kids Online Safety Act , which aims to curb the potentially harmful impacts of social media on young people. The bipartisan legislation proposes tech companies would have to provide settings for families to protect their kids from harmful content, and those settings would have to be enabled by default. The legislation, would also force social media companies to publish annual third-party audits outlining the risks of their platforms for minors.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Over 115 million are under wind alerts Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Over 115 million are under wind alerts 03:16\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nBali Paradise", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/02/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/20/taxes-2020-irs-delay-april-15-tax-filing-deadline-july-15/2883840001/", "title": "Taxes 2020: IRS to delay April 15 tax filing deadline to July 15", "text": "The Trump administration will push the income tax filing deadline to July 15 from April 15, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday in a tweet.\n\nMnuchin said that at President Donald Trump’s direction “we are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15. All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties.”\n\nEarlier this week, the IRS had deferred the payment deadline to July 15 but had left the April 15 filing deadline in place.\n\nIf you’re getting a refund, experts suggest still filing as soon as possible.\n\n\"For many taxpayers, this is the largest check that they’ll receive this year, so I would encourage them to file now because the IRS still expects to process tax refunds,\" says Lisa Greene-Lewis, a certified public accountant at TurboTax.\n\nHow long should I keep my tax returns?:Answer: It depends\n\nWhat tax deductions and credits can I claim?:Here are 9 overlooked ones that can save you money\n\nAccording to the latest government data available, as of March 13, the IRS has received more than 76 million returns and has issued more than 59.2 million refunds.\n\nThe average refund check was $2,973.\n\nWhile the IRS is reportedly going to increase pressure to have states align with the new federal deadline, it is important for people to check with their local government to make sure they do not miss their obligation in their state.\n\n\"Each state might consider its own relief, but it’s best to assume you still must file and pay any states where taxes are owed by April 15, unless state guidance is issued,\" Dina Pyron, financial services partner and global TaxChat leader at Ernst & Young, said in a note.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/20"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_5", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/entertainment/bill-cosby-civil-case/index.html", "title": "Bill Cosby: Jury finds embattled comedian liable in sexual battery case", "text": "(CNN) A Los Angeles jury found embattled comedian Bill Cosby liable in a civil case brought by Judy Huth, a woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her as a teenager in the 1970s.\n\nThe jury, comprised of eight women and four men, awarded Huth $500,000 in damages. No punitive compensation was awarded.\n\nHuth first filed the case in 2014, claiming sexual battery and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The original filing stated that the incident happened in 1974 when Huth was 15 years old, but the timeline was later revised to 1975, when Huth was 16.\n\nJudy Huth (left) arrives outside the courthouse for the start of her civil trial against actor Bill Cosby, on June 1, 2022 at Los Angeles Superior Court in Santa Monica, California.\n\nThrough his lawyers, Cosby, 84, has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.\n\nIn her complaint, Huth told of meeting Cosby at a park where he was filming a movie. After befriending Huth and a friend, Cosby allegedly invited them to join him at his tennis club. From there, Huth alleged, the comedian invited them to a house where he served the young women multiple alcoholic drinks and then took them to the Playboy Mansion.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Cheri Mossburg"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2022/05/26/marilyn-manson-sexual-assault-lawsuit-former-assistant-dismissed/9939748002/", "title": "Marilyn Manson sexual assault lawsuit from former assistant dismissed", "text": "A judge has dismissed a case from Marilyn Manson's former assistant, who accused the embattled musician of sexual assault, battery and harassment.\n\nIn an order of dismissal obtained by USA TODAY, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern on Wednesday dismissed Ashley Walters' \"entire action\" against the musician, which alleged Manson (whose real name is Brian Warner) used \"his position of power, celebrity and connections to exploit and victimize (her) during her employment\" from August 2010 to October 2011.\n\nIn the dismissal, Stern dismissed the case \"with prejudice,\" which means that Walters will not be able to file the same claims in Los Angeles Superior Court again. Stern said Walters had \"too few facts\" and pleaded \"too late,\" according to reports from CBS News and Deadline.\n\n\"We are deeply disappointed in the court’s decision today. If allowed to stand, this decision would drastically limit the ability of victims of abuse to obtain justice through the legal system,\" Walters' lawyers told USA TODAY in a statement Thursday, adding that the court \"based its decision on the timeliness of Ashley's claims and not the merits.\"\n\nWalters also sent a statement saying she's \"disheartened in the court’s decision\" because of \"the message it sends to other survivors out there trying to balance how they process abuse with arbitrary court deadlines.\"\n\nUSA TODAY has reached out to reps for Manson for comment.\n\nAshley Walters vs. Marilyn Manson:Marilyn Manson’s former assistant sues him for sexual assault, battery\n\nWalters originally filed her complaint in May 2021 with details accusing Manson of treating her \"like his property,\" adding that he repeatedly \"offered Walters up to his influential industry friends and associates,\" giving his friends permission to grope, kiss and \"have her.\"\n\nAt the Spike TV Scream Awards in September 2010, Walters alleged Manson pushed her \"onto the lap of an actor,\" who \"proceeded to kiss Walters and keep her on his lap,\" according to the suit. A month later, Warner offered her up to a director, who \"groped\" Walters, \"cornered her and shoved his hand up her skirt while covering her mouth so his date could not hear.\"\n\nSearch:Authorities search Marilyn Manson's home amid allegations of physical, sexual abuse\n\nWarner fired Walters in 2011 after accusing her of \"trying to sabotage his career,\" according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that Warner continued to \"threaten her, accused her of stealing artwork from his home, and hacked into her Facebook account.\"\n\nWalters says she decided to come forward with her allegations after being contacted by a group of individuals who have been allegedly victimized by Warner, including actress Esmé Bianco, Evan Rachel Wood and Ashley Morgan Smithline. (Smithline accused the rocker of raping, biting and whipping her during their relationship more than a decade ago.).\n\n'Phoenix Rising':Evan Rachel Wood alleges Marilyn Manson made her drink his blood in new doc\n\nManson moved to dismiss Bianco's case against him, but a judge denied his motion in October, and the case is still proceeding in Central California's District Court.\n\nWood’s HBO documentary \"Phoenix Rising\" released in March focuses on her depiction of a toxic and turbulent relationship with Warner, and how she's attempted to take back the narrative with her advocacy work through The Phoenix Act, which is also the name of the California bill she backed that extended the statute of limitations for domestic felonies.\n\nHBO's 'Phoenix Rising':Evan Rachel Wood, Marilyn Manson and why her antisemitism allegations matter\n\nMore:Marilyn Manson sues Evan Rachel Wood for defamation, fraud amid sex abuse allegations\n\nIn total, more than a dozen women have made allegations of sexual impropriety against Manson, but not all of them have filed lawsuits.\n\nContributing: Cydney Henderson, David Oliver", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/07/17/has-twitters-cancel-culture-gone-too-far/5445804002/", "title": "Has Twitter's cancel culture gone too far?", "text": "The latest celebrity to enter the social discourse surrounding online cancellation: Nick Cannon.\n\nThe comedian’s name trended on Twitter on July 15 after he was fired by ViacomCBS over “hateful speech.” The news added fuel to the debate over whether holding celebrities accountable for their opinions has gone too far.\n\nSome argued that the host of \"Wild 'n Out,\" which airs on VH1 and MTV, should be “canceled,” which often entails boycotting a famous person’s work. Others asked: “What happened to freedom of speech?”\n\nTwitter has become a powerful court of public opinion and \"cancel culture\" plays a role. The phenomenon occurs when people get upset about something that a company or person has done or something they have said. It also can be divisive with opposers saying threats of cancellation stifles free speech.\n\nIt's hard to deny that cancel culture has sparked important conversations and change, such as when #Oscarssowhite trended for the first time. Since then, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has made efforts to diversify its ranks. Twitter also helped elevate the complaints and charges of sexual assault, sexism and unfair treatment of women during the #MeToo movement.\n\nBut the strength of cancel culture can also ravage careers and lives. And there are cases where the people on Twitter don't have all the facts and perhaps took on the role of judge and jury without having an accurate picture of the story behind their ire.\n\nGetting \"canceled\" can mean being removed in many ways. In recent weeks, episodes of \"Live PD\" and \"Cops\" were pulled from the air after George Floyd's death sparked questions surrounding misleading police story lines. Last year, comedian Shane Gillis was fired from \"Saturday Night Live\" after people unearthed old, offensive comments. Others have faced a similar fate.\n\nBut has the backlash gone too far? The answer isn't clear cut, experts say.\n\n“Society is still grappling with what’s considered ‘too far’ on the internet,” said Anne Charity Hudley, the chair of linguistics of African America at the University of California. “Something that can be used for good can also be weaponized. Everything can go too far; even free speech can go too far.”\n\n'Keep this energy up':Black-owned businesses see surge of interest amid racism protests\n\nGoya products boycott\n\nThe internet recently came down hard on Goya Foods after its CEO praised President Donald Trump. People vowed not to support the brand, and the now embattled chief executive called the backlash “suppression of speech.” Others who faced \"cancellation\" include Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute from \"Vanderpump Rules\" and YouTube influencer James Charles.\n\nIn Cannon’s case, the comedian said on Facebook that he was an \"advocate for people's voices to be heard openly, fairly and candidly.\" The post came after ViacomCBS severed ties with the entertainer over an episode of his podcast “Cannon's Class”, where he “promoted hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”\n\nThe cancel culture debate hit a high point this month when Harper’s Magazine published a letter proposing that successful writers and editors felt stifled by a growing public intolerance.\n\nOn the flip side, professionals who specialize in social movements say cancel culture was birthed from groups of people growing tired of others abusing power by controlling the narrative of marginalized communities.\n\n“People have learned over time, and over decades, that sometimes you have to make a little bit of noise on social media in order for people to be held accountable,” said Apryl Alexander, professor of psychology at the University of Denver.\n\nIt’s easy for the cancel culture movement to get wound into a game of false equivalence, with some people calling for justice while others worry about expressing themselves, experts said.\n\n\"Yes, there is freedom of speech and people should be allowed to voice their opinions,\" Alexander said. \"But when they use that voice and it's causing harm, we do need to address the harm.\"\n\nSome of the people who have been on the receiving end of cancellation were charged or convicted of crimes, such as rape and sexual assault, as in the Harvey Weinstein case.\n\nToo big to cancel?\n\nDespite disturbing revelations, sometimes people aren’t ready to let go of their idols.\n\n\"Tonight Show\" host Jimmy Fallon was at the epicenter of digital backlash in March after old photos of him wearing Blackface surfaced. It wasn’t his first racial indiscretion, yet the show remains on the air. Old racist tweets from songstress Camila Cabello surfaced in 2019. As of June, she’s still the face of L'Oreal in commercials. Both issued a public apology.\n\n“That’s one of the most concerning parts, many of these individuals go on living their lives without being truly canceled or held accountable for the things they did or said,” Alexander said.\n\nShort attention spans allow many people to avoid long-term cancellation, experts say. Today’s headline is often forgotten when something scandalous comes out tomorrow. Also, calls to cancel someone can be made by anyone, including people who never supported the entertainer in the first place.\n\nGetting doxed\n\nCancel culture is tethered to other social media occurrences that can cause real harm.\n\nSometimes, when people voice controversial opinions online, they get doxed, or have their private information researched and posted, by a digital vigilante. There are instances where the wrong person’s information was shared, and others where the content was misinterpreted.\n\nIn one case in May, a Santa Monica woman said in an opinion piece published by USA TODAY that her life was threatened by a “social media mob” that misunderstood what was really happening in a 34-second clip. The video showed her holding a power drill in Santa Monica, California, after uprisings there. People on the internet alleged she was posing for an Instagram photo, but in real life, she says she was joking with local volunteer workers.\n\nThere are also elements of cyberbullying that can happen when people are “called out” for their behavior.\n\n\"Cyberbullying is a negative outcome, but it can come from both cancel culture and people trying to oppress others,\" said Alexander of the University of California.\n\nBut it can lead to change, too\n\nCancellation, in most cases, isn't permanent. But widespread calls to boycott or call out people, companies and institutions have led to change that many view as positive.\n\nThink back to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. When activist April Reign sparked the hashtag in 2015, the nominees for the prestigious acting awards visibly lacked diversity. The Academy responded to the outcry by setting inclusion goals, and in 2020 announced that it had more than doubled the number of minority members since 2016.\n\nAnd social media-spun uprisings have contributed to the calls for racial justice in America. When people online point out the issues and provide video proof online, it has led to people being arrested and, sometimes convicted, of crimes or changes to policy.\n\n\"Social media has allowed people to organize more comprehensively and react more quickly,\" Alexander said. \"Changes are happening in terms of police departments, universities and schools looking at their anti-blackness policies. Now, how do we sustain it? That's the next big question.\"\n\nFollow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/26/sport/deshaun-watson-nfl-intl-spt-cmd/index.html", "title": "Deshaun Watson: The NFL says it holds players to account for their ...", "text": "(CNN) It's been months since the Houston Texans agreed to trade embattled quarterback Deshaun Watson to the Cleveland Browns , but the furor over the deal -- described by one NFL observer as a case of \"talent trumps trouble\" -- just won't go away.\n\nIn March, a grand jury in Harris County, Texas, declined to charge Watson over allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct after determining there was not enough evidence to charge him with a crime. The incidents were described as \"stemming from massage therapy sessions,\" according to a statement on the NFL website.\n\nMeanwhile, a second grand jury in Brazoria County, Texas, in March declined to indict Watson after considering evidence in a criminal complaint alleging sexual misconduct, also during a massage therapy session.\n\nHowever, Watson still faces 22 civil complaints from his accusers, many of them alleging sexual assault and misconduct during massage sessions. Two of Watson's accusers appeared on HBO's Real Sports on Tuesday, providing graphic details of what they say happened in the sessions -- and speaking of their shock and revulsion at the news of his signing.\n\n\"It's just like a big screw you,\" Ashley Solis said on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.\"That's what it feels like. That we don't care. He can run and throw, and that's what we care about.\"\n\nWatson has repeatedly denied the accusations of sexual assault and misconduct made against him, and Watson's attorney Rusty Hardin said in a statement \"I believe that any allegation that Deshaun forced a woman to commit a sexual act is completely false.\"\n\nNFL officials were scheduled to meet with Watson last week, as the fallout from his trade continues, according to NFL.com , per NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport. A decision on his potential suspension is looming, but timelines for this remain unclear.\n\nHardin told CNN that Watson met with the NFL for three days. The league has also requested one more day, though the date and location have not yet been determined, added Hardin.\n\n\"I can't give you a timeline,'' NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters in a press conference Tuesday. \"I think we're nearing the end of the investigative period and then at some point this will be handled by our disciplinary officer. And that will happen shortly. And then we'll see where that comes out.''\n\nDeshaun Watson #4 of the Houston Texans calls a play at the line of scrimmage during a game against the Tennessee Titans at NRG Stadium on January 03, 2021 in Houston, Texas.\n\nJournalist Melissa Jacobs, founder and managing editor of 'The Football Girl,' told CNN that after Watson's signing with the Browns, she felt \"disgust, disappointment, I guess, ickiness, but also not surprised at all because we saw the makings of this happening.\"\n\nWatson's five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract from the Browns would be the highest guaranteed money given to an NFL player, according to ESPN. If a player is fully guaranteed, money in a player contract is protected for skill, cap and injury. Cleveland is set to begin organized team activities on May 24.\n\nAt an introductory news conference with the Browns in March, when asked about his off-the-field situation, Watson answered: \"I don't have any regrets. Like I said before, the things that are off the field right now that came up caught me by surprise because I never did anything that these people are alleging.\"\n\nWatson's attorney Rusty Hardin told CNN he couldn't predict the outcome of the civil cases but added: \"We really strongly believe that he didn't do what he's accused of doing.\"\n\n\"I'm struck by the way people have just moved on without recognizing the significance of the law enforcement decision that there was no crime committed,\" he said.\n\nCleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski answers questions from the media during the NFL Scouting Combine on March 2, 2022, at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.\n\nBrowns head coach Kevin Stefanski in March defended the decision to trade for Watson, saying, \"I think Deshaun's ready to make a positive impact on this community and I can tell you, just with my time spent with Deshaun in the past few days -- getting to know him and getting to know this person -- I'm looking forward to this community getting to know this person.\"\n\nHowever, some say the trade is hard to stomach given Watson still faces numerous civil suits regarding allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.\n\nOne of the civil suits filed called Watson a \"serial predator,\" and others also filed in April allege he \"assaulted and harassed\" the women by \"exposing himself\" or \"touching (them) with his penis.\" Another additionally alleges Watson tried to make one woman perform oral sex on him.\n\n\"It's not to say that Deshaun Watson should never be allowed to play in the NFL,\" added Jacobs. \"It's just that there's still civil cases ongoing and the NFL investigation is ongoing.\n\n\"So why not let the legal process play out? It's just one of the most in-your-face examples of 'talent trumps trouble' that I feel like the NFL has ever had.\"\n\nTesting the personal conduct policy\n\nWatson remains under investigation by the NFL -- though Commissioner Roger Goodell said there was \"no time frame\" on a decision by a joint disciplinary officer.\n\n\"Obviously, these are serious charges. We're looking at this seriously,\" Goodell told reporters in March.\n\n\"We now have obviously at least resolution from the criminal side of it. Obviously there are still civil charges that are going on. So our investigators hopefully will have access to more information, and that will be helpful obviously in getting to the conclusion of what are the facts and was there a violation of the personal-conduct policy,\" he said.\n\nUnder that policy, Goodell could choose to place a player on the exempt list \"when a player is formally charged with a crime of violence\" or when an NFL investigation \"leads the commissioner to believe that a player may have violated\" the policy.\n\nThe exempt list is a device the NFL can use to place players on paid leave while they are under investigation if it is thought they might have violated the league's personal conduct policy.\n\nWhat is the exempt list? The exempt list is a device the NFL can use to place players on paid leave while they are under investigation if it is thought they might have violated the league's personal conduct policy. Players can also be temporarily placed on the list if a \"violation relating to a crime of violence is suspected but further investigation is required\" to allow the league to conduct its own investigation. According to the NFL's personal conduct code, players found to have engaged in the following behavior will be subject to discipline -- \"even if the conduct does not result in a criminal conviction.\" Behaviors include: Actual or threatened physical violence against another person, including dating violence, domestic violence, child abuse, and other forms of family violence\n\nAssault and/or battery, including sexual assault or other sex offenses\n\nViolent or threatening behavior toward another employee or a third party in any workplace setting\n\nStalking, harassment, or similar forms of intimidation\n\nPlayers can also be temporarily placed on the list if a \"violation relating to a crime of violence is suspected but further investigation is required\" to allow the league to conduct its own investigation.\n\nRunning back Kareem Hunt was placed on the exempt list in 2018 after he was seen on video pushing and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel. He was released by the Kansas City Chiefs shortly after.\n\nThe Browns signed Hunt just months later, despite a league suspension hanging over his head. Weeks later, Hunt was suspended for eight games for violating the NFL personal-conduct policy, stemming from physical altercations at his Cleveland residence in February 2018 and at a resort in Ohio in June.\n\nAt the time of writing, a decision on Watson's playing status has not been made. He would, in theory, be able to play when the season begins in September, though a decision on a potential punishment or suspension is expected soon.\n\nLos Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer looks toward home during the fourth inning of the the team's baseball game against the San Francisco Giants on May 21, 2021, in San Francisco.\n\nA few weeks after Watson was traded to the Browns, another major US sports league showed its commitment to punishing players found to have violated its domestic violence and sexual assault policy. Major League Baseball announced in April it suspended Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer for two years (324 championship season games) without pay, for violation of the league's domestic violence and sexual assault policy following an extensive investigation. Bauer has consistently denied the allegations.\n\nIn February, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Bauer would not face criminal charges for the sexual assault accusations.\n\nAs far as the NFL, commentators say the league's and teams' treatment of other players accused of wrongdoing works as a blueprint for how it regards a player's personal conduct.\n\n\"As far as actions off the field and what priorities are, I think that line was drawn a long time ago with any number of people you could point to that were brought back to help teams win games after various levels of transgression,\" Tim Benz, a sports columnist for the Tribune-Review, told CNN Sports.\n\n\"Whether it was Kareem Hunt or Michael Vick, or when Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexual misconduct twice and was never actually charged with any crimes, he still got suspended for six games and was brought back and went on to have a career that they just honored him for for an entire year in Pittsburgh.\n\n\"Josh Gordon's another example with their own drug policy, which he violated numerous times over, and every time you turn around, he gets a new job with someone,\" Benz added.\n\nNFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy told CNN that when \"players or personnel violate the policies they are held responsible and disciplined. If a player earns his way back to playing by serving a suspension and undergoing mandatory training and evaluations we will consider it,\" adding that that's what happened with Hunt, Vick and Roethlisberger, who had \"no further discipline issues.\"\n\nA \"continuous assault\" on women, rights groups warn\n\nSome women's rights organizations see the Watson case as a continuation of policies and an attitude that are damaging to women.\n\nRosa Beltré, executive director of the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, told CNN that Watson's trade was \"disheartening, but it was not a surprise.\"\n\n\"This is a continuous assault, as well as revictimization, and it's been the position of many businesses and organizations,\" Beltré said.\n\nFootball teams' and leagues' behaviors often don't match their public messaging around violence against women, she said.\n\n\"While they can have campaigns , or they could go ahead and have their players give their time, talent, supposedly for a cause, the decisions that they make normally do not walk alongside their talk.\"\n\nShe said that \"over and over again,\" clubs and leagues have shown it is more important to win a championship and sell tickets than to punish players in order to demonstrate the importance of the team's values.\n\n\"So the message that they clearly sent is that once again: money, status, wins are more important than believing, supporting, seeing and recognizing the harm that is done against women by their athletes, by their boards, by their executives.\"\n\nLaura Palumbo, communications director for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, said in a statement to CNN: \"The survivors in this case have been vocal about how damaging it has been to witness the person who they reported for assault and abuse go without consequences and move on to achieve success and celebrated status in their personal and professional lives.\n\n\"What can be very powerful in honoring the experiences of these survivors is when we as a society recognize that people who commit acts of sexual violence sometimes abuse celebrity or authority status -- and the illusion of trust that comes with it -- to act in abusive ways and evade responsibility.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Tony Buzbee, the lawyer for the women pursuing civil suits against Watson told CNN: \"The NFL is a joke, when it comes to this particular issue,\" and said he believes the NFL didn't take its internal investigation regarding Watson seriously.\n\n\"It didn't take me very long to figure out just in that process that the NFL wasn't serious about it. They're just not serious. They're serious about how many people you can put in the stands, how much merchandise you can sell, and how far you can throw the football. They're not concerned and are not serious about, you know, codes of conduct, things that are said, done, off the field,\" Buzbee said.\n\nDeshaun Watson #4 of the Cleveland Browns walks off the field after the Cleveland Browns OTAs at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus on May 25, 2022 in Berea, Ohio.\n\nHe said that in interviews between the NFL investigators and Watson's accusers: \"One of the very first questions asked is, 'What were you wearing?' That speaks volumes to me.\n\n\"As if, as if the women somehow were in the wrong because of something they wore at what was supposed to be a professional massage session.\"\n\nMcCarthy, the NFL spokesperson, told CNN \"the question related to what the women were wearing was to help get a full understanding of the incidents,\" and said the legal team for the women did not object to the question at the time.\n\n\"It was in no way intended to... make the women feel uncomfortable or assign blame,\" he added.\n\nBut some experts say the NFL's handling of cases like Watson's get in the way of breaking the cycle of violence against women.\n\n\"All too often our society, criminal legal system, and private institutions fail to hold those who commit sexual harassment, assault, and abuse accountable,\" Palumbo said. \"Whenever sexual harassment and abuse are not taken seriously and handled with impunity, this contributes to the cycle of future harm.\"\n\nBeltré agrees. \"You cannot talk about restorative justice or giving a person a second opportunity when they never claim or admit their wrongdoing, and they move on in life as if nothing has happened, which gives them more power and opportunity to continue hurting others.\n\n\"What the NFL and other organizations have seen is that talent is more valuable than the harm that he's causing with his behavior,\" she said.\n\nQuarterback Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns speaks during his press conference introducing him to the Cleveland Browns at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus on March 25, 2022 in Berea, Ohio.\n\nMcCarthy told CNN the league has mandatory domestic violence and sexual assault training for everyone in the NFL, including players, coaches and staff, which were developed in conjunction with domestic violence and sexual assault experts.\n\nWatson's attorney Hardin said that the NFL had been \"totally responsible\" in the way they had handled things so far.\n\n\"What they tried to avoid is any suggestion by law enforcement, that by talking to potential witnesses and potential complainants or making accusations or so they might very well get in the way of and hinder the official criminal investigation.\n\n\"Law enforcement has always preferred that private agencies who are looking into the conduct of their employees wait to conduct their investigations until the official investigation is complete,\" he added.\n\nHe added that the NFL has now been \"very aggressively\" pursuing the investigation.\n\nMixed reactions among fans\n\nSome fans are angry about Watson's transfer. \"I think they care,\" Benz told CNN. \"I also think that they know if they win, (the anger will) go away.\"\n\nHe points to the past as evidence of this.\n\n\"There were a lot of people saying that they'd never root for the Steelers again after they brought Michael Vick in for a few weeks. I don't think that deadened the fan base in Pittsburgh by any stretch of the imagination.\"\n\nNationally, there has been a \"resurgence in TV ratings and streaming numbers in the NFL this year, after two or three years of many football fans saying: 'I'll never watch the National Football League again because of the national anthem controversy,\" said Benz, referring to player protests that began with Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand as the national anthem played before NFL games.\n\n\"That's disappeared,\" he added.\n\n\"As far as the Browns case in particular, there's a franchise that is starved, perhaps more than any of the National Football League, for a Super Bowl and a football-rabid community.\n\n\"And if Deshaun Watson ends up getting them there and winning them one, I don't think any concerns that the Browns might have about the reaction of the fan base will be a whisper in their ear by the time the Vince Lombardi Trophy is hoisted in Cleveland, should it come to that,\" he said.\n\nJacobs said the NFL's handling of similar situations points to a reactive, not proactive, strategy.\n\n\"I think the NFL is very interested in problems going away, and they're very reactive to issues like diversity, and back when the Ray Rice tape came out and there was so much anger out there, and that's when they instituted their policy,\" she said, referring to the former running back for the Baltimore Ravens, who viciously knocked out his fiancée Janay in a casino elevator in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2014 after a night of heavy drinking. The incident was captured on surveillance video.\n\nRice was indefinitely suspended by the NFL for violating its domestic violence policy -- a decision he successfully appealed, though no teams went on to sign him during his free agency.\n\n\"They're never on top of these things, like ever. Those parts of their history need to be written,\" added Jacobs.\n\nOnce a player has been punished, she said, some TV broadcasters rarely repeat why a sanctioned player has missed games, simply telling audiences, \"Oh, he was suspended for four games. Now he's back.\"\n\nIn the aftermath of a scandal and when a player is back on the field, \"it's more of the same,\" Jacobs said.\n\n\"They just sort of gloss over things to make it seem as if everybody is this wonderful, altruistic person,\" she said.\n\nMcCarthy told CNN that the league's official website (nfl.com) and TV network (NFL Network) report on every incident and suspension.\n\n\"After Ray Rice, there were PSAs out there,\" Jacobs said.\n\nLos Angeles-based filmmakers Made by Women Media created a public service announcement \"NO HITS\" calling on the NFL to \"stop tolerating abuse.\"\n\nIn 2014, following the furor over Rice's behavior, the union for professional football players, the NFL Players Association, put together a commission on domestic violence to give recommendations on how to tackle domestic violence and other issues facing the league. The NFLPA is an organization separate to the NFL.\n\n\"They had brought on an advisory committee and they went to educate players and especially men to stand up when they see something. And then that just went away,\" Jacobs said, adding that members of the commission quit because their recommendations weren't taken seriously.\n\nDeborah Epstein, one of the commissioners who resigned, said that she did so because of a failure by the union to act on recommendations.\n\n\"My NFLPA contacts would initially greet these ideas with a burst of enthusiasm and an indication of likely implementation, but efforts to follow up would yield nothing in the way of specific plans, and eventually communication would fade into radio silence,\" she wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post in June of 2018.\n\nJacobs made clear she isn't implying Watson is guilty.\n\n\"However, if you're going to allow the Deshaun Watsons of the world and people maybe in that 'probable, not definite but maybe' [category] then I do think, you as a league, have a responsibility to be open about violence against women, sexual assault, all those things like as a regular part of your programming.\n\n\"Again, talk about why these people were suspended, and offer programs to players. There just needs to be more invested into this [sports] world if you're going to allow potential perpetrators to exist in your league,\" she said.", "authors": ["Amy Woodyatt", "Ben Morse"], "publish_date": "2022/05/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/07/08/marilyn-manson-turns-himself-police-released-bail-assault-charges/7901177002/", "title": "Marilyn Manson released on bail after turning himself in on assault ...", "text": "Marilyn Manson turned himself in to the Los Angeles Police Department Friday on an outstanding warrant involving assault charges, according to police.\n\nManson, whose real name is Brian Warner, turned himself in on an arrest warrant based in Gilford, New Hampshire, and was released on bail with conditions, Gilford Police Chief Tony Bean Burpee said in a statement to USA TODAY. Manson's lawyers made an agreement with Gilford police to serve the warrant in California. Warner was processed and released on personal recognizance bail.\n\nThe musician faces two counts of Class A misdemeanor simple assault. The accusations against Manson stem from acts that allegedly occurred while performing during a concert at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford, Burpee said.\n\nAwaiting arrest:Police expect Marilyn Manson to turn himself in to authorities on assault charges\n\nUSA TODAY has reached out to Manson's lawyer for comment.\n\nThe musician was released under conditions that he does not commit a federal, state or local crime while on release, he appears at all court proceedings and he has no contact with the alleged victim, Burpee said.\n\nManson will appear in the 4th Circuit Court in Laconia, New Hampshire. In a June statement Burpee gave to USA TODAY, a mid-August court appearance would be likely.\n\nLaw enforcement say the alleged assaults were not sexual in nature and involved a videographer in the stage pit, who was subcontracted to film the show.\n\nInitially, Manson's attorney Howard King called the Gilford Police Department's claim \"ludicrous\" in a May statement to USA TODAY, but added that he and his client \"remain committed to cooperating with authorities, as we have done throughout.\"\n\nMore:Marilyn Manson denies 'Game of Thrones' star Esmé Bianco's allegations of sexual assault\n\nMore allegations of abuse have been made against the rocker over the past year. Ashley Morgan Smithline is the fourth person to file suit against Manson, with her June lawsuit alleging she was sexually, emotionally and physically abused while dating him.\n\nAmong the claims in Smithline’s suit against the rocker are sexual assault, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, human trafficking and unlawful imprisonment. The model accused the rocker of raping, biting and whipping her during their relationship more than a decade ago in a People interview published May 5.\n\nAn unnamed spokesperson for Manson denied Smithline's allegations to USA TODAY, saying Manson’s relationship with her lasted less than a week. Smithline told People the two were together for more than two years and provided the outlet with emails and messages.\n\n“We strongly deny Ms. Smithline’s claims,” the spokesperson said. “There are so many falsehoods within her claims that we wouldn’t know where to begin to answer them.”\n\nSmithline is one of multiple women who have accused the embattled musician of assault, including his ex-fiancé Evan Rachel Wood and \"Game of Thrones\" actress Esmé Bianco. In April, Bianco filed a lawsuit accusing Manson of sexual assault, sexual battery and human trafficking, and in February, \"Westworld\" star Wood alleged Manson \"horrifically abused\" her \"for years.\"\n\nManson has pushed back against Wood's claims, saying, \"My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how — and why — others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.\"\n\nIf you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE & online.rainn.org).\n\nContributing: Charles Trepany, Jenna Ryu", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/us/five-things-june-16-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for June 16: Interest rates, Covid, January 6, Buffalo ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) Major retailers are facing a backlash for selling themed products in an attempt to monetize Juneteenth , the upcoming federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the US. Inclusion experts say \"tone deaf\" marketing campaigns -- including Walmart's Juneteenth ice cream and Dollar Tree's Pan African-themed plates and napkins -- promote stereotypes and often fail to provide any historical context.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Interest rates\n\nThe Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday in an aggressive move to tackle inflation. It's the biggest increase in 28 years and will affect millions of American businesses and households by pushing up the cost of borrowing for homes, cars and other loans. Many consumers who are already concerned about the soaring cost of living will now face higher mortgage rates that will make it harder to afford homes. However, that weaker demand could cool off prices in the future. The goal of the Fed's interest rate hikes is to get inflation under control while keeping the job market recovery intact, but experts say the war in Ukraine, supply chain issues, and Covid-19 could impact that progress.\n\n2. Coronavirus\n\nCovid-19 vaccines could be available for children as young as 6 months as early as next week, according to the White House. FDA vaccine advisers voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines for emergency use in the youngest children. The FDA, which typically follows the committee's decisions, is expected to vote on the authorization this weekend. Children younger than five are the only age group not currently eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19. About 17 million kids will become eligible for vaccines once they're authorized for this age group. Separately, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, has tested positive for Covid-19 and is receiving treatment.\n\n3. January 6\n\nThe House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol will use its third hearing today to make the case that then-President Donald Trump's pressure campaign on his vice president to overturn the 2020 presidential election \"directly contributed\" to the violence on January 6, 2021, according to committee aides. The hearing, aides said, will also reveal new materials about then-Vice President Mike Pence's movements on January 6, including his whereabouts and what he was doing when rioters breached the Capitol. This comes as Republican candidates across the country are running and winning primaries on Trump's false assertion that he won the election -- despite the fact such claims have been dismissed by former members of his administration testifying under oath.\n\nJUST WATCHED Liz Cheney reveals how Trump reacted to chants to hang Mike Pence Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Liz Cheney reveals how Trump reacted to chants to hang Mike Pence 01:30\n\n4. Buffalo shooting\n\nThe suspect in the racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket last month that killed 10 people faces multiple federal hate crime charges carrying the potential of the death penalty, the US Justice Department said Wednesday. The 18-year-old suspect is accused of shooting 13 people at the Tops Friendly Market on May 14. Eleven were Black and two were White, Buffalo police said. During a search of the gunman's home, federal authorities found a laptop with a document containing a detailed plan of the attack he had allegedly been planning for years, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities believe he visited the store multiple times, including the day before the attack and again, hours before he allegedly fired about 60 shots.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'I'm exhausted. It's suffocating': Black Americans tell CNN they are just tired of the same story Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'I'm exhausted. It's suffocating': Black Americans tell CNN they are just tired of the same story 03:17\n\n5. Baby formula\n\nIn a move to address the nationwide baby formula shortage, the Biden administration announced it is shipping 44,000 pounds of specialty formula from Switzerland to the US today. The supply \"will be available primarily through a distribution pipeline serving hospitals, home health companies, and WIC programs around the US,\" the White House said. But even as the government airlifts tons of formula in from other countries, getting regular supplies back to retailers could take weeks, with some estimates from stakeholders that there might not be relief until mid-July. Meanwhile, Abbott Nutrition -- the baby formula manufacturer that once produced a significant amount of the powdered formula sold in the US -- is now experiencing more delays after flooding at its Michigan plant.\n\nJUST WATCHED See how whistleblower complaint led to baby formula shortage Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See how whistleblower complaint led to baby formula shortage 02:12\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nWatch Hong Kong's iconic floating restaurant get towed away\n\nGenerations of locals and tourists will miss this iconic attraction , billed as the world's biggest floating restaurant. No one knows where it will end up next...\n\nA first look at Ryan Gosling in 'Barbie' has sent the internet into a frenzy\n\nWho could play a better tanned and toned Ken doll than Ryan Gosling ? (That's a trick question... there is literally no one more perfect for this role.)\n\nFive guys take the same photo for 40 years\n\nThis group of friends took pictures in the same pose from 1982 to 2022. Check out their cool tradition\n\n'Floating' airplane cabin could be the future of travel\n\nA futuristic cabin concept with \" floating furniture \" recently won a prestigious aviation award.\n\nReal estate job cuts: Redfin and Compass announce layoffs\n\nMortgage rates are climbing, home sales are dropping and some of the largest real estate companies are announcing layoffs\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n2.9 million\n\nThat's how many vehicles Ford is recalling due to issues that could prevent certain models from shifting into the correct gear, which might cause them to move in unintended directions. The National Highway Safety Administration says it has six reports of property damage and four reports of injuries potentially related to the problem. The vehicles involved are the model year 2013 to 2019 Escape, the 2013-2018 C-Max, 2013-2016 Fusion and the 2013-2021 Transit Connect.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The security support from the United States is unprecedented. It brings us closer to a common victory over the Russian aggressor.\"\n\n-- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, thanking President Biden on Wednesday for providing an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The latest weapons package comes as Ukrainian officials have pleaded with the West to send additional heavy weaponry as the war grinds on. A Pentagon spokesman said the US has now committed more than $5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February. Separately, the leaders of France, Germany and Italy arrived in Kyiv today, where they are expected to meet with Zelensky and express \"a message of European unity.\"\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Record heat continues across much of the East Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Record heat continues across much of the East 01:44\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nThe California Roll Was Invented in Canada", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/11/09/ed-henry-accuser-adds-more-claims-what-fox-news-knew-when/6225304002/", "title": "Ed Henry accuser adds more claims about what Fox News knew ...", "text": "The woman who accused former Fox News star Ed Henry of raping her in 2017 is doubling down on her claims that Fox News knew about his alleged misconduct against multiple women years before he was fired, and did nothing about it.\n\nJennifer Eckhart, a former Fox Business producer who filed a civil suit in July naming Henry and Fox News, on Monday amended the lawsuit to push back against Fox News' denial of wrongdoing.\n\nFox News responded to the original lawsuit by denying that anyone had raised sexual harassment concerns about Henry prior to Eckhart in June 2020. “There were no sexual harassment claims against Ed Henry at Fox News prior to Jennifer Eckhart’s claim on June 25, 2020,” the network's statement to USA TODAY said in July.\n\nEckhart's amended lawsuit alleges that this denial is not true. \"The new allegations make clear that Fox News’ blanket denials are untruthful, and we look forward to taking discovery in this case to learn even more,” said one of her lawyers, Michael Willemin, in a statement to USA TODAY.\n\nEckhart cited the alleged experiences of multiple women, some of them named, who claim they were sexually harassed by Henry or engaged in sex with him out of fear of losing their jobs at the cable news channel, and their careers.\n\nFox News issued a statement to USA TODAY late Monday that reiterated its earlier response to Eckhart's lawsuit: that there were no claims against Henry at Fox prior to June 2020.\n\n“Upon first learning of the allegations, we promptly commenced an independent investigation and took immediate action, firing Mr. Henry within six days of the notification on July 1, 2020,\" the statement said.\n\n\"FOX News takes all claims of harassment, misconduct and retaliation extremely seriously and maintains a zero tolerance policy that is strictly enforced throughout the company which is why Mr. Henry was fired within days of Ms. Eckhart’s complaint.”\n\nIn October, Henry filed a motion seeking to dismiss Eckhart's lawsuit, arguing that her claims he raped her are \"malicious and defamatory.\" His lawyers say she sent Henry \"erotic and encouraging text messages,\" along with salacious and explicit pictures of herself, suggesting she pursued \"a consensual relationship\" with him.\n\nEckhart rejected that argument last month. \"No man is entitled to violently rape a woman because she sent him consensual-looking text messages,\" she told USA TODAY in a statement.\n\nIn the amended Eckhart lawsuit, one of the women named, media relations professional Brooke Hammerling, says she met Henry when he worked at CNN and described his aggressive sexual \"moves,\" which she declined.\n\n\"I felt like swatting him away like a fly,\" Hammerling is quoted as saying in the lawsuit. \"He was not someone that would directly impact my job so I didn’t really care.\"\n\nBut she said publicly, in a tweet in August after Henry was fired on July 1 and after the original lawsuit was filed three weeks later, that Fox News had to know all about what she claims was widely known by \"women in the communications industry.\"\n\n“No chance @foxnews didn’t know about Ed Henry,\" her tweet read. \"He was a menace to many of us on the [communication's] side when he was at @cnn and everyone talked about it. Literally so so so gross.”\n\nAnother named woman, Roxie Marroquin, who says she met Henry in 2015 when she was 25, invited Henry to meet because she was seeking a mentor in the TV industry. At the time, Henry was the chief White House correspondent for Fox.\n\nThey agreed to meet in a Las Vegas hotel, she agreed to go to his room and then agreed to disrobe and get into a bathtub with him where he groped her and she \"submitted to the pressure\" of his \"advances.\"\n\n“I was honestly kind of afraid and frozen,\" she is quoted as saying in the complaint. \"I felt trapped, in a way, like, ‘oh man, did I give this person the wrong impression? What happens if I don’t do this?’...So, I ended up getting in the bathtub. Fully nude. How this happens to a 25-year-old, I can’t explain, besides fear of rejecting him.”\n\nLater, she says, Henry began to fear she would report him and began sending her threatening messages. She claims Henry sent a private investigator to warn her to “keep her mouth closed,” and who told her he knew where she lived and that Henry would sue her if she talked.\n\nBut the lawsuit doesn't say whether she told anyone in Fox News management about these alleged encounters nor does it explain how the network managers would have learned of them otherwise.\n\nThe lawsuit claims that Fox was long aware of misconduct under its roof starting in mid-2016 when the network brought in an outside law firm to investigate sexual harassment arising from allegations against the late Roger Ailes, then the network chief, and former star anchor Bill O'Reilly.\n\n\"During the investigations, multiple women came forward to complain that Mr. Henry had engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct towards them,\" the complaint says. \"These women came forward to complain before Ms. Eckhart was raped by Mr. Henry\" allegedly in a New York hotel in 2017.\n\nAnother woman Eckhart names in the complaint is Liz Claman, a Fox Business anchor for whom Eckhart once worked as an assistant. According to Eckhart, in 2016, after Henry was suspended by Fox for four months because of an affair with a Las Vegas stripper, Claman told her: \"Everyone at Fox News knows that Henry is a sex addict. That’s no secret.”\n\nIn her amended complaint, Eckhart accuses Claman of forcing Eckhart to perform humiliating tasks, such as cleaning out her refrigerator, and addressing her in a demeaning and belittling manner. Eckhart also was offended that Claman would undress in front of her in her office and walk around in \"nothing but underwear.\"\n\nUSA TODAY reached out to Claman for comment through Fox News.\n\nEckhart's amended lawsuit features allegations against Henry from \"Jane Does\" who later shared their stories with Eckhart. \"Jane Doe 1,\" currently an associate producer for Fox News in Washington, is quoted in the amended lawsuit accusing Henry of sending her a picture of his penis soon after they met.\n\n\"Despite being warned about Mr. Henry’s lascivious behavior, Ms. Doe 1 entered into a relationship with Mr. Henry, seduced by his senior position and high profile, all enabled by Fox News,\" the complaint says. \"Ms. Doe 1 has described her relationship with Mr. Henry as emotionally abusive. She further stated that she was 'taken advantage of because I was much younger than him. There was a power imbalance.'\"\n\nAfter Eckhart filed her lawsuit, Jane Doe 1 tweeted her support. The complaint accuses a Fox News human resources executive of calling her and attempting to intimidate her for publicly supporting Eckhart.\n\nEckhart says in her complaint that in February, after she complained about a toxic environment at Fox, she was put on a “Performance Improvement Plan” and eventually fired, even though she had up to then received numerous positive performance reviews.\n\n“The amended complaint lays out how Fox News attempted to bury its head in the sand and refused to take appropriate action to protect its female employees, including Ms. Eckhart, all in the name of its bottom line,\" Eckhart's lawyer, Willemin, said in his statement.\n\nIn July, after Eckhart and Cathy Areu, who appeared as a guest on Fox, filed a joint lawsuit (they have since been separated), Fox issued a lengthy statement in response, assertingbased on findings by an independent investigation, that all of Areu's allegations against Fox were \"false, patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit.\n\n\"We take all claims of harassment, misconduct and retaliation seriously, promptly investigating them and taking immediate action as needed — in this case, the appropriate action based on our investigation is to defend vigorously against these baseless allegations,\" the statement said. \"Ms. Areu and Jennifer Eckhart can pursue their claims against Ed Henry directly with him, as FOX News already took swift action as soon as it learned of Ms. Eckhart’s claims on June 25 and Mr. Henry is no longer employed by the network.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/11/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/01/10/harvey-weinstein-day-5-court-jury-selection/4423153002/", "title": "Harvey Weinstein trial: Charlize Theron named as potential witness", "text": "NEW YORK – The first week of Harvey Weinstein's sex-crimes trial is coming to a close, and Friday kicked off with a heated courtroom exchange between the judge and a member of Weinstein's legal team, and news that A-list actress Charlize Theron may be called as a witness.\n\nAttorney Arthur Aidala filed a motion suggesting potential jurors are unable to speak freely in the screening process given the media attention surrounding the case.\n\n\"Most people do not speak in front of international media,\" he told Judge James Burke. \"In order for citizens to be as honest and forthright as possible, we ask that jury selection be done in private.”\n\nBurke replied: \"That’s against the law! I’ll read this, but I’m generally familiar with this form of the law... I’m disagreeing with you on virtually every level.\"\n\nManhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi also objected. \"Now they want each person to be (interviewed) in private? I don’t think there’s any precedent for doing that.\"\n\nIn the motion, which USA TODAY obtained early Friday afternoon, Aidala says that Weinstein's defense has reviewed some of the potential jurors' questionnaires and believes many are unfairly biased against the ex-producer.\n\nReading them, \"we have learned that (1) some jurors have not been candid in their responses; (2) at least one juror has expressed an ulterior financial motive for serving on Mr. Weinstein's trial and that he would find him guilty; (3) a number of jurors have been victims of or had exposure to sexual assault or domestic violence; and (4) nearly all jurors have heard about this case,\" Aidala writes.\n\nBurke told the court he would rule on the motion after giving it a read later in the afternoon or over the weekend.\n\nWeinstein's legal team has had little success persuading Burke to rule in their favor. Throughout the week, his defense filed motions to have Burke excused from the case and accusers' attorney Gloria Allred barred from the courtroom. The legal team also requested the trial be adjourned following new sex-crime charges filed in Los Angeles. All of the motions were denied.\n\nThe trial hit another snag Thursday when prosecutor Illuzzi suffered a medical emergency – she had something in her eye, according to the district attorney's office – and was forced to leave court before the third round of jury pre-selection.\n\nOn Friday, she told the judge she was feeling \"much, much better.\"\n\nHarvey Weinstein trial::Prosecutor has medical 'emergency,' gets 'something in her eye in court'\n\nJury screening resumed Friday with 108 new potential jurors, although only 30 to 40 people moved on in the jury selection process, according to a media pool report. Many people said they could not be fair and impartial toward Weinstein, while one man said that he had worked with one of Weinstein's charities in the past and would be \"uncomfortable\" if chosen for the jury.\n\nOthers said that they could be fair and impartial, despite having met or worked with members of Weinstein's defense and Theron, who's listed as a potential witness in the trial. \"Like a Boss\" actress Salma Hayek was also named as a potential witness.\n\nAs jury pre-selection wrapped late Friday morning, about 60 women wearing all black gathered for a protest outside the courthouse, according to the media pool report. \"It's not my fault, not where I was, not how I dressed,\" they chanted several times. \"And the rapist was you!\"\n\nThe jury selection process will continue next week, and opening statements are targeted to begin Jan. 22.\n\nWeinstein, 67, is accused of five sex crimes in New York involving encounters with two women. The embattled movie mogul was charged in May 2018, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has been free on $1 million bail (recently raised to $5 million). He has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.\n\nIf convicted, he could receive a life sentence.\n\nEarlier this week, he was charged in Los Angeles with four sex crimes. Weinstein is accused of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents over two days in February 2013. A trial in that case is not likely to occur until after the New York case is resolved.\n\nMore:Harvey Weinstein charged with rape, sexual battery in Los Angeles over 2013 allegations", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/01/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/09/10/kate-winslet-woody-allen-roman-polanski/3463714001/", "title": "Kate Winslet regrets working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski", "text": "Kate Winslet says she regrets working with embattled directors Woody Allen and Roman Polanski.\n\nDuring an interview with Vanity Fair, the actress broke her silence on the misconduct and sexual assault allegations surrounding the two directors. She \"takes responsibility\" for working with Allen, 84, on 2017's \"Wonder Wheel\" and Polanski, 87, on 2011's \"Carnage.\"\n\n\"It’s like, what the (expletive) was I doing working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski?\" Winslet, 44, told the outlet. \"It’s unbelievable to me now how those men were held in such high regard, so widely in the film industry and for as long as they were. It’s (expletive) disgraceful.\"\n\nWatch Kate Winslet and Idris Elba's deleted scene from 'Mountain Between Us'\n\nAlthough Winslet said she \"can’t turn back the clock,\" the actress said she now has \"to take responsibility for the fact that I worked with them both.\"\n\n\"I’m grappling with those regrets, but what do we have if we aren’t able to just be (expletive) truthful about all of it?\" she added.\n\nMoving forward, Winslet said she has a duty to set a \"decent example to younger women\" by carefully considering the roles she accepts and the stories she tells. She admits this revelation came after working on Francis Lee's film \"Ammonite,\" which centers around the budding love between fossil hunter Mary Anning (Winslet) and the wife of a wealthy visitor, Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan). The film premieres Friday at the largely virtual Toronto International Film Festival.\n\n\"'Ammonite' has made me really aware of being even more committed to honoring what women want to be saying for themselves in films and how we really want to be portrayed, regardless of sexual orientation,\" Winslet said, describing the film as \"so loving, so tender and so beautiful.\"\n\nShe added: \"Life is (expletive) short and I’d like to do my best when it comes to setting a decent example to younger women. We’re handing them a pretty (expletive) world, so I’d like to do my bit in having some proper integrity.\"\n\nSaoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet kiss, fall in love in first trailer for Francis Lee's 'Ammonite'\n\nThis marks the first time Winslet has specifically denounced the embattled directors.\n\nIn 2017, she defended working with Allen and Polanski ahead of the \"Wonder Wheel\" premiere at the New York Film Festival.\n\n\"As the actor in the film, you just have to step away and say, 'I don’t know anything, really, and whether any of it is true or false,' \" she told The New York Times. \"Having thought it all through, you put it to one side and just work with the person. Woody Allen is an incredible director. So is Roman Polanski. I had an extraordinary working experience with both of those men, and that’s the truth.\"\n\nHowever, Winslet changed her stance and condemned abuse of power in the film industry at the London Critics’ Circle film awards in January 2018, although she didn't go as far as naming anyone in particular.\n\n\"There are directors, producers and men of power who have for decades been awarded and applauded for their highly regarded work by both this industry and moviegoers alike,\" she said during her acceptance speech.\n\nShe added: \"It has become clear to me that by not saying anything, I might be adding to the anguish of many courageous women and men. Sexual abuse is a crime.\"\n\nAllen has been the center of much controversy since the '90s. His adoptive step-daughter, Dylan Farrow, has alleged he sexual abused her when she was a child. Allen has always denied the allegations.\n\nAnd he raised eyebrows for marrying Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of longtime partner Mia Farrow, when he was 61 and she 27. They have now been married nearly 23 years.\n\nPolanski fled the country in 1978 after pleading guilty to the rape of a 13-year-old girl. He's been unable to return to the U.S., not even to collect his best-director Oscar for \"The Pianist\" in 2003, or to appear at the Academy Awards ceremonies when he was nominated for best director in 1981 for \"Tess.\"\n\nThe sexual abuse allegations against both directors resurfaced amid the #MeToo era.\n\nContributing: Amy Haneline, Maria Puente\n\nRoman Polanski:Oscar winner loses his bid for Academy reinstatement\n\nWoody Allen says abuse controversy was 'a false allegation but a great tabloid drama'", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/09/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/01/29/harvey-weinstein-accuser-graphic-sexual-assault-2000-s-testimony/4599840002/", "title": "Harvey Weinstein accuser tells jury explicit assault details, says he ...", "text": "NEW YORK – After a week of emotional, often graphic testimony in the Harvey Weinstein sex crimes trial, the jury heard Wednesday from two former aspiring actresses who described being sexually assaulted by Weinstein in the mid-2000s.\n\nTarale Wulff, 43, the fourth woman so far to take the stand to testify about what she says Weinstein did to her, said he raped her in the summer of 2005 at his downtown apartment in New York, where she went for what she thought was a meeting about a possible role in one of his movies.\n\n“I told him I can’t. And he answered don’t worry I have a vasectomy,” Wulff said as she described how he put her on a bed. “And I just froze. Going blank is easier for me. It’s just easier for me to get past it. I just remember getting up. I don’t remember anything in between.\"\n\nShe said she pulled herself together, and he took her downstairs to a car. She went back to his office and got a script but never did the audition and didn't get the part.\n\n\"I just wanted it to go away,\" she said, explaining that she didn't confide in anyone or call the police. \"It was just easiest for me to pretend it didn’t happen and go about my day.\"\n\nShe said this encounter occurred a few weeks after Weinstein approached her at Cipriani Soho, a restaurant and bar downtown where she worked. She said she was cleaning the bar one night when Weinstein took her by the arm and steered her to a dark corner where he made her stand in front of him.\n\n\"He had on an (untucked) white shirt and I noticed his shirt started moving, and I realized he was masturbating under his shirt,\" she testified. \"I froze for a second... and then ran past him.\"\n\nOn cross-examination, prosecutors and defense lawyers got into an argument over the timeline of Wulff's story; initially she said the rape happened in 2004, but changed the year after speaking to a friend. The defense wanted to question this friend; Judge James Burke denied it.\n\nWulff said she first went to Weinstein's office to look at a script and audition for a possible movie role. But she was told Weinstein wanted to see her in person so she got into a car with his driver thinking she was going to a coffee shop. Instead, she was taken to Weinstein's apartment, and without the script she was supposed to audition for.\n\n\"So you just thought you were leaving in the middle of the audition to just go see Harvey?\" asked defense attorney Donna Rotunno. \"Yes,\" Wulff answered. \"For what?\" Rotunno asked. \"No specific reason,\" Wulff responded.\n\nDuring cross-examination, Wulff paused frequently and stammered, saying she was unsure about times and dates. Rotunno questioned her about whether she specifically told the district attorney's office in October 2017 that Weinstein had raped her at his apartment. Wulff said she couldn't remember.\n\nShe also denied Rotunno's questions about whether prosecutors told her in 2017 that they couldn't use her as a witness against Weinstein because her memories of the encounter were \"too fragmented.\" They suggested she see a psychologist specializing in memory issues, which she did, Rotunno said.\n\n\"Did you know you’ve seen (your psychologist) 55 times?,\" Rotunno asked. \"And after all those sessions, the district attorney’s office was like, 'we’re going to use you in this case,' correct?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Wulff responded,\n\n\"After several sessions with (the psychologist), isn’t it true that you told prosecutors that you think you voiced (to Weinstein) you didn’t want to have sex?\" \"I don’t recall,\" Wulff said.\n\nWulff, who now works as a model, and Dawn Dunning took the stand Wednesday as a \"prior bad acts\" or \"Molineux\" witnesses – accusers whose allegations are too old to prosecute but have been allowed to testify to bolster prosecutors' case that Weinstein engaged in a pattern of sexual assault.\n\nDunning, 40, who met Weinstein at a nightclub where she worked, testified that she met with him over several months in 2004 about possible roles in his movies and doing a screen test.\n\n“He would make comments about my looks and my body, but it wasn’t anything worse than what I’d heard in nightclubs,\" Dunning said. \"I never thought it was unsafe.”\n\nShe met him in a hotel in Soho where he was working on a project in a suite packed with people working. She sensed no danger, no red flags, she said.\n\n“I was talking with Harvey and he kind of led me into the other room, and I sat next to him on the bed, and I was wearing a skirt that day and he put his hand up my skirt,” Dunning said, starting to cry as she described Weinstein touching her.\n\n\"I stood up. I was shocked. I wasn’t expecting that to happen,\" she said. \"He started talking really fast, he was like, don't make a big deal out of this, he said it wouldn’t happen again.\"\n\nShe said she left shortly after. \"I was just trying to rationalize it in my head,\" she said, her voice breaking again. \"I just gave him the benefit of the doubt that it wouldn't happen again. I didn't yell at him or scream or anything.\"\n\nShe said she didn't tell anyone. \"I was embarrassed. I wanted to pretend like it didn't happen. I didn't want to be a victim. ...(Before), I was trying to get work from him, so it was a work relationship. It was a really big deal for me.\"\n\nA few weeks later, she said she met with him again at a hotel near Park Avenue, where his assistant took her up to his room. He was wearing a bathrobe and quickly \"cut to the chase,\" Dunning said. With the assistant in the room, he showed her contracts for three films and said they were hers if she agreed to a threesome.\n\n\"I thought he was kidding. He had kind of a crass sense of humor,\" she said. \"When I started to leave, he started screaming at me and said, 'You'll never make it in this business!' \"\n\nShe said he told her that was how Charlize Theron, Salma Hayek and other A-list actors became stars. There is no evidence, at this trial or anywhere else, that this is true, and both women have strongly denied it.\n\nDunning said he was yelling at her, towering over her, and she was scared.\n\n\"I just remember looking at (his assistant) and she was blank,\" she said. \"I ran out to Park Avenue and got in the first cab I saw and went home.\"\n\nOn cross examination, she acknowledged under questioning by defense attorney Arthur Aidala that no one stopped her from leaving the room or blocked the door.\n\nDunning acknowledged that she went public in October 2017 with her description of the second encounter with Weinstein, discussing it in multiple media interviews, but did not mention the earlier encounter until she called the district attorney's office in July 2019.\n\n\"Just shy of two years, after all those interviews, you said you have some more information I want to tell you,\" Aidala asked.\n\n\"You thought it was weird but not so weird you had to leave?\" Aidala said. \"Is it true that you told (CNN's) Don Lemon that you thought it was weird, but not so weird you had to leave?\"\n\n\"I never said that,\" Dunning replied.\n\nOn Tuesday, the court got a moment of welcome levity, thanks to a chihuahua named Peanut.\n\nWhen Elizabeth Entin, the ex-roommate of Weinstein accuser Miriam \"Mimi\" Haleyi, took the stand, she recalled an instance when the embattled movie mogul allegedly came to their New York City apartment unannounced in 2006.\n\n\"My chihuahua started chasing him around and he was saying, 'Get this thing away from me,' \" Entin said. Before Weinstein's alleged rape of Haleyi that summer, \"we thought it was just this pathetic older man trying to hit on Miriam and had a laugh about it.\"\n\nHarvey Weinstein trial:Roommate backs Mimi Haleyi's accusation, says 'it sounded like rape'\n\nHaleyi is one of the two accusers whose accusations form the basis of the charges against Weinstein.\n\nThis week, after Wulff and Dunning testify, the other complaining witness will take the stand. Jessica Mann says Weinstein raped her at a hotel in 2013.\n\nA third and final Molineux witness will likely testify Monday, completing the bulk of a prosecution case that began last Wednesday. The trial opened Jan. 6 and could last until early March.\n\nWeinstein, 67, is charged with five sex crimes, including rape and sexual assault, stemming from encounters with Haleyi and Mann. He pleaded not guilty and has denied all nonconsensual sexual encounters.\n\n'I'm being raped':Harvey Weinstein accuser sobs as she describes trying to fight him off\n\nHarvey Weinstein trial:Rosie Perez testifies that Annabella Sciorra said 'I think it was rape'", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/01/29"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_6", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/us/dartmouth-undergraduate-student-loans-scholarship-grants/index.html", "title": "Dartmouth College eliminates undergraduate student loans and ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nDartmouth College announced Tuesday it was eliminating student loans for undergraduates and replacing them with “expanded scholarship grants,” the university said in a news release.\n\nThe initiative is part of the Ivy League school’s “The Call to Lead” leadership campaign, and will begin starting June 23 for the summer 2022 term, the release said. The announcement also means Dartmouth’s class of 2022 will be the first class to enter the school and benefit from this program, the release said.\n\n“Thanks to this extraordinary investment by our community, students can prepare for lives of impact with fewer constraints,” Dartmouth President Philip J. Hanlon said in a statement.\n\nDartmouth’s announcement comes amid the ongoing debate about student loan debt in the US, where 43 million people are waiting to find out if President Joe Biden will wipe away all or part of their federal student loan debt. In April, after facing months of pressure from other Democrats to cancel $50,000 per borrower, Biden said he was considering some broad student loan forgiveness, though a smaller amount.\n\nDartmouth previously eliminated the loan requirement for undergrads from families with an annual income of $125,000 or less. That will now be extended to families making more than $125,000 or less who receive need-based aid, the release said.\n\nThe transition to a “no loan financial policy” will benefit students from middle-income families, the release said. The initiative is “the culmination of a remarkable series of achievements that have transformed Dartmouth’s financial aid resources and policies over the past year, propelled by more than $120 million in scholarship gifts and pledges to the endowment since September 1,” the release said.\n\n“More than 65 families supported the campaign goal to eliminate loan requirements from Dartmouth’s undergraduate financial aid awards, committing more than $80 million in gifts to the endowment,” the release said.\n\nAn anonymous donor committed $25 million to complete the campaign, which was “one of the largest scholarship endowments in Dartmouth history,” the release said.\n\n“When I think of the exciting and transformational opportunities now available to these students without this financial barrier, I believe it’s one of the most meaningful achievements of the campaign,” Dartmouth alumna Ellie Loughlin said in a statement.\n\nDartmouth is not the only school to have modified its policy on student loans. Williams College in Massachusetts switched all financial aid to no-payback grants starting this fall.\n\nIn Georgia, Emory University announced in January it would be eliminating need-based loans as part of undergraduate financial aid packages, and replacing them with institutional grants and scholarships.\n\nOhio State University announced in November 2021 that it would use its endowment to eliminate student loans within the decade for its “debt-free degree” plan.", "authors": ["Amir Vera Melissa Alonso", "Amir Vera", "Melissa Alonso"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/07/28/nj-community-colleges-used-covid-relief-funds-tuition/5394318001/", "title": "These North Jersey community colleges used COVID relief funds to ...", "text": "North Jersey community colleges are using some of the millions from their share of federal pandemic relief funds to forgive unpaid college tuition incurred during the pandemic.\n\nBergen Community College in Paramus announced on Monday that it will use nearly $5 million in federal relief funds to erase outstanding balances that students owe the college. A few weeks earlier, Hudson County Community College in Jersey City announced that it had expunged more than $4.8 million in student balances.\n\nTwo thousand students will benefit from the Bergen initiative, and 4,800 students benefited from Hudson's, according to statements issued by the colleges. Students do not have to apply for this relief; balances are removed automatically from their accounts.\n\n“This is our way of saying: Get back on track, move towards transfers and career success,” said Dr. Eric Friedman, president of Bergen Community College. He said the program will benefit students who had financial holds on their accounts due to past-due balances incurred last year. The Hudson County program expunged balances for all enrolled students, regardless of whether their accounts were frozen.\n\nBut while colleges are forgiving the balances that students owe to them, they are not forgiving federal loan debt.\n\n“I think that this is something that colleges should be clarifying,” said Robert Kelchen, a professor at Seton Hall University and an expert on higher education and student aid. “I think it’s a wonderful thing they are doing for students, but they need to clarify that this is not all the money that they owe,” he said, referring to a press release issued by Bergen Community College that announced the debt relief measure.\n\nDr. Larry Hvalenka, executive director of public relations at Bergen, noted that by erasing balances, the college might still indirectly help students by freeing up funds so they can repay their federal loans.\n\nBergen County students appear to have accumulated nearly $15 million in federal student loans in the 2019-20 academic year, Kelchen noted in an email. The $5 million is a small portion of that, he said.\n\nFor students who have taken federal student loans, the debt relief they receive through initiatives like these could be a small portion of their total debt load, in relation to what is owed to the federal government, said Victoria Yuen, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy institute.\n\nNew guidance:CDC recommends K-12 students and residents in 8 NJ counties wear masks indoors\n\nPassaic County:New early voting law will cost Passaic County $11 million in equipment upgrades\n\nVaccines:NJ veterans home staff not required to get COVID shots, while federal VA mandates them\n\nStill, the impact of this measure on thousands of students is enormous.\n\nElizabeth Schnur, a 23-year-old BCC student and Lyndhurst native, was shocked and excited to learn that she’ll be having a fresh start, with her balance essentially wiped clean. Schnur, who is aiming to become the first lawyer in her family, has a long educational journey ahead of her and is happy to know she can look at law school and potentially Ivy League schools in the future without worrying about the tuition costs from Bergen Community College.\n\n“It definitely takes the pressure off,” Schnur said. “I’ve had the bill sitting around here for a while, but I just got a phone call [about the debt erasure]. It was such good news.”\n\nFunding for these initiatives came from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which flows directly from the federal government to colleges and universities with no state involvement.\n\nThe fund is one-time money, paid for by relief measures enacted by the federal government in response to the pandemic — the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act and the ARP (American Rescue Plan). Colleges are required to use half of the funding they receive to provide direct relief to students.\n\nColleges typically do not allow students to continue registering for classes if they owe money. \"We wanted to break down barriers to degree completion so they could register and move forward,\" said Friedman.\n\nAffordability is a priority at community colleges, and 46% of students at the Bergen school qualify for income-based Pell Grants, which are awarded by the federal government to low-income students.\n\nThe college also distributed $10 million in direct payments to students from CARES funding, regardless of whether they had an outstanding balance as pandemic relief, Friedman said. Hudson County Community College distributed $8.5 million in funds to help students with costs that arose during the pandemic, from tuition to housing, food, health and child care, according to a press release.\n\nState and public universities are implementing similar measures, said spokespersons for Rutgers and Montclair State universities.\n\nMontclair State said it has distributed more than $17.8 million in federal pandemic relief dollars to nearly 7,600 students to date. Students were given the choice of having money applied directly to their accounts or receiving cash grants to defray COVID-related educational expenses.\n\nStaff Writer Stephanie Noda contributed to this story.\n\nMary Ann Koruth covers education for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about New Jersey's schools and how it affects your children, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.\n\nEmail: koruthm@northjersey.com\n\nTwitter: @MaryAnnKoruth", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/paterson-press/2017/04/07/paterson-student-beats-odds-ivy-league-invite/100173552/", "title": "Paterson student beats odds with Ivy League invite", "text": "Joe Malinconico\n\nPaterson Press\n\nPATERSON – First grade was a struggle for Jeferson Mendoza.\n\nEven though he was born in New Jersey, the boy had not learned English. His mother, an immigrant from Peru, didn’t speak the language very well, either.\n\nThey spent hours together after school in their Paterson apartment, working on his homework, using a translation device to get through the strange words on the assignments. “She would sit with me all night,” recalled Jeferson, who is now 17.\n\nHomework stopped being a struggle for Jeferson many years ago. The senior at John F. Kennedy High School’s Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Academy already has participated in advanced programs at six colleges, including a research project on protein cells in an effort to cure disease. The teenager also is on track to be valedictorian at his school’s graduation this spring.\n\nJeferson’s efforts culminated last week in his acceptance to Dartmouth College, making him the third student from Kennedy high school’s College Ready program to get into an Ivy League school in the past five years.\n\nGREAT FALLS: Paterson's national park sees increase in visitors\n\nSTUDENTS: Paterson parents lobby to give their kids a fighting chance\n\nBUDGET: Cuts may eliminate 208 Paterson school district jobs\n\n“Everybody was rooting for him,” said another College Ready program student, Amran Alsaidi. “We were happy that somebody from Paterson made it like that.”\n\n“When he got in, it was like an accomplishment for the whole team,” said Erik Castro, one of Jeferson’s best friends and a fellow member of the College Ready Robotics team. “Why would we be jealous? He’s one of us.”\n\nIn some school districts, Ivy League acceptances are somewhat of an annual ritual. But Paterson schools have some of the lowest student test scores in New Jersey. Faculty members say that’s why the recent successes of members of the College Ready program have meant so much to the district.\n\n“I can’t wait until we reach the point where the newspapers stop doing stories because it’s considered normal for our kids to get accepted to the Ivy League,” said STEM Principal Nicholas Vancheri.\n\nPassaic student has her pick of 5 Ivy League schools\n\nJeferson said his parents picked his name from a street sign in Paterson. He said he’s not sure why they left out the second “f.”\n\nThe student’s father, Arturo, drives a bus and follows world politics with a passion, the teenager said. His mother, Rocio, had wanted to be an obstetrician, but put aside her studies when she came to America. She now does temp work, like cleaning homes, he said.\n\nJeferson had applied to four Ivy League schools – Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton. March 30 was the common date when the Ivies announced their acceptances, with the information becoming available online at 5 p.m.\n\nJeferson said he was busy that day, helping produce a virtual tour of the Great Falls national park for the Hamilton Partnership of Paterson nonprofit group. So he didn’t get around to checking the acceptances until about 5:10 p.m., he said.\n\nThe teenager clicked on Princeton first. The notice said he had been rejected. Jeferson moved on to Dartmouth.\n\n“No way,” he recalled saying aloud after seeing that Dartmouth accepted him. At first his words were somewhat hushed. He was alone at home. Then he repeated those two words – “No way” – again and again with the volume rising each time. Soon, the teenager was in full-scale celebration mode.\n\n“I was definitely not in my chair,” Jeferson said.\n\nWhen his mother came home, Jeferson shared the monumental news with her and they hugged. His father would not get in from work until later. Then Jeferson called the man who launched Kennedy’s College Ready program, Gilman Choudhury.\n\n“He was always there for me,” Jeferson said of Choudhury. “He helped me when I was not the person I am today.”\n\nMany of Kennedy’s most committed and ambitious students participate in Choudhury’s College Ready sessions. While other teenagers rush out of the school at the 3:15 pm dismissal, College Ready students head upstairs to the third-floor classroom where the group convenes more than two hours a day, several days a week, including Fridays.\n\nChoudhury has students in the program start doing SAT practice tests as freshmen. He takes them on college tours, enrolls them in weekend academic programs. At various times of the year, the College Ready students perform as the robotics team and do National History Day projects.\n\nChoudhury also requires them to perform 100 hours of community service, efforts than include cleaning up parks, distributing food to the hungry, and collecting toys for needy children around the holidays.\n\nFor Jeferson, Choudhury’s help went beyond the basic parameters of the College Ready program.\n\n“I used to stutter a lot,” the teenager said. “I was self-conscious about it. He used to make me speak at different things to get me out of my shell.”\n\nOn the evening that Jeferson got the good news about Dartmouth, Choudhury was with a group of six College Ready students involved in a special engineering program at Rutgers University. They had stopped to buy tacos at the student center when Choudhury’s phone rang.\n\nJeferson started the conversation by thanking his mentor for all the help he had provided. Choudhury said the teenager sounded out of breath and emotional.\n\n“I asked him, ‘What’s wrong?’ ” the College Ready coordinator recalled.\n\nThen the student announced his Ivy League acceptance. “I dropped my wallet,” Choudhury said.\n\nIt turned out that Columbia and Harvard had placed Jeferson on their wait lists. He had been accepted to nine other schools, including Georgia Tech, the University of California at Berkeley, and Rutgers.\n\nDartmouth’s financial aid package was by far the best and that made the decision an easy one, Jeferson said. “I’ll be able to graduate college debt-free,” he said, “and it won’t be hard on my parents.”\n\nJeferson plans to major in biology at Dartmouth. He said he wants to do research on stem cells, to find ways to prevent cancer from spreading.\n\nAfter college, Jeferson said he will remain committed to Paterson. “I want to do something to make a difference in the city,” he said. “So many people have helped me here. I want to give back.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/04/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/05/us/free-college-tuition-waive-biden-new-mexico-cec/index.html", "title": "Why free college is so elusive -- and how we can get closer to ...", "text": "(CNN) The idea of waiving college tuition falls in and out of vogue.\n\nLast year, President Joe Biden's plan to make tuition free at community colleges was cut from the Build Back Better plan, once again placing the concept of a nationwide tuition-free college program just out of reach.\n\nBefore that effort, former President Barack Obama tried (and failed) to waive the first two years of community college nationwide. After that, former Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders both had platforms advocating for tuition-free college nationwide during their respective runs.\n\nEfforts to waive college tuition have seen greater success at the state level.Most notably, lawmakers in New Mexico passed a bill earlier this year that would waive tuition for any student attending in-state public schools or tribal colleges -- joining a growing list of tuition-free state programs.\n\nNew Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed SB 140, which expanded free college tuition to most residents, at Western New Mexico University in Silver City on March 4.\n\nAs the country continues to grapple with the student debt crisis , here's why a free college system continues to be so elusive and how it may still be attainable.\n\nEven at a local level, 'free college' is easier said than done\n\nThough many states have made recent pushes to waive college tuition for certain groups, subsidizing college education isn't new.\n\nThe GI Bill, enacted in 1944, provided veterans returning from World War II with tuition, books and supplies, equipment, counseling services, and \"subsistence\" for those wishing to continue their education, according to the National Archives.\n\nAbout 20 years later, in 1965, Pell Grants were first created -- and now represent the largest federal aid source for students pursuing post-secondary education.\n\nThere have been other pushes on the state level, like Georgia's Hope Scholarship , a merit-based award that launched in 1993 for students who sustain a 3.0 grade point average.\n\nWhen city or state officials attempt to waive tuition in some way -- whether for public four-year universities or two-year community colleges -- they're thinking about avoiding brain drain, said Elizabeth Bell, an assistant professor at Florida State University who researches higher education policy.\n\nThe GI Bill of Rights funded books, notebooks, and tuition and other fees, up to a total of $500 for an ordinary school year, for veterans. Here, ex-soldier students receive supplies for the term.\n\nshe said. That's why programs, like The goal, ultimately, is to preserve educational attainment and therefore enhance the economy,she said. That's why programs, like New York's Excelsior Scholarship , require those who participate to stay in-state after graduating.\n\nBut actually creating these programs is easier said than done. The issue of college affordability and making college as accessible as possible is one that actually has bipartisan support, Bell said -- but the pushback comes in the details.\n\nWhen it comes to universal programs -- that is, programs that unequivocally waive tuition and fees -- there can be pushback against giving money to families who could afford college without assistance, Bell said. Others worry that colleges could raise costs to capture more funding from the state, since most people wouldn't be paying the sticker price.\n\nThere are also arguments over whether to create first-dollar programs, where funding is given to students before any other aid or award-based funding, or to create last-dollar programs, which fill the gaps that aid and other financial awards don't cover. The issue with last-dollar programs is most of the money actually goes to higher-income families, who may not receive aid from other areas, Bell said.\n\nMost first-dollar programs actually exist at the local level, she said, since they support fewer students, making those programs easier to finance. On the other hand, a lot of state programs are last-dollar.\n\nAn exception to this rule is the Oklahoma Promise , a first-dollar state program that takes a more targeted approach. The scholarship primarily awards aid to families making less than $60,000 a year, and students who apply must also pass certain merit requirements.\n\nPolitically, it's complicated. If you're putting forth a program proposal that's first-dollar, but only benefits a select number of students, you're limiting the political support you could receive by excluding many middle-income families, who still struggle with the cost of higher education, Bell said.\n\n\"Across these different programs, it's really a matter of balancing politics, finances and equity,\" Bell said. \"And a lot of these programs have come under scrutiny because one of these things is out of balance.\"\n\nStudents walk on campus at the University of Oklahoma in March 2015.\n\nThere's also more to paying for college than just tuition -- such as housing, food, transportation and numerous other costs. The best programs, Bell said, are simple for students to understand and apply to, generous in what they cover, and include those wraparound services.\n\nShe used the Kalamazoo Promise in Michigan as an example -- a program that pays up to 100% of tuition and fees for four years for students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools. Though the funds cannot be transferred to things like room and board, the program provides access to coaches at both the high school and college level to help students in their transition to college.\n\nNot every program is created equal\n\nEven in places where free tuition programs are enacted, the benefits aren't always impactful.\n\nThe Urban Institute found that New York's Excelsior Scholarship, announced in 2017, sent 68% of its funds to families with incomes at or above $70,000 -- meaning that the lowest income students didn't receive the funds. Meanwhile, lower-income students still face other financial barriers, like the costs of books, meals plans, transportation and other categories that fall outside of tuition.\n\nThat's not all: Only about half of the students who received the scholarship in fall of 2018 actually kept the scholarship going into the following year -- a trend the researchers attributed in part to the amount of paperwork the scholarship requires, as well as some of the enrollment and credit completion criteria.\n\nThe complexity inherent in the scholarship and financial aid process is actually a huge barrier to students applying to college and their families, said Stephanie Owen, an assistant professor at Colby College who studies the economics of education.\n\nThen New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, announced his proposal for free tuition at state colleges on Jan. 3, 2017 to hundreds of thousands of low- and middle income residents. He was joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, center, and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York William C. Thompson.\n\nIt can be difficult for some families to even find out what scholarships and aid programs they are actually eligible for, before even getting to the arduous application processes each may require. Though there's often a large distinction between the sticker price of the college and what families actually pay, Owen said colleges don't give out financial aid offers until after the student is accepted.\n\nThat means that students have no idea how much they'll actually be required to pay until much later in the process, after they've decided where to apply, said Owen. And if you don't know how much help you'll get, that initial sticker price can discourage applicants, especially low-income ones.\n\n\"That's kind of odd, right?\" Owen said. \"Most things we buy, we know what the price is before we commit to them.\"\n\nLarger four-year universities often already have money set aside specifically for low-income students. Stanford University expanded its financial aid in 2021 -- guaranteeing that undergraduate students from families with annual incomes below $75,000 will not pay tuition, room or board. Ivy League schools like Harvard University and Cornell University have similar programs, as does the University of California\n\nOther large public schools, like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan, also have similar programs -- but UNC-Chapel Hill's program isn't guaranteed , and branches of Michigan require students to maintain a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher for the \"Go Blue Guarantee\" program.\n\nEven with access to college-specific financial aid, there are still hurdles. Navigating the FAFSA process or other paperwork hurdles isn't easy, and neither is getting into a top school with these kinds of financial resources.\n\nLocal, state and federal programs are all necessary for an equitable system\n\nSmaller, local and state programs for waiving tuition exist -- but they can be imperfect or temporary, in place for a few years and then gone . Colleges have financial aid, but eliminating full costs of tuition isn't always possible, and not every college has the resources to waive tuition for large groups.\n\nAnd a federal universal program, despite some efforts, seems elusive.\n\nNone of this means that equitable college access is completely out of our reach, though. There are intermediate steps being taken going in the right direction, Owen said.\n\nShe used the College Scorecard as an example, a tool through the US Department of Education that allows students to see how much people from different income levels pay on average, as well as other information like graduation rates and typical earnings after graduation.\n\nHaving that information in a clear and concise way is helpful, Owen said. But it does have its limits -- the average cost is not the exact cost, after all.\n\nThe University of Michigan's HAIL Scholarship is one path forward for colleges looking to provide affordable higher education.\n\nThere are other bright spots: The FAFSA Simplification Act, which passed Congress in 2020 , is expected to ease the FAFSA process for students. The HAIL Scholarship at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor provides full tuition and fees for certain low-income undergraduates, and lets students know of their scholarship acceptance before the admissions process, which limits financial uncertainty.\n\nThe expansion of the Pell Grant is another effort many are advocating for, particularly as moves for universal community college have failed at the federal level.\n\n\"It's not going to come from one program,\" Bell said, of creating a financially equitable universal college system. \"It's going to come from the interaction of the federal and the state programs trying to make college more affordable for all kids. And right now we're still not there.\"\n\nThat doesn't mean things are stuck where they are now, she said. It just means we're still at the beginning.", "authors": ["Leah Asmelash"], "publish_date": "2022/06/05"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/28/opinions/sat-waning-relevance-hemmer/index.html", "title": "Opinion: What the SAT's waning relevance really tells us - CNN", "text": "In this photo of 2016, a student looks at questions during a college test preparation class at a school in Bethesda, MD. The SAT exam will move from paper and pencil to a digital format, administrators announced Tuesday, saying the shift will boost its relevancy as more colleges make standardized tests optional for admission.\n\nEditor’s Note: Nicole Hemmer is an associate research scholar at Columbia University with the Obama Presidency Oral History Project and the author of “Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics.” She co-hosts the history podcasts “Past Present” and “This Day in Esoteric Political History” and is co-producer of the podcast “Welcome To Your Fantasy.” The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author. View more opinion on CNN.\n\nCNN —\n\nThe SAT is going digital.\n\nThe end of the paper test, once a rite of passage for students clinging to freshly sharpened No. 2 pencils as they settled in for the three-hour exam, comes as the SAT itself is losing its place of prominence in college admissions. As the test came under fire in recent years for favoring skilled test-takers as well as White and wealthy students, more and more colleges moved to test-optional admissions. The pandemic accelerated that shift, with Ivy League colleges joining the move away from mandatory testing.\n\nNicole Hemmer Courtesy Nicole Hemmer\n\nThe College Board, which oversees the SAT, has said the test will not only be digital but shorter — two hours rather than three — with a wider range of questions. But in focusing on form rather than function, how the SAT is taken rather than what it reveals about the test-takers, the College Board has yet to solve the broader problem of the test’s shrinking relevance to college admissions.\n\nThat waning relevance is not just about the SAT, but the broader struggles that universities face as they attempt to admit and prepare a more diverse student body for a more precarious economy. It is a challenge that universities themselves have struggled with just as much as the College Board.\n\nSome argue that now is the time to do away with the SAT completely. A seemingly neutral measure of college preparedness, the test has long been embedded with all sorts of biases based on class, race and culture. Part of that was tied to the history of the test itself. The SAT emerged from the new IQ tests developed for the military during World War I. Those tests, though implemented as an objective assessment of intelligence, were freighted with racial, cultural and nativist biases.\n\nThese intelligence tests migrated to the College Board and universities in the 1920s and 1930s as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, and during World War II, became the sole test used by the College Board as a measure of college potential. They were seen at the time as a progressive initiative, to allow the Midwestern farm boy with raw natural intelligence to gain entry into the WASPish establishment of higher education. But the meritocratic idea was strongly influenced by race and sex: a young White native-born man. Even as the test was refined in the decades that followed, test developers repeatedly chose questions that performed well with White test-takers, reinscribing a set of racial and cultural norms into the exam.\n\nAnother kind of inequity in the SAT stemmed from the culture that had sprung up around SAT prep. Wealthy parents have poured thousands into test prep courses that many families never knew existed (much less had the funds to pay for). As a result, the purportedly meritocratic SAT continued to select for a particular kind of student, one that was on average Whiter and wealthier than the average high schooler.\n\nGetting rid of it is a fine idea, but while bracketing (or eliminating) the SAT addresses one possible form of inequality, it is minor compared to the other ways access to higher education remains inaccessible for many Americans. First, the SAT-optional admissions process still relies on a number of subjective and manipulatable measures, including personal essays and extracurriculars. And college education itself comes with a number of burdens. Most significant among these is the high sticker price of a college degree, a price that is disproportionately borne by students of color, whose debt burden tends to be higher and longer-lasting than White students. While a number of universities have moved away from loans and embraced need-based grants, the average student loan debt remains $30,000, according to data from US News and World Report, with many students facing a much steeper burden.\n\nBut there is a bigger challenge facing universities as well: a college degree is no longer a guarantee of middle-class stability. College degrees matter; overall, students who attend college are better off than those who don’t. But college graduates now enter a workforce rife with precarity and low wages, which, when compounded by heavy debt, pushes many graduates into a state of economic instability, with meager paychecks going to service their punishing debt loads. (These are circumstances made worse by certain degree programs, for-profit colleges, and predatory lenders.)\n\nThe digital SAT is not an answer to these problems, any more than MOOCs were (the Massive Open Online Courses that were all the rage in the 2000s). What is needed for more equitable higher education goes far beyond the SAT.\n\nYes, universities need different assessment tools that help inform universities what support students will need to succeed. But they also need policy-based solutions for the challenges facing higher ed: more support for community colleges and state universities to drive down costs, less interference from conservative policymakers opposed to the liberal arts, more flexibility for admissions policies that result in a diverse student body, and – above all – a fairer economy in which all workers, even those without a college degree, can secure a living wage. That, more than any change to the SAT, will create the atmosphere for more equitable education across the United States.\n\nAt the moment, however, the prospect of such changes seems out of reach. Though some level of student debt relief has broad support among the public, and loan forgiveness can be achieved through executive action, the Biden administration so far has been reluctant to act. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has just announced it will consider a challenge to affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. That leaves the conservative justices, who control two-thirds of the Court, in a position to make it even more difficult to achieve equity in higher education.\n\nIt is particularly disappointing that these two barriers would arise now, as so many universities have been seriously contemplating how to make access more equitable and diverse. It has been a long road to this moment: Universities in the United States were once places of deep formal inequality, with admissions often limited to White male students of means.\n\nCracking open the doors of higher ed took well over a century, as people of color, women and Jews fought for access and an end to quotas. Though a handful of colleges began to allow both men and women in the mid-19th century, it wasn’t until the late 1960s and 1970s that Ivy League schools allowed women. Racial integration likewise took more than a century, and in some schools required armed intervention to protect Black students trying to enroll.\n\nGet our free weekly newsletter Sign up for CNN Opinion’s newsletter. Join us on Twitter and Facebook\n\nThat long fight to win admissions into universities was not just about educational equality. By the 1960s and 1970s, higher education was increasingly the path to middle-class stability. If that stability was to be equally (or at least more broadly) shared, then higher education had to welcome a far more diverse student body. Yet even as that student body became less segregated, inequalities — in access, student loan debt burdens and job opportunities – all persisted.\n\nThe SAT both reflected and reinforced those inequalities. A change to its format now will not undo that bias toward wealthy students. Instead, it’s time to rethink the test’s function in relation to what America’s system of higher education should strive for: how it can provide useful information to universities about how best to help their students succeed, particularly at a moment when policymakers and the courts are arrayed against them, determined to limit what tools educators have to make higher education – and the economy – more fair.", "authors": ["Nicole Hemmer"], "publish_date": "2022/01/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2015/06/24/cnbc-student-debt-crisis/29168475/", "title": "Looking for the next crisis? Try student debt", "text": "Kelley Holland\n\nCNBC\n\nThe numbers are staggering: more than $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, 40 million borrowers, an average balance of $29,000.\n\nIt's not hard to find indications that student debt is a large (and growing) problem. But unless you or someone you love holds student loans, it can be hard to feel the problem's immediacy.\n\nThat may not be the case for long. Mounting student loan debt is ricocheting through the United States, now affecting institutions and economic patterns that have been at the core of America's very might.\n\nMen and women laboring under student debt \"are postponing marriage, childbearing and home purchases, and...pretty evidently limiting the percentage of young people who start a business or try to do something entrepreneurial,\" said Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University and the former Republican governor of Indiana. \"Every citizen and taxpayer should be concerned about it.\"\n\nThe high levels of student debt are also serving to perpetuate and even worsen economic inequality, undercutting the opportunity and social mobility that higher education has long promised. Americans almost universally believe that a college degree is the key to success and getting ahead—and the data shows that, generally speaking, college graduates still fare far better financially than those with just a high school diploma.\n\nBut for those who are saddled with massive student debt, even getting by can be a challenge, much less getting ahead.\n\n\"You wind up disadvantaged just as you begin. It has reduced the ability of our educational system to be a force for upward mobility, and for an equitable chance at upward mobility,\" said Melinda Lewis, associate professor of the practice at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. \"It is still true that you are better positioned if you go to college, but you are not as much better positioned if you have to go to college with debt.\"\n\nDebt crisis builds\n\nThere are several causes for the rapid increase in levels of student debt.\n\nFor one, despite the growing costs, Americans believe deeply in the importance of higher education. A survey of parents released this month by Discover Student Loans found that 95% believe college is somewhat or very important to their child's future. They have reason: In 2012, full-time workers with bachelor's degrees earned 60% more than workers with just a high school diploma.\n\nPolicymakers also encourage college attendance. In a speech earlier this year, President Obama called higher education \"one of the crown jewels of this country\" and said it was \"the single most important way to get ahead.\"\n\nThere is also the matter of \"credentialism,\" the trend in many professions to screen for ever higher qualifications for jobs that may not require them. A 2014 study by Burning Glass, a labor analytics firm, found that 42% of management job holders had bachelor's degrees, but 68% of job postings required them. In computer and mathematical jobs, 39% of employees had bachelor's degrees, but 60% of job listings called for them.\n\n\"Many middle-skill career pathways are becoming closed off to those without a bachelor's degree,\" the report concluded.\n\nThe confluence of those trends has led to a nearly unbroken increase in college attendance for almost 30 years. At the same time, though, the cost of college has risen for decades, far outstripping inflation.\n\nAs a 2012 economic analysis by The Hamilton Project, a policy research group, concluded: \"The cost of college is growing, but the benefits of college — and, by extension, the cost of not going to college — are growing even faster.\"\n\nThere is much debate over the reasons for the steep increase in college tuition. Purdue's Daniels has pointed to \"inelastic demand\" for higher education, which has given colleges room to raise prices, while others cite the decline in state funding for public education and the shrinking subsidies at private schools.\n\nWhatever the reason, there's no denying the cost of both a private and a public college degree has skyrocketed. Average tuition, fees, and room and board at a private, non-profit, four-year college were $42,419 for 2014-2015, up from $30,664 in real dollars in 2000-01. At public, four-year schools, costs for the 2014-15 school year, at $18,943, were up sharply from the $11,635 price tag in 2000-01, according to the College Board.\n\nThe federal government has stepped up its lending accordingly, and so have private student lenders. The total of private student loans outstanding grew rapidly from $55.9 billion in 2005 to $140.2 billion in 2011, fueled in part, perhaps, by the growing market for asset-backed securities backed by student loans, known as SLABS.\n\nWhile the expansion has provided more options for student borrowers — and the opportunity for those with high credit scores to refinance at lower rates — regulators have expressed concerns.\n\nIn a 2012 report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that many student borrowers may not have understood the difference between private student loans and government loans, and default rates on private student loans \"have spiked significantly since the financial crisis of 2008.\"\n\nLower birthrates, fewer small businesses\n\nRising student debt levels are changing how millions of people approach major milestones and core financial decisions, affecting longstanding social and economic patterns.\n\nConsider homeownership. Owning a home used to be a key marker of adulthood and maturity. But homeownership has plummeted among Americans under age 35, from 43.3% in the first quarter of 2005 to 34.6% in first quarter of 2015, according to the Census Bureau.\n\nMortgage lenders \"look at all debt obligations, and student debt would count toward that, which means the person...has to downgrade their housing expectations, and take out a loan lower than what they intended. Or in some cases, they say, 'Well, I'm going to hold back,'\" said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors.\n\nThe association found in a recent survey that 23% of first-time buyers said it was hard for them to save for a down payment, and within that group, 57% said student debt was impeding their saving, up from 54% a year earlier.\n\nWhile a college education generally leads to higher income, \"growing student loan burdens can have direct impacts in terms of lost sales due to higher debt levels for builders focusing on the entry level market space,\" said Robert Dietz, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders.\n\nTwenty-somethings are also putting off starting a family. The median age for a first birth has been increasing for years, standing most recently at age 26. And the birth rate among women aged 20 to 29 is now at a record low, and has been declining since at least 2008, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control.\n\nStudents laboring under the burden of student debt are also following different career paths, with important social implications. The need to repay loans is steering some away from professions like social work and health care and toward higher-paying jobs in tech and financial services.\n\nIn a working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, the writers examined the effect of a move by a selective college to replace loans with grants. \"We find that debt causes graduates to choose substantially higher-salary jobs and reduces the probability that students choose relatively low-paying 'public interest' jobs,\" the researchers observed.\n\nWhile choosing a higher-paying field may help them repay their loans faster, it could also result in fewer graduates moving into low-paying but critical jobs like early childhood education.\n\nResearch has also found that the burden of student debt hinders innovation and entrepreneurship, a core component of the economic prowess of the United States. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania State studied the relationship between student debt and small business formation and found \"a significant and economically meaningful\" link: more student debt led to fewer small businesses being formed.\n\nStudent loan defaults are another burden on society. The three-yeardefault rate stands at roughly 13.7, and the average amount in default per borrower was just over $14,000 in the third quarter of 2014. Debt like that impedes the ability of borrowers to save for retirement at a time when millions of Americans are short on retirement savings. And it can have a ripple effect on the economy, in part because the federal government typically does not recoup the full amount in default (though it does get most, eventually).\n\n\"We're not going to see this create systemic risk,\" said Rohit Chopra, student loan ombudsman and assistant director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, since the government either guarantees or owns most of the student loans and has the power to sue and to garnish wages, tax refunds, and federal benefits like Social Security when borrowers default. \"But it will create economic drag if it's unaddressed,\"he added.\n\nWhile some, like Mark Kantrowitz, a student financial aid policy expert and publisher of Edvisors.com, argue that student loans have not reached the level of \"crisis,\" most policymakers and experts agree that the trends are worrisome at the least and more should be done to ease the burden on borrowers.\n\nKantrowitz advocates for more programs to improve the financial literacy and budgeting skills of students and their parents, as well as better disclosures for student loans. \"We need to bring some sanity back to the system,\" he said.\n\nPolicymakers and academics are trying to develop solutions to the burgeoning student debt burden. Obama has proposed having the government cover the average cost of community college for students who maintain good grades, which could help ease the debt burden if it's adopted (though students would still be responsible for the cost of continuing their studies beyond community college).\n\nThe Obama administration has also expanded the Income-Based Repayment program, which enables students to make loan payments that are no more than a reasonable share of their discretionary income — generally 10% — over a longer period of time.\n\nQualifying borrowers who work full-time in public service jobs may also get some of the balance of their loans forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.\n\nSome states offer Children's Savings Accounts, which enable families and donors to put away money for children's college education. Research by Lewis and her colleague William Elliott, as well as other studies, indicate that these accounts encourage college attendance, particularly among lower-income Americans.\n\nSeveral schools have been expanding student aid. Stanford university, for example, announced this spring that tuition will be free for students whose families earn less than $125,000 a year, and several Ivy League schools have similar programs in place. It's worth noting, though, thatuniversities with those kinds of plans in place have also typically increased their tuition for the last several years and have substantial endowments.\n\nSome of the worst abuses in student lending have also been washed out of the system. Many student borrowers take out loans to attend for-profit colleges like the former Corinthian College, which abruptly ceased to exist in April, and the Department of Education in June announced it would forgive the debt of students who attended that school.\n\nThese efforts should certainly help to alleviate the burden on borrowers. But absent dramatic changes in the financing of higher education, student loan debt is expected to keep climbing, and that could have implications for us all.\n\n© CNBC is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/06/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/02/politics/student-loan-debt-forgiveness-what-matters/index.html", "title": "A crash course in student loan debt forgiveness - CNNPolitics", "text": "A version of this story appeared in CNN's What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here\n\n(CNN) When the Department of Education announced massive loan forgiveness for former students of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges system on Wednesday, it was the largest single effort by the Biden administration to help Americans pay down their student debt.\n\nThe administration's actions so far have largely focused on students who were defrauded by now-shuttered schools, like Corinthian. But the moves have also sharpened a debate on whether the rising cost of higher education is an undue burden for young adults. Opponents say that simply forgiving student debt is a moral hazard and penalizes people who paid theirs off already.\n\nI talked to CNN's Katie Lobosco , who covers the issue, about what happened on Wednesday and where it fits into the larger debate about student loans.\n\nOur conversation, conducted by email, is below.\n\nWhat's the news?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: What's this latest move by the Biden administration, and how many people does it affect?\n\nLOBOSCO: Wednesday's action is the Biden administration's biggest move to cancel student debt to date, totaling $5.8 billion for 560,000 borrowers.\n\nIt will affect all borrowers who attended a Corinthian College at any time during its existence, dating back to 1995, and still have outstanding federal student loan debt.\n\nSome former Corinthian students previously qualified for student loan forgiveness, but the new action will ensure that all borrowers will receive debt relief automatically. They won't have to take action.\n\nHow is this possible?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: How is the administration able to simply forgive this debt? Why didn't Congress need to weigh in?\n\nLOBOSCO: The Department of Education has long had the power -- granted by Congress in the Higher Education Act -- to cancel federal student loan debt held by borrowers who were misled by their colleges or were enrolled at schools that engaged in other misconduct in violation of certain state laws.\n\nBut the department rarely used this power before 2015, when Corinthian Colleges and several other for-profit schools suddenly shut down in the face of federal and state investigations into their practices. Many schools were found to have misled prospective students with inflated job placement numbers and the transferability of their credits to other schools.\n\nAt that time, the Obama administration streamlined the process, known as borrower defense to repayment, making it easier for these borrowers to file forgiveness claims with the Department of Education. The agency was flooded with applications, and the Trump administration, which fought to change the policy, stopped processing the claims for more than a year. More than 100,000 applications were pending when Biden took office.\n\nSince then, the Department of Education has been chipping away at the backlog, speeding up the process by granting forgiveness to groups of borrowers at a time.\n\nWhat's a for-profit college?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: What's the difference between a for-profit college and other colleges, which also cost a lot of money?\n\nLOBOSCO: The big difference is that for-profit colleges aim to make money, unlike non-profit public and private colleges and universities.\n\nNot all for-profit colleges are bad. They tend to confer certificates for trade-related professions that prepare students to quickly enter the workforce. In that respect, they attract a lot of nontraditional students -- like parents and military veterans who want to gain skills that make them marketable to new employers.\n\nBut many for-profit colleges have left thousands of students with degrees that did not help them get higher-paying jobs and that saddled them with student loan debt.\n\nHow have for-profit colleges changed?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: What is the state of for-profit colleges right now? How has that industry changed in recent years?\n\nLOBOSCO: Enrollment at for-profit colleges in 2020 was about half of what it was in 2010, when more than 2 million students were enrolled, according to the Enrollment at for-profit colleges in 2020wasabout half of what it was in 2010, when more than 2 million students were enrolled, according to the College Board\n\nCorinthian Colleges -- which operated schools under the names of Everest, Heald College or WyoTech -- enrolled more than 110,000 students at 105 campuses at its peak in 2010. It sold most of its campuses in 2014 and shuttered the remaining ones in 2015.\n\nA year later, another for-profit college, known as ITT Tech, also suddenly closed after facing state and federal probes into its recruitment tactics.\n\nWhat's going on with debt forgiveness in general?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: This is but one effort. What does the larger debt forgiveness effort look like? How much student debt has been forgiven and how much is out there?\n\nLOBOSCO: Under the Biden administration, the Department of Education says it has approved the cancellation of $25 billion of student debt for 1.3 million borrowers as of this week.\n\nNearly $8 billion in forgiveness provides relief for 690,000 borrowers who were misled by their colleges. More than $8.5 billion has been canceled automatically for more than 400,000 borrowers who are permanently disabled who were previously eligible for debt relief but had not applied.\n\nThe administration has also temporarily expanded eligibility for what's known as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program -- which cancels remaining federal student loan debt after a public-sector worker has made 10 years of qualifying payments. The expansion has led to the cancellation of $6.8 billion for more than 113,000 borrowers.\n\nThe Biden administration has also made changes to the income-driven repayment plans , bringing millions of borrowers close to forgiveness.\n\nWhat about mass debt forgiveness?\n\nWHAT MATTERS: Canceling debt for people who were defrauded is one thing. A lot of Democrats want to see debt forgiveness for people who got legitimate degrees too. Where does that effort stand?\n\nLOBOSCO: Many Democrats and advocacy groups continue to call on Biden to broadly cancel up to $50,000 for each of the 43 million borrowers who have federal student loan debt.\n\nTo date, Biden has resisted that pressure and has instead taken a piecemeal approach to canceling student debt by expanding existing forgiveness programs.\n\nIn April, Biden said he is considering canceling student loan debt more broadly -- though he also doubled down on his resistance to canceling as much as $50,000 per borrower.\n\nOn the campaign trail, he proposed canceling a minimum of $10,000 in student debt per person as a response to the pandemic, as well as forgiving all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities for those borrowers earning up to $125,000 a year.", "authors": ["Zachary B. Wolf"], "publish_date": "2022/06/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2016/09/08/ivy-league-clinches-top-3-spots-in-ranking-of-best-us-colleges/37421675/", "title": "ivy-league-clinches-top-3-spots-in-ranking-of-best-us-colleges", "text": "Patrick Foster\n\nCorrections & clarifications: This story was updated to remove an accompanying video about college rankings.\n\nYale remains the top university in the United States, according to new data released Thursday by College Factual. The private school in New Haven, Conn. is followed by Harvard (which was No. 5 in last year's ranking) and the University of Pennsylvania (which dropped from the No. 2 spot).\n\nDuke University, which ranked third last year, slid to the fourth spot, just ahead of Stanford University. Amherst College, Brown University, Cornell, Princeton and Notre Dame round out the top 10.\n\nCollege Factual examines a unique set of factors when putting together their annual ranking, which feature appearances from the nation's service academies — Naval Academy (22), Air Force (33) and Military Academy (47).\n\n\n\n\"Many college rankings focus highly on inputs, such as student test scores, and often include subjective elements such as surveys. College Factual rankings are different as they focus highly on outputs, such as graduation rates and student loan default rates,\" says College Factual CEO Bill Phelan.\n\nThese rankings differ from other lists and, according to Phelan, it's for good reason. Instead of burying methodology in fine print at the bottom of the list, College Factual puts theirs up front. Freshman retention rates, the number of full-time teachers and student loan default rates are all key components in the final rankings.\n\n\"We also rank colleges on many different aspects of the education they provide, from overall quality, to best value, to best for a specific major. At the end of the day though we want students to go beyond just rankings to discover colleges that are a great match for them all-around.\"\n\nHere's a closer look at the top 10:\n\nThis story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/09/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/04/05/yale-law-school-masterpiece-cakeshop-religious-discrimination-column/3354031002/", "title": "Yale Law School gives in to anti-religious bigotry in new policies", "text": "Samuel Adkisson\n\nOpinion contributor\n\nWhat happens at our nation’s elite law schools rarely stays there.\n\nThat is why recent events at Yale Law School are so disturbing. In an effort to appease campus protesters, Yale announced that it would begin discriminating against religious students. This should concern all who value intellectual diversity and religious freedom. But even more troubling is the fact that this anti-religious bigotry is unlikely to confine itself to the ivory tower for long.\n\nIn February, the Yale Federalist Society scheduled an event with Kristen Waggoner, an attorney at Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the nation’s premier religious liberty organizations. Waggoner recently argued Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission before the Supreme Court and won in a 7-2 vote. The case involved anti-religious discrimination against a Colorado baker.\n\nAs Justice Elena Kagan explained, the government acted unconstitutionally because it exhibited “hostility to religious views.”\n\nRead more commentary:\n\nI was assaulted at Berkeley because I'm conservative. Free speech is under attack.\n\nFrom dog rape to white men in chains: We fooled the biased academic left with fake studies\n\nI know college admissions offices from the inside — schools basically sign off on scandal\n\nOne might expect an event with a successful Supreme Court advocate to be welcomed at an elite law school. But before the event had even taken place, more than 20 student organizations publicly condemned the event and speaker.\n\nThe problem? Waggoner's orthodox Christian beliefs and a commitment to religious liberty. Parroting Southern Poverty Law Center talking points, protesters claimed she worked for a \"homophobic, transphobic hate group.\" Never mind that Alliance Defending Freedom has won nine Supreme Court cases in the past seven years.\n\nProtesters get administrative support\n\nPar for the course at Ivy League institutions, a list of demands soon followed. The organizations called on Dean Heather Gerken to implement policies that would make it more difficult for students to work at “discriminatory” organizations, like those promoting religious liberty. They also asked her to consider denying admission to applicants who worked on certain religious liberty efforts before law school. Such lists are normally good for a laugh. And this one seemed no different.\n\nBut in late March, Yale Law School adopted a novel tactic: one-upping the protesters. It announced three major policy changes that went further than many of the protesters’ demands, all under the guise of an expanded nondiscrimination policy.\n\nThe new policies require all employers to swear that, when hiring students or graduates who benefit from certain Yale funding, they will not consider an applicant’s “religion,” “religious creed,” “gender identity” or “gender expression,” among other factors. The effect of this, for instance, is if a Yale Law student or graduate wishes to work for an organization that does consider religion in hiring — say a Catholic organization or Jewish advocacy group — Yale will cut them off from three important programs.\n\nFirst, Yale will ban them from receiving the school’s “summer public interest funding.” This is more important than it sounds. Between students’ first and second years of law school, they typically volunteer at nonprofits or in government. (Most law firms, quite understandably, are not interested in hiring first-year students.) To help defray students’ living expenses during this first summer, Yale offers financial grants. Last summer, for example, Yale provided more than $1.9 million to more than 200 students.\n\nSecond, Yale will ban graduates from participating in the school’s loan assistance program. The basic idea is simple: If a student graduates, works full time, and makes below a certain income threshold, Yale will help with their loan payments. Sound too good to be true? Most top law schools have similar programs. Yale previously boasted that this program covered “all jobs in all sectors.” No longer.\n\nThird, Yale will ban them from receiving one of the law school’s 30-plus post-graduate fellowships. These prestigious fellowships offer a year of funding for students to serve in a nonprofit or government position.\n\nStanding up to overt religious discrimination\n\nUnder the guise of nondiscrimination, Yale Law School has announced it will blatantly discriminate. A student is barred from aid if she works at a synagogue that gives preference to Jewish applicants, but not if she works at an organization that peddles anti-Semitism yet hires all comers. A graduate is blocked from funding if she works for the Christian Legal Society, but not if she works for the Freedom from Religion Foundation. And a graduate is not eligible to receive loan assistance if she is a professor at Brigham Young University, but is eligible if she works for Berkeley.\n\nYale Law School, under the leadership of Dean Gerken, has adopted policies of overt religious discrimination. Those who value religious toleration and intellectual diversity must stand up and demand that these policies stop.\n\nBut these policies — and the ideas animating them — will not confine themselves to the ivory tower for long. What happens at law schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford today foreshadows the broader cultural trends of tomorrow. I don't like what I see.\n\nWhat can be done?\n\n►The Senate Judiciary Committee should hold hearings on the state of legal education in the United States. It is biased, broken and getting worse.\n\n►Prospective students should consider whether a university respects intellectual and religious pluralism when deciding whether to attend. It makes a difference.\n\n►Donors should withhold funding from institutions that fail to respect religious and intellectual diversity. There are already too many.\n\nIn its Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, the Supreme Court ruled against religious discrimination. Yale Law School has taken the opposite path, institutionalizing anti-religious bigotry in its new policies. It is a decision that must not go unchallenged.\n\nSamuel Adkisson is a 2018 graduate of Yale Law School and an attorney in Arlington, Virginia. He previously served as president of the Yale Federalist Society.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/04/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2019/11/23/havard-yale-game-stopped-protesters-climate-change-halftime/4284156002/", "title": "Protesters stop Harvard-Yale game at halftime by storming the field", "text": "Activists carrying banners in protest of \"climate injustice\" stormed the field before the start of the third quarter of Saturday's game between Harvard and Yale, causing a lengthy delay and leading police to handcuff and detain several protesters.\n\nGroups of students from both universities marched toward midfield at the Yale Bowl after the band had finished performing and as players were warming up for the start of the second half. One long banner carried by several students said both Yale and Harvard \"are complicit in climate injustice.\"\n\nProtesters called for the two schools, longtime Ivy League rivals, to divest from fossil fuels and cancel their Puerto Rico debt holdings. Endowment holdings at Harvard and Yale are managed in part by fund managers and private equity firms invested in Puerto Rican debt.\n\nThe number of protesters grew into the hundreds, all within a stretch of space on either side of the large Yale logo at midfield.\n\n\"Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go,\" chanted protesters.\n\nA public-address announcement asked protesters to leave the field \"as a courtesy to the players,\" and that \"as a courtesy to both teams, the game must resume.”\n\nWINNERS AND LOSERS:Highs and lows from Week 13 in college football\n\nPOINT PROVED:No. 2 Ohio State passes first test in Penn State victory\n\nBULLDOGS SCARE:No. 4 Georgia survives challenges from Texas A&M\n\nAfter about an hour, police formed a line and moved forward, from the Yale sideline toward the Harvard sideline. A protest leader encouraged all “internationals” to leave. An agreement was reached to escort the remainders off, with one police officer to every two protesters.\n\nThose who did not leave then – perhaps one or two dozen – were informed by Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins that they would be arrested.\n\nYale officials said in a statement handed to reporters in the press box during the fourth quarter that the school “stands firmly for the right to free expression.”\n\n“It is regrettable,” a statement attributed to the Ivy League said, “that the orchestrated protest came during a time when fellow students were participating in a collegiate career-defining contest and an annual tradition when thousands gather from around the world to enjoy and celebrate the storied traditions of both football programs and universities.”\n\nHarvard led 15-3 at halftime against the favored Bulldogs, which entered Saturday tied with Dartmouth atop the Ivy League standings and ranked No. 25 in the Football Championship Subdivision. The Crimson then led by 17 points in the fourth quarter before Yale rallied to force overtime. A touchdown in the second extra period gave the Bulldogs the win and a share of the conference title.\n\nThe two universities have met 136 times since 1875, with Yale holding a 68-60-8 lead in the series. Only two other rivalries have met more often in the history of college football.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/11/23"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_7", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/sport/rob-gronkowski-retirement-spt/index.html", "title": "NFL star Rob Gronkowski announces his retirement", "text": "(CNN) Four-time Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski, a tight end in the NFL for 11 seasons as a member of the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, announced his retirement Tuesday on social media.\n\nThis is Gronkowski's second time retiring from the NFL, having previously hung up his cleats in New England after playing from 2010 to 2018 with the Patriots before returning in 2020 to play two seasons with the Buccaneers.\n\nGronkowski, 33, wrote on social media , \"I want to thank the whole entire first class Buccaneers organization for an amazing ride, trusting me to come back to play and help build a championship team. I will now be going back into my retirement home, walking away from football again with my head held high knowing I gave it everything I had, good or bad, every time I stepped out on the field.\n\n\"The friendships and relationships I have made will last forever, and I appreciate every single one of my teammates and coaches for giving everything they had as well. From retirement, back to football and winning another championship and now back to chilling out, thank you to all.\"\n\nOver his 11 NFL seasons, Gronkowski was part of four Super Bowl-winning teams, three times with the Patriots and again with the Buccaneers.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kevin Dotson"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/giants/2018/08/21/last-dance-victor-cruz-announces-retirement-nfl-joins-espn/1047475002/", "title": "Ex-New York Giants WR Victor Cruz announces retirement from NFL ...", "text": "EAST RUTHERFORD — The music has stopped playing in the NFL for Victor Cruz, but the former New York Giants star wide receiver promises that he isn't done dancing.\n\nAt 31, Cruz announced his retirement from the league Tuesday, informing The Record and NorthJersey.com shortly before officially making the news public with a video posted to Uninterrupted's YouTube channel.\n\nThe Giants released Cruz in February 2017 after seven seasons during which he emerged as one of the franchise's most popular players. His salsa dancing in the end zone to celebrate touchdowns made him famous, as did his remarkable rise to incredible heights as a Super Bowl champion with the Giants in 2011.\n\nBut when Cruz, now an uber celebrity and NFL analyst, is asked to what moment he goes back as the most unforgettable of his time with the Giants, his mind does not go to the Super Bowl, the fame he earned or the countless dances he did.\n\nCruz goes back to the moment when an undrafted long shot from Paterson, N.J., left everyone in awe as a rookie in a preseason game against the Jets.\n\n\"I close my eyes, when I go back: it's always the first one: preseason game, rookie year, up the sideline, first catch ever, first anything, against the Jets,\" Cruz told The Record and NorthJersey.com on Tuesday morning, the news of his retirement still flooding social media. \"For that one to be a touchdown out of the gate, it was like, my season, my career could have ended right there, and I had already accomplished so much. Being from New Jersey, playing in Giants Stadium, scoring a touchdown like that, in front of my family and my mom, that moment alone takes the cake for me.\"\n\nThe story continues below the gallery.\n\nCruz had been a Giants fixture since August of 2010, when the undrafted rookie from UMass who grew up in the shadow of the Meadowlands stunned everyone with a breakthrough performance in a preseason game against the Jets. He rose to stardom with the Giants, celebrating his touchdowns with his trademark salsa dance and winning a Super Bowl in the 2011 season.\n\n\"Obviously Victor had a terrific career and a great Giant, and a guy who kind of exploded onto the scene in this preseason game versus the Jets coming up in 2010,\" Giants quarterback Eli Manning said Tuesday, adding: \"Really just had a great feel for the offense, for his routes in that slot, and he was tough to cover. Running down the field, breaking in, we gave him a lot of options. He mastered some of those concepts and gave him a great opportunity to get open and make big plays for us. Tremendous player, and a great guy. He was in the locker room a few weeks ago. I got to talk with him and hang out with him. Obviously, I wish him all the best going forward. I think he’s gone to the dark side and has gone into the media [laughter]. I wish him all the best going over there.\"\n\n\n\nOnly Calvin Johnson and Brandon Marshall had more 100-yard receiving games than Cruz from 2011 to Week 6 of the 2014 season when the latter tore the patellar tendon in his right knee during a game against the Eagles in Philadelphia.\n\nFollowing his release from the Giants, Cruz signed with the Chicago Bears last summer. He was cut in the preseason, and spent the last year waiting for an offer that never came.\n\n\"When a year passes without a phone call, that's kind of the wake up call,\" Cruz said. \"That's the biggest lesson I've learned: you have your moment when you make it to the top, and mine came so quickly. Everything's great, your career is ascending, and then in a blink of an eye, in Year 4 for me, I'm gonna play 15-20 years, win a couple championships, and then after Year 7, I'm done. That's what the league is telling me.\"\n\nIn trying to make it to the NFL, Cruz earned respect from so many along the way.\n\nHe once was a North Jersey teenager harboring a dream to play basketball at Duke University, not the NFL for his beloved Dallas Cowboys, let alone the Giants for whom he would star, becoming a worldwide celebrity of football and fashion.\n\nOpposing coaches in the now-defunct Bergen-Passaic Scholastic League used to complain about how that kid wearing No. 9 for Paterson Catholic (now closed) was too physical, and all he did was push off in the end zone. That was the reason he was catching all those touchdown passes, they said.\n\nCruz committed to UMass on scholarship, but first had to attend prep school. Then he had to come home and work in retail at Garden State Plaza in Paramus after his grades at UMass led to his dismissal not only from the team, but the school, and not once, but twice.\n\nNow he's a role model for all those who dream of following in his footsteps, including those involved with the Boys and Girls Club of America, which has honored him on several occasions through his foundation.\n\n\"My story, it wasn't easy to get here,\" Cruz said. \"But I wouldn't change a thing.\"\n\nIt was Cruz's story that inspired many around the league: the kid who did that dance to honor his grandmother and his Puerto Rican heritage, the one who outworked the crowd at the bottom to make it to the top.\n\nThere's a reason why former Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly visited Cruz in a Philadelphia hospital the morning after Cruz's football world changed forever back in 2014 - and why Giants coach Pat Shurmur stepped to the microphone for his Tuesday news conference and opened with a salute to a player he never coached.\n\n\"What a great Giant,\" Shurmur said. \"I remember playing against him when I was [coaching] in Philly and we were certainly well aware of the impact he could have on a ball game. I had a chance to meet him and be around him, and he certainly doesn’t need an invite from me, but much like all the ex-Giants, I look forward to seeing him at practice any time he wants to be here. So, congratulations to him.\"\n\nCruz will make his ESPN debut Wednesday during the 9 a.m. hour on both Get Up! and SportsCenter. He visited the Giants here at training camp two weeks ago after staying away for much of last year, still trying to come to grips with his exit.\n\nThis time, Cruz said he felt at home again.\n\n\"I'll always be blue 80 in New York in my opinion, in my mind, in my heart,\" Cruz said. \"To me, the blue 80 jersey will always say Cruz on the back of it, New York City. I hope the fans don't lose that. That's where I was born, essentially, from a football perspective, and [the Giants and the New York City area] will always be home, always be family.\"\n\nEmail: stapleton@northjersey.com\n\nMore NY Giants news\n\nNY Giants:Growing pains continue for remade offensive line\n\nAmani Toomer:Medical marijuana discussion in Fort Lee brings out former NY Giants receiver\n\nNY Giants:Did Big Blue's decision to draft Saquon Barkley gift a franchise QB to Jets?", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/08/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/01/sport/tom-brady-retirement-nfl-spt-intl/index.html", "title": "Tom Brady officially announces retirement from NFL - CNN", "text": "The 44-year-old, arguably the greatest NFL quarterback of all time, announced the news on social media\n\n\"I have always believed the sport of football is an 'all-in' proposition -- if a 100% competitive commitment isn't there, you won't succeed, and success is what I love so much about our game,\" he said.\n\n\"There is a physical, mental and emotional challenge EVERY single day that has allowed me to maximize my highest potential. And I have tried my very best these past 22 years. There are no shortcuts to success on the field or in life. This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore.\n\n\"I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention. I've done a lot of reflecting the past week and have asked myself difficult questions. And I am so proud of what we have achieved.\n\n\"My teammates, coaches, fellow competitors, and fans deserve 100% of me, but right now, it's best I leave the field of play to the next generation of dedicated and committed athletes.\"\n\nBrady celebrates after the Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 at Super Bowl 51.\n\nBrady has just finished his 22nd season in the NFL -- and second with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.\n\nDuring his 22-year career, Brady has won seven Super Bowl titles -- six with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- and he retires as the NFL's all-time leader in passing yards (84,520), touchdown passes (624), completions (7,263), regular season wins (243), playoff wins (35) and Super Bowl MVPs (five). He has also played in and won more regular-season games in his career than any other quarterback.\n\nOver the weekend, ESPN's Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington and The Boston Globe, had reported that Brady was retiring, citing unnamed sources.\n\nBut on Sunday, a source familiar with the situation told CNN that \"Brady contacted (Tampa Bay) Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht (on Saturday) to inform him he has yet to make a final decision about his future.\"\n\nBut after saying on Monday that he hadn't made decision on retiring, Brady confirmed the news on Tuesday.\n\nJUST WATCHED Tom Brady throws Super Bowl trophy from one boat to another Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Tom Brady throws Super Bowl trophy from one boat to another 00:45\n\nIn his announcement, he thanked his Bucs teammates, coaching staff, family and agents.\n\n\"My playing career has been such a thrilling ride, and far beyond my imagination, and full of ups and downs,\" Brady continued. \"When you're in it every day, you really don't think about any kind of ending.\n\n\"As I sit here now, however, I think of all the great players and coaches I was privileged to play with and against -- the competition was fierce and deep, JUST HOW WE LIKE IT. But the friendships and relationships are just as fierce and deep. I will remember and cherish these memories and re-visit them often. I feel like the luckiest person in the world.\"\n\nThe Bucs thanked Brady for the part he played with the team on Twitter, saying : \"Forever a part of Buccaneers history. Thank you for everything, Tom Brady.\"\n\n\"The future is exciting,\" Brady said.\n\nHe added: \"Exactly what my days will look like will be a work-in-progress. As I said earlier, I am going to take it day by day. I know for sure I want to spend a lot of time giving to others and trying to enrich other people's lives, just as so many have done for me.\"\n\n\"What a ride @tombrady ! So many memories! When I met you over 15 years ago, I didn't know the first thing about football.\" she wrote.\n\n\"But cheering for you and seeing you do what you love most made me learn about this wonderful game to the point that I seriously believed I knew more than the referees! We always had a special champions playlist for every drive on our way to the game. As a family, we always prayed for you, celebrated and supported you in every game, cheered every win and suffered with every loss.\"\n\nShe added, \"I'm so proud of you, and of everything you have had to overcome physically and emotionally over the years.\"\n\nNFL icon\n\nSelected 199th overall in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft by the Patriots, Brady played 20 seasons in Foxborough.\n\nHe left New England as a free agent after the 2020 season and signed with the Bucs where he led the team to a Super Bowl win in his first season there.\n\nBrady walks off the Raymond James Stadium field after a game.\n\nWith the Super Bowl win with Tampa Bay, Brady joined Peyton Manning as the only starting quarterbacks in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with multiple teams.\n\nBrady is the first quarterback in league history to lead his team to seven Super Bowl wins, surpassing Terry Bradshaw (four) and Joe Montana (four). Brady's 10 Super Bowl appearances is more than any franchise in the Super Bowl era -- the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers each have eight.\n\nIn his final season, Brady led the league in passing yards (5,316) and touchdowns (43) and earned an NFL-best 15th Pro Bowl selection.\n\nBrady was named to the league's 2000s All-Decade Team, the 2010s All-Decade Team and the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.\n\nPatriots owner Robert Kraft paid his respects to Brady's career, saying in a statement that: \"Words cannot describe the feelings I have for Tom Brady, nor adequately express the gratitude my family, the New England Patriots and our fans have for Tom for all he did during his career.\n\n\"A generation of football fans have grown up knowing only an NFL in which Tom Brady dominated. He retires with nearly every NFL career passing record, yet the only one that ever mattered to him was the team's win-loss record. In his 20 years as a starter his teams qualified for the playoffs 19 times. He led his teams to 10 Super Bowls, winning an NFL-record seven championships. In a team sport like football, it is rare to see an individual have such a dominant impact on a team's success.\n\n\"You didn't have to be a Patriots fan to respect and appreciate his competitiveness, determination and will to win that fueled his success. As a fan of football, it was a privilege to watch. As a Patriots fan, it was a dream come true.\n\n\"I have the greatest respect for Tom personally and always will. His humility, coupled with his drive and ambition, truly made him special. I will always feel a close bond to him and will always consider him an extension of my immediate family.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED See Tom Brady nail 'Hamilton' rap with late-night host Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See Tom Brady nail 'Hamilton' rap with late-night host 01:35\n\nNFL commissioner Roger Goodell also paid his tributes to Brady in a statement on Tuesday.\n\n\"Tom Brady will be remembered as one of the greatest to ever play in the NFL,\" he said. \"An incredible competitor and leader, his stellar career is remarkable for its longevity but also for the sustained excellence he displayed year after year.\n\n\"Tom made everyone around him better and always seemed to rise to the occasion in the biggest moments. His record five Super Bowl MVP awards and seven Super Bowl championships set a standard that players will chase for years.\n\n\"He inspired fans in New England, Tampa and around the world with one of the greatest careers in NFL history. It has been a privilege to watch him compete and have him in the NFL. We thank him for his many contributions to our game and wish Tom and his family all the best in the future.\"", "authors": ["Ben Morse"], "publish_date": "2022/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2022/02/01/tom-brady-retires-nfl-quarterback/9297274002/", "title": "Tom Brady officially retires: QB says on social media his career over", "text": "A day after saying he was evaluating his options concerning his future, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady officially retired from the NFL.\n\nBrady made the announcement via social media on Tuesday morning.\n\n\"I have always believed the sport of football is an 'all-in' proposition – if a 100% competitive commitment isn't there, you won't succeed, and success is what I love so much about our game,\" Brady said. \"There is a physical, mental and emotional challenge EVERY single day that has allowed me to maximize my highest potential. And I have tried my very best these past 22 years. There are no shortcuts to success on the field or in life.\n\n\"This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore. I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention. I've done a lot of reflecting the past week and have asked myself difficult questions. And I am so proud of what we have achieved. My teammates, coaches, fellow competitors, and fans deserve 100% of me, but right now, it's best I leave the field of play to the next generation of dedicated and committed athletes.\"\n\nWINNERS, LOSERS OF BRADY RETIRING:Buccaneers QB's plan sends shockwaves through NFL\n\nWHO WILL BE NEXT TOM BRADY?:Probably no one, but these seven quarterbacks might have a shot\n\nBrady, 44, led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns this season and his final game was the NFC Divisional loss at home to the Los Angeles Rams.\n\nUSA TODAY Sports reported Saturday that Brady was set to announce his retirement after 22 seasons.\n\n\"Tom Brady will be remembered as one of the greatest to ever play in the NFL. An incredible competitor and leader, his stellar career is remarkable for its longevity but also for the sustained excellence he displayed year after year,\" NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.\n\n\"Tom made everyone around him better and always seemed to rise to the occasion in the biggest moments. His record five Super Bowl MVP awards and seven Super Bowl championships set a standard that players will chase for year.\"\n\nNEVER MISS A MOMENT: Subscribe to our NFL newsletter to stay informed!\n\nOn Monday, Brady said on his SiriusXM podcast \"Let's Go\" that he wasn’t ready to announce plans for his future.\n\nBrady's retirement brings an end to a storied career with seven Super Bowl titles, three MVP and five Super Bowl MVP awards and 15 Pro Bowl selections.\n\nAfter being selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft by the New England Patriots, Brady got his opportunity the next season in Week 2 when starter Drew Bledsoe was hit by New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis. Brady started the next week against the Indianapolis Colts, leading them to a 44-13 victory.\n\nHe set NFL career marks for touchdown passes (624), passing yards (84,250) and wins as a starting quarterback while also setting league records for playoff wins, touchdowns and passing yards.\n\nOPINION:Brady's retirement serves as rare peek into legendary QB's human side\n\nOPINION:Brady's legacy also includes blueprint he provided on NFL player empowerment\n\n\"Words cannot describe the feelings I have for Tom Brady, nor adequately express the gratitude my family, the New England Patriots and our fans have for Tom for all he did during his career,\" Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in a statement. \"A generation of football fans have grown up knowing only an NFL in which Tom Brady dominated.\"\n\nIf there is one blemish on his record, it came during the 2015 AFC championship when the Colts accused Brady of using a deflated football.\n\nThe NFL investigated and found that it was “more probable than not” that Brady did use a football that was not up to league standards.\n\nHe was suspended four games, and the Patriots were fined $1 million and lost several draft picks because of the incident.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/buccaneers/2022/02/01/tom-brady-retires-official-patriots-buccaneers/9298370002/", "title": "Tom Brady retires: Legendary QB walks away from NFL as the GOAT", "text": "The greatest to ever do it is walking away.\n\nFormer Tampa Bay Buccaneer and New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady officially announced his retirement Tuesday morning, just one day after he said he was contemplating his options.\n\nBrady, 44, has played in the league half his life, with 22 full seasons to his name, two of which came with Tampa Bay after he left New England after the 2019 season.\n\nBrady now walks away with a commanding grip on several NFL records, many of which — at first blush — would appear to be impossible to reach. Perhaps the most impressive of those relate to his success, and his teams’ successes, in the postseason. Brady started 24 conference championship games or Super Bowls in his career. Simply put, he dominated the league.\n\n\"This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore,\" Brady said Tuesday in the post that announced his retirement. \"I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention.\n\nNFL NEWSLETTER: Sign up and don't miss a Super Bowl moment\n\n\"I've done a lot of reflecting the past week and have asked myself difficult questions. And I am so proud of what we have achieved. My teammates, coaches, fellow competitors, and fans deserve 100% of me, but right now, it's best I leave the field of play to the next generation of dedicated and committed athletes.\"\n\nHere's everything we know about the G.O.A.T. walking away:\n\nHow did Tom Brady decide to retire?\n\nOn Saturday, USA TODAY Sports’ Mike Jones confirmed that Brady would be announcing his impending retirement. Brady, after the Buccaneers were eliminated from the playoffs in a 30-27 loss in the divisional round against the Los Angeles Rams, deflected on questions about his future, saying: \"I haven’t put a lot of thought into it.\"\n\nBrady's comments about his future, however, had notably softened from previous seasons, when he had said in no uncertain terms that he would be back and looked to play well into his mid-40s. After the loss against the Rams, Brady cited his family as an important factor in determining his future.\n\nOn Monday, in an appearance on the \"Let's Go\" podcast with Jim Gray, Brady said he was still contemplating his next steps and added: \"I'm not going to race to some conclusion on that.\"\n\nThen, just hours after that podcast published, Brady posted his announcement Tuesday morning on his social media channels and thanked former teammates, executives, coaches and fans in a lengthy statement. He also took the opportunity to thank his family for their support throughout his career.\n\nESPN had been the first outlet to report Saturday on Brady’s impending retirement.\n\nWhy did Tom Brady retire?\n\nWith increasing frequency, Brady has mentioned that his family and a desire to spend more time with them would be one of the main reasons why he would walk away. The recent increase of transparency in his thinking, alone, pointed to a rare glimpse into his human side.\n\nHis reasons for leaving New England had, in part, a lot to do with the grueling grind that comes with preparing for an NFL season and weekly games. While he found a more relaxed approach in Tampa Bay under coach Bruce Arians, preparing for opponents and seasons is still taxing. After 22 seasons, he has accomplished all there is to accomplish in the sport.\n\nBrady has also ventured into several successful business and media ventures, not limited to his health, wellness and recovery brand TB 12 Sports, in partnership with personal trainer and friend Alex Guerrero. Now that he won't have to game plan and practice, he's expected to give those ventures more time.\n\n\"The future is exciting,\" Brady said in his retirement announcement before citing three companies that he cofounded and would look to continue to grow. \"As I said earlier, I am going to take it day by day. I know for sure I want to spend a lot of time giving to others and trying to enrich other people's lives, just as so many have done for me.\"\n\nWhat will Tom Brady's legacy be?\n\nUndoubtedly, it will be as the greatest quarterback — and player — of all time. It's not just the poise and methodical approach he took toward seeking competitive advantages, it's the metronomic consistency he embodied when he played. In fact, his retirement announcement alone is sending ripples across the league that he dominated.\n\nBut, on the business side of things, Brady also provided a blueprint for player empowerment. He sought independent treatments for his body that he felt were in his best interests. It's hard to argue with the results. He focused on pliability and healthy eating and became a paradigm of dependability, even into his mid-40s. He was an advocate for improvements in player rights and asserting more control over offseason workout practices. And, in his departure from the Patriots, he also showed the importance of wielding agency and control in player movements.\n\nBrady even controlled the narrative in the media over the final seasons of his career, launching several video stories in which he directed what information got out, and how.\n\nMuch of this can be traced all the way back to his days in Ann Arbor, as the University of Michigan quarterback who just happened to get selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft.\n\nWhat are others saying about Tom Brady?\n\nTributes have poured in from all corners of the NFL and sporting world. Former Patriots teammates shared their favorite Tom Brady stories.\n\nNFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Brady \"made everyone around him better and always seemed to rise to the occasion in the biggest moments.\" Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians called it \"an honor\" just to coach him.\n\nSaid Patriots owner Robert Kraft: \"Words cannot describe the feelings I have for Tom Brady, nor adequately express the gratitude my family, the New England Patriots and our fans have for Tom for all he did during his career.\"\n\n\"I have always admired & respected his competitiveness, his dedication, his discipline, and his commitment to being the best,\" friend and former competitor Peyton Manning said.\n\nWhat are Tom Brady’s statistical accomplishments?\n\nAs mentioned above, Brady will likely be untouchable for several NFL records in the decades to come — if not for the rest of the league’s history.\n\nTo start with some of the more notable ones, Brady walks away with the NFL record for most career passing yards in both the regular season (84,520) and the playoffs (13,049). He also has thrown for more touchdowns (624) than anyone.\n\nHe has NFL records for most Super Bowl appearances (10), victories (seven), Super Bowl Most Valuable Player awards (five).\n\nThe list goes on and on. We took a look at some of Brady’s more interesting stats here.\n\nWhat's next for the NFL (and the Buccaneers)?\n\nThere will never be another Tom Brady. He's the product of a perfect storm of talent, drive and franchise stability. Still, there's a crop of young passers who might come close.\n\nThe Bucs will now need to find Brady's replacement and have some decisions to make about a roster that is still talented, but will look very different. Backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert is set to hit free agency, so he may be on the move. That leaves third-string passer Kyle Trask, a second-round rookie Tampa selected in the 2021 draft, as the only quarterback currently left on the roster.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2022/03/15/nfl-free-agency-2022-news-rumors-contracts-players-teams/7046418001/", "title": "NFL free agency 2022: News, rumors on all of Tuesday's deals", "text": "The NFL had its initial rush of free-agency deals Monday, but the first wave isn't over.\n\nThe tampering window featured a slew of players and teams coming to agreements before contracts can become official Wednesday at the start of a new league year. But there are still many of the top free agents who remain uncommitted. Expect more action soon in the market, as well as more trades possibly coming together.\n\nCheck back with USA TODAY Sports often throughout Tuesday and the entire week for all the latest news and buzz on the free-agent market and what deals could be materializing:\n\nMORE:Tom Brady's stunning return to NFL was a decision we should have seen coming\n\nNFL NEWSLETTER:Sign up now to get football news delivered to your inbox\n\nBrowns to sign dynamic return specialist Jakeem Grant\n\nThe Cleveland Browns and wide receiver/return specialist Jakeem Grant have agreed to a three-year contract, according to multiple reports.\n\nGrant - a sixth-round draft pick by the Miami Dolphins in 2016 - was traded by the Dolphins to the Chicago Bears on Oct. 5, 2021 and became a Pro Bowl selection. In his six NFL seasons, Grant has returned a combined six punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns.\n\nLast season, rookies Demetric Felton and Anthony Schwartz primarily handled punt and kickoff return duties. As a team, the Browns averaged 7.2 yards per punt return and 20.7 yards per kickoff return. By comparison, Grant has averaged 10.3 yards on punt returns and 24.5 yards on kick returns during his career.\n\n-- Jim Reineking\n\nSaints, Marcus Maye agree to contract\n\nWith safety Marcus Williams agreeing to a deal with the Baltimore Ravens on Tuesday, the New Orleans Saints got busy gathering in reinforcements for the secondary.\n\nThe Saints and former New York Jets safety Marcus Maye have agreed to a three-year, $28.5 million contract, according to multiple reports.\n\nAfter being a second-round pick in the 2017 NFL draft by the Jets, Maye played five seasons with the team. A torn Achilles landed Maye on injured reserve after appearing in six games during the 2021 season, during which he played on the franchise tag.\n\nOn Monday, the Jets had put work into bolstering their secondary, with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Jordan Whitehead and former Seattle Seahawks cornerback D.J. Reed agreeing to join the Jets.\n\n-- Jim Reineking\n\nRavens to bolster o-line with Morgan Moses\n\nOffensive tackle Morgan Moses has agreed to a three-year, $15 million deal with the Baltimore Ravens, according to multiple reports.\n\nMoses was a third-round pick by Washington in the 2014 NFL draft, and spent seven seasons with the team before signing a one-year contract with the New York Jets in 2021.\n\nThe Ravens have a need at the tackle position after trading Orlando Brown last offseason and with Alejandro Villanueva announcing his retirement last week. Ronnie Stanley — the No. 6 overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft — has appeared in just seven games the previous two seasons while dealing with ankle injuries.\n\nMoses started all but one game last season with the Jets, and started every game for six consecutive seasons for Washington.\n\n-- Jim Reineking\n\nGiants will sign Tyrod Taylor to back up Daniel Jones\n\nThe Giants wanted an upgrade to the insurance policy behind Daniel Jones, hoping to avoid the backup quarterback disaster that unfolded last season, and now they have one.\n\nVeteran Tyrod Taylor has agreed to terms with the Giants on a two-year deal worth up to a maximum value of $17 million, including $8.5 million guaranteed, an individual with knowledge of the situation confirmed to NorthJersey.com and USA TODAY Network on Monday night.\n\nInitial value for Taylor's deal appears to be $11 million over two years, the individual said.\n\nTaylor was with the Houston Texans last season, and did cross paths with Giants general manager Joe Schoen with the Buffalo Bills for one season, albeit one year prior to when Brian Daboll arrived as offensive coordinator.\n\nThe Giants have made the commitment to Taylor as a solid veteran quarterback behind Jones. What Taylor turns out to be with Big Blue is really up to Jones and how he performs.\n\nThe 32-year-old Taylor can be a well-compensated insurance policy at a position Schoen identified as a priority, or he can wind up as an ideal bridge to the next franchise quarterback if Jones struggles to develop.\n\n-- Art Stapleton, North Jersey\n\nBuccaneers swing trade for interior line help\n\nThe Tampa Bay Buccaneers are bringing on one of Tom Brady's former offensive linemen to help protect the quarterback.\n\nThe Buccaneers agreed to a trade with the New England Patriots to acquire offensive guard Shaq Mason, according to multiple reports, in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick.\n\nMason, 28, has been a fixture of the Patriots' offensive line since he entered the NFL in 2015. In Tampa Bay, he will step in as a needed starter after the Buccaneers lost Alex Cappa to the Cincinnati Bengals. Earlier in the offseason, Pro Bowl offensive guard Ali Marpet opted to retire. Pro Bowl center Ryan Jensen, however, opted to return on a three-year contract.\n\nNew England, meanwhile, is undergoing its own offensive line reshuffling after losing offensive guard Ted Karras to the Bengals. Offensive tackle Trent Brown is set to become a free agent.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nJets bolster secondary with D.J. Reed, Jordan Whitehead\n\nAfter focusing on offense to start free agency, the Jets' first move of Day 2 addressed one of their many glaring needs on defense, agreeing to sign former Seahawks cornerback D.J. Reed, a person with knowledge of the situation told the USA TODAY Network. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal could not become official until Wednesday.\n\nThe Athletic first reported the agreement. The contract is for three years and $33 million, according to multiple reports.\n\nThere's certainly a lot to like about Reed. He's 25 and started 14 games last season for the Seahawks, who run a similar defense. He also played two seasons with coach Robert Saleh in San Francisco, which should make his transition to the Jets even smoother.\n\nReed is only 5-foot-9, but he played nearly all his snaps last season at outside corner: another plus because that's where the Jets need help. But Reed is more of a No. 2 corner than the lockdown guy the Jets have been missing for so long. And considering last season was the first time he started more than eight games in a year, he still has something to prove.\n\nYes, the defense is going to look much different next year. And that's a good thing because the Jets were the worst in the league. Whitehead should help change that. He turns 25 later this week and has started 55 of 59 games in four years with the Bucs. He has meaningful experience, starting every game in the Bucs 2020 run to the Super Bowl and forcing two fumbles in the NFC Championship game.\n\n- Andy Vasquez, North Jersey\n\nTom Brady gets a new receiver\n\nThe Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a new slot receiver.\n\nRussell Gage is expected to sign with the team, according to multiple reports.\n\nGage, 26, recorded 66 catches for 770 yards and four touchdowns last year for the Atlanta Falcons. He had 39 catches for 500 yards in his final six games.\n\nIn Tampa, Gage will serve as a tertiary option behind star wide receivers Chris Godwin, who is currently on the franchise tag, and Mike Evans.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nRandy Gregory pulls NFL free agency about-face, will sign with Broncos rather than Cowboys\n\nThe Cowboys tweeted and deleted.\n\nThey posted to their website and soon after removed the link.\n\nBecause defensive end Randy Gregory, a person with knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports, pivoted.\n\nAfter reaching a deal with the Cowboys that was believed to be the final say on his future, Gregory instead now plans to sign with the Denver Broncos.\n\nThe Broncos offered Gregory a five-year, $70 million contract with $28 million in guarantees, a person with knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal was not signed.\n\nAgreements cannot become official until the start of the new league year at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.\n\n- Jori Epstein\n\nRavens make big splash with standout safety\n\nThe Baltimore Ravens made a sizable investment to upgrade their secondary.\n\nSafety Marcus Williams agreed to a five-year deal worth $70 million with the team on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.\n\nWilliams, 25, started all five seasons for the New Orleans Saints since he entered the NFL in 2017. He quickly established himself as one of the NFL's best at his position, patrolling the back end for New Orleans while also making plays against the run.\n\nHe should slide in next to starter Chuck Clark to provide an instant boost to Baltimore's defense.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nRams left tackle Andrew Whitworth retires\n\nLos Angeles Rams left tackle and reigning Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Andrew Whitworth announced his retirement Tuesday at 40.\n\nWhitworth had said after the Rams' Super Bowl victory he would take time to mull his future.\n\nA two-time All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowl selection, Whitworth was a vital part of the Rams' success in recent years, setting the tone for a stable offensive line.\n\nThe Rams secured his successor Monday by agreeing to a three-year, $40 million contract with Joseph Noteboom.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nDolphins add a lineman for Tua\n\nThe Miami Dolphins are adding left guard Connor Williams from the Dallas Cowboys.\n\nWilliams should be a key component as Miami attempts to augment a woeful and underperforming offensive line unit.\n\nWilliams, 24, has already started 51 NFL games since he was selected in the second round out of the University of Texas.\n\nHe will join the Dolphins on a 2-year deal.\n\n- Joe Schad, Palm Beach Post\n\nSteelers get reinforcements up front\n\nAfter locking in Mitchell Trubisky to compete with Mason Rudolph for their starting quarterback job, the Pittsburgh Steelers are getting some much-neede help elsewhere on offense.\n\nOffensive guard James Daniels agreed to a three-year, $26.5 million contract with the Steelers, according to multiple reports.\n\nDaniels, 24, would patch a major hole on the interior of the Steelers' line. Pittsburgh ranked 29th in the NFL with just 3.9 yards per carry last season.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nTitans releasing Jackrabbit Jenkins\n\nThe Tennessee Titans are parting ways with one of their starting cornerbacks.\n\nThe Titans are releasing veteran Jackrabbit Jenkins, a person with direct knowledge of the move confirmed to the USA TODAY Network. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity, as the team has yet to announced the move.\n\nJenkin's release was anticipated, as the 33-year-old cornerback had a high cap number ($10.1 million) and the Titans were already financially strapped. Before cutting Jenkins, Tennessee was unofficially $1.8 million over the 2022 salary cap, per Over The Cap. They must be in compliance by 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, the start of the new league year.\n\nJenkins' release could also pave the way for 2021 first-round pick Caleb Farley to be a starter next season alongside Kristian Fulton. A former Virginia Tech star, Farley played just three games last season after battling a shoulder issue and a knee injury, which landed him on injured reserve. The Titans are also expected to add more depth at cornerback.\n\n- Ben Arthur, The Tennessean\n\nJaguars releasing starting LB Myles Jack\n\nAfter adding a horde of new players on Monday, the Jacksonville Jaguars are bidding farewell to one on Tuesday.\n\nJack, 26, led the Jaguars with 108 tackles last season. He was set to count $13.15 million against the cap this season, the penultimate year of his contract, and his release saves the team $8.35 million.\n\nThe move further remakes the Jaguars' linebacker corps after the team agreed to a deal with Foye Oluokun on Monday.\n\n- Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz\n\nPatriots, Browns swap defensive players in trade\n\nThe Cleveland Browns agreed Tuesday to trade linebacker Mack Wilson to the New England Patriots for edge defender Chase Winovich, a person familiar with the deal confirmed to the USA TODAY Network. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the move was not yet official.\n\nNFL Network first reported the deal involving Wilson, a fifth-round selection in 2019, and Winovich, a third-round choice in the same draft.\n\nThe trade cannot be finalized until 4 p.m. Wednesday, when free agency officially kicks off with the new league year.\n\nIn three NFL seasons, Winovich has started nine of his 45 regular-season games and compiled 85 tackles, including 11 sacks, 23 quarterback hits, an interception, two passes defensed and a forced fumble.\n\nWilson started 28 of the 43 games in which he appeared with the Browns and compiled 163 tackles, including a sack, nine passes defensed, a forced fumble, an interception and two quarterback hits.\n\n- Nate Ulrich, Akron Beacon Journal\n\nLions add low-cost investment at wide receiver\n\nIn an exploding wide receiver market, the Detroit Lions took a measured approach to their free agent shopping at the position.\n\nThe Lions agreed to a one-year contract Tuesday with Jacksonville Jaguars receiver DJ Chark, a league source told the Free Press. The deal includes $10 million guaranteed and could be worth up to $12 million, according to ESPN.\n\nChark was considered in the second tier of available receivers, behind Detroit native Allen Robinson, but inflation rocked the market in recent days.\n\nThe Los Angeles Chargers signed Mike Williams to a three-year, $60 million contract before the start of free agency. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers used the franchise tag on Chris Godwin at the cost of about $19 million. The Cleveland Browns traded for Amari Cooper and his $20 million contract. And Christian Kirk agreed to a four-year deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Day 1 of free agency Monday that has a maximum value of $84 million.\n\nThe Lions entered free agency determined to add an outside receiver to their offense that struggled to push the ball downfield at times last season.\n\nChark, 6 feet 4, ran a 4.34-second 40-yard dash coming out of college and has the speed to threaten defenses vertically.\n\nHe missed most of last season with a broken ankle, catching only seven passes for 154 yards in four games, but had career-highs of 73 catches 1,008 yards and eight touchdowns in 2019.\n\n- Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press\n\nDeshaun Watson to meet with Browns\n\nHaving met with officials from both the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints on Monday, Deshaun Watson will meet with the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal personnel meetings.\n\nWatson remains under contract with the Houston Texans. He has a no-trade clause in his contract and would have to waive that right, so the Texans cannot just trade him to whichever team they desire.\n\nThe Texans would prefer to trade Watson to an NFC team, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to comment publicly. However, Watson could force their hand.\n\n- Mike Jones\n\nChiefs find likely replacement for Tyrann Mathieu\n\nLooking to attempt to replace All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu, the Kansas City Chiefs will sign Justin Reid, who was a teammate of Mathieu's on the Houston Texans in 2018.\n\nReid is expected to sign a three-year, $31.5 million deal with the Chiefs, according to multiple reports.\n\nMathieu - who turns 30 in May - will be an unrestricted free agent on March 16. In Reid, the Chiefs sign a younger (he just turned 25) replacement for the defensive secondary.\n\nIn four seasons with the Texans, Reid collected seven interceptions - including a pick-six.\n\n- Jim Reineking", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/patriots/2022/02/02/new-england-patriots-coach-bill-belichick-thanks-tom-brady-retirement/6644599001/", "title": "Patriots coach Bill Belichick thanks Tom Brady upon QB's retirement ...", "text": "Tom Brady officially announced his retirement from the NFL on Tuesday after 22 record-breaking seasons. On Wednesday, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick — Brady's boss for 20 of those seasons — issued a statement thanking Brady \"for his relentless pursuit of excellence\" and said Brady will go down as \"the best player in NFL history.\"\n\n\"I am privileged to have drafted and coached Tom Brady, the ultimate competitor and winner,\" Belichick wrote in a statement released by the team. \"Tom's humble beginning in professional football ultimately ended with him becoming the best player in NFL history.\n\n\"Tom consistently performed at the highest level against competition that always made him the number one player to stop. His pursuit of excellence was inspirational.\"\n\nBrady was selected by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft, No. 199 overall. He took over as New England's starter early in the 2001 season following an injury to Drew Bledsoe.\n\nHe never gave the job up, leading the Patriots to an improbable victory in Super Bowl 36. That marked the first of six championships Brady and Belichick won together.\n\nThe most successful coach-QB duo in NFL history finally broke up following the 2019 season as Brady signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He guided the Bucs to victory in Super Bowl 55, securing his seventh championship.\n\nWinners, losers of Tom Brady retiring:Buccaneers QB's plan sends shockwaves through NFL\n\nOur favorite Tom Brady moments: From the 'Tuck Rule' to the Lombardi Trophy toss\n\nBrady did not mention Belichick, the Patriots or New England owner Robert Kraft in his retirement message posted Tuesday.\n\nThat fact, naturally, caused speculation about lingering bad blood between Brady and the organization. But an omission from a statement does not alter 20 years of history. What Brady and Belichick accomplished together will likely never be replicated, something Belichick, one of the game's great historians, surely knows.\n\n\"Tom was professional on and off the field, and carried himself with class, integrity, and kindness,\" Belichick wrote. \"I thank Tom for his relentless pursuit of excellence and positive impact on me and the New England Patriots for 20 years.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2015/03/16/49ers-chris-borland-retiring-at-24-wary-of-head-trauma/24884117/", "title": "49ers' Chris Borland retiring at 24, wary of head trauma", "text": "AP\n\nSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wary of head trauma, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland is leaving football. And not even the promise of NFL stardom and piles of money could change his mind.\n\nSo now, after one stellar rookie season, he is retiring at age 24.\n\nThe 49ers announced his decision Monday night, without offering specifics. But Borland told ESPN's \"Outside the Lines\" earlier in the day he wants to do \"what's best for my health.\"\n\nBorland had a team-leading 108 tackles as a rookie, emerging as a punishing defender. He also had a sack and two interceptions.\n\n\"From what I've researched and what I've experienced, I don't think it's worth the risk,\" Borland said in the interview. \"I feel largely the same, as sharp as I've ever been. For me, it's wanting to be proactive. I'm concerned that if you wait till you have symptoms, it's too late.\"\n\n49ers general manager Trent Baalke said the team was surprised by his move and called Borland a \"consummate professional.\"\n\nBorland's big announcement comes less than a week after five-time All Pro linebacker Patrick Willis walked away from football. Borland replaced Willis in the starting lineup after his October toe injury required surgery.\n\nThe NFL, like the 49ers, said it respects Borland's decision, adding that \"playing any sport is a personal decision.\" The league stressed that \"football has never been safer,\" noting progress with rule changes, tackling techniques, equipment, protocols and medical care.\n\n\"Concussions in NFL games were down 25 percent last year, continuing a three-year downward trend,\" Jeff Miller, NFL senior vice president of health and safety, said in a statement Tuesday.\n\n\"We continue to make significant investments in independent research to advance the science and understanding of these issues. We are seeing a growing culture of safety. Everyone involved in the game knows that there is more work to do and player safety will continue to be our top priority.\"\n\nThe retirements of Willis and Borland are big blows to a team that also lost coach Jim Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio after the season, then watched Frank Gore, Mike Iupati, Chris Culliver and Perrish Cox depart in free agency this past week. Defensive line coach Jim Tomsula was promoted to head coach following an 8-8 season, the club's first time out of the playoffs in four years.\n\n\"While unexpected, we certainly respect Chris' decision,\" Baalke said. \"From speaking with Chris, it was evident that he had put a great deal of thought into this decision. He was a consummate professional from Day One and a very well-respected member of our team and community.\n\n\"Chris is a determined young man that overcame long odds in his journey to the NFL and we are confident he will use the same approach to become very successful in his future endeavors. We will always consider him a 49er and wish him all the best.\"\n\nThe NFC Defensive Rookie of the Month for November, Borland injured an ankle on the final play of the first half against the Seahawks on Dec. 14 and didn't play again last season.\n\nThe 49ers selected Borland in the third round of the draft out of Wisconsin, where he was an imposing pass rusher.\n\n___\n\nAP NFL websites: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/01/us/tom-brady-retirement-statement-nfl-spt-intl/index.html", "title": "Read Tom Brady's retirement announcement - CNN", "text": "The 44-year-old, arguably the greatest NFL quarterback of all time, announced the news on Instagram . Below is a full transcript of his statement:\n\nI have always believed the sport of football is an \"all-in\" proposition - if a 100% competitive commitment isn't there, you won't succeed, and success is what I love so much about our game. There is a physical, mental, and emotional challenge EVERY single day that has allowed me to maximize my highest potential. And I have tried my best these past 22 years. There are no shortcuts to success on the field or in life.\n\nThis is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore. I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention.\n\nI've done a lot of reflecting the past week and have asked myself difficult questions. And I am so proud of what we have achieved. My teammates, coaches, fellow competitors, and fans deserve 10% of me, but right now, it's best I leave the field of play to the next generation of dedicated and committed athletes.\n\nTo my Bucs teammates the past two years, I love you guys, and I have loved going to battle with you. You have dug so deep to challenge yourself, and it inspired me to wake up every day and give you my best. I am always here for you guys and want to see you continue to push yourselves to be your best. I couldn't be happier with what we accomplished together.\n\nTo all the Bucs fans, thank you. I didn't know what to expect when I arrived here, but your support and embrace have enriched my life and that of my family. I have been honored to play for such a passionate and fun fan base. What a Krewe!!!\n\nTo the city of Tampa and the entire Tampa-St. Petersburg region, thank you. It has been wonderful to be a resident of such a fun place to live. I want to be invited to our next boat parade!\n\nTo the Glazer family, thank you for taking a chance on me and supporting me. I know I was demanding at times, but you provided everything we needed to win, and your ownership was everything a player could ask for.\n\nTo Jason Licht, thank you for your daily support and friendship - I will never forget it. I had never been through free agency, and I had some trepidation about how we could achieve success. Your leadership gave me confidence, and I will always be grateful.\n\nTo my head coach Bruce Arians, thank you for putting up with me! Your firm leadership and guidance were ideal. There is no way we could have had success without your experience, intuition, and wisdom. I am very grateful.\n\nTo all the Bucs coaches, my sincere thanks for all the hard work, dedication, and discipline that goes into creating a winning team. I have learned so much from all of you and will value the relationships we have.\n\nTo every single Bucs staffer and employee, thank you. Each of you is critically important, and I was greeted with a smile every day. That means so much to me. Your work is made up of long hours and hard tasks, but please know I see each and every one of you. Thank you so much.\n\nTo Alex Guerrero, thank you. I could never have made every Sunday without you; it's that simple. Your dedication to your craft and our friendship and brotherhood are immeasurable. We have an unbreakable bond, and I love you.\n\nTo Don Yee and Steve Dubin, thank you. You have been with me every step of the way since I left the University of Michigan and before I entered the league. What a journey it's been, and I couldn't do it without you.\n\nTo my parents and entire family (and extended family of countless friends), I love you and thank you for your never-ending support and love. I could never have imagined the time and energy you have given for me the past 30 years in football. I can never repay you. And just know I love you so much.\n\nAnd lastly to my wife, Gisele, and my children Jack, Benny and Vivi. You are my inspiration. Our family is my greatest achievement. I always came off the field and home to the most loving and supportive wife who has done EVERYTHING for our family to allow me to focus on my career. Her selflessness allowed me to reach new heights professionally, and I am beyond words what you mean to me and our family. Te amo amor da minha vida (heart emoji)\n\nMy playing career has been such a thrilling ride, and far beyond my imagination, and full of ups and downs. When you're in it every day, you really don't think about any kind of ending. As I sit here now, however, I think of all the great players and coaches I was privileged to play with and against - the competition was fierce and deep, JUST HOW WE LIKE IT. But the friendships and relationships are just as fierce and deep. I will remember and cherish these memories and re-visit them often. I feel like the luckiest person in the world.\n\nThe future is exciting. I'm fortunate to have cofounded incredible companies like @autograph.io @bradybrand @tb12sports that I am excited to continue to help build and grow, but exactly what my days will look like will be a work-in-progress. As I said earlier, I am going to take it day by day. I know for sure I want to spend a lot of time giving to others and trying to enrich other people's lives, just as so many have done for me.\n\nWith much love, appreciation, and gratitude,\n\nTom", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cardinals/2018/01/02/cardinals-qb-carson-palmer-retires-after-15-seasons/997879001/", "title": "Carson Palmer retires after 15 seasons in NFL", "text": "USA TODAY Sports\n\nCarson Palmer is calling it a career.\n\nThe Arizona Cardinals quarterback announced his retirement on Tuesday after 15 seasons in the NFL.\n\n\"For 15 years I have been lucky enough to play quarterback in the NFL and it has been the most incredible experience of my life,\" Palmer wrote in a statement. \"There wasn't one second that I took it for granted or failed to appreciate what a tremendous privilege it is.\"\n\nMore:NFL coaching tracker: Latest news on candidates, job openings\n\nMore:Pete Carroll: Seahawks' Kam Chancellor, Cliff Avril will have 'a hard time' playing again\n\nThe No. 1 pick out of USC in 2003, he spent seven years with the Cincinnati Bengals and two with Oakland Raiders before joining the Cardinals in 2013. He was selected to three Pro Bowls and led Arizona to the NFC Championship Game in the 2015 season.\n\nPalmer played in just seven games in 2017 due to a broken arm.\n\nHis departure leaves Arizona with a significant hole at quarterback. Both Drew Stanton and Blaine Gabbert are set to become free agents, and neither thrived as starter when filling in for Palmer.\n\nOn Monday, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians also announced his retirement.\n\nPHOTOS: NFL postseason power rankings", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/01/02"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_8", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/asia/afghanistan-khost-earthquake-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Afghanistan earthquake: More than 1,000 people killed after ...", "text": "(CNN) Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more, according to a regional official.\n\nThe humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.\n\nThe shocks hit at 1:24 a.m. local time on Wednesday (4:54 p.m. ET on Tuesday) around 46 kilometers (28.5 miles) southwest of the city of Khost, which lies close to the country's border with Pakistan, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).\n\nPeople sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in the earthquake on June 22.\n\nPeople sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in the earthquake on June 22.\n\nA girl stands near a house that was damaged by the earthquake on June 22.\n\nA girl stands near a house that was damaged by the earthquake on June 22.\n\nPeople queue up in a line to donate blood for the earthquake victims being treated at a hospital in Paktika, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nPeople queue up in a line to donate blood for the earthquake victims being treated at a hospital in Paktika, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nAn old man sits near his house that was destroyed in the earthquake on June 22.\n\nAn old man sits near his house that was destroyed in the earthquake on June 22.\n\nTaliban guards outside the district hospital where victims of the earthquake were brought in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nTaliban guards outside the district hospital where victims of the earthquake were brought in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nAn injured victim of the earthquake receives treatment at a hospital in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nAn injured victim of the earthquake receives treatment at a hospital in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nA villager collects his belongings from under the rubble of his home that was destroyed in the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.\n\nA villager collects his belongings from under the rubble of his home that was destroyed in the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.\n\nPeople help in search and rescue operations amid the debris of a building after the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.\n\nPeople help in search and rescue operations amid the debris of a building after the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22.\n\nChildren sit near their home that has been destroyed in an earthquake in the Spera District of southwest of the city of Khost, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nChildren sit near their home that has been destroyed in an earthquake in the Spera District of southwest of the city of Khost, Afghanistan, on June 22.\n\nA Taliban military helicopter flies over an earthquake-damaged area in the Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nA Taliban military helicopter flies over an earthquake-damaged area in the Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nA man stands near debris of a building after the quake shakes border provinces of Paktika, Afghanistan on June 23.\n\nA man stands near debris of a building after the quake shakes border provinces of Paktika, Afghanistan on June 23.\n\nMembers of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nMembers of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nAn Afghan man stands besides a door of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nAn Afghan man stands besides a door of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nAfghan men search for survivors amidst the debris of a house that was destroyed by an earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nAfghan men search for survivors amidst the debris of a house that was destroyed by an earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nAfghan people set up tents as a temporary shelters amid the ruins of houses damaged in the earthquake in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nAfghan people set up tents as a temporary shelters amid the ruins of houses damaged in the earthquake in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nA child stands besides a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nA child stands besides a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nA man carries supplies in an area affected by the earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nA man carries supplies in an area affected by the earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nAn Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nAn Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nMen stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nMen stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nA man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people.\n\nThe quake registered at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to USGS, which designated it at yellow alert level -- indicating a relatively localized impact.\n\nMost of the deaths were in Paktika province, in the districts of Giyan, Nika, Barmal and Zirok, according to the State Ministry for Disaster Management.\n\nThe death toll stands at more than 1,000 and at least 1,500 people have been injured \"in Gayan and Barmal districts of Paktika province alone,\" Mohammad Amin Hozaifa, head of Paktika province's information and culture department, told CNN in a phone call Wednesday.\n\nThe official expects the number of casualties to rise as search and effort missions continue.\n\nIn this photo released by state-run news agency Bakhtar, Afghans evacuate the wounded following the quake in Paktika province, eastern Afghanistan.\n\nIn neighboring Khost province, 25 people were killed and several others were injured, and five people were killed in Nangarhar province, the disaster management authority said.\n\nPhotos from Paktika province, just south of Khost province, show houses turned to rubble with only a wall or two still standing amid the rubble, and broken roof beams.\n\nNajibullah Sadid, an Afghan water resources management expert, said the earthquake had coincided with heavy monsoon rain in the region -- making traditional houses, many made of mud and other natural materials, particularly vulnerable to damage.\n\n\"The timing of the earthquake (in the) dark of night ... and the shallow depth of 10 kilometers of its epicenter led to higher casualties,\" he added.\n\nA team of medics and seven helicopters have been sent to the area to transport injured people to nearby hospitals, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said in a tweet on Wednesday.\n\nThis comes as almost half the country's population -- 20 million people -- are experiencing acute hunger, according to a United Nations-backed report in May. It is a situation compounded by the Taliban seizing power in August 2021, which led the United States and its allies freezing about $7 billion of the country's foreign reserves and cutting off international funding.\n\nThe situation has crippled an economy already heavily dependent on aid. Following the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, its economy has gone into freefall with the World Bank forecasting in April that a \"combination of declining incomes and increasing prices has driven a severe deterioration in household living standards.\"\n\nMany of the areas' traditional houses are made of mud and other natural materials, making them vulnerable to damage.\n\nThe earthquake hit at 1.24 a.m. about 46 kilometers southwest of the city of Khost.\n\nThe Taliban held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to organize providing transportation to the injured and material aid to the victims and their families, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said.\n\nPrime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund called the meeting at the country's Presidential Palace to instruct all relevant agencies to send emergency relief teams to the affected area, Mujahid said in a tweet.\n\n\"Measures were also taken to provide cash assistance and treatment,\" Mujahid said and added that agencies were \"instructed to use air and land transport for the delivery of food, clothing, medicine and other necessities and for the transportation of the wounded.\"\n\nAfghanistan's Deputy Minister of State for Disaster Management, Mawlawi Sharafuddin Muslim, said Wednesday that \"the Islamic Emirate will pay 100,000 AFN ($1,116.19) for the families of those who were killed in the earthquake and 50,000 ($558.10) will be paid to families of those injured.\"\n\nThe government also highlighted the need for foreign aid.\n\n\"Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for the generous support of all countries international organizations individuals and foundations to provide and deliver urgent humanitarian aid,\" a press statement from the country's diplomatic missions read.\n\nIn a tweet on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said its teams were on the ground for emergency response, including providing medicine, trauma services and conducting needs assessments.\n\nBut a WHO official told CNN's Eleni Giokos that logistics were stretched. \"All of the resources have been mobilized, not just from the nearby provinces but also from Kabul including medical supplies, medics, nurses, health workers, ambulances and emergency officers who are trained in dealing with such situations,\" said Alaa AbouZeid, emergencies team lead and incident manager at WHO's Afghanistan office.\n\n\"The situation is still evolving, and we are pushing more resources as the situation needs,\" he said. \"The resources are overstretched here, not just for this region, but we are expecting the situation to evolve in the coming hours.\"\n\nAccording to to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), heavy rain and wind is \"hampering efforts with helicopters reportedly unable to land this afternoon.\"\n\n\"Immediate needs identified include emergency trauma care, emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance and WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene] support,\" said the UNOCHA in a statement published Wednesday.\n\nAfghan Red Crescent Society volunteers help people affected by the eartquake in Giyan district.\n\nPakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended his condolences and an offer of support in a tweet on Wednesday. \"Deeply grieved to learn about the earthquake in Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of innocent lives,\" he wrote. \"People in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren. Relevant authorities are working to support Afghanistan in this time of need.\"\n\nIndia expressed \"sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families,\" according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday.\n\nPope Francis said he was praying \"for those who have lost their lives and for their families,\" during his weekly audience on Wednesday. \"I hope aid can be sent there to help all the suffering of the dear people of Afghanistan.\"\n\nAfghanistan has a long history of earthquakes, many of which happen in the mountainous Hindu Kush region that borders with Pakistan.\n\nIn 2015, a quake that shook parts of South Asia killed more than 300 people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.", "authors": ["Masoud Popalzai", "Jessie Yeung", "Ehsan Popalzai", "Tara John"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/asia/afghanistan-earthquake-aid-rescue-search-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Afghanistan earthquake: Crisis-hit country struggles for aid following ...", "text": "(CNN) Desperate search and rescue operations were underway in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday following an earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people, a heavy blow for a country already facing a dire economic and humanitarian crisis.\n\nThe magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border. At least 1,500 people have been reported injured -- but officials warn the toll is likely to rise as many families were sleeping in flimsy housing structures when the quake hit.\n\nChildren near their destroyed home in the Spera district of Afghanistan's Khost province on June 22.\n\nMany homes in the area are made of mud, wood and other materials vulnerable to weather damage -- and the quake coincided with heavy monsoon rains, adding to the danger of collapse.\n\nPhotos from nearby Paktika province, a rural and mountainous region where most of the deaths have been reported, show houses reduced to rubble. About 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed, according to the United Nations. Some people spent the night sleeping in makeshift outdoor shelters, as rescuers scoured for survivors by flashlight.\n\nAfghan villagers sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in an earthquake in Spera, Khost province, on June 22.\n\nMedics and emergency staff from around the country are converging on the site, with assistance from some international agencies such as the World Health Organization.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Jessie Yeung"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/asia/afghanistan-earthquake-rescue-aid-efforts-intl/index.html", "title": "Afghanistan earthquake: 'What do we do when another disaster hits ...", "text": "(CNN) Aid groups scrambled on Thursday to reach victims of a powerful earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people in an area blighted by poor infrastructure, as the country faces dire economic and hunger crises.\n\nThe slow response, exacerbated by international sanctions and decades of mismanagement, concerns people working in the humanitarian space, like Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer in Transitional Justice at the American University of Afghanistan. \"This is a very patchwork, band-aid solution for a problem that we need to start thinking (about) mid to long term... what do we do when (another disaster) hits?\" he told CNN by phone.\n\nThe magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border and the death toll is expected to rise as many of the homes in the area were flimsily made out of wood, mud and other materials vulnerable to damage.\n\nHumanitarian agencies are converging on the area, but its remote location has complicated rescue efforts.\n\nThe United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has successfully dispatched humanitarian aid and assistance to families in Paktika and Khost provinces to cover the needs of about 4,000 people, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General António Guterres said during a Thursday press briefing.\n\nSpokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the \"priority needs include emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance, health and water and sanitation, as well as hygiene support.\"\n\nHe added that the World Food Program (WFP) has confirmed stocks of food will be able to serve at least 14,000 in the hardest-hit Paktika province.\n\n\"At least 18 trucks are making their way to the earthquake-affected areas carrying emergency supplies, including high-energy biscuits and mobile storage units,\" a WFP statement released Thursday said.\n\nUNICEF Afghanistan tweeted that they were able to distribute \"hygiene kits, winter kits, emergency family kitchen kits, tents, blankets, warm clothes and tarpaulin\" to affected individuals in Paktika and Khost.\n\nMen stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.\n\nThe quake coincided with heavy monsoon rain and wind between June 20 and 22, which has hampered search efforts and helicopter travel.\n\nAs medics and emergency staff from around the country attempt to access the site, help is expected to be limited as a number of organizations pulled out of the aid-dependent country when the Taliban took power in August last year.\n\nThose that remain are stretched thin. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had mobilized \"all of the resources\" from around the country, with teams on the ground providing medicine and emergency support. But, as one WHO official put it, \"the resources are overstretched here, not just for this region.\"\n\n'Very bleak'\n\nThe international community's hesitancy to deal with the Taliban and the group's \"very messy bureaucracy where it becomes difficult to gain information from one source\" has led to a communication gap in the rescue efforts, Baheer -- who is also the founder of aid group Save Afghans from Hunger -- said.\n\n\"At the core of everything is how the politics has translated into this gap of communication, not just between countries and the Taliban, but international aid organizations and the Taliban as well,\" he added.\n\nBaheer gives an example of how he has been acting as a conduit of information with the WFP and other aid organizations, informing them that Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense were offering to airlift aid from humanitarian organizations to badly hit areas.\n\nIn the meantime, some people spent the night sleeping in makeshift outdoor shelters, as rescuers scoured for survivors by flashlight. The United Nations says 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed. Pictures from the badly hit Paktika province, where most of the deaths have been reported, show homes reduced to dust and rubble.\n\nHsiao-Wei Lee, WFP deputy country director in Afghanistan, described the situation on the ground as \"very bleak,\" where some the villages in heavily affected districts \"are completely decimated or 70% are collapsed,\" she said.\n\nMembers of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake.\n\n\"There will be months and potentially years of building back,\" she said. \"The needs are so much more massive than just food... It could be shelter for example, to be able to facilitate the movement of that food as well as the customs clearance, logistics would be helpful.\"\n\nOfficials say aid is reaching the affected areas.\n\nThe government has so far distributed food, tents, clothing, and other supplies to the quake-hit provinces, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense's official Twitter account. Medical and relief teams deployed by the Afghan government are already present in the quake-hit areas, and attempting to transport the wounded to medical facilities and health centers by land and air, it added.\n\n'Carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people'\n\nAlthough the economic crisis in Afghanistan has loomed for years, the result of conflict and drought, it plunged to new depths after the Taliban takeover, which prompted the United States and its allies to freeze about $7 billion of the country's foreign reserves and cut off international funding.\n\nThe US no longer has a presence in Afghanistan following the hasty withdrawal of its troops and collapse of the previous US-backed Afghan government. Like nearly all other nations, it does not have official relations with the Taliban government.\n\nSanctions have crippled the Afghan economy and sent many of its 20 million people into a severe hunger crisis. Millions of Afghans are out of work, government employees haven't been paid, and the price of food has soared.\n\nHumanitarian aid is excluded from sanctions, but there are impediments, according to draft remarks by Martin Griffiths, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ahead of a UN Security Council in the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nThis includes a major need in funding, Taliban authorities \"seeking to play a role in the selection of beneficiaries and channeling assistance to people on their own priority lists,\" and the \"formal banking system continues to block transfers,\" he writes.\n\nThis means \"around 80% of organizations (who responded to OCHA's monitoring survey) are facing delays in transferring funds, with two thirds reporting that their international banks continue to deny transfers. Over 60% of organizations cite lack of available cash in-country as a programmatic impediment.\"\n\nA child stands beside a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.\n\nBaheer says sanctions \"are hurting us so much\" that Afghans are struggling to send money to families affected by the earthquake.\n\n\"The fact that we barely have a banking system, the fact that we haven't had new currency printed or brought into the country in the past nine to 10 months, our assets are frozen... these sanctions don't work,\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"The only sanctions that make moral sense is targeted sanctions on specific individuals rather than carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people.\"\n\nWhile \"sanctions have affected a lot of the country, there's an exemption for humanitarian aid so we're getting it in to support those most in need,\" Mort, from UNICEF, told CNN.\n\nThe Taliban \"isn't preventing us from distributing anything like that, on the contrary they are enabling us,\" she added.\n\nExperts and officials say the most pressing immediate needs include medical care and transportation for the injured, shelter and supplies for the displaced, food and water, and clothing.\n\nAn Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake.\n\nThe UN has distributed medical supplies and sent mobile health teams to Afghanistan -- but warned that it does not have search and rescue capabilities.\n\nBaheer told CNN on Wednesday that the Taliban were only able to send out six rescue helicopters \"because when the United States was leaving it disabled most of the aircraft whether it belonged to Afghanistan forces or to them.\"\n\nPakistan has offered to help, opening border crossings in its northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkwa and allowing injured Afghans to come into the country visa-free for treatment, according Mohammad Ali Saif, a regional government spokesperson.\n\n\"400 injured Afghans have moved into Pakistan this morning for treatment and a stream of people is continuing, these numbers are expected to rise by the end of day, Saif told CNN.\n\nPakistan has kept a tight limit on Afghans entering the country via the land border crossing since the Taliban took power.", "authors": ["Tara John", "Akanksha Sharma", "Jo Shelley", "Ehsan Popalzai"], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/asia/japan-earthquake-fukushima-intl/index.html", "title": "Japan earthquake: 4 dead after 7.4-magnitude quake hits coast off ...", "text": "Tokyo (CNN) A 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Japan late Wednesday night, killing at least four people and injuring over 100 others, and cutting power to millions of homes.\n\nOne of the people who died was a man in his 60s who lived in the city of Soma, the local disaster prevention office said on Thursday.\n\nThe quake hit off the coast of Japan's eastern Fukushima prefecture, a region devastated by a powerful quake and tsunami 11 years ago that resulted in a nuclear power plant meltdown.\n\nThe quake was originally designated 7.3-magnitude, but was upgraded to 7.4 on Thursday.\n\nA tsunami advisory was issued after Wednesday's quake for the coastal prefectures of Fukushima and Miyagi, but was lifted on Thursday morning and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later said \"no abnormalities\" had been detected at any of the country's nuclear plants.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Emiko Jozuka", "Mayumi Maruyama", "Karen Smith", "Brandon Miller"], "publish_date": "2022/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/26/earthquake-strikes-pakistan/74611896/", "title": "Quake rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan; at least 311 dead", "text": "Naila Inayat, Siddhant Mohan and John Bacon\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nLAHORE, Pakistan — At least 311 people were killed when a magnitude-7.5 earthquake centered in Afghanistan rocked neighboring Pakistan and rattled buildings as far away as India.\n\nThe U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was in the far northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, which borders Pakistan, Tajikistan and China.\n\nThe death toll reached at least 311 early Tuesday. In Pakistan, 228 people were killed, with more than 1,000 injured, while Afghanistan reported 33 dead and more than 200 injured, according to the Associated Press. The Afghan death toll included 12 school girls who died in a stampede fleeing their swaying school in Takhar Province. The Indian-controlled Kashmir region reported two deaths.\n\nAuthorities warned the number of deaths could climb as damage in remote villages is discovered.\n\n\"The devastation is going to be huge,” said Fazl Din, a doctor in Peshawar, about 25 miles from the Afghan frontier. “It is very difficult to reach the far-flung villages. The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan have no proper disaster management units.”\n\nAfter quake, fears remain of more destruction if ground shakes again\n\nPakistan’s Information Minister Pervez Rashid said civil and military authorities were working to reach all those affected by the quake. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered assistance to Pakistan, although Rashid said his country of more than 180 million people doesn't plan to to seek help from other nations, the AP reported.\n\n“We have enough resources to handle the situation,\" Rashid said.\n\nThe quake caused widespread power outages and cut phone lines in Kabul, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.\n\nThe world's deadliest earthquakes in past decade\n\nIn Afghanistan’s Baghlan’s province north of the capital of Kabul, construction worker Mir Omarkhil, 32, said his 11-year-old son lost a leg to the quake.\n\n“He was playing outside when the earth shook,\" Omarkhil said. \"He got himself under a building for protection. That cost him his left leg.”\n\nRashid Khan Haider, 54, a folk singer from Parwan near Kabul, said he fled his home moments before it collapsed. When the quake began, he thought a terrorist attack was underway, he said.\n\n“Within few moments I got the idea that it is something else,\" he said. \"Thanks to Allah that we are safe, but our house was ruined like a house of cards.”\n\nIn Pakistan, buildings collapsed in Peshawar, and the quake was felt hundreds of miles away.\n\nIn Mingora, Pakistan, 50 miles from the Afghanistan border, schoolteacher Salma Khan said she was helping her pupils wrap up for the day when the ground shifted beneath her.\n\n\"Our first reaction was that maybe it is a terrorist attack,” Khan said. “We rushed to move the children out of the vicinity when we found out it was an earthquake.\"\n\n​\"I was in my apartment on the third floor ... and I literally felt death,\" Faisal Farooq, 28, who lives in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, told Dawn. \"The building was moving like a swing. My legs are still shivering.\"\n\nIn north central Pakistan, a wall of the Government Ambala Muslim High School Sargodha collapsed in the quake, injuring 10 people.\n\n\"Most of the government school buildings are in bad shape, and this one in particular was in ruins. It was a miracle that saved the entire building from falling,\" said Tahir Malik, a college student based in Sargodha.\n\nPeople in the Afghan capital of Kabul, India's capital New Delhi and Pakistan's capital Islamabad reported feeling strong tremors. In Islamabad, walls swayed and people poured out of office buildings in a panic, reciting verses from the Quran, the AP said.\n\nNew Delhi's metro stopped running during the tremor. Avinash Mishra, 28, a law student at Dehli University, was riding the subway from the city into the suburbs on Monday when the earthquake struck.\n\n“Suddenly the train stopped,” Mishra said. “We could feel tremors inside the train. We were there for about 15 minutes until the train moved again.”\n\nIn October 2005. a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in the Kashmir region rocked parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, killing more than 80,000 people.\n\nMohan reported from New Delhi; Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing; Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/10/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/world/gallery/deadly-afghanistan-earthquake/index.html", "title": "In photos: Deadly earthquake hits Afghanistan", "text": "Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images A man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people. In photos: Deadly earthquake hits Afghanistan\n\nSayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images A man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people.\n\nAfghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more, according to a regional official.\n\nThe humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957149/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-23-june-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 23 June 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "PM to meet Charles in Rwanda\n\nBoris Johnson will tell the Prince of Wales he is “proud” of his Rwanda migrants policy during a meeting tomorrow, The Telegraph said. It will be the first meeting between the two men since it emerged that Prince Charles privately described the planned deportation of asylum seekers to the country as “appalling”. Clarence House described the meeting, which will take place in Rwanda, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, as Johnson “popping in for a cup of tea” with the Prince. Johnson said that he is “very much looking forward” to it.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/06/22/gas-tax-holiday-proposal-southwest-airlines-pilots-protest-afghanistan-earthquake-its-wednesdays-new/7700606001/", "title": "Gas tax holiday plan, Roe v. Wade, Southwest Airlines pilots protest ...", "text": "President Joe Biden proposed a tax holiday on fuel, but not everybody in Congress is ready to hit the gas. An earthquake rocked Afghanistan, leaving 1,000 dead and scores more injured. And we're looking at the maze of state abortion laws that would be triggered should Roe v. Wade be overturned.\n\n👋 It's Laura Davis. It's Wednesday. I'm standing on one leg. Here's everything you need to know.\n\nBut first, how long can you stand on one leg? 🤷‍♀️ You're twice as likely to die in the next decade if you're currently unable to balance on one foot for 10 seconds, according to a new study. Read more, if you dare.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your local forecast here.\n\nCongress not quite ready to green-light Biden's gas tax holiday\n\nAs gas prices soar above $5 a gallon in many states, President Biden on Wednesday called on Congress to temporarily halt the federal tax on gas and asked states, which have their own taxes, to take similar action. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats were skeptical and remained noncommittal, signaling Biden's proposal could be doomed out of the gate. The pause, which Biden envisions lasting through September, would require congressional approval. The White House billed the holiday as a way to provide some \"breathing room\" as it works to bring costs down over the long term. Read more about Biden's plan.\n\n⛽️ News you can use: What are gas taxes and what do they pay for?\n\nIf Roe v. Wade is overturned, a maze of state abortion laws await\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court is poised to force women seeking abortions to navigate a labyrinth of laws and restrictions ranging from near-outright bans in more than a dozen states to provisions in a few states not only guaranteeing access to abortion, but funding to pay for them. If a decision is made to eliminate federal abortion rights, within a year, as many as 75,000 women won’t make it to a provider, according to one estimate, and would be forced to give birth instead. That would just be the start of the fallout from a ruling with implications that stretch far beyond reproductive health care, to encompass suppression of female participation in the workforce and the amplification of racial and economic inequities. Keep reading.\n\nWhat everyone's talking about\n\nThe Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.\n\nAt least 1,000 killed in Afghanistan earthquake\n\nAn earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 1,000 people, injuring 1,500 more and destroying homes and other buildings in the rugged, mountainous region. Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada told the state-run Bakhtar News Agency the death toll from the magnitude 5.9 temblor was likely to rise. Hundreds of homes and other buildings were destroyed, he said. The quake struck at 1:24 a.m. local time, when many were sleeping, and was felt more than 300 miles by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. \"People are digging grave after grave,\" said Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of the Information and Culture Department in Paktika. Read more + see a map of the earthquake.\n\n📸 Gallery: Evacuations, destruction seen after Afghanistan earthquake.\n\nPilots picket as airline unions leverage summer travel woes\n\nHundreds of uniformed Southwest Airlines pilots stood in perfect lines in the scorching Texas sun at Dallas Love Field on Tuesday, holding signs that blamed Southwest management for delays and cancellations that have upset passengers. The protest, which the union said drew up to 1,300 pilots, was the latest example of airline workers trying to put pressure on companies by taking their demands for higher pay directly to the flying public. Keep reading to learn more about the pilots' plight.\n\nFlight delays, cancellations keep piling up. What's going on?\n\nkeep piling up. What's going on? Record number of people expected to take road trips for Fourth of July weekend.\n\nReal quick\n\nWill NFL owner Daniel Snyder be subpoenaed?\n\nIt's looking like it. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday as part of an investigation into the alleged toxic workplace environment within the Washington Commanders organization. At the center of the investigation is team owner Daniel Snyder, who has been accused of inappropriate workplace conduct. Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., announced her intent to subpoena Snyder to appear before the committee for a deposition next week. Snyder, through his attorney, declined to testify, indicating that he was out of the country because of a \"longstanding Commanders-related business conflict.\" Here are the key moments from Wednesday's hearing.\n\nDetails emerge of sexual assault allegation against Commanders owner.\n\nof sexual assault allegation against Commanders owner. Members of Congress ask NFL for documents, information from Washington football probe.\n\nA break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/27/taliban-backs-relief-efforts-after-killer-quake/74675272/", "title": "Taliban backs relief efforts after deadly Pakistan quake", "text": "Naila Inayat, Siddhant Mohan and John Bacon\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nLAHORE, Pakistan — The Taliban on Tuesday urged its fighters to aid earthquake victims and said it would not block governmental relief efforts in the battered region of northern Afghanistan and Pakistan.\n\nThe communique was issued as workers scrambled to deliver emergency supplies to the isolated, mountainous area that was rocked by a magnitude-7.5 quake Monday. The death toll rose to more than 370 on Tuesday, but authorities warned it could continue to climb as rescuers reach remote villages where communication lines were cut off by the quake.\n\nThe Taliban has waged a series of bloody battles in recent months with troops supporting the Western-backed government in Kabul. As a result, earthquake relief efforts had been hamstrung by security concerns. The Taliban — or Islamic Emirate — indicated Tuesday it would not hinder emergency teams, Reuters reported.\n\n\"The Islamic Emirate calls on our good-willed countrymen and charitable organizations to not hold back in providing shelter, food and medical supplies to the victims,\" the group said in a statement. \"And it similarly orders its mujahedin in the affected areas to lend their complete help.\"\n\nThe epicenter of the quake was on the Afghan side of the border, but Pakistan took the brunt of the destruction and deaths. Afghan and Pakistani officials listed the preliminary death toll at 258 people in Pakistan and 115 in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. More than 200 died in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone.\n\nThousands of people were injured and thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed. The result: Thousands left homeless ahead of a harsh winter common for the Hindu Kush mountain region that stretches from northern Pakistan deep into central Afghanistan.\n\nPakistan declined offers of relief assistance from the U.S., neighboring India and other nations.\n\n“We have enough resources to handle the situation,” Pakistan Information Minister Pervez Rashid said at a press conference Tuesday in Islamabad. “The government is utilizing all resources to save human lives and restore communication links.\"\n\nPakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the town hit the hardest by the earthquake, Shangla in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along the Afghan frontier, where he said at least 49 people were killed and 80 were injured.\n\nWhen the earthquake struck, Arshad Khan, a teacher in Buner, fled her house with her 14-year-old son, who suffered a fractured leg and his head required stitches. Khan said she saw a neighbor die under a collapsing house.\n\n“Pakhtunkhwa is in ruins literally — cut off from the road network,” said Khan, who was at Lady Reading Hospital in the provincial capital of Peshawar. “We are waiting to hear about our missing family and friends. We are losing hope.”\n\nMushta Aziz, a shopkeeper and father of two from Gilgit, a Pakistani city about 100 miles from the border with Tajikistan, said his family was forced to sleep outdoors in the cold amid rubble.\n\n“We are still trying to locate our close relatives,” he said. \"My sister and her family are still missing, and there is no way to reach them due to the landslides.\"\n\nQuake rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan; at least 311 dead\n\nPeople who were not in the most-affected quake zones were leery, too. Many fear aftershocks that could cause another disaster.\n\n“No one is willing to go back into their houses,” said Faisal Sheikh, 26, an engineering student in Islamabad. “We are good when outside in the open. Let things get stabilized, then fear will vanish from people’s minds.”\n\nSharif said his government would soon announce details of a relief packages for victims. Authorities were working to clear landslides that had prevented aid from reaching remote areas. A cargo plane carrying 7 tons of rations — including 2,500 ready-made meals, 1,000 tents, medicine and other supplies — shuttled goods to isolated areas. Trucks were carrying another 20 tons of rations, including 10,000 ready-made meals, 1,000 tents and other supplies, authorities said.\n\n“It has caused a delay in response at a time when the utmost rescue operations are needed,” said Omar Shah, a Pakistani soldier who has been working on rescue efforts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.\n\nMohan reported from New Delhi; Bacon reported from McLean, Va.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/10/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/18/world/storm-eunice-landfall-weather-climate-intl-gbr/index.html", "title": "Storm Eunice blows off rooftops with highest wind speeds on record ...", "text": "(CNN) Storm Eunice tore down rooftops and trees, crushed cars and sent planes skidding on London's runways as millions of people across the United Kingdom hunkered down at home to stay out of hurricane-strength winds.\n\nThe storm led to 10 fatalities across the UK and parts of western Europe, with wind speeds as high as 122 miles per hour (mph) -- the fastest on record in the country. High wind speeds is what make wind storms intense.\n\nThe UK Met Office expanded its rare \"danger-to-life\" weather alert ahead of the storm on Friday morning to include most of the south of England and some of Wales.\n\nA woman was killed in north London's Muswell Hill on Friday after a tree fell on her car, according to a statement from the London Fire Brigade, while a man in his 50s was also killed on Friday while driving his car in Liverpool, according to Merseyside Police.\n\nIn Hampshire, one man died and another was seriously injured in a car accident. Both men, in their 20s, were in their vehicle when a tree fell on top of it during the storm. Police are investigating the exact circumstances of the incident and have appealed for witnesses.\n\nIn Ireland, which is also experiencing strong winds from Eunice, a man in his late 60s was killed after being hit by a falling tree, the national police service, known as the Gardaí, confirmed to CNN.\n\nThe man, who has not been named, died in County Wexford, southeastern Ireland, and was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nThe storm also wreaked havoc in mainland Europe, with German broadcaster ZDF reporting two deaths in Germany, with one person falling from his roof and the other crashing his car into a fallen tree.\n\nA 79-year-old English man also died in western Belgium after strong winds knocked him off his barge and into the water of a marina, state broadcaster RTBF reported.\n\nMeanwhile, the Amsterdam-Amstelland fire brigade reported three deaths due to fallen trees in the Netherlands on Friday, while most of the country was under the highest weather alert with people advised to stay home ahead of the storm.\n\nLarge sections of the O2 Arena rooftop were blown off on Friday.\n\nThe storm has damaged buildings in the UK, with footage shared to social media showing the roof of London's O2 arena severely damaged by strong wind.Op de #vrijheidslaan in Amsterdam is een boom op een fietser terecht gekomen. Deze fietser is hierdoor overleden.\n\nLarge sections of the fabric roof were shredded and ripped off by the gusts, while the building was evacuated and closed.\n\nOn its website, the 02 said an event at the venue Friday night would be rescheduled.\n\n\"The safety of our visitors remains of paramount importance, and we will continue to assess the ongoing situation and act accordingly,\" the statement said.\n\nElsewhere, a CNN reporter witnessed part of a rooftop flying off a home in the southwestern London area of Surbiton. The roof crushed a car parked on the street.\n\nSocial media video showed a building housing lifeboats with part of its rooftop blown off at Sennen beach in the country of Cornwall, where strong winds were pushing waves above a seawall. Police in Cornwall and neighboring Devon said they had received high volumes of calls about flying debris, collapsed roofs and fallen trees.\n\nOther video footage shared on Twitter showed a church spire in Somerset collapsing in high winds.\n\nResidents around the UK also posted images on social media of collapsed fences and trees in roads.\n\nA large tree fell after high winds battered an area of Battersea, London on Friday.\n\nMany homes were also left without power on Friday, including small pockets of London and larger areas of southern England.\n\nAs dozens of flights were canceled across London's major airports, more than 200,000 people tuned in to watch a live stream on YouTube of planes landing at London's Heathrow. The aircraft were seen battling strong gusts as they came into land, some of them wobbling mid-air, others skidding from side to side once they hit the runway.\n\nThe video, on the Big Jet TV channel, was accompanied by comical commentary by presenter Jerry Dyer, who kept viewers entertained by offering words of encouragement to the pilots, at one point saying: \"Come on mate, you can do it!\"\n\nBritish Airways said it was grounding a number of planes and expected \"significant disruption,\" but that most flights would go ahead as planned.\n\n\"Safety is our number one priority, and we're canceling a number of flights,\" British Airways said in a statement.\n\nThe airline said it was looking at deploying larger aircraft where possible to better withstand the weather.\n\nRail companies have urged customers to reconsider their plans, with blanket speed restrictions in place for most lines across the country.\n\nIn a statement Friday, Network Rail warned of high winds blowing trees and other debris onto railway lines, which then block trains and cause delays and cancelations.\n\nWaves crash against the sea wall and Porthcawl Lighthouse in Bridgend, Wales, as Storm Eunice hits the UK on Friday.\n\nA local butcher carries his shop sign across a snowy pavement in County Durham, Britain, as Storm Eunice makes landfall.\n\nAuthorities are expecting gusts to cause travel delays, power cuts and possible mobile phone coverage outages throughout Friday.\n\nA sting jet could hit\n\nMeteorologists have also raised the possibility of a sting jet, the weather phenomenon which made the 1987 Great Storm so destructive and deadly. Eighteen people were killed in that storm and 15 million trees were blown down in winds that topped 100 mph.\n\nA sting jet is a very narrow and concentrated blast of powerful, upper-level winds that can form inside powerful weather systems. It descends to the the Earth's surface and can last a few hours, potentially causing damage to life and property, according to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.\n\n\"The 'sting' refers to the cloud formation it creates, which resembles a scorpion's stinger,\" he said.\n\nA person walks past a sign at Waterloo station, warning of severe weather.\n\nMotorists drive through the sleet and snow along the M8 motorway near Bathgate in West Lothian as Storm Eunice sweeps across the UK after hitting the south coast earlier on Friday.\n\nEunice is the second storm in a week for the UK after Storm Dudley battered parts of Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland Wednesday, leaving thousands of homes without power. Those homes have since been reconnected.\n\nHannah Cloke, professor of Hydrology at Britain's University of Reading, urged people to stay home where possible.\n\nShe said people should not to take the red alert \"lightly,\" as the winds were likely to uproot trees and roof tiles.\n\n\"If you're hit by one of those you will be seriously hurt or killed. Wind that strong will sweep people and vehicles off streets, and topple electricity lines,\" she said.\n\nA climate connection?\n\nThere is little to suggest any link between human-made climate change and the frequency and intensity -- or windspeeds -- of storms in northern Europe at current levels of global warming.\n\nBut damage from windstorms are still getting worse because the rainfall associated with them is becoming more intense, a trend that many scientific studies do link to climate change. Sea level rise also plays a role.\n\n\"With more intense rainfall and higher sea levels as human-caused climate change continues to heat the planet, flooding from coastal storm surges and prolonged deluges will worse still further when these rare, explosive storms hit us in a warmer world,\" Richard Allan, a climate scientists at the University of Reading, said in a statement.\n\nThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that if global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius, compared with levels before industrialization, then northern Europe would start to see an increase in the frequency of severe windstorms.", "authors": ["Sara Spary", "Niamh Kennedy", "Rob Iddiols", "Derek Van Dam", "Amy Cassidy"], "publish_date": "2022/02/18"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_9", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/11/02/covid-vaccine-kids-children-approved/6233927001/", "title": "CDC recommends coronavirus vaccine for kids 5-11; shots set to ...", "text": "Children ages 5 to 11 are now eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off Tuesday night on an expert panel's recommendation.\n\nChildren in this age group could begin getting shots as soon as this week, as health providers can start vaccinating them \"as soon as possible,\" the CDC said in a release.\n\nLast week the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine for children 5 to 11, and the CDC's recommendation now clears the vaccine for those ages.\n\nPresident Joe Biden called the news \"a turning point in our battle against COVID-19,\" in a written statement Tuesday night.\n\nPresidential adviser Jeffrey Zients said Monday that the Biden administration ordered enough vaccine to cover all 28 million American children in the age group. The administration’s distribution program will be “running at full strength” the week of Nov. 8, he said.\n\nThough the vaccines carry some risk for children, their benefits are greater, concluded the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, made up of vaccine and immune system experts from universities and medical schools across the country.\n\n\"We know millions of parents are eager to get their children vaccinated and with this decision, we now have recommended that about 28 million children receive a COVID-19 vaccine,\" a Tuesday release quotes CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. \"As a mom, I encourage parents with questions to talk to their pediatrician, school nurse or local pharmacist to learn more about the vaccine and the importance of getting their children vaccinated.\"\n\nVaccines will be available at 100 children's hospitals, temporary clinics in the community and at schools, as well as pharmacies and pediatricians' offices. Shots will be free, at one-third the dose of the adult vaccine and will be delivered in two shots at least three weeks apart.\n\nA number of professional groups added their support Tuesday for childhood vaccination, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society.\n\nIn several small trials, Pfizer-BioNTech, which makes the vaccine, saw no serious side effects connected with the shots.\n\nIt is likely, committee members acknowledged, that some potentially dangerous side effects will become apparent once the shots are delivered to millions of children, just as rare side effects not seen in clinical trials of adults turned up with widespread vaccinations.\n\n\"We need to acknowledge the unknown,\" said Dr. Matthew Daley, a committee member and senior investigator at the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado in Aurora.\n\nDaley said he was more concerned about the risk of waiting to vaccinate kids. \"If we wait, we miss the chance to prevent many cases of COVID-19 in this age group, and that includes some very severe cases.\"\n\nData from the CDC suggests that vaccinations can prevent 600,000 infections in the age group by March, including a number of hospitalizations and a few deaths.\n\nFully vaccinating 1 million children in the age group would prevent about 57,000 cases of COVID-19 and about 200 hospitalizations, the CDC said.\n\n“The data that was presented really speaks volumes in terms of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine,” said Dr. Pablo Sánchez, a professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.\n\n“Children are dying, and we can reduce hospitalization and death with this safe and effective vaccine that will benefit the community,” said Dr. Oliver Brooks, chief medical officer for the Watts HealthCare Corporation in Los Angeles.\n\nParents who have concerns about the shots should speak with their pediatrician, CDC and committee members said.\n\nKid shots Q and A: Everything to know about COVID-19 vaccine and children\n\nThe potential vaccine side effect of biggest concern is a swelling of the heart muscle, known as myocarditis, which has been seen particularly among young men who received vaccine.\n\nOut of every one million 16- and 17-year-old boys vaccinated, 69 have developed the condition, compared with two out of every million men in their 40s, government statistics show. None has died, and most cases appear to be mild without long-term consequences.\n\nMatthew Oster, a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, said he expects the side effect will be even rarer in children.\n\nBefore COVID-19, myocarditis was most common among adolescents and young men probably because of their relatively high levels of the hormone testosterone, Oster told the committee. Children younger than 12 typically have low levels.\n\nInfection with COVID-19 can cause myocarditis that appears to be more serious than swelling seen with vaccination, he said.\n\nMany children who receive the shots will, like adults and teens, feel side effects in the first 48 hours or so. The most common side effects in the trials were fatigue, headaches, joint pain, pain at the injection site and vomiting, nausea or diarrhea.\n\nThe CDC monitors vaccine recipients, including children, for serious vaccine reactions through several different systems. One involves self-reporting of symptoms, another is reported mainly by doctors and two others collect data from hospitals, the CDC's Dr. Tom Shimabukuro told the committee.\n\nThe Food and Drug Administration has a separate vaccine surveillance system, as does the Department of Defense, which first identified myocarditis as a risk among service members.\n\nRush is on: With vaccine orders placed, doctors, pharmacies prepare for a flood of young children\n\nLast week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized vaccines for use in this age group after a signoff by an independent group of vaccine experts who determined that the benefits outweighed the risks.\n\nOf the three vaccines available to adults in the USA, only Pfizer-BioNTech has completed studies in minors. Moderna said Sunday that the FDA asked for more information about its shots in adolescents, which probably will defer its authorization until January.\n\nJohnson & Johnson is further behind in its trials in adolescents and children.\n\nTypically, companies test vaccines in adults, then move down in age as the shots are proved safe. Pfizer-BioNTech continues to study even younger children, down to 6 months of age.\n\nThough fully approved for use in adults and older teens, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized only for emergency use in children and younger adolescents. The collaborating companies will probably request full authorization for these age groups next year, once they have longer-term data and more details on manufacturing.\n\nVaccines are somewhat more controversial in children than adolescents and adults, because children are less likely to suffer severe COVID-19 infections.\n\nStill, 94 American children ages 5-11 have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began – the eighth leading cause of death in this age group – and about 8,300 have been hospitalized.\n\nAlthough at lower rates than adults, children ages 5 to 11 can suffer from lingering symptoms of COVID-19 infections, so-called long COVID – including months-long fatigue, pain, headaches, insomnia and trouble concentrating.\n\nAll children, regardless of age, can catch and pass on COVID-19, one study confirmed.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is clearly effective in children 5-11, preventing more than 90% of infections, according to a company-run study in about 2,500 children.\n\nQuestions remain about the effectiveness and safety of the shots because of the relatively small number of children who have received them so far – fewer than 3,500 across three company-run studies. It is not clear how long this protection against COVID-19 will last or whether booster shots will be needed.\n\nData from the CDC suggests that nine children would have needed to be vaccinated to protect one of them from contracting COVID-19 in September during the peak of the last wave, and about 26 today when rates are lower. About 2,200 kids would have needed protection six weeks ago to prevent one hospitalization and about 8,200 more recently.\n\nChildren who are immunocompromised or have health issues such as obesity and metabolic disease are at higher risk for serious COVID-19 infections. Two-thirds of children hospitalized for COVID-19 had preexisting health conditions, while one-third were previously healthy according to the CDC.\n\nThe CDC's recommendation for vaccination includes all children, regardless of their underlying medical conditions.\n\nChildhood vaccinations will help families in which parents are fighting cancer, said Dr. Gwen Nichols, chief medical officer of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Vaccination will allow \"children to interact with more freedom, including with their parents and grandparents,\" she said. \"This is particularly important for immunosuppressed patients, including those with blood cancers who have been in an impossible situation with their younger children returning to school in-person.”\n\nChildren of color have been hospitalized at three times the rate of white children, data shows.\n\nAbout 38% of American children have been infected with COVID-19, according to data presented to the committee.\n\nChildren who have already had COVID-19 will get some protection against severe disease but should still get vaccinated, according to the recommendation, because the shots provide more consistent protection than infection.\n\nAn FDA analysis of infections presented to a different advisory committee last week found that the benefits of vaccination generally outweigh risks among children. If COVID-19 cases are extremely low – less than 10% of the rates seen in mid-September – the benefits of vaccination are less clear, the report concluded.\n\nVaccines take about five weeks to come to full effectiveness, two weeks after the second shot, so parents will not have time to provide vaccine protection in the face of a sudden outbreak or a fast-spreading new variant.\n\nCOVID-19 has already caused substantially more misery than other childhood diseases, CDC data showed. COVID-19 led to at least three times more hospitalizations and deaths than hepatitis A, meningococcal disease, varicella, rubella and rotavirus did before vaccines were introduced against those diseases.\n\nDr. Katherine Poehling, a professor of pediatrics at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said that information helped convince her to strongly support COVID-19 vaccines for elementary school children.\n\n\"We can now make these COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths vaccine preventable,\" she said.\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/health/covid-vaccines-under-5-begin/index.html", "title": "Covid-19 vaccinations begin for US children under 5 - CNN", "text": "Vaccines for children under 5 a turning point for many US families\n\nCNN —\n\nDr. Sarah Schaffer DeRoo described in one word how she felt after getting her 7-month-old son vaccinated against Covid-19: thrilled.\n\nHer active baby boy sat in her lap at a vaccine clinic hosted by Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, while receiving his first dose of Covid-19 vaccine. The shot was administered in his thigh. He cried for a few seconds but then his attention turned toward a golden retriever that was on site as a comfort dog provided by the hospital.\n\n“I’m feeling really thrilled that we have this opportunity,” DeRoo, a pediatrician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, told CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux on Tuesday about her son’s vaccination.\n\nDeRoo added that her family now will feel more comfortable participating in certain activities, knowing that their youngest son has started his Covid-19 vaccine series.\n\n“It will certainly allow us to have more freedom with our personal lives and what we do,” DeRoo said. “And for the baby, we’ll feel like we have cloaked him in as much protection as we can.”\n\nCovid-19 vaccinations for children younger than 5 are beginning Tuesday across the United States, marking a milestone in the nation’s fight against the disease.\n\nLast week, the US Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorizations for Moderna’s vaccine to include children 6 months through 17 years and Pfizer/BioNTech’s for children 6 months through 4 years.\n\nThen on Saturday, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on Covid-19 vaccinations for children under 5, clearing the way for vaccinations to be administered in that age group.\n\nAbout 17 million kids under the age of 5 are now eligible for Covid-19 vaccines.\n\n“This is a big day. We’ve been waiting a long time for children to have access to the vaccine. We now have every age group, 6 months and above, in the country which is now eligible to get protection from the Covid-19 vaccine. And I’ll tell you as a dad of a 4-year-old, this is a big deal for my family as well,” US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Tuesday morning.\n\nAs of the end of Tuesday, the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has delivered approximately 2.7 million doses of vaccine for children under 5 nationwide.\n\n“Another 1 million doses have been shipped and will soon be received by administration sites,” Tim Granholm, an HHS spokesperson, wrote in an email to CNN on Wednesday morning.\n\n“HHS has received orders for approximately 4.2 million doses to date,” Granholm wrote. “We will continue to deliver vaccines expeditiously as we fulfill orders and take new ones. We made 10 million doses of vaccine available for ordering initially, with millions more available soon, so supply should not be a barrier to someone getting their young child vaccinated.”\n\nVaccines given in child-sized doses\n\nUnder the FDA’s authorization, the Moderna vaccine can be given as a two-dose primary series, with doses given four weeks apart, at 25 micrograms each dose, to infants and children 6 months through 5 years of age.\n\nWhile the FDA has authorized Moderna’s vaccine for children ages 6 to 17, the CDC has not yet recommended it for that age group, so those shots can’t be administered yet. The FDA authorization would allow children ages 6 to 11 to receive doses are 50 micrograms each. For those ages 12 and older, it would be administered as 100-microgram doses.\n\nThe Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine now can be given as a three-dose primary series, at 3 micrograms each dose, for use in infants and children 6 months through 4 years. The vaccine is administered as a two-dose primary series at 10 micrograms per dose for children 5 to 11 and at 30 micrograms per dose for adolescents and adults ages 12 and older.\n\nCompleting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine series is a longer process, as the first two doses are administered three weeks apart, and then the third dose is given eight weeks later.\n\nDr. Jeannette Lee of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who serves on the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, expressed concern about children not completing all three doses.\n\n“Three doses will certainly benefit. I have a lot of concern that many of these kids will not get a third dose,” Lee said. “My concern is that you have to get the three doses to really get what you need.”\n\nAs for children who might turn from age 4 to 5 at any point while completing their Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine series, the CDC recommends two options. The child could complete the two-dose primary series authorized for children ages 5 to 11, or they could complete the three-dose series for younger kids, but each of doses 2 and 3 may be either the dosage for younger children or ages 5 to 11.\n\nThe FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee determined that the benefits of both vaccines outweigh the risks and noted that the vaccines have been “well-tolerated” among the children who got them in clinical trials.\n\nAccording to clinical trial data, common side effects for both vaccines include pain at the injection site, headache, fever, chills and fatigue. The vaccines appeared to elicit similar immune responses in children as has been seen in adults.\n\nWhere young children can get vaccinated\n\nPediatricians’ offices and pharmacies are the main sites where young children could get vaccinated.\n\n“We know that parents are going to want to get their children vaccinated in pediatricians’ offices. Some people will go to a pharmacy, some people will go to a children’s hospital or some sort of a community health center,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator, said Monday on CBS.\n\n“But the bottom line is, I think a majority of parents are going to want to get their child vaccinated in their pediatrician’s office,” Jha said. “So, many pediatricians are going to be offering the vaccine.”\n\nAs for the pharmacy locations offering these child-sized vaccines, CVS and Walgreens have announced plans to provide vaccinations.\n\nCVS will begin administering Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines to children under five on Tuesday, a communications representative told CNN.\n\n“We will begin administering the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for eligible children 18 months through four years of age at our 1,100 MinuteClinic locations starting on Tuesday,” Matt Blanchette, senior manager of retail communications with CVS Pharmacy, told CNN in an email.\n\n“MinuteClinic is located inside select CVS Pharmacy stores in 35 states and Washington, DC,” Blanchette said. Appointments will be available on a rolling basis according to vaccine supply.\n\nBlanchette said children over 5 will still be able to access Covid-19 vaccines in CVS pharmacies.\n\nOn Saturday, Walgreens announced in a news release that appointments for vaccinations in young children will be available starting June 25. Walgreens will be vaccinating children 3 and older at “select” locations, and appointments can be scheduled online.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nHy-Vee pharmacies will have Covid-19 vaccinations available for children under 5 once doses are available, a communications representative told CNN on Monday.\n\n“Hy-Vee anticipates receiving its allocations for the newly approved age groups in the coming days,” Tina Potthoff, senior vice president of communications, wrote in an email.\n\n“As soon as we receive vaccine and our appointment scheduler is open for these age groups, we will post an update on our COVID-19 vaccine landing page, post on our Hy-Vee store Facebook pages, and contact media outlets in our eight-state region to make them aware of our pediatric hubs that are accepting appointments.”\n\nDue to federal regulations, she wrote, Hy-Vee will only be providing vaccinations to children 3 and older.\n\n“Under the PREP Act, retail pharmacies, including Hy-Vee pharmacies, are only authorized to administer vaccines to patients ages 3+,” Potthoff wrote in the email. “Patients younger than age 3 should visit their pediatrician or health care provider to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.”", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/22/covid-vaccine-kids-coming-soon-biden/8052527002/", "title": "COVID vaccine for kids coming in weeks, Biden says. Pfizer says fall.", "text": "President Joe Biden is optimistic that vaccines for children under 12 years old could be available as early as August.\n\nBiden made the statement during a town hall Wednesday in Cincinnati hosted by CNN. After speaking with scientists, Biden said, he wasn't promised a specific date, but he did have an expectation.\n\n\"My expectation talking to the group of scientists we put together, over 20 of them, plus others in the field, is that sometime maybe in the beginning of the school year, at the end of August, beginning of September, October, they'll get a final approval,\" he said.\n\nThat's an unlikely timeline. Trials began in March for the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for younger children. The results of the trials are expected in the fall, not within weeks.\n\nDr. Alejandra Gurtman, vice president of the Vaccine Clinical Research and Development at Pfizer, said an emergency use authorization was planned for the 5-to-11 age group in September or October during a presentation at a Johns Hopkins-University of Washington symposium on June 30. She said the 2- to 5-year-old group would follow soon after.\n\nChildren under 12 are still ineligible to receive the vaccine in the U.S., and Biden said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention probably will recommend that children who are not vaccinated wear masks in school.\n\n'It's limbo':Parents stuck between two COVID-19 worlds as young kids remain unvaccinated\n\n\"It's going to get a little bit tight in terms of, well, are Mom or Dad being honest that Johnny did or did not get vaccinated? That's going to raise questions,\" Biden said. \"It's a matter of community responsibility.\"\n\nOn July 9, the CDC recommended that fully vaccinated children did not need to wear masks at school.\n\n\"Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority,\" a press release from the CDC said.\n\nOn Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics had a different opinion and recommended that all children older than 2, regardless of their vaccinations, should wear a mask.\n\nCoronavirus cases have nearly tripled in the U.S. over the past two weeks. The delta variant of the virus, scientists say, is more contagious. A lambda variant was recently identified at a Houston-area hospital, but health experts said it doesn't appear as contagious.\n\n“I know there’s great interest in lambda, but I think people really need to be focused on delta,” said Dr. S. Wesley Long, Houston Methodist’s medical director of diagnostic biology. “Most importantly, regardless of the variant, our best defense against all these variants is vaccination.”\n\nOur World Data reports that 49.3 % of Americans are fully vaccinated. During the town hall, Biden urged people to get the vaccine.\n\n“We have a pandemic for those who haven’t gotten the vaccination – it’s that basic, that simple,” Biden said.\n\nFauci to Sen. Paul:'You do not know what you are talking about'\n\n'Hard choice doesn't amount to coercion':Judge sides with Indiana University in student challenge to COVID-19 vaccine mandate\n\nContributing: Ryan Miller\n\nFollow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/11/10/iowa-new-cases-rise-state-reaches-500-000-covid-delta-variant-deaths-hospitalizations-vaccinations/6358506001/", "title": "COVID-19 in Iowa: State reaches 500000 total cases; new cases rising", "text": "More than half a million Iowans have contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health.\n\nThe 9,067 new cases reported this week brought the state's total to 500,119 individual Iowans who have tested positive for the disease since it first reached the state last year. That means the coronavirus has infected about one in six Iowans at some point in the past two years.\n\nIowa's number of cases is again on the rise, with the state reporting an increase in new confirmed cases for the third week in a row. This week's average of 1,295 new reported cases per day was up 19% over the previous week.\n\nWhile cases are climbing, the state has an additional tool to curb the virus after federal regulators approved a COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 5.\n\nMore:US COVID-19 map: Tracking cases and deaths\n\nCOVID-19 hospitalizations, which had declined each of the previous four weeks, also increased, according to Wednesday's data. There were 524 Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19, including 113 in intensive care and 52 on ventilators. More than 70% of the patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were not fully vaccinated against the disease, including 85% of those in the ICU.\n\nThe share of the state's population that is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 increased just two-tenths of a percentage point in Wednesday's update, a slight decline from previous weeks. About 53% of the state's population is fully vaccinated, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Additional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that nearly one-fifth of those fully-vaccinated Iowans have also now received a booster dose — the extra shot now available to some at-risk populations.\n\nThe state also reported 97 additional COVID-19 deaths this week, some dating back to mid-September. COVID-19 has now caused or contributed to the deaths of 7,166 Iowans.\n\nHow many Iowa children have received the vaccine?\n\nAs has been the case for the last several months, children made up just under a quarter of the new COVID-19 cases reported this week, or about 2,000. Eight were hospitalized with the disease as of Wednesday's update.\n\nLast week, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine became available for children ages 5 to 11. Wednesday's data update did not yet show the number of doses that have been administered to children in that age group so far.\n\nMore:'We feel like we can move forward.' COVID-19 vaccines for children 5 to 11 years old now available\n\nHowever, about 7,000 Iowa children were able to start their vaccination process by the end of the weekend, according to Ken Sharp, an Iowa Department of Public Health administrator helping coordinate the vaccination campaign. On Wednesday, he called that \"good news,\" and promised the number of doses administered would rise.\n\nBiden administration officials have promised it would have its pediatric vaccination distribution program fully running this week after the Pfizer vaccine was approved for young children last week. In Iowa, the doses started being administered in many locations on Thursday, albeit with limited slots available. Many pharmacies that provide the adult vaccine were still getting their programs up and running through the weekend.\n\nMore:'We feel like we can move forward.' COVID-19 vaccines for children 5 to 11 years old now available\n\n\"There are some, I think, frustrations we're hearing that the parents weren't able to get the vaccine where they would normally go to get the vaccine, and I think it's just a matter of timing,\" Sharp told the State Board of Health at its regular meeting Wednesday. \"We're still taking that as positive news of parents are excited about getting their kids vaccinated and looking for that vaccine.\"\n\nThere are about 284,000 children ages 5 to 11 in Iowa, and the state received about 99,000 doses from the federal government, not including those shipped directly to pharmacies. Sharp said all 99 counties should have pediatric doses available by this week. The state has also ordered another 24,000 doses.\n\nCDC assumptions on vaccine take rates show about 30% of parents would want their child vaccinated immediately, Sharp said, which covers about 95,000 newly eligible children. Another 20% to 30% would likely wait a little bit or until it's more convenient, such as during other scheduled vaccinations. The remaining are hesitant, Sharp said.\n\n\"CDC has assured us that there will not be any supply chain issues for the pediatric vaccine, and right now, we feel like things are going as smoothly as they could be given the rollout of that new product,\" he told the board.\n\nMeanwhile, board member Dr. Donald Macfarlane, with University of Iowa Health Care, asked for a stronger pushback on anti-vaccine rhetoric.\n\nMacfarlane said he was concerned about how vaccine opponents are misusing the CDC's vaccine adverse event reporting system, known as VAERS. The data, he said, is made up of unverified, self-reported events that aren't necessarily associated with any vaccine.\n\nSharp said the state receives regular updates from the CDC about VAERS reports, and there have been zero Iowans who have died because they received the COVID-19 vaccine. Sharp told Macfarlane that the state health department would discuss how to better communicate that message.\n\n\"I think there is a very difficult message for the general public to understand what those data elements are and to understand that literally anyone can report into VAERS on a perceived correlation between a negative impact or adverse effect from a vaccine,\" Sharp said.\n\nRead more on COVID-19 in Iowa:\n\nThe latest COVID-19 numbers in Iowa\n\nThe latest data, as of 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, compared to the previous Wednesday.\n\nConfirmed cases: 500,119, an increase of 9,067\n\nDeaths: 7,166, an increase of 97\n\nTotal tested: 2,141,764\n\nTotal recovered: 465,549\n\nStatewide 14-day positivity rate: 8.9%\n\nHow many Iowans are hospitalized with COVID-19?\n\nHospitalizations: 524, up from 483 one week ago\n\nPatients in ICU: 113, up from 111\n\nPatients on ventilators: 52, down from 53\n\nHow many people in Polk and Dallas counties are vaccinated?\n\nIn Polk County, 288,796 (59%) residents are fully vaccinated, an increase of 1,330 (0.3 percentage points) since last week.\n\nIn Dallas County, 54,760 (59%) residents are fully vaccinated, an increase of 272 (0.3 percentage points).\n\nThe five counties in Iowa with the highest percentage of their population fully vaccinated as of Nov. 10 are Johnson (63%), Buena Vista (61%), Linn (59%), Polk (59%) and Dallas (59%) counties.\n\nFor a county-by-county look at the vaccination rollout, see our COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which is updated weekly.\n\nTim Webber is a data visualization specialist for the Register. Reach him at twebber@registermedia.com, 515-284-8532, and on Twitter at @HelloTimWebber.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/11/01/covid-vaccine-children-kids-approval/8564341002/", "title": "Everything to know about COVID-19 vaccine and children: Where to ...", "text": "An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday voted to recommend Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11, and CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has signed off on the committee's recommendations.\n\nNow vaccines will be available to eligible children across the country, and some locations have already begun offering shots.\n\nAt a news conference Wednesday, Walensky assured parents the science behind the decision to recommend the vaccine for younger kids is sound, and said the shots will protect them and others from getting sick.\n\n“In clinical trials, vaccination was found to be nearly 91% effective in preventing COVID-19 among children ages 5 to 11. In clinical trials, vaccine side effects were mild, self-limiting,” she said. \"The most common side effect was a sore arm.\"\n\nAlthough younger children are now able to get vaccinated, many parents still have questions. Here's everything health experts want them to know about the vaccine.\n\nDo kids need a COVID-19 vaccine? Is the COVID-19 vaccine safe for kids?\n\nThe American Academy of Pediatrics on Tuesday issued a release supporting the CDC advisory committee's decision.\n\n\"Vaccinating children will protect children’s health and allow them to fully engage in all of the activities that are so important to their health and development,\" the release says.\n\n\"The AAP recommends COVID-19 vaccination for all children and adolescents 5 years of age and older who do not have contraindications using a vaccine authorized for use for their age.\"\n\nMany health experts are going on the record recommending children ages 5 to 11 get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as soon as it becomes available.\n\n“As pediatricians, our sole purpose is to take care of children and protect them,” said Dr. Stan Spinner, vice president and chief medical officer at Texas Children’s Pediatrics and Texas Children’s Urgent Care. “We feel very comfortable (with this vaccine). If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be recommending it.”\n\nMore:Parents were confused about kids and COVID. The American Academy of Pediatrics stepped in.\n\nHundreds of children ages 5 to 11 have been hospitalized with COVID-19, and 94 have died this year, the FDA has reported. It was the eighth-leading cause of death in the age group over the past year, after accidents, cancer, malformations, murder, heart disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, and flu or pneumonia.\n\nChildren appear to be just as likely as adolescents and adults to catch COVID-19 and pass it on, health experts say. Though they seem to be less likely to become seriously ill, health experts urge parents not to take that chance.\n\n“A third of our pediatric patients admitted to the hospital ended up in the ICU with COVID,” Spinner said. “So it’s not a benign disease for anybody. ... Kids need the vaccine.”\n\nWhy should my kid get a COVID-19 vaccine?\n\nEven with a mild infection, children are still at risk for developing a dangerous immune overreaction called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. COVID-19 has led to more than 5,000 cases of the condition; the average age is 9.\n\nChildren are less likely to have long-term symptoms of COVID-19 than adults, experts say, but they still can suffer from so-called long-haul COVID.\n\nRecent data shows children are as likely to get infected by the delta coronavirus variant as adults, and about 50% of infections in children are asymptomatic, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser and the nation’s top infectious disease expert.\n\nFauci told reporters that vaccinating millions of children ages 5 to 11 will also stifle community transmission and nudge the country closer to herd immunity.\n\n“If we can get the overwhelming majority of those 28 million children vaccinated, that would play a major role in diminishing the spread of infection in the community,” Fauci said.\n\nIf the pandemic is contained, health experts say, children will have more freedom to enjoy a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy, like going back to school with minimal restrictions and safely attending family events.\n\n“The last point for why to vaccinate children now is to really allow kids the freedom to be kids,” said Dr. Emmanuel Walter Jr., professor of pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine and chief medical officer of the Duke Human Institute.\n\nMore:Scientists examine the unique immune systems of kids as more get COVID-19\n\nWhere to get the COVID-19 vaccine for kids — Are pharmacies accepting appointments?\n\nPediatricians and primary care doctors, children's hospitals, pharmacies and clinics at schools are among the places where kids can get the vaccine.\n\nThe Biden administration said it has purchased enough vaccine to cover the 28 million American children in the 5 to 11 age group, and about 15 million doses will be available within the first week.\n\nThose locations include more than 25,000 pediatricians’ offices and primary care sites, more than 100 children’s hospitals and health systems, tens of thousands of pharmacies, and hundreds of schools and community-based clinics. Administration officials say they are working with states and localities to enroll more sites.\n\nCVS and Walgreens, the two largest pharmacy chains in the country, are accepting appointments for COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 through 11.\n\nDid America’s schools open safely?We crunched the latest data on COVID and kids.\n\nHowever, some sites are waiting until they have vials of vaccine before opening their appointment books.\n\nBy the end of the week, the government website Vaccines.gov will list places where kids can get vaccinated in their neighborhood, Zients said at a news conference Wednesday.\n\nAt that point, parents and guardians can go to the website, type in their ZIP code, click a box specifying they're looking for the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric COVID-19 vaccine and get a list of clinics, physicians and pharmacies that have it available. The list is expected to expand over time as more sites open appointments.\n\nWhen will the COVID-19 vaccine be available for kids?\n\nSome locations around the country have already begun administering first doses to kids, and hundreds more sites are expected to open in the coming days as the national push to vaccinate about elementary school children ramps up.\n\nPresidential advisor Jeffrey Zients said Monday the Biden administration's distribution program will be \"running at full strength\" to cover all 28 million American children in the age group the week of Nov. 8.\n\nOn Tuesday, President Joe Biden repeated the date in a statement, saying \"the program will ramp up over the coming days, and fully up and running during the week of November 8.\"\n\nHas the FDA approved the COVID vaccine for children?\n\nOn Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine for children 5 to 11.\n\nHowever, this does not mean the vaccine is \"approved\" for kids.\n\nEmergency use authorization allows Pfizer-BioNTech to provide safety and effectiveness data after tracking trial participants for an average of two months instead of the usual six months.\n\nIn the middle of a pandemic, it was more important to get vaccines to people faster, the FDA said, and vaccine side effects generally occur within the first four to six weeks after a shot.\n\nThe only age group that has official approval from the FDA is people 16 and older. Teenagers and children ages 12 to 15 have also been authorized to get the vaccine under emergency use.\n\nAn FDA official explains:Why don't COVID-19 vaccines have full authorization?\n\nWhere do children's vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson stand?\n\nModerna released its own study Monday finding that its COVID-19 vaccine at half the original adult dose is safe and effective in children 6 to 11. The company has not yet asked for authorization to provide its vaccine to this age group.\n\nA Johnson & Johnson spokesperson told USA TODAY the company has started the first phase 3 study in adolescents ages 12 to 17 years and anticipates results for dose and regimen in the coming months.\n\nWhat's the vaccine schedule and dose information for kids?\n\nThe vaccine would be given to children ages 5 to 11 in two shots, administered three weeks apart, at one-third of the dose given to adults and adolescents.\n\nThe adult dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 30 micrograms; the companies propose a 10-microgram dose in children ages 5 to 11.\n\nThe only difference in the children's Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the addition of one chemical called tri-sucrose. Tri-sucrose already is used in several other vaccines and makes the vaccine easier to dilute and remain stable in a refrigerator for up to 10 weeks, a Pfizer executive said.\n\nWhat were the results of Pfizer’s vaccine study?\n\nThe FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee met last Tuesday to hear information on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from company officials as well as government experts who had reviewed the data.\n\nPfizer presented the results of several studies it has done among about 5,000 5- to 11-year-olds, which showed the vaccine was found to be safe with no severe vaccine-related side effects or dangerous allergic reactions.\n\nIn a subset of the children, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was found to be more than 90% protective against contracting symptomatic COVID-19. Of the 19 children in the study found to be infected with the coronavirus, only three received the active vaccine, compared with 16 who received a placebo.\n\nIn one of the studies, of about half the children, more than 11% had obesity and nearly 8% had asthma. Both groups appeared just as well protected from the vaccine as children without those conditions.\n\n\"Those are the people who are at the highest risk of getting infected,\" Spinner said. \"When we look at the children who have gotten sick, most of them had underlying conditions. Those are the ones that should be the first in line to get vaccinated.\"\n\nPhase 3 clinical data presented last year showed the vaccine was 95% effective in adults. But new research that has not yet been peer-reviewed suggests efficacy may be closer to 84% after six months.\n\nMore on underlying conditions:CDC adds mental health disorders to list of conditions linked to higher risk of severe COVID-19. Here's why.\n\nWhat are the vaccine side effects for kids?\n\nThe trials showed children experienced the same types of mostly minor side effects seen in adolescents and young adults.\n\nMany of those ages 5 to 11 had sore arms, fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, chills and low-grade fevers that lasted a day or two.\n\nOne of the reasons researchers decreased the normal vaccine dose from 30 to 10 micrograms in children is to reduce the severity of side effects, said Jason Gallagher, clinical professor at Temple University’s School of Pharmacy and a clinical pharmacy specialist in infectious diseases at Temple University Hospital.\n\n“A lot of the side effects that people complain about after getting the vaccine is related to the immune response,” he said. “Pfizer went back to the drawing board on dosing and found out that a lower dose (in children) is effective and safe than the dose we’ve been giving to teenagers and adults.”\n\nWhat can I give my child if they don't feel well after getting vaccinated?\n\nHealth experts say parents can give their children over-the-counter medicine like acetaminophen, aspirin or ibuprofen to relieve any mild to moderate side effects after vaccination.\n\nBut the CDC does not recommend taking those medications before getting vaccinated in anticipation of side effects, because they might affect how well the vaccine works.\n\nWalter also suggests preparing your child before vaccination to expect these mild side effects.\n\n“Parents can have that discussion with their child that they may get a fever, they may feel a little achy or not feel as good the next day following vaccination and that’s to be expected,” he said.\n\nCould schools require children to be vaccinated?\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is available to children ages 12 to 18, and vaccine mandates for school vary by state.\n\nThe board of the Los Angeles Unified School District – which oversees the second-largest public school system in the country – voted to require students age 12 and up to be fully vaccinated. Those who take part in sports and other extracurricular activities should have taken both shots by the end of October and all other students by Dec. 19.\n\nNew York City’s school system, the nation’s largest, has required vaccinations only for 20,000 student-athletes in certain sports considered at high risk of spreading the virus.\n\nMore:California becomes first state to announce plans to mandate COVID-19 vaccine for schoolchildren\n\nWhile some districts mull over COVID-19 vaccine mandates, some states have banned schools from requiring vaccines.\n\nHealth experts say it’s too soon to say if schools will mandate COVID-19 shots after authorization or approval, but vaccines in schools have helped eradicate some diseases in the U.S. like smallpox and polio.\n\n“It’s to prevent disease in children themselves and prevent outbreaks in communities,\" said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. \"And those school requirements have been longstanding for many decades and they’ve led to very successful control of vaccine-preventable diseases.\"\n\nWill vaccinated children still need to wear masks?\n\nUntil a vaccine is available to children, public health experts, including the FDA's Peter Marks, have said that the best thing parents can do to protect their children – besides getting vaccinated themselves – is to encourage children to wear masks while indoors in public.\n\nCDC guidance recommending fully vaccinated people to wear masks inside could remain in place even after children 5 to 11 can get their shots, health experts say.\n\n“We’ve seen so much COVID-19 circulating in our communities, it will be critical to get the amount of transmission down before it’s likely the CDC might relax those guidelines,” said Dr. Evan Anderson, a physician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.\n\nHe reminds parents that children may not have the full intended protection against COVID-19 until two weeks after their second dose and encourages them to continue following CDC and local school guidance regarding masks.\n\nWhen will children under 5 years old be vaccinated?\n\nThe companies are also studying their vaccine in children ages 2 to 5, and 6 months to age 2, but those trials are not yet complete. Younger children are being tested on a 3-microgram dose.\n\nPfizer has reported it may have data by the end of the year. Before the vaccine becomes available to younger children and infants, the company will have to submit the data for FDA and CDC review.\n\nThe timing \"is going to depend on what the data show,” O'Leary said. “I think that people’s best guess is early 2022, but there’s a lot of uncertainty around that guess.”\n\nContributing: Karen Weintraub, Elizabeth Weise and Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY. Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/08/25/covid-vaccine-young-kids-when-available-safety-what-to-know/5572187001/", "title": "COVID-19 vaccines for children under 12: When are they coming?", "text": "Eight months after adult Americans began receiving COVID-19 vaccines, children under 12 are still not eligible for the shots.\n\nThat's left a lot of parents worried their children might get sick – and might get others around them sick, as well.\n\nChildren can catch COVID-19 and pass it on to others. Luckily, they are less likely than adults to become seriously ill. Roughly 4.5 million American children have become infected with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.\n\nThat number has risen lately, however, with children making up a higher proportion of the seriously ill. Many adults are protected by vaccines and the highly contagious delta variant now accounts for most of the infections in the U.S. Across the country. About 180,000 children have been infected in the past week, the American Academy of Pediatrics says.\n\nWe pose and answer several common questions about young children and COVID-19 vaccines:\n\nWhat age group can currently get COVID-19 vaccines?\n\nAdults and children 12 and up are eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, now called Comirnaty.\n\nOnly adults are eligible to receive the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines because their studies in children have not yet been completed.\n\nWhy aren't COVID-19 vaccines available yet for kids under 12?\n\nTraditionally, drugs are studied first in adults and then move to adolescents, then children, then younger children, as they are proven safe and effective in each group.\n\nWith COVID-19 vaccines, large clinical trials in adults (and in the case of Pfizer-BioNTech, older teens) took place in the second half of last year and studies in teens and then younger children began earlier this year.\n\nRead more:Pfizer's vaccine is FDA-approved for adults, but it's still a 'no-no' to vaccinate kids under 12\n\nMore colleges are requiring the COVID-19 vaccine. Some are starting to kick out unvaccinated students.\n\nWhat's the status of clinical trials on younger children?\n\nAll three companies are studying their vaccines in children, first in adolescents, then 5- to 11-year-olds, then 2- to 5-year-olds followed by infants, 6 months and up. Younger babies are believed to have some protection from their vaccinated mothers. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that pregnant people get vaccinated to protect themselves because they are at higher risk for a serious COVID-19 infection, and their unborn child would receive some protection.\n\nBecause the vaccines were already proven safe and effective in tens of thousands of adults, the studies in children have been allowed to be smaller – on the order of 3,000-4,000, instead of 30,000-40,000.\n\nChildren are less likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19 than older adults, with risks generally declining with age. So regulators want to make sure that vaccines are safe enough to justify use in each age group.\n\nAdvisory panels to the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration decided that the benefits outweigh the risks of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for adolescents age 12 to 15.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech has said its study in children ages 5 to 11 should be completed early this fall, and in younger children early next year.\n\nModerna began its trials several months after Pfizer-BioNTech, so it is likely to complete its trials some time later, though it has not released a detailed timetable.\n\nIn May, the company showed its vaccine was safe and extremely effective in adolescents. Out of 3,700 12- to 17-year-old volunteers, no one who was fully vaccinated with the active vaccine developed the virus, the study found.\n\nJ&J hasn't yet started its studies in minors, though it is in active discussions with the FDA to begin four trials with a minimum of 4,500 children. The first trial, in adolescents 12 to 17, is expected to begin this fall with the others to follow.\n\nWhen will the COVID-19 vaccine be available for kids under 12?\n\nThe FDA requires longer-term follow-up data on children than adults, \"to make sure that the safety is adequate,\" according to Dr. Peter Marks, who heads the FDA division tasked with reviewing vaccines.\n\nThe FDA has not given a sense of how long it would take to review the research, but previous emergency use authorization requests have taken as long as eight weeks, suggesting that vaccines are unlikely to be available to grade schoolers until very late this year or early next.\n\nTwo- to 5-year-olds should be able to get shots by the end of winter or early spring 2022.\n\nIs the vaccine dosage the same for children as adults?\n\nThe dose is the same for 12- to 15-year-olds as for adults, but dosage for younger children is likely to be lower. That's one of the things being worked out in the trials.\n\nIn early trials, Pfizer-BioNTech said 112 children received doses of 10, 20, or 30 micrograms, with an option for 3 micrograms in the youngest children.\n\nCurrently, they are testing 10 micrograms in 5- to 11-year-olds and 3 micrograms in children under 5. Adults and adolescents get 30 micrograms.\n\nIs the COVID-19 vaccine safe for kids?\n\nIn adolescents, the vaccines seem to be as safe as they are in adults, though teens may be more likely to suffer side effects like post-vaccine pain, fatigue and fevers.\n\nThe risk of heart inflammation, called myocarditis, also appears to be higher in younger people, particularly males, after vaccination.\n\n'Keep your guard up': CDC studies show waning COVID vaccine efficacy as delta variant sweeps US\n\nWhy shouldn't parents try to vaccinate their younger children now?\n\nLegally, now that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has received full FDA approval, doctors can prescribe it to anyone, including young children.\n\nBut the FDA and leading pediatricians warned this week that it's a terrible idea to give shots designed for adults to children under 12.\n\nThe dose is likely to be more than they need, causing unnecessary side effects, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has urged the FDA to expedite the process of authorizing shots for younger children.\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/10/27/covid-vaccines-kids-5-11-what-we-know-dont-know/8554544002/", "title": "COVID vaccine for kids 5-11 are coming: What we know and what ...", "text": "The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine could become available for children ages 5 to 11 as soon as next week.\n\nSerious COVID-19 infections have been rare among the 28 million American children ages 5-11.\n\nYounger children will be given a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose one-third as large as the dose given to those over 12, to minimize side effects while maintaining effectiveness.\n\nCorrections & clarifications: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the estimated number of children who received the Pfizer-BioNTech active vaccine in clinical trials.\n\nThe evidence supporting COVID-19 vaccines in adults is clear. In August, an unvaccinated adult was six times more likely to test positive and 11 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than someone who was vaccinated.\n\nThe story, though, isn't as clear-cut with children ages 5 to 11, according to data presented Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nAfter listening for hours to government experts and officials from Pfizer-BioNTech, an advisory panel to the FDA concluded the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks for this age group.\n\nA similar discussion will take place next week at an all-day meeting of a CDC advisory panel. If they sign off, along with FDA and CDC officials, as seems likely, vaccines could become available for children ages 5 to 11 as soon as the middle of next week.\n\nHow does COVID-19 affect me? Don’t miss an update with the Coronavirus Watch newsletter\n\nThat means parents are likely soon to be faced with a choice: Would they rather take the small chance of their child falling seriously ill from COVID-19, or the even smaller chance that they will be harmed by the shots intended to protect against it?\n\nTo help with that decision, USA TODAY has summarized the data presented to the FDA panel, including what is known and what remains unknown.\n\nEven without vaccination, it's possible to protect children by wearing masks indoors and vaccinating the adults in their lives, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing Wednesday.\n\nCOVID-19 in younger children\n\nSerious COVID-19 infections have been rare among the 28 million American children ages 5-11.\n\nAccording to one study, as many as 42% of children in this age group have been infected since the start of the pandemic, leading to more than 8,000 hospitalizations and just under 100 deaths.\n\nCases in children spiked this summer, because of the delta variant, though children do not appear to be getting sicker from this variant than from others.\n\nAlthough at substantially lower rates than in adults, children ages 5-11 can also suffer from lingering symptoms of COVID-19 infections – including monthslong fatigue, pain, headaches, insomnia and trouble concentrating.\n\nAll children, regardless of age, can catch and pass on COVID-19, a recent Harvard study confirmed.\n\nIt's also become clear over the past year how important it is to keep children in school, and vaccinating kids would undoubtedly reduce the number of school closures, which have kept more than 1 million children away from their classrooms this fall.\n\nIn the 2019-2020 flu season, considered a bad year for the virus, 107 children ages 5 and older died of flu. More children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 than were hospitalized with flu in 2017-2018. Millions of parents choose to vaccinate their kids against flu to protect them and elders.\n\nPfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson:Comparing the COVID-19 vaccines\n\nRisks of vaccination for kids 5-11\n\nEvery vaccine brings some risks.\n\nIn this case, the risks are theoretical. None of the roughly 3,500 children who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in clinical trials suffered a serious side effect tied to the shots, according to company data reviewed by the FDA.\n\nThose who oppose vaccination in kids, who flooded the inboxes of advisory panel members last weekend, argued vaccines are unnecessary in this age group, because so few children have been seriously harmed by their COVID-19 infection.\n\nBenefits of COVID-19 vaccination\n\nPfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is clearly effective in children 5-11, preventing more than 90% of infections, according to one study in about 2,500 children.\n\nThe vaccine appears to be safe, with most side effects in line with those experienced by adolescents and adults, including temporary pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue and low-grade fevers.\n\nYounger children will be given a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose one-third as large as the dose given to those over 12, to minimize side effects while maintaining effectiveness.\n\nThe only member of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to abstain from the vote, Dr. Michael Kurilla, expressed concern in a later statement about the duration and strength of protection.\n\nChildren in the trial were only followed for a few months, he noted, and since at least half of children in this age group see no symptoms when infected with COVID-19, he thought the studies overestimated the risk of infection and therefore the benefit of vaccination.\n\nWhat we still don't know\n\nThere remain unanswered questions about how children ages 5-11 will respond to vaccines:\n\nWhat about rare side effects? Pfizer-BioNTech's safety trials included about 5,000 children, which is not enough to identify rare side effects.\n\nThe potential side effect of greatest concern is called myocarditis, a swelling of the heart muscle that can also be caused by COVID-19. Myocarditis after vaccination has been seen mainly in adolescents and young adults, mostly male, after their second dose of vaccine.\n\nOut of every million 16- and 17-year-old boys who have been vaccinated, 69 have developed the condition, compared to just two out of every million men in their 40s. None has died.\n\nTracking COVID-19 vaccine distribution by state:How many people have been vaccinated in the US?\n\nMyocarditis is more common generally in older teenagers and young adults and lower in the 5- to 11-age group, but it's not clear whether that would be true if caused by the vaccine.\n\n\"We're worried about a side effect that we can't measure yet, but it's probably real,\" said committee member Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and an infectious disease expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.\n\n\"We're never going to learn how safe it is until we start giving it,\" he added.\n\nWhat about long-term effects and benefits? As with adults, vaccines in children are unlikely to cause long-term health effects not seen within the first weeks after the shots. In one of two studies, children were followed for an average of two months; in the other, just a few weeks so far.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, like the one from Moderna, triggers the body to produce a harmless protein found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19, so the immune system will recognize it and respond if it sees the complete virus.\n\nThis production does not last long and the messenger RNA used to deliver the vaccine does not stick around long or get into the cell nucleus where the DNA is stored, so it cannot make fundamental changes to the cell's activities.\n\nAs with the adult vaccines, it's unknown how long a COVID-19 vaccine will protect a child ages 5 to 11 against infection or whether boosters will be needed.\n\nCommittee member Dr. Paul Offit said he always wishes he had more information, but felt he had enough in this case to decide in favor of vaccinations.\n\n\"It's always nerve-wracking when you're asked to make a decision for millions of children based on studies of only a few thousand,\" said Offit, an infectious disease expert at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. \"For me, I think I know enough to move forward with a 'yes' vote.\"\n\nOther factors to consider for parents\n\nInfection rates:An FDA analysis of the vaccine's safety and effectiveness in kids concludes that the benefits outweigh the risks until infection rates fall below 5% of those at their height in September.\n\nInfection rates are falling right now throughout most of the country, but is not clear whether they will climb again with the winter (respiratory viruses like COVID-19 tend to increase in winter) or whether a new variant will pop up that will make vaccination more important.\n\nPrevious infection: A child who has already been infected with COVID-19 carries some protection against the virus and is less likely to fall seriously ill. Generally, a vaccine provides more predictable protection than infection, but an infection may offer broader protection against variants, studies in adults have shown.\n\nA child's vulnerability: Children who are immunocompromised or have health issues like obesity and metabolic disease are at higher risk for serious cases. Two-thirds of children hospitalized for COVID-19 have had preexisting health conditions. A child in this category may benefit more from vaccination than a healthy child.\n\nAlso, children of color – Black, brown or Native American – have been hospitalized at three times the rate of white children, CDC epidemiologist Fiona Havers told the committee Tuesday. Perhaps because of their family's exposures and their own health risks, they may benefit more from vaccination.\n\nMapping coronavirus:Tracking U.S. cases and deaths\n\n\"I do believe that children at highest risk do need to be vaccinated,\" said Dr. James Hildreth, a committee member and president and CEO of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.\n\nHildreth voted along with the majority of the committee, supporting vaccines, but said he struggled with the decision, because he doesn't think all children need to be vaccinated.\n\n\"In some ways we're vaccinating children to protect adults, and it should be the other way around,\" he said. \"Our focus should be on vaccinating adults to protect the children.\"\n\nThe vulnerability in the child's life: If the child lives with an immunocompromised parent or an older relative, vaccination may make more sense. Though it's not clear whether vaccines reduce transmission, a child who is vaccinated may be less likely to pass on the virus.\n\nA parent's anxiety level: There are no known serious risks from vaccination and its effectiveness is clear, so a parent who would feel better if their child is vaccinated can easily justify their decision.\n\n\"Parents are terrified of sending their kids to school,\" said Dr. Jay Portnoy, a pediatric immunologist and allergist at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, who said he wanted to give them a chance to decide whether to get their child vaccinated.\n\n\"The evidence is pretty clear that this vaccine is worthwhile,\" he concluded.\n\nKurilla came to a different conclusion. In his statement about abstaining, he ended by saying: \"While there are clearly high risk groups in the 5-11 age group for which the vaccine would significantly reduce serious disease, I do not expect protection from infection to last more than a few months and this may negatively affect public perception of vaccines.\"\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/health/covid-vaccine-kids-under-5-timeline/index.html", "title": "Covid-19 vaccine for children under 5 could come as early as June ...", "text": "(CNN) Covid-19 vaccines could be authorized for the United States' youngest children as early as June, according to the US Food and Drug Administration's latest meeting schedule .\n\nThe agency announced Friday it is reserving dates in June for its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) to meet to discuss updates to vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech's emergency use authorizations that would include making younger ages eligible for Covid-19 vaccination.\n\nTentative meeting dates for VRBPAC are June 8, 21 and 22.\n\nFollowing the advisory committee's deliberations, FDA officials could consider authorizing vaccines for younger children — with that decision also hinging on the agency's reviews of the vaccine data.\n\n\"As we continue to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there are a number of anticipated submissions and scientific questions that will benefit from discussion with our advisory committee members,\" Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in Friday's announcement\n\n\"We are providing a tentative schedule for discussion of these submissions, as these meetings will cover a number of topics that are of great interest to the general public,\" Marks said. \"The agency is committed to a thorough and transparent process that considers the input of our independent advisors and provides insight into our review of the COVID-19 vaccines. We intend to move quickly with any authorizations that are appropriate once our work is completed.\"\n\nIt has been more than a year since adults first became eligible to receive Covid-19 vaccines in the United States, and currently, children 5 and older are eligible to get vaccinated. But no Covid-19 vaccines have been authorized yet for children younger than 5 in the US -- about 18 million people -- and, even though FDA advisers plan to meet in June, an exact timeline for potential authorization is still not clear.\n\nModerna officials have said the FDA is expected to move fast, and a Pfizer official suggested its vaccine for younger children could be available in June, if it's authorized.\n\nWhy is it taking so long to get vaccines for children under 5?\n\nThe timeline for making Covid-19 vaccines available for children under 5 hit somewhat of a delay earlier this year when a VRBPAC meeting to discuss the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in February was postponed so that additional data on vaccines for this age group could be reviewed.\n\nAt the time, the FDA was waiting for Pfizer and BioNTech to submit data from an ongoing trial on a three-dose regimen in these younger children before moving forward with consideration of an emergency use authorization, allowing the FDA to review all data available on the efficacy of each regimen option: two doses or three doses.\n\nIf the original meeting had occurred in February, the committee would not have seen all available data to have an informed discussion. The latest clinical trial data from Pfizer/BioNTech suggests that in this age group, two doses seemed to work well against the Delta coronavirus variant but not against the Omicron variant.\n\nAs for Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, the company announced Thursday that it is seeking emergency use authorization from the FDA for children 6 months through 5 years of age.\n\nJust recently, in late March, Moderna announced results of a clinical trial that included 2,500 children ages 6 months through 24 months and 4,200 children ages 2 through 5. The company said that two 25-microgram doses of its vaccine led to a similar immune response in young children as two 100-microgram doses for adults ages 18 to 25. And it said this should predict protection from Covid-19 and severe Covid-19 down to 6 months of age.\n\nWhile Moderna has shared some data on two doses of Covid-19 vaccine for younger children, Pfizer and BioNTech's data on three doses for younger children is not yet available.\n\nThe FDA is weighing whether to consider emergency use authorization for both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for young children at the same time, rather than considering them separately, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, said last week.\n\n\"Two products that are similar but not identical, particularly with regard to the dose, and what the FDA wants to do is to get it so that we don't confuse people to say 'this is the dose. This is the dose regimen for children within that age group of 6 months to 5 years,' \" Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Kasie Hunt.\n\nThe Pfizer vaccine was made to protect against the original strain of the coronavirus, and the initial series of two 3-milligram doses tested in kids under 5 wasn't powerful enough to keep them safe from the more infectious Omicron variant.\n\n\"It didn't meet the criteria for efficacy,\" Fauci said. \"There was never a safety issue, but it didn't meet the criteria, which then had them go back and do a study with a third dose as a part of the primary regimen.\"\n\nPfizer CEO Albert Bourla said publicly that the company's goal is to have its Covid-19 vaccine available for young children by summer.\n\nHow long would it be for my child to get the vaccine after authorization?\n\nIf the FDA authorizes the shots, vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next will vote on whether the vaccine should be recommended for young children. The CDC director will then need to sign off on a vaccine recommendation before shots can be administered.\n\nThat process could happen as quickly as within just a few days.\n\nHow many kids 5 and older have already received a Covid-19 vaccine?\n\nThe youngest group eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the US, children ages 5 to 11, is also the least vaccinated one, according to the latest CDC data\n\nJust over a third of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated.\n\nBut vaccination rates are twice as high among adolescents, and overall, about 43% of currently eligible children ages 5 to 17 are fully vaccinated -- about 23 million in all.\n\nOverall, as of Friday, about 66% of the US population is fully vaccinated, including 76% of adults and 90% of seniors. Among adolescents ages 12 to 17, the vaccination rate is 69%.\n\nWhat's the risk to kids under 5 if they get Covid-19?\n\nEven though children are far less likely than adults to be hospitalized or to die from Covid-19, it is not a benign disease in young ages, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).\n\nThe number of new Covid-19 cases among children in the US grew nearly 12% last week from the week before, the AAP announced Monday , but they made up a smaller share of all new cases than they did the week before.\n\nAbout 37,073 kids tested positive for Covid-19 during the week ending April 21, the second consecutive week of increasing child cases after months of declines.\n\nHowever, this was 16.3% of all new Covid-19 cases in the US last week, 10 percentage points less than the week before.\n\nOverall, during the Omicron surge, more children were sent to the hospital than in earlier waves. Among states that report hospitalization information by age, kids were 1.2% to 4.6% of the total cumulative hospitalizations, a number that has remained consistent for the past four weeks and has stayed relatively steady throughout the pandemic.\n\nAmong states that reported mortality data, kids were up to 0.27% of all Covid-19 deaths, a number that has also remained steady.\n\nFor now, how can I protect my child until the Covid-19 vaccine is available?\n\nWhile parents are waiting to vaccinate their little ones, there is something they can do to protect the children.\n\nAll adults who interact with the children should be vaccinated, the experts say, and ideally boosted. Adults are also advised to use masks around unvaccinated children, even as many mandates have fallen away.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nDr. Doran Fink, who oversees the FDA's clinical and toxicological review of investigational and US-licensed vaccines, said in a meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices this month that he understood parents' concerns. He also promised that the FDA would work \"diligently\" to verify any data submitted.\n\n\"We know that many parents and caregivers and health care providers are anxious to have Covid vaccines available for this age group,\" Fink said. \"I do want to reassure the committee and the public that we understand this concern, and we want to have available safe and effective vaccines for all age groups who will benefit from them.\"", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/04/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/06/08/pfizer-covid-vaccine-next-phase-trials-young-children-begin/7602063002/", "title": "Pfizer COVID vaccine: Next phase of trials in young children to begin", "text": "Pfizer released details Tuesday about the progress of its COVID-19 vaccination trials in children, showing that they have completed early testing and are moving forward with lower-dose trials in younger kids.\n\nChildren are less likely than adults to have a serious case of COVID-19, so drug companies are trying to minimize vaccine side effects while maximizing benefits.\n\nFor now, Pfizer, which collaborates with German biotech BioNTech, is testing its vaccine at lower doses in grade schoolers than adolescents and still lower doses in younger children.\n\nPfizer and BioNTech already have studied their vaccine in 2,260 adolescents age 12 to and 15 and received authorization to provide them shots in the United States. Their vaccine trials showed that adolescents developed a strong antibody response to the virus. The vaccine prevented infections and did not lead to intolerable side effects.\n\nThe companies also have completed early trials in a small number of younger children to show safety and establish relevant vaccine doses. As is typical with trials in children, volunteers have been divided into three age groups: ages 5 to 11, 2 to 5, and 6 months to 2 years.\n\nVaccines 2.0: Next-generation COVID-19 shots will be cheaper, easier to deliver and protect against more viruses, industry leaders say\n\nThe 112 children in those trials received doses of either 10, 20 or 30 micrograms, with an option for 3 micrograms in the youngest children.\n\nLarger trials to evaluate safety and immune response have already begun in 5- to 11-year-olds at 10 micrograms and are expected to begin in the younger age groups in the next few weeks, according to a statement from Pfizer. Children under 5 will receive the 3 microgram dose.\n\nThose trials will include 4,500 volunteers across all three age groups in the U.S., Finland, Poland and Spain. Trial organizers are working to ensure a diversity of trial participants, the company said.\n\nOne child will receive a placebo for every two that get the active vaccine. Children who receive the placebo will be given the option to get the active shots if the vaccine is authorized within six months of their participation.\n\nMore:How does COVID-19 end in the US? Likely with a death rate Americans are willing to 'accept'\n\nIf those trials prove safety and immune response, the companies expect to request federal authorization in September or October to provide the vaccine to children ages 5 to 11, and a little later in the fall for younger children.\n\nAt a later date, the companies may consider vaccinating infants once they confirm safety in older children.\n\nAs with adults and older teens, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be given to children with two shots, spaced about three weeks apart.\n\nUnlike adults, the companies will not be required to prove that the vaccines prevent most infections – which is no longer practical because of low rates of infection in the U.S. and even lower rates among children. Instead, vaccine makers will have to show that their shots produce an equivalent or better immune response than in young people 16 to 25.\n\nModerna and Johnson & Johnson, which also make authorized COVID-19 vaccines, are testing their shots in children as well.\n\nTo volunteer your child for a Pfizer-BioNTech trial, click here.\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/06/13/fda-advisors-consider-recommending-covid-19-vaccines-young-children/7571523001/", "title": "FDA advisers to review, likely recommend COVID-19 vaccines for ...", "text": "An FDA expert advisory panel meets this week and will likely recommend two COVID vaccines for the youngest children.\n\nThe vaccines under review are Moderna's for ages 6 months to 17 years and Pfizer-BioNTech's for children ages 6 months to 5 years.\n\nIf the vaccines are authorized this week, they would become available as soon as June 21, the Biden administration has said.\n\nA federal advisory panel is likely this week to recommend two COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest children, as well as a second option for older kids whose access has been limited to Pfizer-BioNTech shots.\n\nAccording to detailed information made public Friday and Sunday, Food and Drug Administration staff reviewed safety and effectiveness data for the Moderna vaccine for people ages 6 months to 17 years and for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years.\n\nThe review was positive, raising no new safety issues or concerns about trial data, most of which had been released by the companies.\n\nAn FDA expert advisory panel will hold all-day meetings Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the data, but the staff review suggests that there will be no major surprises and that the panel will recommend authorization of both vaccines.\n\nIf that happens and the FDA commissioner signs off on the shots, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will follow the same process, and a different expert advisory panel will do a review Friday and Saturday. The CDC director would have to endorse the vaccines before the companies would be allowed to provide them.\n\nThe Biden administration said that if the vaccines are authorized this week, they would become available as soon as June 21 (a day after the federal Juneteenth holiday) at pharmacies, pediatricians' offices, libraries, children's museums, health centers and other outlets.\n\nThe federal government pre-purchased vaccine doses, which will be provided at no cost to families.\n\nThose ‘free’ COVID-19 tests? Labs rake in millions in tax dollars, study says\n\nAdvocates are eager for vaccines to finally be extended to young children, the only major group of Americans left unprotected by vaccines.\n\n\"This moment is bittersweet,\" said Fatima Khan, co-founder of Protect Their Future, a grassroots group of physicians, parents and activists. \"We're grateful to access a safe vaccine but also troubled by how long it took. … We must learn from this experience and fix root bureaucratic issues that caused the delays so that our children are never left behind again.\"\n\nThe only vaccine available for children has been Pfizer-BioNTech's, authorized for those 5 and up. Traditionally, drugs and vaccines are studied first in adults, then in adolescents and progressively younger children, moving down in age as safety and effectiveness are proved in older groups.\n\nBabies younger than 6 months are not expected to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, vaccination during pregnancy, which has been safe, passes on protection that lasts for about the first six months of life.\n\nCompanies determined the most effective doses of COVID-19 vaccines for each eligible age group, while minimizing side effects.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech offers adults and adolescents a two-dose initial vaccine series, with 30 micrograms of active ingredients in each shot. Children ages 5-11 receive 10 micrograms of the vaccine, and the youngest children would get a 3-microgram dose.\n\nPfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, found that two doses were not adequately protective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus, so they asked the FDA and CDC to authorize a three-dose series for children ages 6 months through 4 years old. Older children are authorized to receive a booster dose to protect against the latest variants.\n\nAdults get two 100-microgram doses of the Moderna vaccine, which is based on the same mRNA technology as Pfizer-BioNTech's, for their initial series. The company proposed the same dosage for teens, two 50-microgram shots for younger children and two 25-microgram doses for the youngest children.\n\nModerna tested its vaccine in two doses only, and it appears less effective in the youngest children.\n\nOn Tuesday, the FDA advisory panel, called the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, will review data on Moderna's vaccine for children 6 to 17.\n\nOn Wednesday, the panel will decide whether to recommend Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccines for children as young as 6 months.\n\nVaccine side effects, dosage for children and what studies have found\n\nVaccine side effects in the youngest age groups were similar to those in older children, including short-term fever and redness at the injection site, studies showed.\n\nNeither vaccine trial in young children found any cases of allergic reactions to the shots or myocarditis, the swelling of the heart muscle occasionally seen among adolescent boys and young men after vaccination.\n\nIn the Pfizer-BioNTech trial, three shots – the third given at least eight weeks after the second – protected more than 75% of children ages 6 months to 2 years and 82% of those ages 2 to 5, and there was no significant increase in side effects. The trial included about 4,500 children in five countries; twice as many participants got the active vaccine than got a placebo.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech trial had been designed to wait for results until 21 children in either the placebo or active vaccine group contracted COVID-19. Although cases have risen in recent weeks, only 10 had tested positive for the coronavirus this month, so technically, the effectiveness results are considered preliminary.\n\nIn Moderna's trial of 6,700 children ages 6 months to under 6, company researchers found that two 25-microgram doses led the children to develop levels of virus-fighting antibodies comparable to young adults who received two full-strength shots.\n\nIn the study, which took place during the omicron wave, researchers found the vaccine was 51% effective among children 6 months to under 2 and 37% effective among children 2 to under 6.\n\nAmong older children, a 50-microgram dose appeared to be safe and effective, according to company data and the FDA analysis.\n\nModerna filed a year ago for authorization of its vaccine in adolescents, but the FDA held the application, awaiting more information on the risks of myocarditis after vaccination. The committee will review more recent data and decide whether the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks of myocarditis in that age group.\n\nTeens and young adults, particularly males, appear to be at the highest risk for this side effect, though it is generally milder than the myocarditis caused by infection with COVID-19.\n\n5 million doses of each vaccine available by June 21\n\nThe FDA advisory panel is likely to make a recommendation at the end of each day's meeting: Tuesday on Moderna's vaccine for children ages 6-17 and Wednesday on both vaccines for young children.\n\nAdministration officials said last week they started accepting state and local orders for the shots and expect to have 5 million doses each of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for young children available on June 21 and millions more soon thereafter.\n\n\"If the FDA and the CDC recommend these vaccines, this would mark an important moment in the pandemic,\" Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said at a news conference last week. \"It would mean that for the first time, essentially every American – from our oldest to our youngest – would be eligible for the protection that vaccines provide.\"\n\nContributing: Adrianna Rodriguez\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/13"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_10", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/06/16/beyonce-renaissance-new-album-2022/7644395001/", "title": "Beyonce's new album 'Renaissance': 'Break My Soul,' everything we ...", "text": "Get buzzing Beyhive, Beyoncé's new album \"Renaissance\" is on the way – and her first single will have you running for the dance floor.\n\nLate Monday night, Queen Bey released “Break My Soul,” a glistening dance track that samples Big Freedia's \"Explode\" and nods to Robin S.'s 1993 hit, \"Show Me Love.\"\n\n\"You won't break my soul,\" Beyoncé repeats throughout the song, while also calling for a reinvention. The pulsing song is the first offering from her seventh studio album, due July 29.\n\nHype for the new music began weeks ago after the star first starting dropping hints about a new endeavor, removing all of her profile pictures from social media as people within her circle began dropping seemingly-random adoration posts about her.\n\nFinally, in the wee hours of Thursday morning, Tidal, the music streaming service formerly owned by Beyoncé's husband Jay-Z, shared the official news: \"Renaissance\" would arrive this summer.\n\nDays later, Beyoncé updated the bios of her social media platforms with a tease: \"6. BREAK MY SOUL midnight ET.\" So fans may want to keep a close eye on Beyonce feeds for more surprises.\n\nIn the meantime, here's everything we know about \"Renaissance\" so far:\n\nWhen does Beyonce's new album release?\n\nThe album is set to drop July 29. And this could be the first in a series as it was also titled \"Act I.\" On the Grammy-winning artist's official website, her new music has become the focal point of the homepage with options to pre-save the album and shop four different kinds of nondescript \"Renaissance\" merchandise which include a T-shirt, a CD and a collectible \"Renaissance\" box.\n\nBeyoncé first teased the \"Renaissance\" title in an August interview with Harper's Bazaar, saying she'd been in the studio for a year and a half working on something new.\n\n\"With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible,\" she said. \"Yes, the music is coming!\"\n\nBeyoncé is coming:A look back on her most-recent interview with Harper's Bazaar\n\nWhat is 'Break My Soul' about?\n\nThe lyrics to Beyoncé's first song speak for themselves: Nobody and nothing is breaking Queen Bey's soul.\n\n\"And I just quit my job/I'm gonna find a new drive,\" she sings and semi-rapping with attitude, \"the queens in the front and the doms in the back/ain't takin' no flicks but the whole clique snapped.\"\n\nShe goes on: \"Got motivation, I done found me a new foundation, yeah, and I’m taking my new salvation.\"\n\n'Break My Soul':Beyoncé hits the dance floor with new song from upcoming 'Renaissance' album\n\nWhat has Beyonce said about her new album?\n\nBeyoncé discussed the upcoming album in a British Vogue interview that hit newsstands on June 21. The fashion outlet shared several photos from the cover story on Thursday, including the songstress looking regal on a horse in a feathered headdress, a glam shot on a motorcycle and more.\n\nBritish Vogue teases that \"Renaissance\" will be the singer's \"most ambitious musical project to date.\" The album is also the result of Beyoncé overthinking every detail and decision as she spent time at home amid the pandemic.\n\nThe outlet alludes to the album being party-focused with \"soaring vocals and fierce beats.\" British Vogue writes: \"Her upcoming album is music that makes you rise, that turns your mind to cultures and subcultures, music that will unite so many on the dance floor and make them fall in love.\"\n\nTrue to the album name, the outlet says it shows her \"evolution, one that promises vision, grace – and something a little bit extra.\"\n\n'The best I’ve felt in my life':Beyoncé reflects on 40th birthday in emotional letter to fans\n\nWhen did Beyonce last release new music?\n\n\"Renaissance\" will come off the back of the singer's visual album \"Black is King,\" which was released July 2020 in correspondence with the soundtrack she made for 2019's \"Lion King.\" Also in 2020, she joined Megan Thee Stallion for a remix of her hit song \"Savage.\"\n\nThe last time Beyoncé released a truly solo project was in 2016 with the surprise drop visual album \"Lemonade,\" which spurred hits including \"Hold up\" and \"Formation.\" In 2019 she released the album version of her headlining performance at 2018's Coachella and in 2018, she and Jay-Z teamed up as The Carters to release their \"Everything is Love\" album.\n\nSince \"Black is King,\" the singer made Grammy history becoming the most-winning female artist, and the most-winning singer (male or female), in the 63-year history of the Grammy Awards. The 2021 award show solidified her spot after her trophy count rose to 28 wins, the new additions being her music video for \"Brown Skin Girl\" and a win for best rap performance with the \"Savage\" collaboration.\n\nContributing: Melissa Ruggieri, Naledi Ushe, Amy Haneline", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/12/17/target-wont-sell-beyonces-new-album/4050521/", "title": "Target refuses to sell Beyonce's new album", "text": "Patrick Ryan\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nThe physical album hits shelves on Friday%2C but you won%27t find it at Target\n\n%27Beyonce%27 sold a staggering 617%2C000 copies in the U.S. iTunes store in three days\n\nHer fifth album is expected to top the Billboard album chart this week\n\nNot everyone is crazy in love with Beyoncé's record-breaking, game-changing new album, which sold a whopping 617,000 copies in three days following its surprise iTunes release early Friday morning.\n\nTarget is refusing to sell the physical album when it hits store shelves on Friday, citing that the pop star's decision to release it digitally first could negatively affect sales, according to Billboard.\n\n\"At Target we focus on offering our guests a wide assortment of physical CDs, and when a new album is available digitally before it is available physically, it impacts demand and sales projections,\" Target spokeswoman Erica Julkowski told Billboard.\n\nShe continues, saying that while they \"appreciated partnering with Beyoncé in the past\" on her last album, 4 (which received an exclusive Target release with six additional tracks), they will \"not be carrying Beyoncé's new self-titled album Beyoncé.\"\n\nDon't cry for Bey quite yet, though. Her album is still expected to easily top the Billboard album chart this week, giving the pop diva her fifth consecutive No. 1 and the largest debut of her career (ahead of B'Day in 2006, which moved 541,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan).", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/12/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/economy/beyonce-great-resignation/index.html", "title": "Beyoncé's new song is an anthem for the Great Resignation - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN) Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell wants to increase joblessness in the US in order to save the economy. But Beyoncé may beat him to it.\n\nThe multi-hyphenate artist's latest single, \"Break My Soul,\" which dropped late Monday, begs listeners to \"release\" themselves from their 9-5, saying \"I just quit my job, I'm gonna find new drive, damn, they work me so damn hard.\"\n\nImmediately dubbed an \"anthem for the Great Resignation\" on social media, fans didn't skip a beat, posting memes and all-cap tweets aligning themselves with Queen Bey's motivational message to ditch hustle culture and get back to \"sleeping real good at night.\"\n\n\"Me sending my resignation email because Beyoncé told me to,\" was a common theme online.\n\n\"BREAKING: Beyoncé's 'Break My Soul' identified as source of The Great Resignation,\" tweeted one person\n\n\"Still can't get over how Beyoncé is about to catalyze a mass resignation bc we surviving off vibes now,\" tweeted another fan.\n\nThe song, Beyoncé's first single since Juneteenth last year, blends 1990s club culture with 2022 Pride vibes. It's an inescapable summer psalm, with heavy sampling from the early-90s hit \"Show Me Love\" by Robin S and vocals from Big Freedia, a rapper best known for her New Orleans \"bounce music,\" aka bass-heavy booty-shaking.\n\n\"Release your anger/Release your mind/Release your job/Release the tide/Release your trade/Release the stress/Release your love/Forget the rest,\" sings Big Freedia, lyrics that embrace both the socio-economic pandemic fatigue and the desire to break free of it.\n\nIn the past 12 months, a record number of Americans have 'released' themselves from their jobs for a variety of reasons: pandemic burnout, a desire for better pay or better benefits, or the need to care for children or elderly relatives during the pandemic.\n\nDubbed the \"Great Resignation,\" the offset between job vacancies and job seekers means there are now almost two job openings for every unemployed worker, a situation that Fed Chair Powell has called \"unhealthy.\"\n\nLast week, the central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point in an aggressive bid to tamp down spiraling inflation and cool the economy — but the move could also shake up the labor market.\n\nAmid this backdrop, \"Break My Soul\" resonated immediately with fans — and economists.\n\n\"Truly JOLTS's time in the spotlight,\" tweeted labor economist Nick Bunker, referring to the monthly report that tabulates the number of people who quit their job.", "authors": ["Lucy Bayly", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/01/01/nasa-responds-to-beyonces-challenger-sample-use/4277677/", "title": "NASA responds to Beyonce's Challenger sample use", "text": "AP\n\nNASHVILLE (AP) — NASA officials say the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster \"should never be trivialized\" in response to a new song from Beyoncé that features an audio sample recorded just after the craft exploded on takeoff in 1986, killing all seven crewmembers.\n\nThe space agency issued the statement late Tuesday after the pop star began to receive criticism from Challenger families and others for using the short sample that includes the words \"major malfunction\" as an allusion to a failed relationship.\n\n\"The Challenger accident is an important part of our history; a tragic reminder that space exploration is risky and should never be trivialized,\" said the statement from Lauren B. Worley, NASA's press secretary. \"NASA works every day to honor the legacy of our fallen astronauts as we carry out our mission to reach for new heights and explore the universe.\"\n\nNASA's response came after Beyoncé explained the use of the short snippet in a statement to ABC News Tuesday that stopped short of an apology. The sample appears at the beginning of her song XO from her new self-titled album.\n\nAmong those critical of the sample was June Scobee Rodgers, widow of Challenger commander Dick Scobee. She told ABC in a statement that she was disappointed and described the use of the sample as \"emotionally difficult.\"\n\n\"My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster,\" Beyoncé's statement said. \"The song 'XO' was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten.\"\n\nBeyoncé released her new self-titled \"visual album\" earlier this month that included 14 songs and 17 videos. Much of the initial discussion about the album had to do with its surprise release and platinum sales until the reaction to the Challenger sample began to circulate.\n\nXO is about a failing relationship and taking the time to appreciate what one has in the moment because life changes.\n\nBeyonce's publicist did not return messages left Tuesday by The Associated Press.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/01/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2018/12/21/beyonce-didnt-release-new-music-streaming-sites-despite-rumors/2385604002/", "title": "Beyonce didn't release new music on streaming sites, despite rumors", "text": "Associated Press\n\nThere’s no more juice in Beyonce’s lemonade jar: The singer did not release new music though two albums featuring old Beyonce songs hit streaming services Thursday.\n\nUnder the name Queen Carter, the albums “Have Your Way” and “Back Up, Rewind” appeared on Spotify and Apple Music, featuring demos, previously released songs and unreleased tracks by Beyonce. Hours later, they were removed.\n\nThe 10-track “Have Your Way” included songs like “After All Is Said and Done,” Beyonce’s duet with Marc Nelson from the “Best Man” soundtrack, released in 1999; “Hollywood,” a song with Jay-Z from his 2006 album, “Kingdom Come”; and “Hey Goldmember” from the soundtrack for 2002′s “Austin Powers in Goldmember,” which starred Beyonce. It also featured “Crazy Feelings,” the singer’s collaboration with Missy Elliott from the rapper’s sophomore album, 1999′s “Da Real World”; and “Fever,” a cover of the ’50′s hit used in an ad for Beyonce’s perfume and for the soundtrack for “The Fighting Temptations,” another film Beyonce appeared in.\n\nMore:2019 Grammys snubs: Beyonce and Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and more shockers\n\nMore:Ed Sheeran criticized for underdressing for Beyonce duet at festival\n\n“Back Up, Rewind,” featured 11 tracks including “Keep Giving Your Love to Me,” from the “Bad Boys II” soundtrack, released in 2003, and “What It’s Gonna Be,” a Beyonce bonus track from 2003.\n\nThe stand-alone song, “Control,” also appeared on streaming services.\n\nRepresentatives for Beyonce, Apple Music and Spotify didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment.\n\nBeyonce’s last three albums were released in surprise form: her self-titled album came out in 2013; “Lemonade” followed in 2016; and “Everything is Love,” her collaborative album with Jay-Z where the couple is billed as The Carters, was released earlier this year.\n\nR&B singer SZA on Thursday addressed an album of her older demos that recently hit streaming services under the name Sister Solana (her real name is Solana Rowe). SZA called the project “random scratches from 2015” and explained that the songs are “def not new new!”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/12/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/05/02/beyonce-lemonade-prince-drake/83814890/", "title": "Beyoncé, Prince reign on 'Billboard' album chart", "text": "Patrick Ryan\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nMusic fans' drink of choice is Lemonade.\n\nBeyoncé's sixth solo effort made its debut atop the Billboard 200 album chart, selling 653,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music. That total includes album-equivalent streaming numbers (115.2 million streams) and track sales (907,500 downloads), in addition to pure albums sold (485,000 copies).\n\nThe album's most-streamed songs were led by Sorry (12.8 million), which caused a stir on social media with lyrics about cheating. Other popular tracks included Hold Up (11.3 million); 6 Inch, featuring The Weeknd (10.8 million); and Don't Hurt Yourself, with Jack White (10.1 million). Meanwhile, controversial lead single Formation shot up to third place on the digital songs chart, selling 174,000 downloads and rocketing to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.\n\nBeyoncé's Formation tour: 7 things to watch for\n\nLemonade is Beyoncé's sixth No. 1 on the album chart, arriving three years after her previous self-titled album debuted with 617,000 copies sold in December 2013. It comes on the heels of a whirlwind week for the pop queen, who premiered the emotional surprise album as an hour-long visual on HBO before releasing it on Tidal. The 12-song project was exclusive to the streaming service for 24 hours, after which it was made available digitally on iTunes and Amazon. A physical version of the album will be released Friday.\n\nLast week, Beyoncé launched her career-spanning Formation world tour in Miami. The nearly sold-out trek's next stop is Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C.\n\nElsewhere on the chart, Prince continued to rule with posthumous sales, taking five slots of the top 10. Greatest-hits album The Very Best of Prince dropped to No. 2 with 391,000 equivalent units sold (216,000 pure album sales). The late icon's other top sellers were the Purple Rain soundtrack (150,000), The Hits/The B-Sides (106,000), Ultimate (40,000) and 1999 (36,000).\n\nHis songs continued to dominate the charts as well. Purple Rain was the most downloaded track of the week with 282,000 — jumping to No. 4 on the Hot 100 as a result. Prince had six more of the top 10 best sellers, followed by When Doves Cry (198,000), Little Red Corvette (161,000), Let's Go Crazy (156,000), 1999 (147,000), Kiss (144,000) and Raspberry Beret (127,000).\n\nPrince's death, Day 11: Family prepares for court hearing\n\nIn other new releases, Drake's Views is shaping up for an even greater debut than Beyoncé's. In three days, the rapper's fourth solo album sold a staggering 823,000 equivalent album units, according to BuzzAngle Music, a sales and streaming tracking service from music technology company Border City Media. Of those, 729,000 were pure album sales.\n\nViews premiered on iTunes and Apple Music early Friday morning. It is not yet available on streaming services such as Spotify, although viral hit One Dance continues to pull in massive numbers on the platform (99.5 million streams, blasting to No. 2 on the Hot 100).\n\nDrake's 'Views': 6 songs you need to hear off his new album", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/05/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/11/04/beyonce-platinum-edition-box-set-november-24/18455529/", "title": "Beyonce unveils box set featuring two new songs", "text": "Patrick Ryan\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nThe good news: Beyoncé has new music on the way.\n\nThe bad: It may not be everything fans were hoping for.\n\nSpeculation swirled over the weekend that Bey would be releasing a new surprise album after a leaked \"release confirmation\" surfaced online, but those rumors have now been put to bed.\n\nInstead, the reigning pop diva will release a four-disc Beyoncé Platinum Edition Box Set, a 2 CD/2 DVD combo out Nov. 24. A CD of new music, titled \"More,\" features two brand new songs (7/11 and Ring Off) and four unreleased remixes with Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Mr. Vegas.\n\nThe box set will also include last year's self-titled surprise album and 17 music videos, a DVD featuring 10 live performances from her highly successful Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, and a 2015 Beyoncé mini-calendar.\n\nFans who purchased the visual album digitally will be able to add bonus materials.\n\nThe 'More' CD tracklist:", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/11/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/11/24/beyonce-platinum-edition-spotify-711-ring-off/70060298/", "title": "'Beyonce' album, new songs sashay onto Spotify", "text": "Patrick Ryan\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nWhen Queen B commands it, Spotify obeys.\n\nNearly a year after surprising the world with her self-titled effort on iTunes, Beyoncé has finally unleashed the record-smashing album to the streaming service.\n\nBeyoncé Platinum Edition, released Monday, was initially speculated to be another surprise album, but expectations were quickly tempered when it was revealed that it would only be a reissue with two new songs and four remixes. New songs Ring Off and 7/11 both leaked online last week, the latter of which was accompanied by a DIY-style music video, which Bey shot in a hotel suite with her dancers.\n\nWith the help of the high-octane clip, 7/11 could follow in the footsteps of viral sensation Flawless***. While 7/11 may not boast the feminist message of the latter, they both excel with Southern-style trap beats, an instantly recognizable refrain, and club-ready dance moves that have since ignited Tumblr with GIFs.\n\nOn the other end of the spectrum, Ring Off blends the Caribbean vibes of other Beyoncé B-sides Standing on the Sun and Grown Woman with the more anthemic sound of XO. It may be the less radio-friendly of the two new tracks, but it proves to be a sweet tribute by Bey to her mom, Tina, whose divorce from Mathew Knowles was highly publicized.\n\nAs for the remixes, the Nicki Minaj-assisted Flawless Remix all but broke the Internet when it debuted in August, while Kanye West is a welcome addition to Bey's Jay Z duet Drunk in Love on his previously released remix. An added verse from Pharrell Williams does little to enhance Blow, while Mr. Vegas' Standing on the Sun remix downplays the song's island zest in favor of a sexier, more uptempo sound.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/11/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/04/24/beyonce-lemonade-tidal-itunes/83471916/", "title": "Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' hits iTunes, Amazon", "text": "Patrick Ryan\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nTidal holdouts can now experience Beyoncé's latest.\n\nLemonade is available to download on both iTunes and Amazon, after being sold exclusively on Tidal for 24 hours. The visual album, released Saturday, will continue to stream exclusively on Tidal, and will not be released to Apple Music or other streaming services.\n\nBeyoncé's 'Lemonade:' A track-by-track review\n\nA CD/DVD set is also available for pre-order on Amazon, with an expected release date of May 6.\n\nBeyoncé premiered Lemonade's hour-long visual on HBO Saturday night, generating more than 1.8 million tweets worldwide, according to Twitter. The album has so far received rave reviews and also caused a stir online, with themes of marital strife and alleged infidelity (apparently about husband Jay Z) pervading its 12 songs.\n\nIs Rachel Roy Jay Z's other woman? The Beyhive has reason to believe it\n\nThe pop star released her last surprise effort — a 14-song, 17-video self-titled album — exclusively on iTunes in December 2013. She has since released new videos such as this year's Formation on Tidal, which Jay Z bought for $56 million last year along with its parent company, Aspiro.\n\nLemonade's 24-hour exclusivity is a relatively short window compared to Beyoncé's peers. Rihanna's Anti was only available on Tidal for a week after its late January release, while Kanye West's The Life of Pablo lived exclusively on the streaming service for nearly two months before he released it to other platforms this month.\n\nUSA TODAY has reached out to Beyoncé's rep for comment.\n\nContributing: Carly Mallenbaum", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/04/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2018/06/15/summer-concerts-phoenix-tempe-guide-upcoming-tours/692561002/", "title": "Summer concerts in Phoenix: Jay-Z, Beyonce", "text": "This summer concert season brings a mix of multi-platinum hip-hop, classic rock, country and more to a venue near you.\n\nHere's a look at the biggest tours headed our way, from the Eagles to Jay-Z and Beyonce.\n\n9/9: Bishop Briggs\n\nBorn in London to Scottish parents, this L.A. singer-songwriter hit the rock and alternative radio formats hard in 2016 with a handclap-driven triumph of post-Adele soul titled \"River,\" which kicked off her promising self-titled debut EP.\n\n\"River\" also appeared on her breathtaking full-length debut, \"Church of Scars,\" which hit the charts at No. 29 not long after the singer emerged as a crowd-pleasing highlight of the Innings Festival at Tempe Beach Park.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n9/11: Social Distortion\n\nMike Ness formed and fronted the earliest version of Social Distortion in 1978, keeping the name at least somewhat alive through lineup changes, breakups and the death in February 2000 of Dennis Danell.\n\nBut as they proved conclusively on 2011's \"Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes,\" their first album since 2004, they still sound like Social Distortion, filtering California punk through old-school rock and roll, the New York Dolls and Johnny Cash.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $40. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n9/12: O.A.R.\n\nThey topped the U.S. independent album charts in 2014 with \"The Rockville LP,\" an album named for the city in Maryland where they fell in love with music in the first place.\n\nIn an interview with CBS News, singer Marc Roberge explained their decision to bring it on home. \"I think when you're home and you're present and you're looking at life the way you do when you're a child, it's something really special,\" he said.\n\n\"And if you can get that onto a record, then you're really doing what you set out to do when you were a kid — just play music for the fun of it and play songs from the heart.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $45.50-$75.50. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n9/12: Gov't Mule\n\nWarren Haynes and his bandmates are headed to Phoenix in support of “Revolution Come… Revolution Go,” a 10 album that finds the guitarist wondering “Has the whole world gone insane?” in the course of addressing these turbulent times.\n\n“There are no glib solutions on offer,” writes Classic Rock magazine, “no political polemic, just the realisation that America is now a deeply divided nation and that this issue needs to be addressed.”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $35-$55. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n9/13: Rascal Flatts\n\nThey’ve sent 17 songs to No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart, but the industry trade publication says, “The road has been where the band has done some of their most inspiring work over the years.”\n\nThe biggest of those hits are \"Bless the Broken Road,\" \"What Hurts the Most\" and \"My Wish,\" all of which went platinum.\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $35.75 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n9/13: JJ Grey & Mofro\n\n\"Ol' Glory\" is the sound of the Southern soul revival getting all the details right, Grey effortlessly channeling the raspy essence of those classic Otis Redding records he appears to have been studying his whole damn life just to get to this moment.\n\nEven when they turn it down on the country blues of \"The Island,\" it feels like a spiritual cousin of \"(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay.\" As PopMatters says, they \"provide a connection to the past and a time when talent and tenacity moved the music forward.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $30-$60. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n9/13-14: Nine Inch Nails\n\nTrent Reznor and this year's assortment of Nails will launch their Cold and Black and Infinite North America Tour with two dates in Phoenix, at which they'll be joined by the Jesus and Mary Chain and Tobacco.\n\nThe tour is in support of \"Bad Witch,\" completing the trilogy that began with 2016’s \"Not The Actual Events\" and 2017’s \"ADD VIOLENCE.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Sept. 13-14. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $55 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n9/15: Alice in Chains\n\nSinger-guitarist Jerry Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney, bassist Mike Inez and singer-guitarist William DuVall are reportedly putting the finishing touches on the much-anticipated follow-up to 2013’s critically-acclaimed \"The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.\"\n\nThat album entered Billboard’s Top 200 chart at No. 2 and topped the rock charts. Spin declared it “an assured, diverse, heated record with galvanized hooks\" while Pitchfork said it’s “as insistent as [1992’s landmark album] 'Dirt.'”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $45 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n9/15: Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators\n\nThe Guns N' Roses guitarist returns to Phoenix a week before hitting the streets with an album called \"Living the Dream,\" his third recording with Kennedy & the Conspirators.\n\nClassic Rock responded to their second album, \"World on Fire,\" whose title track topped Billboard's mainstream-rock charts, with \"Listening to all 17 tracks in one go feels like going 12 rounds with a heavyweight boxer, a championship belt on the line.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $55.50. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n9/15: Keyshia Cole\n\nThis soulful R&B star’s first three albums all went platinum while sending three songs — “Let It Go,” “I Remember” and “Heaven Sent” — to No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart. Lasst years \"11:11 Reset\" put her back at No. 1 on the R&B charts.\n\nThis is one of those Grown & Sexy shows with J. Holiday, who topped the R&B charts with his best-known single, \"Bed.\"\n\nDetails: 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $10-$40. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.\n\n9/16: 3 Doors Down and Collective Soul\n\nThree Doors Down have worldwide album sales of 20 million, driven by such hits as “Kryptonite,” “When I’m Gone,” “Here Without You” and “It’s Not My Time.”\n\nSince breaking through in 1993 with the rock anthem “Shine,\" Collective Soul have sold more than 20 million records worldwide and continue to average more than one million Spotify streams per month\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $38 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n9/16: Miguel\n\nThe Ascension tour brings the Grammy-winning neo-soul sensation to the Valley in support of last year’s \"War & Leisure,\" which topped the R&B charts and spawned his biggest-selling single since \"Adorn,\" the Travis Scott-assisted \"Sky Walker.\"\n\nReleased in 2012 as the opening track of “Kaleidoscope Dream,” “Adorn” earned the singer best R&B song at the Grammys, where his show-stopping performance of that song had Kelly Clarkson testifying, “That was the sexiest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen.”\n\nDetails: 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16. Mesa Amphitheatre, 263 N. Center St., Mesa. $35. 480-644-2560, luckymanonline.com and mesaamp.com.\n\n9/18: Chris Robinson Brotherhood\n\nFrom the time the Black Crowes hit the streets with \"Shake Your Money Maker,\" it was clear that we were dealing with a singer who could more than hold his own against the best his generation had to offer, boldly taking on an Otis Redding cover in the bargain.\n\nAs for the Brotherhood, Robinson explained in a press release, \"The music that we make, the concerts that we play, it's this world we've created for ourselves and our people. We don’t have the weight of responsibility or nostalgia, which means we're in the very psychedelic situation of getting to be totally honest and create everything in the moment. That's freedom.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $79-$249. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n9/19: Jay-Z and Beyonce\n\nAmerica's favorite power couple haven't toured together since the summer of 2014, when the first On the Run tour played for six weeks in sold-out stadiums supporting the 2013 self-titled Beyonce release as well as Jay-Z’s “Magna Carta Holy Grail.”\n\nThe On the Run II Tour pulled in raves for its opening night in Wales.\n\nThe Guardian called it \"a mature, battle-worn, convincing love affair between two huge entertainers... played out on a vast stage with a set the size of a small city block, with double-jointed dancers, live horn and string sections and mobile hydraulic platforms.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19. University of Phoenix Stadium, Loop 101 and Glendale Avenue, Glendale. $49.50 and up. livenation.com, ticketmaster.com.\n\n9/19: Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue\n\nTo celebrate the tricentennial of New Orleans, the trombonist has handpicked an all-star assortment of Crescent City musicians to join him in bringing the spirit and the sound of his hometown to 27 cities on the aptly titled Voodoo Threauxdown.\n\nThe touring street party also features Galactic, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and New Breed Brass Band, with special guest appearances by Cyril Neville, Ivan Neville, Kermit Ruffins, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and more.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. SOLD OUT. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n9/21: Los Temerarios\n\nIt's been 40 years since two brothers – Adolfo and Gustavo Angel – formed the group that would become Los Temerarios with their cousin Fernando Angel, who's no longer involved in the project.\n\nAll Music Guide describes their sounds as \"bubblegum ranchera\"and goes on to say it \"was the romantic soundtrack of millions of Mexican and Mexican-American youths' lives during the '90s.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $52.50 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n9/21: Wolfmother\n\nThese stoner-rock revivalists emerged from Australia in 2006 with a self-titled triumph that wore its debt to Ozzy-era Sabbath like a badge of honor (more than likely sewn onto a faded denim jacket).\n\nAnd their love of that specific era in rock history was every bit as evident on 2016’s “Victorious,” despite the fact that singer Andrew Stockdale was the lone remaining member of the early lineup still on board.\n\nBut they'd also expanded the scope of their sound just enough to allow for departures as intriguing as an acoustic-guitar-driven ballad that ambled along like an outtake from Tom Petty's \"Wildflowers.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $79-$249. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\nRELATED:10 Songs You Need to Hear Right Now\n\n9/22: Ms. Lauryn Hill\n\nThis is a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of \"The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,\" an eight-times platinum debut on which the former Fugee's reputation may forever rest — in part because it’s so good and in part because she's yet to make another proper album.\n\nShe did the “MTV Unplugged” thing in 2001 and has released a small handful of singles, including 2010's “Repercussions\" and 2013's \"Neurotic Society.\" She's also been sampled to brilliant effect on \"Nice For What\" by Drake, which spent six weeks at No. 1.\n\nDetails: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $52.50 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n9/22: Thrice\n\nThese are Thrice’s final shows before returning to the studio to start recording their 10th album. And it’s more than a little surprising that they'd be returning to the studio this soon. “To Be Everywhere is to Be Nowhere” was their first release in five years.\n\nSputnikmusic said of \"To Be Everywhere,\" \"There is familiarity here, but nothing feels routine. This is an album as cohesive and thunderous as it would have been if it had come out in 2014.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $22.50-$37.50. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n9/22: Kali Uchis\n\nThis Colombian-American R&B sensation is touring in support of \"Isolation,\" an acclaimed debut that makes the most of guest appearances by Bootsy Collins, Tyler, the Creator, Damon Albarn, Tame Impala's Kevin Parker, Thundercat and TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek.\n\nAnd the sound is even hipper than the guest list, effortlessly navigating every jazz-inflected detour with a soulful self-assurance that suggests we may be looking at her generation's Erykah Badu.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $32-$99. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n9/22: First Aid Kit\n\nSwedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg are touring in support of a heartbreaking gem of a breakup album, aptly titled \"Ruins,\" that often appears to be channeling the early works of Leonard Cohen.\n\nThe close country harmonies are gorgeous as they flesh out their fresh take on Cosmic American Music with chamber-pop flourishes, including mariachi horns, after setting the tone with an opening track that comes right out and sums it up with \"All is futile.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22. The Pressroom, 441 W. Madison St., Phoenix. $25-$30. 602-396-7136, thepressroomaz.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF SUMMER CONCERTS 2018:\n\nPAST CONCERTS\n\n6/15: Frank Turner\n\nThe tour is in support of \"Be More Kind,\" an album that finds him exploring new sounds.\n\n“I wanted to try and get out of my comfort zone and do something different,” Turner, whose previous efforts positioned the folk-rocking punker as his generation's Billy Bragg, explained in a pres release.\n\nThe lead single, \"Blackout,\" for instance, is as Turner said, \"new territory for me, musically — a song you could even play in a club, it's about how we might collectively respond to social dislocation and collapse.”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, June 15. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $35. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n6/17: Chicago / REO Speedwagon\n\nChicago will perform “Chicago II,” which included the singles “Make Me Smile/Colour My World\" and \"25 or 6 to 4,\" in its entirety followed by the “world’s longest encore,” as they jokingly refer to it, filled with greatest hits.\n\nREO Speedwagon's set will be more of what fans would expect, including such staples as “In Your Letter,” “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” “Time For Me To Fly,” “Roll With The Changes,” “Keep On Loving You” and “Take It On the Run.”\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Sunday, June 17. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $29.50-$329. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n6/17: Gary Clark Jr.\n\nNamed \"Best young gun\" six years ago in Rolling Stone, this Austin guitarist has sent two consecutive albums, \"Black and Blu\" and \"The Story of Sonny Boy Slim,\" to the Top 10 on the Billboard album charts, a rarity for blues.\n\nEntertainment Weekly said of his latest effort, \"Texas blues-guitar whiz Clark's second album is less flashy than his debut, but in pulling back on the guitar heroics, he galvanizes his genre-jumping, too.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Sunday, June 17. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $40-$150. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n6/18: Ninja Sex Party\n\n“This is clearly going to be the best rock tour of all time,” Ninja Sex Party frontman Danny Sexbang explained in a press release. “And if all these shows don’t sell out within the first 30 seconds, Ninja Brian will eat his own face on live TV.”\n\nThey're a comedy duo whose latest albums, \"Under the Covers\" and \"Under the Covers, Vol. II,\" have featured them doing remarkably straight-faced, non-comedic, largely inessential covers of songs by Toto, Boston, Def Leppard, Asia and more.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Monday, June 18. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $30-$69.69. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n6/18: The Get Up Kids\n\nThe Kansas City rockers who gave the emo kids \"Something to Write Home About\" are back on the road in support of a new four-song EP titled \"Kicker, their first new release since 2011’s \"There Are Rules.\"\n\nIn a press release, singer-guitarist Matt Pryor explained, “A lot of the songs early in our career were written in the perspective of being young and being in relationships and what we were going through then.\"\n\nThe new EP, he said, is \"still a slice of life\" inspired by their own experiences. They're just in a different place now – older, wiser and just as contagious.\n\nDetails: 8:30 p.m. Monday, June 18. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $27; $23 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n6/19: Post Malone\n\nThis white rapper's first single, \"White Iverson,\" peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 on its way to going five-times-platinum. Subsequent hits include \"Go Flex,\" \"Congratulations,\" \"Rockstar\" and \"I Fall Apart.\"\n\n\"Rockstar\" was Malone's first No. 1 appearance on the Hot 100, logging eight weeks in the top spot. It was also the first song released from a second album called \"Beerbongs & Bentleys.\" He's touring with 21 Savage, who guests on \"Rockstar.\"\n\nDetails: 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 19. Rawhide, 5700 W. North Loop Road, Gila River Reservation. $48.50. 480-502-5600; rawhide.com.\n\n6/19: New Found Glory\n\nThey've been called \"the greatest pop-punk band in history\" by Bad Religion's own Brett Gurewitz, who scooped them up for Epitaph after they walked out on Geffen.\n\nAfter two albums on Epitaph, they switched to Hopeless for 2014's \"Resurrection\" and last year's \"Makes Me Sick,\" which Alternative Press said \"creates enough slight sonic diversions to give longtime fans something new to enjoy.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 19. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $25-$45. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n6/20: Nipsey Hussle\n\nPrior to launching his tour in support of the hit album \"Victory Lap,\" the L.A. rapper held a sold-out release show at the Hollywood Palladium, which Billboard saluted as “less like a typical … rap performance and almost like a rock concert.\"\n\nHussle calls \"Victory Lap\" \"a collection of my life stories, emotions and affirmations of ambition,” adding, “This is my most electric body of work and I'm more than excited to bring these songs to life in concert,\" the only place where the songs \"can be fully experienced.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 20. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $30-$50. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n6/20: R.A. the Rugged Man\n\nThis Long Island rapper earned raves in 2013 for his latest effort, \"Legends Never Die,\" which featured guest appearances from Tech N9ne, Brother Ali and Talib Kweli, to name a few.\n\nHipHopDX said, \"Overall, it’s an album embedded with enough humor, knowledge, and obscure Hip Hop references that will force listeners to keep this one in rotation.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 20. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $20; $15 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.\n\n6/21: Slightly Stoopid\n\nSigned by Bradley Nowell of Sublime while still in high school, these San Diego rockers have summed up what they do as a fusion of folk, rock, reggae and blues with hip-hop, funk, metal and punk.\n\n\"Meanwhile... Back at the Lab,\" became their second effort to go Top 40 on the Billboard album charts in 2015. They bring three modern-rock hits to the table - \"2 A.M.,\" \"Top of the World\" and last year's \"The Prophet.\" They're joined by Stick Figure and Pepper.\n\nDetails: 5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 21. Mesa Amphitheatre, 263 N. Center St., Mesa. $35. 480-644-2560, luckymanonline.com and mesaamp.com.\n\n6/21: Shakey Graves\n\nAlejandro Rose-Garcia had one decidedly unusual goal going into the making of the latest Shakey Graves release, the weirdly wonderful \"Can't Wake Up.\"\n\n\"I wanted it to be vaguely 'Wizard of Oz'-themed, and I wanted it to be hectic and a little uncomfortable, like what I refer to as the Big Five Disney cartoons: 'Pinocchio,' 'Fantasia,' 'Snow White,' 'Dumbo' and 'Bambi,'\" the singer explained in a press release.\n\n\"All those movies are terrifying-some of the most stressful movies I've ever seen.\"\n\nThe end result is, not surprisingly, one very trippy ride through Rose-Garcia's rich imagination.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Thursday, June 21. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $25. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n6/21: Stars\n\nThese Canadian indie-pop veterans are headed to town in continued support of last year's \"There is No Love in \"Fluorescent Light,\" which made the year-end readers' poll at Pitchfork.\n\nEven Pitchfork's critic liked it, saying, \"Stars stretch hushed electro-pop into scrambling arena rock, blending the Smiths’ guitar romance with bedroom soul like the product of some Mancunian Motown,\" adding that it finds them \"just where they belong.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Thursday, June 21. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $21-$38.50. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n6/22: Gillian Welch\n\nThe Americana legend and longtime collaborator David Rawlings, will perform two full sets of music with no opener. The New Yorker once described the duo's rootsy sound as \"at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms.\"\n\nThey've released five acclaimed albums under Welch's name – most recently \"The Harrow & the Harvest\" – and two as the Dave Rawlings Machine.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, June 22. Orpheum Theatre, 203 W. Adams St., Phoenix. $30.50-$37.50. 800-282-4842, phoenix.ticketforce.com.\n\n6/23: Kenny Chesney\n\nThe Trip Around the Sun Tour is the country star's first trip around the sun since the release of last year's \"Live from No Shoes Nation,\" a 30-song document of the Chesney live experience.\n\n\"We have so much fun, so much life, so many memories – all tied up in these shows and these songs,\" Chesney explained in a press release. \"I am ready to get out there and kick into another summer where we can all celebrate how lucky we are to love life and be able to come together.”\n\nDetails: 5 p.m. Saturday, June 23. Chase Field, 401 E. Jefferson, Phoenix. $18.50-$500. 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.\n\nPHOTOS FROM KENNY CHESNEY IN 2018:\n\n6/23: Tiesto\n\nThe iconic Dutch DJ/producer earned a Grammy nomination in 2008 for best electronic/dance album, winning his first Grammy in 2015 for a remix of John Legend's \"All of Me.\"\n\nHe's also won multiple MTV Awards and finished first in DJ Mag's Top 100 DJ ranking for three consecutive years. Mixmag voted him the greatest DJ of all time in 2011, and he topped a list in Rolling Stone in 2012 of the 25 DJs That Rule the Earth.\n\nMORE:Tiesto, Diplo and other top DJs to perform at pool parties\n\nDetails: 12 p.m. Saturday, June 23. The Pool at Talking Stick Resort, 9800 E. Talking Stick Way, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation. $40-$45. 480-850-7777, ticketmaster.com.\n\nPHOTOS FROM TIESTO 2018:\n\n6/22-24: Elevate 2018\n\nThis three-night Christian music festival starts Friday with sets by Tenth Avenue North, Hawk Nelson, Plumb, Hannah Kerr and Mallory Hope.\n\nSaturday brings Phil Wickham, Building 429, Jordan Feliz, Justin Unger, Ryan Stevenson, Micah Tyler, Branan Murphy and Mia Koehne.\n\nAnd For King & Country headline Sunday's bill with We Are Messengers, Jonny Diaz, For All Seasons, Stars Go Dim and David Dunn.\n\nDetails: 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 22; 5:30 p.m. Saturday, June 23; 4 p.m. Sunday, June 24. Grand Canyon University Arena, 3300 W. Camelback Rd., Phoenix. Three-day passes, $55-$129; single-day tickets, $22.50-$55. 877-552-7362, gcuarena.com.\n\n6/24: Chris Brown\n\nThe multiplatinum, Grammy-winning R&B star brings his Heartbreak On A Full Moon Tour to Phoenix with opening sets by H.E.R. and Rich the Kid.\n\nThe tour shares a name with the singer's eighth studio album, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart last year.\n\nBrown's hits include the multiplatinum smashes \"Run It,\" \"Kiss Kiss,\" \"With You,\" No Air,\" \"Forever,\" \"I Can Transform Ya,\" \"Deuces,\" \"Yeah 3x,\" \"Look at Me Now,\" \"Don't Wake Me Up,\" 'Loyal,\" \"No Flame\" and \"Ayo.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Sunday, June 24. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $18-$169. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n6/25: The Regrettes\n\nThere’s always something to be said for filtering the timeless charm of ‘60s girl-group music through the snarl and sneer of classic punk. That something is, “I love when people do that, especially women or, in this case, teenage girls.”\n\nAlternative Press responded to their raucous debut, “Feel Your Feelings Fool!” with “Sixteen-year-old vocalist Lydia Night isn't afraid to speak her mind, and the members of the Regrettes match her gritty vocal delivery and feminist sentiments with raucous rock 'n' roll guitars coated with buzzy noise and distortion.”\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 25. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $12; $10 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.\n\n6/27: Cold Cave\n\nWesley Eisold has the perfect voice to put across the brand of synth-pop exorcism he explored on the highlights of \"Cherish the Light Years,\" Cold Cave's latest studio release, earning more than occasional references to Robert Smith along the way.\n\nHe started working on the followup five years ago, telling Pitchfork to expect a \"mix between some of the bigger sounds on 'Cherish' and more minimal stuff I'm interested in now, like Suicide or 39 Clocks.\" So hopefully you'll hear a sample of that new stuff if you go.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 27. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $18; $15 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n6/27: Corb Lund\n\nThe alt-country Canadian brings the Hurtin' Albertans to town for an evening of such finely crafted old-school country songs as \"Washed-Up Rock Star Factory Blues,\" \"Run This Town\" and the Dylanesque swagger of the raucous \"Alt Berliner Blues.\"\n\nThose songs are all included on 2015's \"Things That Can't Be Undone,\" to which a PopMatters reviewer responded by saying it \"furthers the case for Corb Lund as one of the best contemporary country songwriters.\" He's certainly among the most distinct.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 27. Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. $28.50-$33.50. 480-478-6000, mim.org.\n\n6/28: Vans Warped Tour\n\nThis is the 24th and final cross-country run for the Warped Tour. And several veterans of the tour will be on hand to say goodbye, including Reel Big Fish, Simple Plan, All Time Low, Four Year Strong, 3OH!3, Less Than Jake, Underoath, We The Kings and the Used.\n\nAmong the other artists playing are the Valley's own the Maine and Doll Skin, Chelsea Grin, MyChildren MyBride, Every Time I Die, Knocked Loose, The Amity Affliction, Ice Nine Kills and more.\n\nThe Vans Warped Tour is both the largest and the longest-running traveling music festival in North America.\n\nOriginally conceived by Kevin Lyman as an eclectic alternative rock festival, with a focus on punk, Warped has grown to include a multitude of genres, including metal, hip hop, reggae, pop and more.\n\nDetails: 11 a.m. Thursday, June 28. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $46. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\nREVIEW:Vans Warped Tour says goodbye to Phoenix in its final summer on the road\n\nPHOTOS FROM VANS WARPED TOUR 2018:\n\n6/29: Black Milk\n\nThe Detroit-based rapper/producer is headed to Phoenix in support of \"Fever,\" a seventh release that finds him reflecting on current events over beats that filter sumptuous old-school funk and soul through atmospheric textures.\n\nPraising Black Milk for \"one of the finest discographies of any producer/rapper in hip hop,\" the 405 said this is \"the most confident he's ever sounded, taking on the ills of the world in 2018, all while managing to create a consistently groovy, laid back sound.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Friday, June 29. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $18; $15 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n6/30: Brit Floyd\n\nThe Eclipse World Tour 2018 includes a special 45th Anniversary retrospective of \"The Dark Side of the Moon,\" judged by many as one of the greatest rock albums of all time.\n\nWidely regarded as the world's greatest Pink Floyd tribute, Brit Floyd will perform classic tracks from the album alongside gems from \"Wish You Were Here,\" \"The Wall\" and more, complete with a stunning million dollar light show, lasers, inflatables and theatrics.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, June 30. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $35-$155. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n7/7: Primus and Mastadon\n\nLes Claypool of Primus explained in a press release. \"We are lucky and happy to be flanked by our new comrades, the glorious Vikings known as Mastodon. This will be the last Primus run for a bit as we will need to cool-out for awhile, recharge and work on our nunchaku skills.\"\n\nThis tour is in support of \"The Desaturating Seven,\" of which Claypool said, \"This record hearkens back to our prog roots-Rush, Yes, Crimson, all those things. It's a little heavier than the last record, more intricate than anything we've done in a while.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Saturday, July 7. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $35-$155. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n7/7: Code Orange\n\nIn the course of exploring the more experimental fringes of their chosen field, “Forever” earned these Pittsburgh punks a Grammy nomination and ended 2017 on several year-end critics’ lists, from Revolver to metal lists at Rolling Stone and the Independent.\n\nRock Sound summed it up with “Whether opting for the sledgehammer (check out the riffs on ‘The New Reality’) or an icy scalpel (the warped post-punk of ‘Ugly’), the Pittsburgh four-piece rain down a hail of killer blows. Welcome to Hell.”\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Saturday, July 7. Nile Theater, 105 W. Main St., Mesa. 480-559-5859, niletheater.com.\n\n7/9: Petal\n\nKiley Lotz of Petal has the perfect upper register for drawing the listener into the heart of the songs on \"Magic Gone,\" mining the mixture of vulnerability and determination in lyrics that range from unabashedly poetic to refreshingly direct.\n\nAs Rolling Stone says, she's blessed with \"a voice like a bell, one that holds on to its strength and resonance even when she's singing of knotty emotions.\" The Line of Best Fit called the album an \"indie-emo masterpiece.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Monday, July 9. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $15; $13 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.\n\n7/11: Deafheaven\n\nThey emerged in 2013 as the black-metal heroes mostly likely to be raved about by hipsters, thanks to the ear-splitting splendor of “Sunbather,” a masterpiece of shredded vocal cords and stunning post-rock ambiance that brought home raves from nearly every publication that ran a review.\n\nThey hit Phoenix two days prior to releasing a fourth album “Ordinary Human Corrupt Love,” on which Epitaph, their label, has said they’ve “expanded their heavy, kinetic sound to bring in layered psychedelic vocals, jazz-inspired percussion, and intricate piano melodies.”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 11. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $18-$20. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n7/11: Citizen\n\nLast year’s “As You Please” is, as Kerrang! suggested, Citizen’s “most atmospheric music to date.” Which isn’t to say they've abandoned the urgency or their earlier work. They're just taking a different approach to conveying that same passion.\n\nAs DIY Magazine says, “The emotion on ‘As You Please’ is as grand and raw as ever, but they have refined their delivery, and their latest album manages not to shortchange that underlying sentiment while expanding their sonic palette.”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 11. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $22; $19 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.\n\n7/12: Smashing Pumpkins\n\nThe alternative rockers are launching their first tour with founding guitarist James Iha in 18 years in Glendale.\n\nBilly Corgan explained in a press release, “Some 30 years ago, as the Smashing Pumpkins, James Iha and I began a musical journey in the cramped rear bedroom of my father's house.\n\n\"And so it's magic to me that we're able to coalesce once more around the incredible Jimmy Chamberlin, to celebrate those songs we've made together.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Thursday, July 12. Gila River Arena, 9400 W. Maryland Ave., Glendale. $24.25 and up. 623-772-3800, ticketmaster.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF SMASHING PUMPKINS 2018:\n\n7/13: Smoke Me Out 2018\n\nNorteño stars Legado 7 top a Latin music bill that also features Arsenal Efectivo, El De La Guitarra, Los Hijos de Garcia and Fuerza Regida.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, July 13. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $59. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n7/14: Daniel Caesar\n\nThis Grammy-nominated Canadian soul singer topped the Adult R&B charts with his breakthrough single, \"Get You,\" which featured Kali Uchis. That song and a subsequent R&B hit, \"Best Part,\" are both featured on his debut album, \"Freudian.\"\n\nComplex praised the album, saying it \"offers melodies and vocals that will touch your soul along with narratives of love (and lack thereof) you can relate to on some level.\"\n\nDetails: 8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 14. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $25-$45. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.\n\n7/14: Jackson Browne\n\nThis Rock and Roll Hall of Famer launched his career with a Top 10 hit, \"Doctor My Eyes,\" in the '70s, following through with such singles as \"Running on Empty,\" a cover of Maurice William's \"Stay,\" \"Boulevard,\" \"Somebody's Baby\" and \"Lawyers in Love.\"\n\nHe's joined by longtime bandmates Val McCallum (guitar), Mauricio Lewak (Drums), Jeff Young (keyboards), Bob Glaub (bass), Alethea Mills (Vocals) and the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz (guitar, lap steel, pedal steel).\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 14. Symphony Hall, 75 N. 2nd St. Phoenix. $39-$250. 602-495-1999, phoenixconventioncenter.com.\n\n7/16: Foster the People\n\nThese L.A. indie-pop sensations scored a massive breakthrough in 2010 with the six-times-platinum single “Pumped Up Kicks,” a song about the homicidal daydreams of a troubled teen that managed to top the Alternative Songs chart.\n\nThis tour is in support of last year’s “Sacred Hearts Club,” which gave these guys their highest-charting alternative-radio hit since “Pumped Up Kicks,” “Sit Next to Me.”\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Monday, July 16. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $29.50-$59.50. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n7/16: Neurosis\n\nThe Oakland-based avant-garde post-metal icons are touring with metalcore pioneers Converge and Amenra in continued support of 2016's \"Fires Within Fires.\"\n\nIn reviewing the album, the A.V. Club noted that Neurosis had been doing this for 30 years before concluding, \"Neurosis has one of the most profound legacies in music,\" adding that this album is \"another evolutionary step forward.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Monday, July 16. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $35. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n7/17: Jay Som\n\nMelina Duterte made our year-end album list with “Everybody Works,” an album she recorded in her bedroom.\n\nBut despite the introspective nature of the lyrics and the way the first song sounds like it was captured in the middle of a dream, it doesn’t feel like the work of a bedroom-pop auteur.\n\nToo many of the album’s highlights rock too much to warrant that description, from the richly orchestrated pop charms of “The Bus Song” to the post-punk grinding of “1 Billion Dogs.”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 17. Valley Bar, 130 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $10. 602-368-3121, Valleybarphx.com.\n\n7/18: KNIX Acoustic Summer\n\nThe country station’s annual Acoustic Summer concert features Kane Brown, Granger Smith and internet sensation Mason Ramsey, AKA the “Yodel Kid.”\n\nBrown topped the country airplay charts with consecutive platinum singles – the Lauren Alaina-assisted “What Ifs” and “Heaven” – in 2017.\n\nSmith topped the country airplay charts with 2015’s “Backroad Songs” and followed through with “If the Boot Fits,” which peaked at No. 6 on that same chart.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 18. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. SOLD OUT. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n7/19: The Breeders\n\nThey're back on the road in support of “All Nerve,” their first album in 10 years with the classic “Last Splash” lineup – Kim Deal of the Pixies on lead vocals, sister Kelley Deal on harmonies and guitar, Josephine Wiggs on bass, and Jim Macpherson on drums.\n\nAnd if you liked the way they sounded in the ‘90s, you will like the way they sound on this year’s model. It’s no retread. It just taps into the spirit of the “Last Splash” days and takes it somewhere new, with all the feedback and off-kilter hooks you could want.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Thursday, July 19. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $30-$60. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n7/19: Unknown Mortal Orchestra\n\nRuban Nielson and the neo-psychedelic rockers he calls friends are touring in support of “Sex & Food,” a new album that finds them expanding the scope of their sound without abandoning their strengths.\n\nFrom the acid-damaged Hendrixian funk-rock of “Major League Chemicals” to the bleary-eyed soul of the album-closing “If You’re Going to Break Yourself,” it’s a constantly evolving soundscape.\n\nUncut magazine responded with “The reassuringly lo-fi results might not be drastically different to UMO's previous three records, but the execution is certainly impressive.”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Thursday, July 19. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. SOLD OUT. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n7/20: Tim McGraw and Faith Hill\n\nThis is the couple's third Soul2Soul Tour and the first they've toured together since the second Soul2Soul Tour, which wrapped in 2007 and remains the highest-grossing country music tour of all time.\n\nRolling Stone responded to one of the earlier stops on the tour, which is making a second Valley stop, with \"Over a carefully curated two hours, the couple rightfully assumed their place as country music royalty.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 20. Talking Stick Resort Arena, Second and Jefferson streets, Phoenix. $24.75 and up. 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF TIM MCGRAW AND FAITH HILL IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n7/20: Gorgon City\n\nThe UK electronic music duo of Kye \"Foamo\" Gibbon and Matt \"RackNRuin\" Robson-Scott may be best known for 2014's \"Ready for Your Love\", which peaked at No. 4 on the U.K. Singles Chart.\n\nTheir long-awaited second album, \"Kingdom,\" is said to be on track to hit the streets this year, preceded by several singles, including the U.K. dance hits \"All Four Walls\" and \"Real Life.\"\n\nDetails: 9 p.m. Friday, July 20. The Pressroom, 441 W. Madison St., Phoenix. $20-$30. 602-396-7136, thepressroomaz.com.\n\n7/20: Chris Isaak\n\nHe's worn his share of hats since \"Wicked Game\" turned up in David Lynch's \"Wild at Heart.\" A talk-show host, a sitcom star, a SWAT commander in \"The Silence of the Lambs,\" No. 68 on of VH1's list of sexiest artists and, of course, a singer.\n\n\"First Comes the Night,\" his latest effort, finds Isaak channeling the sound and spirit of the Sun recording artists he saluted on \"Beyond the Sun,\" especially Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley, while sounding more timeless than retro.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, July 20. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $65-$100. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.\n\n7/20 Donny and Marie Osmond\n\nThe siblings survived teen-idol stardom in the ‘70s and then a period in which they were deemed wildly unfashionable. But they persevered, finding success with TV gigs and theater work. A stint in Las Vegas cemented their comeback, with an energetic act that spotlights their diversity and old-school showmanship. Sometimes, talent does win out.\n\nREVIEW:What you missed at the Donny and Marie Osmond show in Scottsdale\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, July 20. Talking Stick Resort, 9800 E. Talking Stick Way, Salt River Reservation. $85-$235.480-850-7777, talkingstickresort.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF DONNY AND MARIE OSMOND IN PHOENIX:\n\n7/20: S. Carey\n\nThe Bon Iver drummer earned raves in 2010 for his solo debut, \"All We Grow,\" which the BBC Music reviewer declared \"the ultimate headphone album.\"\n\nA classically trained jazz musician with a flair for ambience, he arrives in support of this year's \"Hundred Acres,\" a breathtaking chamber-folk daydream of an album that filters the delicacy and grace of post-rock through choir-like vocal arrangements.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Friday, July 20. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $18: $15 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n7/20: Holy Wave\n\nThese neo-psychedelic rockers from El Paso are touring the States in support of “Adult Fear,” an album of hazy headphone music that sounds like it would translate surprisingly well to a headphone-free environment like Rebel Lounge.\n\nThe Austin Chronicle says the new album is \"tactile enough to run your fingers through while evading a tight grip.\" And it does have a certain ephemeral quality thanks to a mix that's the aural equivalent of Vaseline on a fish-eye lens.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, July 20. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $12. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.\n\n7/21: Pentatonix\n\nThis Texas-based a cappella ensemble won NBC's \"The Sing-Off\" in 2011 by covering songs by Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Survivor.\n\nThey're touring in support of their sixth studio release, \"PTX Presents: Top Pop, Vol. I,\" which features songs made popular by Bruno Mars, Charlie Puth, Ed Sheeran, Kesha, Portugal. the Man and more. They're joined by Echosmith and Calum Scott.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 21. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $25 and up. livenation.com.\n\n7/21: Jeff Beck\n\nThis is the first Valley concert in 12 years for Beck, a guitar virtuoso whose many accolades include his having been inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as both a member of the Yardbirds and a solo artist.\n\nHe also has eight Grammys, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked him as one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time (which is a bit like ranking pepperoni as one of the 100 Greatest Pizza Toppings of All Time).\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 21. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $43.01-$199.91. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.\n\n7/21: Wye Oak\n\nThe Baltimore indie-pop duo of keyboard-playing drummer Andy Stack and guitar-playing singer Jenn Wasner are touring in support of “The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs,” an album Pitchfork calls their \"brightest, most straightforward effort.\"\n\nStraightforward being a relative term, one assumes. Their approach is still plenty adventurous – experimental, even. As the reviewer for the Skinny says, the album “revels in keeping you off balance; it impresses, inspires and occasionally overwhelms, but it never outstays its welcome.”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 21. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $14-$17. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n7/22: Thirty Seconds to Mars\n\nOscar-winning actor Jared Leto and his bandmates are bringing the Monolith Tour to Phoenix in support of their fifth studio release, \"America,\" joined by Walk the Moon, K.Flay and Welshly Arms.\n\nTwo singles from the album – \"Walk on Water\" and \"Dangerous Night\" – extended their streak of alternative-radio hits, which include 2006's double-platinum \"The Kill\" and the chart-toppers \"This is War,\" \"Kings and Queens\" and \"From Yesterday.\"\n\nDetails: 6 p.m. Sunday, July 22. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $15 and up. livenation.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n7/22: Quicksand\n\nTheir full-length debut, 1993’s \"Slip\" was recently praised by the A.V. Club as “a nearly flawless record that combines the irony and heaviness of Helmet with Fugazi’s penchant to dismantle sound in the most energetic ways.\"\n\nTheir sophomore album, \"Manic Compression,\" topped a list in LA Weekly of the Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records. But they're here in support of \"Interiors,\" their first album in 22 years, on which they prove they haven't lost a step.\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 22. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $25. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n7/22: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks\n\nIt’s been 26 years since \"Slanted and Enchanted” helped define the outer fringes of the indie-rock frontier.\n\nAnd Pavement’s leader is still making perfectly damaged, willfully elusive pop with the Jicks, whose seventh album, “Sparkle Hard,” suggests that he could keep this going for another 20 years.\n\n“With nary a weak track,” Variety writes, “'Sparkle Hard' finds Malkmus hitting a new peak nearly 30 years into his career.”\n\nMalkmus himself has said he hoped to take a more direct approach to this release, and it’s a tribute to his fractured genius that this would be his “more direct” approach.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Sunday, July 22. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $24-$33. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n7/23: Streetlight Manifesto\n\nIt’s the 15th anniversary of Streetlight Manifesto’s debut album, “Everything Goes Numb” – or as they put it on their website, the album “that started this whole mess.”\n\nAnd to mark the occasion, the Jersey ska-punk veterans will be playing the entire album, front to back, and rounding out the set with bonus tracks.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Monday, July 23. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $18-$38. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n7/23: Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore\n\nThe roots-music legend topped the Billboard blues charts with “Downey To Lubbock,” and album inspired in part by the duo’s shared affection for Lightnin' Hopkins and the time they both spent hanging at The Ash Grove, an LA blues club, in the '60s.\n\nIn addition to Hopkins, they take on selections by Lloyd Price (whose “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” sounds better than ever), Brownie McGhee, Johnny \"Guitar\" Watson, Woody Guthrie and Chet Powers’ oft-recorded “Get Together.”\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Monday, July 23. MIM Music Theater, Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. $35.50-$45.50. 480-478-6000, mim.org.\n\n7/24: Car Seat Headrest\n\nWill Toledo and his bandmates ended 2016 in the upper reaches of year-end critics' lists from Paste and Rolling Stone to azcentral with \"Teens of Denial.\"\n\nAs azcentral said, \"If you grew up on Pavement and lived through the turn-of-the-century rock revival before deciding you wanted to write an album that felt like you’d just woken up hungover in the CBGB men’s room after passing out to Television? You’d do well to hope it sounded half as good as this.\"\n\nSo what did they do for an encore? Re-recorded a Bandcamp-only release from 2011 that somehow turned out sounding just as good.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 24. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $22. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n7/24: 'American Idol Live!'\n\nThe season’s Top 7 finalists – Cade Foehner, Caleb Lee Hutchinson, Catie Turner, Gabby Barrett, Jurnee, Maddie Poppe and Michael J. Woodard – are joined by special guest Kris Allen, season 8 winner.\n\nRELATED:'American Idol' auditions coming to metro Phoenix\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 24. Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St. $30-$55. 480-644-6560, mesaartscenter.com.\n\n7/25: Logic\n\nAmong the most streamed artists in the world, Logic brings the Bobby Tarantino vs. Everybody Tour to Phoenix with NF and Kyle.\n\nThe rapper earned two Grammy nominations for the four-times-platinum “1-800-273-8255,” a song whose title is the number for the American National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. His other hits include the double-platinum \"Sucker for Pain\" and \"Everybody.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 25. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $25 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n7/25: Belinda Carlisle\n\nShe fronted the Go-Go's, whose spunky girl-group charms were offset by the slightest hint of punk on \"Beauty and the Beat,\" one of the New Wave era's most contagious classics, including the hits \"We Got the Beat\" and \"Our Lips Are Sealed.\"\n\nCarlisle went solo in 1985 and had a string of memorable pop hits, including \"Mad About You\" (which holds up better than the TV show), \"I Get Weak,\" \"Circle in the Sand,\" \"Leave a Light On\" and \"Heaven Is a Place on Earth.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 25. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $40-$119. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n7/26 Maze featuring Frankie Beverly\n\nFrankie Beverly's visual trademark is his ever-present baseball cap. Musically, of course, his signature is the sweet-and-funky sound he creates as the leader of Maze.\n\nDuring a chart run that lasted almost 20 years, the group scored an impressive eight gold albums, not to mention such soul-music staples as \"Back in Stride\" and \"Can't Get Over You,\" which topped the R&B chart back in (gasp!) 1989.\n\nBeverly's best songs have a cool timelessness about them, one reason it's hard to believe the group is hitting the nostalgia circuit these days. But nostalgia's not such a bad thing, especially considering the strong live show the group puts on.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Thursday, July 26. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $35-$85. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.\n\n7/28: The Body\n\nLee Buford and Chip King arrive in support of “I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer,” an album named for a line in Virginia Woolf’s suicide letter.\n\nIt's a harrowing soundscape of tortured howls and haunted samples that had the A.V. Club reaching for phrases as evocative as “an oddly catchy apocalypse, “hate-choked bellow” and “slaughterhouse squeal.”\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 28. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $18; 16 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.\n\n7:30: Shania Twain\n\nThis is the country superstar's first tour since Rock This Country in 2015, which was billed as a farewell tour. “I really loved being on tour and had the best time and it kind of ended too soon,” Twain told the Orange County Register.\n\n“I felt like at that time maybe that was all I had left in me. I really felt that way, but I was so energized by the tour and by the fans. For the first time in my career, I really felt like it was easier and the fans really gave me more than ever before for some reason. “\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 30. Talking Stick Resort Arena, Second and Jefferson streets, Phoenix. $25.20 and up. 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF SHANIA TWAIN IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n7/31: 311 and the Offspring\n\nIt was 1996 when 311 topped the Modern Rock charts with \"Down.\" And the hits kept coming with \"All Mixed Up,\" \"Come Original,\" \"You Wouldn't Believe,\" \"Creatures (For a While),\" \"Love Song,\" \"Don't Tread on Me,\" \"Hey You,\" \"Sunset in July\" and more.\n\nThe Offspring played a starring role in punk-rock's infiltration of the mainstream in the '90s, topping the modern-rock radio charts with a breakthrough called \"Come Out and Play.\" Other radio staples include \"Self Esteem\" and \"Pretty Fly (For a White Guy).\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 31. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $27.50 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n7/31: Supersuckers\n\nCould they be the greatest rock and roll band in the world, as they've been known to advertise themselves? On the right night in the right bar, they could definitely win a reasonable person over to that argument.\n\nThis is the Big Show Tour, in which the Tucson-spawned rockers will honor their 30th anniversary with a set of their best country songs in addition to playing 1992's \"The Smoke of Hell\" and 1994's \"La Mano Cornuda\" in their entirety. That's a lot of music.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 31. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $18; 16 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.\n\n8/1: Rick Ross\n\nHailed as the Hottest MC in the Game by MTV in 2012, this bearded rapper has topped the Billboard album charts with five releases — \"Port of Miami,\" \"Trilla,\" \"Deeper Than Rap,\" \"God Forgives, I Don't\" and \"Mastermind.\" He’s touring in support of last year’s “Rather You Than Me,” his ninth album.\n\nRoss’ best-known hits include the platinum singles \"Hustlin',\" \"The Boss\" and “Purple Lamborghini.” His highest-charting hit is \"Aston Martin Music,\" featuring Drake and Chrisette Michelle, which topped the rap charts on its way to going platinum.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $37.50-$175. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n8/3: G-Eazy\n\nG-Eazy topped the rap and R&B charts with his breakthrough album, “These Things Happen,” in 2014, and returned to No. 1 with \"When It's Dark Out\" and last year's \"The Beautiful & Damned.\"\n\nThe Oakland rapper's hits include the multi-platinum \"Me, Myself & I,\" which topped the rap charts, and two songs from \"The Beautiful & Damned\" (\"Him & I\" and the triple-platinum \"No Limit\").\n\nDetails: 6:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $29.50 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF G-EAZY IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n8/3: Banda MS\n\nThe name Banda MS is short for Banda Sinaloense MS de Sergio Lizarraga.\n\nThe regional Mexican outfit was formed in 2003 in Mazatlan and features more than a dozen musicians. Their biggest hit in the States, \"Sin Evidencias,\" reached the Hot Latin Tracks chart in 2009.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $62.50 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n8/4: LSD Tour\n\nLukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, who tore it up at Country Thunder earlier this year, have stepped in for Lucinda Williams, who cited an unforeseen scheduling conflict, as the \"L\" in LSD, joining Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam.\n\nThis is not an acid flashback. The tour takes it name from combining the first letter in each of their first names.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $33 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n8/4: Hop Along\n\nIt all comes down to Frances Quinlan's vocals. As great as the songs on \"Bark Your Head Off, Dog\" are in their own right, it's her voice that ultimately reaches out and pulls you in, demanding that you pay attention to the lyrics, which reward that closer listen.\n\nIt's just quirky enough to be distinctive without distracting from the lyrical intent on highlights as evocative as \"How You Got Your Limp\" and \"Somewhere a Judge,\" whose lyrics are as much a matter of life and death as her singing would have you believe.\n\nDetails: 8 pm. Saturday, Aug. 4. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $18; $15 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n8/5: Ted Nugent\n\nIn the '70s, when songs like \"Cat Scratch Fever,\" \"Free-For-All\" and \"Stranglehold\" were tearing it up on the album-rock side of the dial, the Motor City Madman, as he's known, would swing from the speakers while wearing a loincloth and headdress.\n\nHe's been known to ride a buffalo on stage, shoot flaming arrows at Saddam Hussein in effigy and tell a crowd that former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could suck on one of the machine guns he'd been brandishing on stage.\n\nSo yeah, he's that guy. Among the nation’s more outspoken far-right activists, his views are unapologetically pro-Trump, pro-gun, pro-hunting, anti-drug and wildly anti-liberal.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $65-$80. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.\n\n8/7: Tony Bennett\n\nThe iconic jazz vocalist will play the Celebrity Theatre with his daughter, Antonia Bennett, who opens the show with a collection of jazz and pop standards.\n\nBennett has won 19 Grammy Awards in the course of a career spanning more than six decades. His most beloved hits include “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,\" \"Because of You,\" \"Cold, Cold Heart,\" \"Rags to Riches\" and \"Stranger in Paradise.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $91.65-$200.20. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.\n\n8/7: Bodega\n\nThese Brooklyn-based post-punk revivalists have the attitude and lyrical perspective it takes to make this kind of music sound as fresh as it did on impact.\n\nThe opening track, for example, takes on the notion of wondering “How did this happen?” in response to the state of the world before bringing the song to a climax with a Woody Guthrie nod.\n\n“This machine, you know, it don't kill fascists,” the singer sneers. “This machine just softens what's hard / This machine, it killed the dream of the ‘60s / This machine, you know, it's just a guitar.”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7. Valley Bar, 130 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $12. 602-368-3121, Valleybarphx.com.\n\n8/9: GoGo Penguin\n\nKnown for their seamless blend of minimalist jazz piano and beats that are closer to EDM than jazz, this U.K. trio were chosen by the New York Times as one of 12 Notable Acts at SXSW in 2017.\n\nThey’re touring on “A Humdrum Star,” which eases in with an evocative piano meditation before introducing the skittering beats of EDM on the second track, “Raven.” The Line of Best Fit called the album “a stunning piece of music making.”\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 9. Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. $33.50-$38.50. 480-478-6000, mim.org.\n\n8/11: The Ataris\n\nIt's the 15th anniversary of the album that remains their calling card, \"So Long, Astoria,\" which made it all the way to No. 24 in 2003 while spawning three hits — \"In This Diary,\" \"The Saddest Song\" and a pop-punk reinvention of \"The Boys of Summer.\"\n\nAnd to celebrate, they're playing the entire album, which PopMatters called \"a fine trip down memory lane that celebrates the complexities of growing up.\" And if you know the album, you know \"being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11. Pub Rock, 8005 E. Roosevelt St., Phoenix. $17; $15 in advance. 480-945-4985, pubrocklive.com.\n\n8/12: Weezer and the Pixies\n\nTwo legendary acts whose music helped define the sound of the ‘90s alternative-rock explosion are set to wrap their summer co-headlining tour – the first full tour they’ve ever done together – in Phoenix.\n\nWeezer's self-titled debut became the unlikeliest modern-rock radio staple of the early '90s, fueled by Rivers Cuomo's cult of nerdy personality, sing-along hooks and a blanket of fuzz. And the Pixies? It's hard to imagine alternative radio without their blueprint.\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 12. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $25 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n8/13: Asleep at the Wheel\n\nThese Western Swing revivalists have taken home nine Grammys since releasing their first album in the early ’70s.\n\nTheir latest album, “Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys,” is their celebration, this one boasting guest appearances by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, the Avett Brothers, Amos Lee, Lyle Lovett and Old Crow Medicine Show.\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 13. Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. Sold out. 480-478-6000, mim.org.\n\n8/16: Eliane Elias\n\nThis Brazilian jazz pianist has several Grammys to her credit. She’s worked with Randy Brecker, Steve Gadd, Stanley Clarke and Herbie Hancock. In 1997, she topped the Downbeat poll for Best Jazz Album with “The Three Americas.”\n\nShe arrives in support of an all-instrumental collection called “Man of La Mancha” that features her interpretation of nine song from the beloved Broadway musical.\n\nDetail: 7 and 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 16. Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. $33.50-$48.50. 480-478-6000, mim.org.\n\n8/17: Panic! at the Disco\n\nThe Vegas rockers are touring on \"Pray for the Wicked,\" the much-anticipated followup to their fifth album, “Death Of A Bachelor,” which topped the album charts and was the highest-selling rock release of 2016.\n\nIt's not out yet, but \"Pray for the Wicked\" has already added \"Say Amen (Saturday Night)\" and \"High Hopes\" to their list of rock-radio hits. The best-known songs include \"I Write Sins Not Tragedies,\" \"Nine in the Afternoon\" and \"Emperor's New Clothes.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17. Gila River Arena, 9400 W. Maryland Ave., Glendale. $26 and up. 623-772-3800, ticketmaster.com.\n\n8/17: Buddy Guy and Johnny Lang\n\nThe Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is touring with Lang in support of \"The Blues is Still Alive,\" his long-awaited followup to the Grammy-winning \"Born to Play Guitar.\"\n\nA house guitarist at Chess Records in the ’60s, a decade in which he also toured in Muddy Waters’ band, Guy was recently voted the 30th best guitarist of all time in Rolling Stone. But Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton would have placed him higher.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $53.45-$108.55. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.\n\n8/18: Christian Nodal\n\nThis Mexican mariachi star is best known for his debut single, last year's \"Adiós Amor,\" which topped the charts in Mexico and peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Latin charts.\n\nHe went Top 5 on the Mexican chart with three subsequent singles –\"Te Fallé,\" \"Probablemente\" and \"Me Dejé Llevar,\" the title track of his debut.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $45 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n8/18: Ry Cooder\n\nThe multi-faceted slide-guitar legend has won six Grammys, including Best Tropical Latin Performance for producing the classic album \"Buena Vista Social Club.\"\n\nRolling Stone rated him eighth on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, between Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimmy Page. Let that sink in.\n\nHe's on tour in support of \"The Prodigal Son,\" an understated classic Blurt magazine hailed as a welcome \"return to his earliest archival sounds.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18. Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St. $45.50-$69.50. 480-644-6500, mesaartscenter.com.\n\n8/18: American Aquarium\n\nNaming your band for a phrase in the opening line of Wilco's \"Yankee Hotel Foxtrot\" album is an odd choice when your music is actually closer in spirit to the sort of thing the other guy from Uncle Tupelo would do.\n\nBut that does nothing to diminish the quality of BJ Barham's writing on \"Things Change,\" an album American Songwriter hailed as \"an engaging latest chapter in the ever-evolving, consistently compelling storytelling saga of one of this generation’s most overlooked roots country singer-songwriters.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $17; $15 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.\n\n8/19: CKY\n\nThere’s clearly something to be said for kicking off your first release since the departure of the dude who sang lead vocals on your first four albums with “Replaceable,” a song that rocks with the sort of conviction Van Hagar would kill to have to mustered.\n\nIt helps that the vocals are being provided by one Chad I Ginsberg, the guitarist who founded CKY in 1998. I keep wanting to quote the song’s most damning line but it’s right there in the title, “You’re replaceable.” It also helps that Ginsberg is a true guitar god.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $20-$95. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n8/20-21: JD Souther\n\nHis most enduring claim to fame may be the songs he's written or co-written for the likes of Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles. But he had two proper pop hits of own as well, \"You're Only Lonely\" and \"Her Town Too\" (in collaboration with James Taylor).\n\nIn recent years, he's leaned more heavily on the jazz side of his sensibilities, which suits his style of singing like a charm.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 20-21. MIM Music Theater, Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. $48.50-$53.50. 480-478-6000, mim.org.\n\n8/21: Charlie Puth\n\nThe New Jersey neo-soul hitmaker broke through in early 2015 with a double-platinum hit called “Marvin Gaye” that also featured Meghan Trainor. That song topped the charts in several countries, from Australia to the U.K.\n\nBut he may be better known here in the United States as the featured singer on the Wiz Khalifa smash “See You Again,” a tribute to the late Paul Walker. It enjoyed a 12-week stay at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 on its way to going six-times-platinum.\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $25 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n8/21: J. Cole\n\nCole is on tour in support of “KOD,” his fifth consecutive release to top the Billboard album chart. When the tour in support of his previous album launched in that same venue, azcentral called him one of hip-hop's greatest storytellers.\n\n\"And it goes beyond the brilliance of his rapping,\" the review continued, \"to the way he engages the audience, sharing the stories behind the songs in a series of monologues that didn't slow things down so much as add to the momentum.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21. Talking Stick Resort Arena, Second and Jefferson streets, Phoenix. $44.75 and up. 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.\n\n8/22: Jack White\n\nHe first made a name for himself at the helm of the White Stripes, playing guitar with the reckless abandon of a plastered Jimmy Page. After expanding his horizons with the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, he went solo in 2012 with \"Blunderbuss.\"\n\nThis tour is in support of his third album, \"Boarding House Reach,\" which earned a perfect score from NME, whose critic raved, \"That he’s produced such a full, lush sounding thing packed with personality and life is impressive--but not surprising.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $67 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n8/22: Timber Timbre\n\nThe Canadian trio recorded “Sincerely, Future Pollution” in a chateau outside Paris, making use of vintage synths where once they would have reached for banjos on an album whose mood their label sums up perfectly as “mid-apocalyptic.”\n\nIt’s the sort of music critics have been calling futuristic since the ‘80s. And amazingly enough, it still sounds futuristic, from the Bowiesque funk of “Grifting” to the brooding, synth-washed chorus of \"Moment\" (a mood that's abruptly dispelled by an outburst of guitar skronk).\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22. Valley Bar, 130 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $20; $17 in advance. 602-368-3121, Valleybarphx.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF WEEZER AND PIXIES IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n8/12: Coheed and Cambria, Taking Back Sunday\n\nIt’s been more than two years since \"The Color Before the Sun\" was released as Coheed and Cambria's first “non-concept” album, leaving the sci-fi universe of “The Amory Wars” to focus on first-time father Claudio Sanchez’s personal life.\n\nThere is new music in the works that should be out later this year, but in the meantime, they're hitting the road with Taking Back Sunday.\n\nDetails: 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 12. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $49.50 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n8/23: Lady Antebellum and Darius Rucker\n\nLady Antebellum topped the country charts in 2009 with the breakthrough hit, “I Run to You.” But the followup remains their calling card. “Need You Now” went six-times-platinum and picked up Song and Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards.\n\nRucker was the face of mainstream rock in his mid-'90s heyday, fronting Hootie & the Blowfish, whose debut remains among the all-time biggest-selling U.S. albums. But it's Rucker's unexpected rebirth as a country star that brings him to this tour.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $34.25 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n8/23: Tinariwen\n\nThese Tuareg musicians earned a best-world-music-album Grammy in 2011 for \"Tassili.\" Their latest album, \"Elwan,\" whose title means \"Elephant,\" is a mesmerizing journey whose hypnotic, guitar-criven highlights have an almost psychedelic quality.\n\nThe Independent responded with a five-star rave to an album its critic found to be \"driven by the infectiously hypnotic cyclical guitar grooves that wind like creepers around their poetic imagery.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23. Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. $43.50-$48.50. 480-478-6000, mim.org.\n\n8/23: Faster Pussycat\n\nTaking their name from the Russ Meyer cult classic “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!,” these glam-metal veterans hit the mainstream with the 1989 release of “Wake Me When It’s Over,” which contained their breakthrough single, “House of Pain.”\n\nThe only holdout from that era you'll find on the Glitter Box tour is singer Taime Downe, but he sounded as sleazy as ever while adding a darker industrial edge to their sound on “The Power and the Glory Hole,” their only studio release so far this century.\n\nDetails: 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23. BLK Live, 7301 E. Butherus Dr., Scottsdale. $15-$200. 480-494-5069, blkliveaz.com.\n\n8/24: Rod Stewart with Cyndi Lauper\n\nThese two earned when they road together in 2017. The Houston Press wrote, \"More than just their pop success and great hair, what really united Rod Stewart and Cyndi Lauper on Saturday night was the sheer joy they both brought out of the audience.”\n\nStewart is among the most expressive singers in the history of rock and roll. As the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which he's been inducted as a solo artist and a member of the Faces, sums it up, \"A singer’s singer, Stewart seemed made to inhabit the spotlight.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24. Talking Stick Resort Arena, Second and Jefferson streets, Phoenix. $44.75 and up. 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF ROD STEWART AND CYNDI LAUPER IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n8/24 Yuridia\n\nRaised in Mesa, Yuridia took the exposure from her 2005 run on the reality show \"La Academia\" and became one of the top female vocalists in Latin pop.\n\nHer dusky, emotive vocals are tailor-made for songs about heartbreak, such as \"Ya Es Muy Tarde\" and \"Ya Te Olvidé.\" She is touring to promote \"Primera Fila,\" a live disc that includes a duet with Pepe Aguilar.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $45-$69. 800-653-8000, livenation.com.\n\n8/25: Bassrush Massive\n\nBassrush, the internationally renowned bass music brand, returns to Arizona for a second year with bass-thumping performances by Zeds Dead, NGHTMRE, G Jones, Space Jesus, Midnight Tyrannosaurus, Hekler and more to be announced.\n\nLaunched in the '90s, the Bassrush brand has evolved from strictly drum & bass to welcome dubstep and other bass-oriented genres. Bassrush hosts stages at all major Insomniac festivals such as EDC Las Vegas, EDC Orlando and Beyond Wonderland.\n\nDetails: 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25. Rawhide, 5700 W. North Loop Road, Gila River Reservation. $50-$85. 480-502-5600; rawhide.com.\n\n8/25: Cracker/ Camper Van Beethoven\n\nDavid Lowery's first act was Camper Van Beethoven, whose eccentric brand of artful weirdo pop was a perfect fit for college radio in the '80s.\n\nReleased in 1992, his first album with Cracker wasn't nearly as adventurous but its best songs made the most of Lowery's cult of personality, topping the modern-rock radio charts with \"Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now).\"\n\nThese co-headlining tours look great on paper and they're even better live.\n\nDetail: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $25-$38. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n8/26: Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson\n\nThe aptly titled Twins of Evil Tour is in support of Zombie’s “The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser” and Manson’s “Heaven Upside Down.”\n\nZombie broke through in the ’90s while fronting the horror-rock toast of the Lollapalooza set, White Zombie. \"Hellbilly Deluxe\" remains his most successful solo album.\n\nAs for Manson, he'll most likely stack his set with highlights plucked from the mom-baiting masterpiece “Antichrist Superstar.”\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 26. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $25 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF MARILYN MANSON AND ROB ZOMBIE IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n8/26: Shakira\n\nThis concert was rescheduled from an early February date as the Latin-music superstar recovered from a hemorrhage on her vocal cord.\n\nThe tour is in support of \"El Dorado,” which not only topped the Billboard Latin charts but also topped the iTunes charts in 37 countries.\n\nShakira’s biggest U.S. hits include the double-platinum “Hips Don’t Lie,” “Beautiful Liar,” “She Wolf” and “Empire.”\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 26. Talking Stick Resort Arena, Second and Jefferson streets, Phoenix. $45.75 and up. 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.\n\n8/26: Rodrigo y Gabriela\n\nSince leaving Mexico for Ireland in 1999, Rodrigo y Gabriela have established themselves as one of the most popular acoustic instrumental bands in the world, with worldwide sales of more than 1.5 million albums.\n\nThe Line of Best Fit said the duo's latest album \"has strength, beauty and often a spirit of engagement with the tenebrous. At times, dialogues are unresolved, yet despite (because of?) this, there is vital music-making from two uncompromising artists.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 26. Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St. $39.50-$69.50. 480-644-6500, mesaartscenter.com.\n\n8/28: Jack Johnson\n\nA former professional surfer, Johnson has taken a string of acoustic-flavored singles to the top of the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs chart,\n\nHis best-known songs include \"Flake,\" \"The Horizon Has Been Defeated,\" \"Sitting, Waiting, Wishing,\" \"Good People,\" \"Upside Down,\" \"If I Had Eyes,\" \"You and Your Heart,\" \"At or With Me\" and \"I Got You.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $35 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF JACK JOHNSON IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n8/28: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit\n\nIsbell and his bandmates added two more Grammys to their mantel earlier this year. \"The Nashville Sound\" won Best Americana Album while \"If We Were Vampires\" won Best American Roots Song.\n\nA former member of the Drive-By Truckers, Isbell earned raves for \"The Nashville Sound,\" with American Songwriter declaring it \"another triumph in his incredible hot streak\" and Paste hailing the songs as \"unreasonably powerful.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28. Symphony Hall, 75 N. 2nd St. Phoenix. $38.50-$59. 602-495-1999, phoenixconventioncenter.com.\n\n8/28: Rooney\n\nActor Robert Schwartzman and his bandmates had built up a pretty good buzz going into the long-delayed release of their first album, having toured with Weezer and the Strokes while perfecting their sugar-coated brand of sun-kissed power-pop.\n\nAnd when the album finally arrived in mid-2013, it effortlessly lived up to the promise of that buzz with the pop sensibilities that only come from studying the music of the '60s in ways that go beyond the Beach Boys vibe they channel on the first track, \"Blueside.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $18-$85. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.\n\n8/29: Lindsey Stirling and Evanescence\n\nElectronic violinist/Gilbert native Lindsey Stirling and two-time Grammy winners Evanescence bring their co-headlining summer tour to Phoenix on a tour that finds them both accompanied by a full orchestra.\n\nThe two artists recently collaborated on the song, “Hi-Lo” from the Evanescence album, \"Synthesis,\" which features a solo by Stirling.\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 29. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $25 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF LINDSEY STIRLING, EVANESCENCE IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n8/30: Wiz Khalifa and Rae Sremmurd\n\nKhalifa's breakthrough single, \"Black and Yellow,\" topped the Hot 100 in 2010 along the way to going six-times-platinum. His biggest hit came five years later with the nine-platinum chart-topper “See You Again,” which also featured Charlie Puth.\n\nSouthern rappers Rae Sremmurd (Khalif \"Swae Lee\" Brown and Aaquil \"Slim Jimmy\" Brown) topped Billboard’s Hot 100 with their mainstream calling card, “Black Beatles,” a quadruple-platinum smash from 2016.\n\nDetails: 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 30. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $35 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n8/30: Lost 80's Live\n\nFor the record, that misplaced apostrophe was not our call. This '80s package tour includes A Flock of Seagulls (\"I Ran (So Far Away)\"), Wang Chung (\"Everybody Have Fun Tonight\"), Missing Persons (\"Destination Unknown\") and Animotion (\"Obsession\").\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 30. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $38.80 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n8/30: Jeremih\n\nThis R&B singer hit the mainstream in 2009 with \"Birthday Sex,\" a steamy first single on which he pretty much laid out the template for his most successful work since then, including two more double-platinum singles, \"Down on Me\" and \"Don't Tell 'Em.\"\n\nPitchfork praised the erotically charged \"Late Nights,\" saying it feels “all the more special in an era that increasingly rewards artists who shout the loudest,” adding, “Jeremih makes you shut everything else out so that you can hear him whisper in your ear.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 30. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $30-$69.69. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n8/30: AWOLNATION\n\nTheir debut album, 2011's \"Megalithic Symphony,\" spawned the six-times-platinum breakthrough single, \"Sail,\" which peaked at No. 17 on Billboard's Hot 100.\n\nAnd that was just the first of eight Top 20 entries on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart, including this year's \"Handyman,\" from their new album, \"Here Come the Runts.\"\n\nClassic Rock magazine responded by noting how easy it would be to write them off as one-hit wonders after \"Sail,\" and how this album \"shows what a mistake that would be.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 30. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $27. 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.\n\n8/30: Pusha T\n\nA review in Pretty Much Amazing called \"Daytona\" \"another rare instance of an artist coming up with a classic a decade after what seemed like the peak of his career (Clipse’s 'Hell Hath No Fury').\"\n\nAnd that seems about right, although that writer could've added that \"Daytona\" may go on to be remembered as the better album, setting the tone with one of this year's most compelling singles, \"If You Know You Know.\"\n\nThe rapper himself declared it \"album of the (expletive) year” at the end of “The Story of Adidon,” a diss track for the ages (with apologies to Drake).\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 30. The Pressroom, 441 W. Madison St., Phoenix. $35. 602-396-7136, thepressroomaz.com.\n\n8/31: Sam Smith\n\nSmith set a Grammy record in 2015 when he won the most awards ever received by a U.K. artist following the release of \"In The Lonely Hour,” which became the biggest-selling U.K. male debut in the SoundScan erad.\n\nSmith won Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Record and Song of the Year. He's also earned an Oscar and a Golden Globe award.\n\nThis tour is in support of the singer's second album, \"The Thrill of It All.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31. Gila River Arena, 9400 W. Maryland Ave., Glendale. $30.75 and up. 623-772-3800, ticketmaster.com.\n\n8/31: Yes\n\nYes featuring Anderson, Rabin, Wakeman will play the Celebrity Theatre on a tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of Yes a year after their overdue induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.\n\nThis lineup is led by Jon Anderson, who co-founded group with Chris Squire. Rick Wakeman is primarily associated with '70s Yes while and Trevor Rabin is primarily associated with the '80s mainstream era, with Anderson as the link between both eras.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $48.45-$140.75. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.\n\n8/31: Ben Harper and Charlie Musslewhite\n\nTheir first collaboration, “Get Up!,” topped the blues charts and took home a Grammy. They’re back in support of the recently released “No Mercy in the This Land,” a second album that effortlessly picks up on the conversation these two started in 2013.\n\n“Charlie Musselwhite is that very rare and hallowed place where blues past, present and future collide,” Harper explained in a press release. “He transforms notes into emotions that feel both hauntingly familiar and brand new, as if hearing them for the first time every time.\"\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $49.50-$79.50. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.\n\n8/31: Chromeo\n\nThese Canadian electro-funk sensations first made a name for themselves in 2004 with a debut called “She’s in Control” that had critics invoking the names of Daryl Hall and John Oates as handy frames of reference.\n\nTheir long-awaited followup to “White Women,” \"Head Over Heels,\" arrived in June, inspiring Drowned in Sound to rave, \"Funk-by-numbers has not yet had an update worth of Sly Stone; but in 'Head Over Heels,' Chromeo have cracked it.\"\n\nDetails: 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31. The Pressroom, 441 W. Madison St., Phoenix. $25-$48.80. 602-396-7136, thepressroomaz.com.\n\n9/2: Bush, Stone Temple Pilots and the Cult\n\nBush, the Cult and Stone Temple Pilots are joining forces on the Revolution 3 tour. They'll rotate the order at each tour stop, but fans can expect a full set by each group.\n\nBush's hits include \"Comedown\" and \"Glycerine,\" both of which were featured on their six-times-platinum breakthrough, \"Sixteen Stone.\"\n\nStone Temple Pilots, who had a string of hits with the late Scott Weiland on vocals before recruiting the late Chester Bennington, are touring with a new lead singer.\n\nDetails: 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 2. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix. $29.50 and up. 602-254-7200, livenation.com.\n\n9/4: Leon Bridges\n\nWhen Bridge arrived on the scene in 2015 with \"Coming Home,\" he told us, \"I'm not saying I can hold a candle to any soul musician from the '50s and '60s, but I want to carry the torch.\" And he carried it well.\n\nThe Grammy-nominated R&B recording artist arrives in support of a sophomore album titled \"Good Thing.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $36.50 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n9/4: Andrew W.K.\n\nThe man who gave you “Party Hard” gets the party restarted on “You’re Not Alone,” his first album in more than a decade (unless you count his New Age instrumentals or the ones that only came out in Japan).\n\nAfter setting the tone with “The Power of Partying,” he really hits his stride on “Music Is Worth Living For,” the first of several quasi-operatic self-help anthems that bring on the bombast like someone who couldn’t decide between ripping off Meat Loaf and channeling Queen (with a slight hint of Abba).\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $23; $19.50 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.\n\n9/5: Scorpions and Queensryche\n\nYou may wonder why they're calling this the Crazy World Tour.\n\nKlaus Meine explained in a press release, “When our album 'Crazy World' was released back in ’91, right at the end of the cold war, we toured around a world that was pretty crazy back then, but there was so much hope in the air for a more peaceful future.\n\n\"Now 27 years later, things are getting more crazy every other day. After all these years ‘Crazy World’ is still a good motto for our world tour.\"\n\nDetails: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5. Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $48.50 and up. 800-745-3000, livenation.com.\n\n9/7: Journey and Def Leppard\n\nThis is not the first time these two acts have toured together. As Def Leppard’s Rick Savage recalls, \"Twelve years ago, we embarked on a US tour with Journey and it was an absolute blast. Believe me, this will be even more spectacular.\"\n\nThis tour follows Journey's induction this year to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which summed noted, \"Call it what you will – arena rock, stadium rock, concert rock – the music of Journey defined the big rock and roll sound of the late 1970s and early 1980s.\"\n\nDetails: 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7. Talking Stick Resort Arena, Second and Jefferson streets, Phoenix. $174.75 and up. 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF JOURNEY AND DEF LEPPARD IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\n9/7: Rebelution\n\nThese Santa Barbara reggae-rockers have topped the Billboard reggae album chart with five consecutive releases, \"Bright Side of Life,\" \"Peace of Mind,\" “Count Me In” (the biggest-selling reggae album of 2014), \"Falling Into Place\" and \"Live at Red Rocks.\"\n\nThey play between 100 and 120 shows a year, and you can definitely feel that when you see them live. They're joined by Stephen Marley, Common Kings, Zion I and DJ Mackle.\n\nDetails: 5:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7. Mesa Amphitheatre, 263 N. Center St., Mesa. $35. 480-644-2560, luckymanonline.com and mesaamp.com.\n\n9/8: Eagles\n\nThis is the Eagles' first tour since the death of Glenn Frey. It features three surviving members – Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit – with a little help from the great Vince Gill and Frey's son, Deacon.\n\nPivotal players on the country-rock scene of the early '70s, the Eagles expanded the scope of their sound to great effect on \"Hotel California,\" which, after more than 40 years, remains among the 20 biggest-selling albums in U.S. history.\n\nDetails: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8. Talking Stick Resort Arena, Second and Jefferson streets, Phoenix. $156 and up. 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.\n\nPHOTOS OF EAGLES IN PHOENIX 2018:\n\nREAD MORE:\n\nThings To Do app: Get the best in events, dining and travel right on your device", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/06/15"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_11", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/06/22/study-balancing-one-leg-predicts-life-longevity/7697219001/", "title": "Balancing on one leg for 10 seconds may predict likelihood of living ...", "text": "You're twice as likely to die in the next decade if you're unable to balance on one foot for 10 seconds, according to a new study.\n\nConversely, the study suggests that your ability to balance on one foot points to longer life expectancy.\n\nThe peer-reviewed study conducted by Brazilian researchers, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, determined that a person's balance ability can be preserved into the sixth decade of one's life – meaning it's more broad of an indicator of life expectancy across age ranges than aerobic fitness, flexibility or muscle strength.\n\nDr. Claudio Gil Soares de Araújo, the lead author of the study and a sports and exercise physician at the Exercise Medicine Clinic Clinimex in Rio de Janeiro, said poor balance is linked to frailty in older adults and one's musculoskeletal fitness is a prime indicator of declining health.\n\nChill time:It’s Mental Health Awareness month—focus on self-care with these relaxing products\n\nTurning 60 soon?:Here are 3 smart money moves that will improve life in retirement\n\n\"If you are younger than 70 years, you are expected (as the majority of those at that age) to successfully complete the 10 seconds,\" Araújo told USA TODAY in an emailed statement. \"For those older than 70 years of age, if you complete it, you are in better static balance status than your age-peers. ...The advantages of the 10s OLS test include the fact that it is simple and it provides rapid, safe and objective feedback for the patient and health care providers regarding static balance.\"\n\nIn conjunction with suggesting regular doctor visits feature a balance test, Araújo recommended that people try a 15-second balance test of their own during their morning routine when they're brushing their teeth at home, to use as a barometer for their well-being.\n\nResearchers in the study zeroed in on 1,702 participants from ages 51 to 75 for the study, with the average age set at 61. Their first checkup – study participants were tracked starting in 2008 – collected data on their weight, waist size and measures of body fat. Only individuals who could walk steadily were included in their analysis. Then, the participants were all asked to stand on one leg for 10 seconds without holding onto anything for support. One in 5 failed the test. Each participant got three tries to put the back of their other foot on the weight-bearing leg, which could be barefoot or with a proper tennis shoe on.\n\nThe inability of participants to pass the balance test increased with age, while those with weight problems or diabetes were more likely to fail. The study's finalized research factored in age, sex, BMI, history of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. The final results determined that the risk of death within a 10-year span was 1.84-fold higher in participants who failed the balance test versus those who passed it.\n\nThe test has its limits, Araújo noted: \"This is an observational study, and as such, can’t establish cause. As participants were all white Brazilians, the findings might not be more widely applicable to other ethnicities and nations, caution the researchers.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/06/22/vitamins-supplements-waste-money-health-report/7701878001/", "title": "Take vitamins and supplements? You may be wasting your money ...", "text": "Americans spend billions on vitamins, multivitamin and mineral supplements for their health, but a review of numerous studies concluded there is little to no evidence some of those supplements prevent heart disease, cancer and death.\n\nThe report, released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force on Tuesday, concluded that \"current evidence is insufficient\" to determine whether vitamins and supplements actually help or hurt your health, based on 84 studies, 52 of which were done since the task force last updated their guidelines in 2014. Vitamins and supplements examined included vitamins A, B, C, D and E, as well as calcium, magnesium, beta carotene, folic acid, selenium, zinc and other multivitamins.\n\n\"Our recommendation is neither for or against taking vitamins, minerals, or combinations of those nutrients. We just don't have enough evidence,\" Dr. John Wong, a primary care clinician in the Department of Medicine at Tufts Medical Center who was involved in the report, told USA TODAY.\n\nWhile researchers said they don't have enough evidence to prove taking supplements provides any benefits, there have been numerous studies suggesting a lack of benefits. A 2018 study found that multivitamins, vitamin D, calcium and vitamin C don't improve heart health.\n\nStudy: Balancing on one leg for 10 seconds may predict likelihood of living or dying\n\nThe finding that most of the products didn't have any benefits applied to \"otherwise healthy, nonpregnant adults\" or \"children, persons who are chronically ill, are hospitalized or have a known nutritional deficiency.\"\n\nHowever, people who are pregnant or planning to be pregnant, should take a daily supplement containing 0.4 to 0.8 mg of folic acid, the task force suggests.\n\nIn fact, one supplement, beta carotene, was found to be more harmful than beneficial; the use of it to prevent cardiovascular diseases or cancer actually increased the chances of lung cancer and death. The task force also \"specifically recommends against the use\" of vitamin E because it likely has no benefits.\n\nThe findings come as over half (52%) of surveyed Americans say they take at least one dietary supplement and nearly one-third (31%) of Americans say they use a multivitamin-mineral supplement. The report said the U.S. spent nearly $50 billion on dietary supplements in 2021.\n\n\"If you ask them why, most people say, 'to maintain or improve their overall health,'\" Wong said.\n\nReport:Federal ban on popular Juul products forthcoming amid youth vaping concerns\n\nThe task force acknowledged it makes sense people would take vitamins and supplements in hopes of health benefits, as some deficiencies may lead to illness.\n\nBut experts agreed the best method to maintain good cardiovascular health and cancer prevention is a balanced diet and frequent physical activity. A 2019 study from Tufts University concluded the right amount of vitamins and minerals can lower your risk of early death, but they should come from food and not supplements.\n\n\"The recommendation across all organizations with regard to multivitamins and minerals is to eat a balanced diet, and then the emphasis tends to be on plenty of fruit and vegetables and less processed foods,\" Wong said.\n\nWong added people should consult with their health professionals to determine if any vitamins and supplements are worth taking. He said this recommendation should also serve as a call to action for further research into proving the official benefits and risks for each vitamin and supplement.\n\nFollow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/13/health/sids-potential-cause-wellness/index.html", "title": "Study identifies potential biomarker for SIDS, but a test for it is a long ...", "text": "(CNN) Australian researchers say they've identified one potential biomarker for sudden infant death syndrome, known as SIDS, but experts caution that it's just one piece of the puzzle.\n\nAbout 3,400 babies die from SIDS in the US each year. There is no immediate or obvious cause of death, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Experts don't know which babies are at risk for SIDS or what causes it.\n\nFor their study, published May 6 in the journal eBioMedicine , the researchers measured levels of an enzyme called butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in blood samples from 67 newborns who died of SIDS and other unknown causes between 2016 and 2020. They compared these levels with those in the blood of 655 babies in a control group and found that the children who died of SIDS had significantly lower BChE levels than living children or those who died of other causes.\n\nSIDS usually happens when a child is sleeping. Experts have speculated that it's associated with problems in the part of an infant's brain that controls breathing and waking. BChE is an enzyme of the cholinergic system, part of the autonomic system, which controls functions like blood pressure and breathing. The study authors say more research is needed to determine whether BChE tests might be able to identify and prevent future SIDS cases.\n\nSmoking during pregnancy is one of the risk factors for SIDS, along with things like family history and premature birth. The researchers noted that animal studies have shown a tie between secondhand smoke and lower BChE. However, many other changes in the first six months of life are also likely to affect these enzymes and the nervous system in general.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Katherine Dillinger", "Jen Christensen"], "publish_date": "2022/05/13"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/health/ba-2-covid-severity/index.html", "title": "Coronavirus: As BA.2 subvariant of Omicron rises, lab studies point ...", "text": "(CNN) The BA.2 virus -- a subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant -- isn't just spreading faster than its distant cousin, it may also cause more severe disease and appears capable of thwarting some of the key weapons we have against Covid-19, new research suggests.\n\nNew lab experiments from Japan show that BA.2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants of Covid-19, including Delta.\n\nAnd like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster shot restores protection, making illness after infection about 74% less likely.\n\nBA.2 is also resistant to some treatments, including sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody that's currently being used against Omicron.\n\nThe findings were posted Wednesday as a preprint study on the bioRxiv server, before peer review. Normally, before a study is published in medical journal, it is scrutinized by independent experts. Preprints allow research to be shared more quickly, but they are posted before that additional layer of review.\n\n\"It might be, from a human's perspective, a worse virus than BA.1 and might be able to transmit better and cause worse disease,\" says Dr. Daniel Rhoads, section head of microbiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Rhoads reviewed the study but was not involved in the research.\n\nThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is keeping close watch on BA.2, said its director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky.\n\n\"There is no evidence that the BA.2 lineage is more severe than the BA.1 lineage. CDC continues to monitor variants that are circulating both domestically and internationally,\" she said Friday. \"We will continue to monitor emerging data on disease severity in humans and findings from papers like this conducted in laboratory settings.\"\n\nBA.2 is highly mutated compared with the original Covid-causing virus that emerged in Wuhan, China. It also has dozens of gene changes that are different from the original Omicron strain, making it as distinct from the most recent pandemic virus as the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants were from each other.\n\nKei Sato, a researcher at the University of Tokyo who conducted the study, argues that these findings prove that BA.2 should not be considered a type of Omicron and that it needs to be more closely monitored.\n\n\"As you may know, BA.2 is called 'stealth Omicron,' \" Sato told CNN. That's because it doesn't show up on PCR tests as an S-gene target failure, the way Omicron does. Labs therefore have to take an extra step and sequence the virus to find this variant.\n\n\"Establishing a method to detect BA.2 specifically would be the first thing\" many countries need to do, he says.\n\n\"It looks like we might be looking at a new Greek letter here,\" agreed Deborah Fuller, a virologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who reviewed the study but was not part of the research.\n\nMixed real-world data on subvariant's severity\n\nBA.2 has been estimated to be about 30% more contagious than Omicron, according to the World Health Organization. It has been detected in 74 countries and 47 US states.\n\nThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 4% of Americans with Covid-19 now have infections caused by BA.2, but many other parts of the world have more experience with this variant. It has become dominant in at least 10 other countries: Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Denmark, Guam, India, Montenegro, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines, according to World Health Organization's weekly epidemiological report.\n\nHowever, there's mixed evidence on the severity of BA.2 in the real world. Hospitalizations continue to decline in countries where BA.2 has gained a foothold, like South Africa and the UK. But in Denmark, where BA.2 has become the leading cause of infections, hospitalizations and deaths are rising, according to WHO.\n\nResistant to monoclonal antibody treatments\n\nThe new study found that BA.2 can copy itself in cells more quickly than BA.1, the original version of Omicron. It's also more adept at causing cells to stick together. This allows the virus to create larger clumps of cells, called syncytia, than BA.1. That's concerning because these clumps then become factories for churning out more copies of the virus. Delta was also good at creating syncytia, which is thought to be one reason it was so destructive to the lungs.\n\nWhen the researchers infected hamsters with BA.2 and BA.1, the animals infected with BA.2 got sicker and had worse lung function. In tissues samples, the lungs of BA.2-infected hamsters had more damage than those infected by BA.1.\n\nSimilar to the original Omicron, BA.2 was capable of breaking through antibodies in the blood of people who'd been vaccinated against Covid-19. It was also resistant to the antibodies of people who'd been infected with Covid-19 early in the pandemic, including Alpha and Delta. And BA.2 was almost completely resistant to some monoclonal antibody treatments.\n\nBut there was a bright spot: Antibodies in the blood of people who'd recently had Omicron also seemed to have some protection against BA.2, especially if they'd also been vaccinated.\n\nAnd that raises an important point, Fuller says. Even though BA.2 seems more contagious and pathogenic than Omicron, it may not wind up causing a more devastating wave of Covid-19 infections.\n\n\"One of the caveats that we have to think about as we get new variants that might seem more dangerous is the fact that there's two sides to the story,\" Fuller says.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nThe virus matters, she says, but as its would-be hosts, so do we.\n\n\"Our immune system is evolving as well. And so that's pushing back on things,\" she said.\n\nRight now, she says, we're in a race against the virus, and the key question is, who's in the lead?\n\n\"What we will ultimately want is to have the host be ahead of the virus. In other words, our immunity, be a step ahead of the next variant that comes out, and I don't know that we're quite there yet,\" she said.\n\nFor that reason, Fuller says, she feels like it's not quite time for communities to lift mask mandates.\n\n\"Before this thing came out, we were about 10 feet away from the finish line,\" she said. \"Taking off the masks now is not a good idea. It's just going to extend it. Let's get to the finish line.\"", "authors": ["Brenda Goodman"], "publish_date": "2022/02/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/28/politics/us-kyiv-fears/index.html", "title": "US officials fear the worst is yet to come for Kyiv - CNNPolitics", "text": "(CNN) Ukrainian forces have so far managed to stave off Russian ground forces massed less than 20 miles north of the embattled capital Kyiv -- but though they've defied US intelligence predictions that the city would likely fall within one to four days of a full-scale Russian assault, US officials warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin could imminently increase the intensity of the attack.\n\nStiffer than expected Ukrainian resistance and Russia's own logistical missteps have bogged down Russia's advance, US and western officials say, sparking a fragile optimism. The US has also continued sharing downgraded intelligence with the Ukrainians, including about Russian military moves, in an attempt to help Ukraine on the battlefield, two of the sources told CNN.\n\nBut intelligence and defense officials closely tracking the Russian campaign say that Putin still holds a number of moves in reserve that could devastate the Ukrainian resistance.\n\n\"From a purely military/tactical standpoint, Russia has the manpower and firepower to take Kyiv. No question,\" said an American source familiar with the intelligence. \"And no matter how much resistance the Ukrainians put up.\"\n\nRoughly a quarter of Russia's amassed troops have yet to enter Ukraine, a senior defense official told reporters on Monday -- a potential \"second wave,\" according to two sources familiar with the intelligence -- and defense officials say Putin could yet order a far less restrained bombing campaign, including airstrikes, long-range missiles and artillery.\n\n\"They have been slowed and they have been frustrated by their lack of progress on Kyiv, and one of the things that could result is a reevaluation of their tactics and the potential for them to be more aggressive and more overt in both the size and the scale of their targeting of Kyiv,\" a senior defense official told reporters on Monday.\n\nAdministration officials warned lawmakers in classified briefings Monday that a \"second wave\" of Russian troops will likely consolidate the country's positions within Ukraine and by sheer numbers be able to overcome the Ukrainian resistance, according to two people familiar with the briefings.\n\n\"That part was disheartening,\" one lawmaker told CNN.\n\nThe officials also said Russia was likely going to lay siege to Kyiv and predicted ugly scenes of urban warfare, one of the people familiar with the matter said.\n\nAnd at the end of the day, officials tracking the campaign say, the ugly truth remains that Ukraine is massively outgunned and outmanned -- even as Russia has made what military strategists say are a number of obvious blunders.\n\nAlready, Russia appears to be ramping up its campaign in the east and the south. In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Russian forces have launched rocket attacks on at least one residential neighborhood that have killed civilians, according to Ukrainian officials and multiple social media videos geolocated by CNN. Meanwhile, in the small southern city of Mykolaiv, located on an inlet that would be a useful access point for Russians to bring in troops and supplies, the fighting has been among the most intense in Ukraine in recent days.\n\nConcerns about Putin's state of mind\n\nPerhaps most ominously, western officials are also warily watching Putin, under pressure from crushing economic penalties that have tanked the ruble and caused the Russian stock market to close. They fear those sanctions, combined with the lack of progress in Kyiv, may cause the unpredictable Russian leader to lash out even more.\n\nJUST WATCHED French presidential sources: Putin struck Macron 'different' at recent meeting Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH French presidential sources: Putin struck Macron 'different' at recent meeting 03:51\n\nSenior US lawmakers familiar with the intelligence, western officials and former senior US officials with deep experience in Russia have begun to openly raise questions about the Russian leader's mental stability.\n\n\"Putin has been completely isolated, partly because of Covid,\" said the American source familiar with the intelligence. \"He's now basically just by himself, completely cut off from most of his advisers, isolated geographically ... the only people talking to him are sycophants who are just feeding his resentment.\" The source added that the intelligence suggested Putin has not even been listening to his oligarchs -- traditionally the people who have had a key influence on his decision making.\n\nQuestions about Putin's mental state arose during the classified briefings to lawmakers, but they were not clearly answered by the administration officials, the sources familiar with the briefings said.\n\nRepublican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who attended the Senate briefing, confirmed that Putin's mental state came up, but he declined to elaborate on what had been shared. He said, however, that regardless of the briefing, he personally is worried about Putin's mental state.\n\nSen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted Friday that \"it's pretty obvious to many that something is off with #Putin,\" hinting that his assessment was based on intelligence briefings. \"He has always been a killer, but his problem now is different & significant. It would be a mistake to assume this Putin would react the same way he would have 5 years ago.\"\n\nOn Sunday, Putin ordered Russia's nuclear forces into \"special combat readiness,\" a heightened alert status that the Biden administration has characterized as part of a pattern of unprovoked escalation and \"manufactured threats.\"\n\nHolding back?\n\nFive days into its multipronged assault on Ukraine, Russia has suffered repeated logistical failures that defense officials and independent military analysts say are largely of its own making. Russian mechanized forces that have been the tip of the spear have often outpaced their own sustainment units carrying fuel and other supplies, leaving the support units open to ambush and stranding forward-advancing forces without fuel in the tank.\n\n\"Whether they outran [sustainment capabilities] or whether they just didn't plan properly for it, or whether they just simply didn't execute their plan for it, I don't know,\" said the senior defense official. But, \"on day 4, they're running out of gas and they've having logistics problems. Our assessment was that they did not believe they would be having those kinds of problems that early on.\"\n\nMeanwhile, western officials have cheered on a better-than-anticipated showing by Ukrainian forces, in particular how effective they have been using western-provided Stinger shoulder-fired missiles and anti-aircraft artillery to take down an unknown number of Russian helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.\n\n\"The Russians don't have complete control of the airspace of the entire country,\" said the senior western intelligence official. \"In the areas in which the Russian military operations are the most intense on the ground, those are the areas where the Russians have the most control over the airspace in terms of air to air.\"\n\nBut Western officials still aren't entirely sure why Russia has held back some forces outside of Ukraine's borders, or why Russia has not yet carried out the kind of electronic warfare against Ukraine the west had been anticipating -- like massive hacking campaigns and attacks on critical infrastructure.\n\nOne official said the US believes Russia has been holding back on severing communications on the ground -- a tactic the west had expected early but has yet to happen -- because the Russian military forces need that infrastructure to communicate amongst themselves.\n\nAs for the troops left on the border, it's possible that Russia has planned the attack in waves in an effort to exhaust the Ukrainians with the first wave and then demolish them with a second wave of fresh troops, according to two sources familiar with the intelligence. It's also possible, according to one of those sources, that Russia has simply moved cautiously after facing a tougher fight than expected.\n\nAt this point, officials said, it's impossible to put a timeline on how long Ukrainian forces will be able to hold the Russians at the gates of Kyiv.\n\n\"I can't put a number [on how long Kyiv lasts],\" the senior western intelligence official said. \"I can't tell you it's going to be hours or days.\n\n\"While the Ukrainians are putting on a stiff defense, and a much better one than I think the Russians anticipated, there will be a time where they will run out of ammunition. There will come a time where they run out of fuel and they can't move,\" this person said. \"We are mindful of that and they are mindful of that.\"\n\nThis story has been updated with additional reporting Monday.", "authors": ["Katie Bo Lillis", "Natasha Bertrand", "Barbara Starr"], "publish_date": "2022/02/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/06/health/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html", "title": "An 'awful' month of Covid-19 lies ahead, doctor says, but ...", "text": "What we can learn from the WHO Covid mortality numbers\n\nThis is why you should still have confidence in the FDA for vaccines\n\nJohnson & Johnson's Janssen Covid-19 vaccine awaits administration at a vaccination clinic in Los Angeles, California on December 15, 2021. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nFILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, visits a pharmacy in Pyongyang, North Korea on May 15, 2022. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: \"KCNA\" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)\n\nBritish singer Mick Jagger (C), US drummer Steve Jordan (back), guitar players Keith Richards (R) and Ronnie Wood (L) perform during the Rolling Stones \"No Filter\" 2021 North American tour at The Dome at America's Center stadium on September 26, 2021 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP) (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)\n\n'Are you gonna let me answer a question?': Fauci and Paul face off in tense exchange\n\nCNN —\n\nWhile the highly transmissible Omicron variant continues to drive up Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations – and the numbers are likely to get worse before they get better – health experts say it’s critical Americans continue safe practices to prevent infections.\n\n“I don’t buy the idea that we are all going to get Omicron and, therefore, just give up trying. I think that’s wrong,” Dr. Robert Wachter, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday.\n\nIt’s likely that “the next month is going to be awful,” he said. But this does not mean that everyone should assume they will catch the virus, he said, noting the pattern of Omicron infections in the UK and South Africa.\n\n“In a month or six weeks or eight weeks – hard to know – if we follow the pattern that South Africa has followed, if we follow what London appears to be showing us, they are starting to come down in cases,” Wachter said.\n\nAn ensemble forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Wednesday predicts that more than 84,000 people could die of Covid-19 over the next four weeks, and cautions “current forecasts may not fully account for the emergence and rapid spread of the Omicron variant or changes in reporting during the holidays.”\n\nThe forecast could mean an average of 3,526 Covid-19 deaths per day, up from a current average of 1,251 each day, based on data from Johns Hopkins University.\n\nTo date, Covid-19 has killed at least 832,148 people and infected about 57.8 million in the US, according to JHU’s database.\n\nHealth care facilities are scrambling to handle staff shortages as hospitalizations for Covid-19 are increasing for both adults and children.\n\nIn the Kansas City metro area, hospitals are postponing certain surgeries due to employees out sick with Covid-19, according to more than a dozen doctors at a news conference Wednesday.\n\n“This is, hands down, the toughest surge the medical community has had to face since the pandemic began in 2020,” according to Dr. Steven Stites, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System.\n\nKansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed a state of disaster emergency on Thursday to alleviate some of the healthcare staffing shortages and constraints caused by the surge.\n\nFrontline workers across other industries, such as education, retail and food services, are also facing an increased risk of exposure, with employees infected with Covid-19 needing time to recuperate.\n\nIn Massachusetts, senior administrators of Boston Public Schools stepped into classrooms Wednesday to help fill in for hundreds of teachers who have called out.\n\n“Some of our schools are experiencing more than a quarter of staff absent because of positive Covid tests or other issues,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said.\n\nIn Chicago, about 340,000 students will miss a second day of school Thursday due to a showdown between the administration and the teachers’ union over in-person learning.\n\nThe best way to keep workplaces safe is to encourage mask-wearing and vaccinations, said Arthur Caplan, director of medical ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.\n\nThe safety of others is also critical and well-documented in our society, Caplan told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday\n\n“We have restricted second-hand smoking, if you will, in public spaces due to second-hand smoke,” he said. “You can lose your ability to drive if you engage in risky behavior. So, we don’t live in a society that just says, ‘freedom means I can do what I want’ or ‘freedom means I have choice without any accountability or responsibility.’ When you hurt others, our mothers, put others at risk, you have got to take some responsibility.”\n\nA health care worker at UMass Memorial Medical Center tends to a Covid-19 ICU patient in Worcester, Massachusetts. Erin Clark/The Boston Globe/Getty Images\n\nBoosters approved for those as young as 12\n\nAccess to boosters has been expanded to more children, as the CDC updated its recommendations Wednesday for the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine booster to include children as young as 12, at least five months after they finish the primary vaccine series.\n\nThe decision follows the US Food and Drug Administration’s earlier expansion of the emergency use authorization for the booster.\n\n“It is critical that we protect our children and teens from COVID-19 infection and the complications of severe disease,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.\n\nMore than 72 million people are fully vaccinated and boosted against Covid-19, per CDC data. That’s less than half of the nearly 180 million people who are eligible to receive their booster shot and about a fifth of the total US population.\n\nAt least 67.5 million people ages 5 and up have not received their first dose of the vaccine, according to the latest CDC data.\n\nNo vaccine is currently authorized in the US for children under 5, but ongoing studies may produce data for analysis in the first half of 2022, NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.\n\nCDC will hold an independent briefing\n\nThe CDC will also hold a telebriefing on Friday to give updates on the pandemic. Walensky is scheduled to speak during that briefing.\n\nIt’s been months since the CDC has held a briefing like this. The agency usually participates in joint briefings with officials from the White House or the National Institutes of Health, such as Fauci. Its last independent Covid-19 briefing was July 27, 2021.\n\nBut the CDC has faced renewed criticism in recent weeks over confusion surrounding its guidelines on testing and isolation for people who test positive for Covid-19.\n\nIn late December it shortened the recommended times that people should isolate when they’ve tested positive for the virus from 10 days to five days if they don’t have symptoms – and if they wear a mask around others for at least five more days.\n\nThis week the agency updated that guidance after criticism from outside medical experts, and said that if people have access to a Covid-19 test and want to take it, the best approach is to use a rapid test toward the end of their five-day isolation period.\n\nExpert: If you have symptoms, assume you have Covid\n\nA new preprint study involving a small group of patients published Wednesday found it may take several days for people infected with the Omicron variant to test positive for Covid-19 with a rapid antigen test after also testing positive with a PCR test, raising concerns about the reliability of rapid tests to detect Omicron Covid-19 cases when the infections are still early.\n\nResearchers found on the day of and the day immediately following a positive PCR result, rapid antigen tests were all negative, even though 28 of the 30 people in the study had enough virus in their body to transmit it to others.\n\nOn average, the time from a first positive PCR test to a first positive rapid antigen test was 3 days, the study found.\n\n“The policy implication is that rapid antigen tests may not be as fit-for-purpose in routine workplace screening to prevent asymptomatic spread of Omicron, compared to prior variants, given the shorter time from exposure to infectiousness and lower infectious doses sufficient for transmission,” the authors wrote. The results are considered preliminary and have yet to be peer-reviewed.\n\nIndividuals who are experiencing Covid-19 symptoms should act as if they’re positive, epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina said Thursday.\n\n“The important thing is, when you feel symptoms, assume you’re positive at this point, especially with Omicron being so prevalent,” Mina said in an interview with eMed, where he is chief science officer. “Assume you’re positive, assume you’re infectious, and wait a day or two before taking that test, because it might be a day before the test turns positive. It might be two days.”\n\nFor individuals with access to rapid tests, the FDA stated that tests should be used as authorized after several health experts on social media suggested rapid tests may be more accurate if the throat is swabbed rather than nasal passages.\n\n“The FDA has noted safety concerns regarding self-collection of throat swabs, as they are more complicated than nasal swabs – and if used incorrectly, can cause harm to the patient,” an FDA spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. “The CDC recommends that throat swabs be collected by a trained healthcare provider.”", "authors": ["Travis Caldwell"], "publish_date": "2022/01/06"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/20/health/johnson-and-johnson-covid-19-vaccine/index.html", "title": "'Reassuring' data suggests Johnson & Johnson vaccine may still ...", "text": "(CNN) The US public and even some health experts may have underestimated the Covid-19 vaccine made by Janssen, a division of Johnson & Johnson, new data shows. And there's emerging evidence that it could still play an important role ahead.\n\nA study published Thursday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open found that the J&J vaccine remains durable and effective, even through the surge of cases caused by the Delta variant. It was 76% effective overall in preventing Covid-19 infections and 81% effective in preventing Covid-related hospitalizations. The study also showed that it provided lasting immunity at least six months after the shots.\n\nAnd a CNN analysis of information collected by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the J&J vaccine had the lowest breakthrough infection rate of all the vaccines since the week ending December 25, the latest five weeks of available data.\n\nIn January, during the Omicron surge, breakthrough infections were highest among those who received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, followed by those who got Moderna. Those vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson shot had the lowest incidence of breakthrough infections.\n\nAs of the week ending January 22, there were 650 infections per 100,000 people with the J&J vaccine. With Moderna, there were 757 per 100,000, and with Pfizer, the rate was 862 per 100,000.\n\nUnvaccinated people were particularly vulnerable to getting sick during the Omicron and Delta surges, just as they were with the original version of the coronavirus. They were 3.2 times as likely to get sick as people who had the J&J vaccine. The unvaccinated were 2.8 times as likely to become infected than those who got Moderna and 2.4 times as likely as those who got Pfizer.\n\n\"What we saw in the summertime and the fall during the Delta surge is that all three vaccines protected very, very well. But breakthrough rates in August, September of last year with the Janssen vaccine were slightly higher than Pfizer, and Moderna was slightly lower. But those differences were relatively small,\" said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He helped to develop and study the J&J vaccine.\n\n\"But what we saw over time is that those differences then narrowed,\" he said. \"And by the first week of December, what we saw in the data is that the lines cross,\" with incidence rates for the J&J/Janssen vaccine becoming lower than the others.\n\n'Reassuring' data for J&J recipients\n\nIn March 2021, the J&J vaccine was the third to be authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration, and the initial response was more muted than the milestone authorizations of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.\n\nThe vaccines work differently. The mRNA vaccines deliver blueprints, essentially, that train your body trains to fight that particular infection and any similar infection down the road. Adenovirus-vector vaccines, like J&J's, use a virus that can act like a Trojan horse. But instead of soldiers jumping out, the adenovirus releases genes that encode the coronavirus' spike protein.\n\nThe J&J vaccine stood out for other reasons, too: It came as a convenient single dose and didn't require special refrigeration, whereas the mRNA vaccines required two doses, and Pfizer's needed special cold storage. The flexibility was appealing for people who were afraid of shots or didn't have the time to get two shots. It was also better for countries without a solid health care infrastructure.\n\nBut its performance tempered some of the enthusiasm around it, especially from the public.\n\nWhereas the mRNA vaccines were hailed for \"astonishing\" efficacy of more than 90%, the news that J&J was 65% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 among clinical trial volunteers underwhelmed some.\n\nFrom the start, the J&J vaccine supply was more limited. After after the vaccine was authorized, the federal government briefly paused its use due to safety concerns around rare blood clotting events. Even once vaccinations resumed, the pace of J&J vaccinations never recovered.\n\nIn December, the CDC changed its recommendations to say shots made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are preferred over J&J's. It also urges people who got the J&J shot to get a booster of one of the mRNA vaccines two months later.\n\nThe protection that the Covid-19 vaccines offered has waned over time, and none of them works as well against the variants that have popped up since the original coronavirus surfaced. But the science is starting to show that people who got the J&J Covid-19 vaccine may have some advantage.\n\nBarouch told CNN that he \"wasn't surprised at all\" to see that the durability of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine appears to be last longer than that of the mRNA vaccines -- Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna -- based on the incidence of breakthrough infections.\n\nThe mRNA vaccine technology has been shown to quickly elicit a potent and robust immune response after vaccination, but that can wane over time. Johnson & Johnson's virus-vector platform may not spark as powerful of an immune response in the short term, but it is known to have strong durability.\n\n\"Over time, the efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines goes down, the efficacy of the J&J vaccines remains stable, and so it is exactly as you would predict: that they will converge and they will then cross,\" Barouch said.\n\nThe J&J vaccine also might have \"a particular edge,\" he said.\n\n\"The immune system is actually made of two arms: the antibodies side and the T cells. And the type of T cells that are critical for prevention of serious illness are called CD8 T cells,\" Barouch said. \"The J&J vaccine raises better CD8 T cells than the Pfizer and other mRNA vaccines, so the J&J vaccine might have a particular edge for variants like Omicron that largely escaped from antibody responses.\"\n\nOverall, Barouch called this data \"very reassuring\" for recipients of the J&J vaccine.\n\n\"They should be reassured that they received a vaccine that gives very good protection for a long period of time,\" Barouch said. \"And I think the second message is that I think people should learn about these new data in terms of considering booster shots, as well.\"\n\nProspects as a booster?\n\nDavid Montefiori, a virologist at Duke University Medical Center, said \"the J&J vaccine has kind of gotten a bad rap because of the efficacy, but the stability of the response is intriguing.\"\n\nThe antibody level went down with every vaccine during the Omicron surge, and that could mean people need an additional booster. More research is needed to find out.\n\nA yet-unpublished study by the National Institutes of Health looking at a mix-and-match vaccine strategy saw good results when J&J was included, Montefiori said.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\n\"In people who got the Pfizer vaccine initially and then a boosted with the J&J vaccine, those people made pretty high levels of neutralizing antibodies to Omicron: 10 times higher than people who got two shots with just the J&J vaccine,\" he said. \"So the J&J vaccine might be a good booster for people who got an mRNA vaccine initially.\"\n\nThe Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be used for primary doses or as a booster, but the CDC says the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are recommended in most situations because of the risk of serious adverse events with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.\n\nThe J&J vaccine has been linked to rare cases of blood clots with low platelets, known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome or TTS. \"It occurs at a rate of about 3.83 cases per million Janssen doses and has resulted in deaths,\" the CDC says.\n\nDr. Angela Branche , an infectious disease specialist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Rochester, said the side effect profile of the J&J vaccine \"remains something that's of concern for some groups where that risk is high.\" Women ages 30 to 49 years are at increased risk of this rare adverse event, the CDC says.\n\nBut if that research pans out, the J&J vaccine may be useful as a booster for only certain populations.\n\n\"For some groups where that risk of developing serious blood clots is not very high, like older adults, this may be a good strategy,\" Branche said.\n\nMontefiori said the vaccine deserves more study.\n\n\"I think there might still be a place for the J&J vaccine in the long-term picture of this pandemic,\" Montefiori said.", "authors": ["Jen Christensen", "Deidre Mcphillips"], "publish_date": "2022/03/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/01/health/us-coronavirus-saturday/index.html", "title": "US Coronavirus: Americans may be faced with a different reality in ...", "text": "(CNN) The US is ringing in the new year amid a Covid-19 surge experts warn is exploding at unprecedented speed and could alter daily life for many Americans during the first month of 2022.\n\n\"Omicron is truly everywhere,\" Dr. Megan Ranney, a professor of emergency medicine at Brown University's School of Public Health, told CNN on Friday night. \"What I am so worried about over the next month or so is that our economy is going to shut down, not because of policies from the federal government or from the state governments, but rather because so many of us are ill.\"\n\nThe nation broke records at least four times this week for its seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases, reporting an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections Friday, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. The high case count is already causing disruptions in the country.\n\nIn New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is plagued with staffing issues and announced three subway lines -- the B, Z and W -- which service various parts of the boroughs, have been suspended.\n\n\"Like everyone in New York, we've been affected by the COVID surge. We're running as much train service as we can with the operators we have available,\" the MTA wrote on Twitter Thursday.\n\nNew York continues to break its own record, adding 85,476 reported Covid-19 cases, according to Saturday's briefing from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.\n\nHospitalizations jumped to 8,451, up from around 8,000 in the report released Friday, according to the latest data. The state's seven-day positivity rate is 19.79%.\n\nThe number of one day case additions has increased 219% since Monday, when the state reported an addition of 26,737 cases.\n\nHealthcare services -- exhausted after several surges of the virus and now stretched thin again by a growing number of Covid-19 patients -- are also already feeling impacts. The University of Maryland Capital Region Health this week joined a growing list of medical centers in the state to activate emergency protocols after a sharp rise in cases fueled staffing shortages and overwhelmed emergency departments.\n\n\"The current demand for care is depleting our available resources, including staffing,\" UM Capital Region Health said in a statement on Friday.\n\nIn Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday announced the deployment of about 1,250 National Guard members as hospitals struggle with staffing shortages.\n\nOn the same day, the mayor of Cincinnati declared a state of emergency due to staffing shortages in the city's fire department following a rise in Covid-19 infections. The mayor's declaration said if the staffing problem goes unaddressed, it would \"substantially undermine\" first responders' readiness levels.\n\n\"Get ready. We have to remember, in the next few weeks, there's going to be an unprecedented number of social disruptions,\" Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor University's National School of Tropical Medicine, told CNN.\n\nThose include flight disruptions as well, he said, because of TSA agent and air crew absences.\n\nThousands of flights have already been canceled or delayed throughout the holiday season as staff and crew called out sick. On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said an \"increased number\" of its employees were testing positive for the virus, and \"to maintain safety, traffic volume at some facilities could be reduced, which might result in delays during busy periods.\"\n\nPrevious rules of virus are 'out the window'\n\nThe virus is now \"extraordinarily contagious\" and previous mitigation measures that used to help now may not be as helpful, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN on Friday.\n\n\"At the beginning of this pandemic... we all were taught, you have a significant exposure if you're within six feet of somebody and you're in contact with them for more than 15 minutes. All these rules are out the window,\" Reiner said. \"This is a hyper-contagious virus.\"\n\nNow, even a quick, transient encounter can lead to an infection, Reiner added, including if someone's mask is loose, or a person quickly pulls their mask down, or an individual enters an elevator in which someone else has just coughed.\n\n\"This is how you can contract this virus,\" Reiner said.\n\nThe variant's transmissibility helps explain the staggering number of infections reported globally, including in the US. in the past week, several states have reported new case and hospitalization highs, shattering previous records.\n\nNew Jersey recorded more than 28,000 new Covid-19 cases through PCR testing, Gov. Phil Murphy wrote on Twitter Friday. In a news conference, the governor said the number was roughly \"quadruple from just two weeks ago, and four times as many cases than during the height of last winter's surge.\"\n\n\"Our hospitals right now are at roughly the same numbers they were on the worst day of last winter's surge,\" he added. \"The problem is that right now we don't see any sign of let up.\"\n\nOther states, including Arkansas, Maryland and New York, also reported new records for case numbers.\n\nAnd a sharp rise in infections -- especially in children -- could soon lead to a spike in hospital admissions, infectious diseases expert Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo said.\n\n\"The explosive rise in cases is really fueling what normally might be a relatively small proportion ... of kids who are experiencing these severe outcomes,\" she told CNN's Amara Walker on Friday. \"But you put the gigantic numbers of cases together with the small number affected, plus the proportion of unvaccinated, and I'm really worried that we're going to be in for a tidal wave of admissions, particularly for kids in the coming weeks.\"\n\nChild Covid-19 hospital admissions already reached an all-time high this week , with a record average of 378 children admitted to hospitals on any given day over the week ending December 28, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services.\n\nChildren younger than 5 are not yet eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine, and a shot for those groups likely won't be available until mid-2022, experts say.\n\nConcerns about returning to school\n\nWith the virus spreading, some staff members and experts are expressing concern about what school reopenings could mean.\n\n\"There will be pediatric hospitalizations,\" Hotez said. \"And what's going to be the other tough piece in the next weeks, keeping the schools open, because of this high transmissibility -- especially if you start seeing absences of school teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria staff.\"\n\nThe Massachusetts Teachers Association, New England's largest public sector union, urged the state education commissioner this week to keep schools closed on Monday, except for staff Covid-19 testing.\n\n\"Using Monday as a day for testing and analyzing data will allow our school districts to make prudent decisions around staffing needs so they can continue in-person learning for students if it is safe or develop contingency plans if a district deems it to be necessary,\" Merrie Najimy, the association's president, said in a statement.\n\nThe state's Executive Office of Education said Friday schools will be open on Monday, despite the teacher union's request.\n\n\"The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education worked hard this week to make at-home rapid tests available to all public school teachers and staff in light of the testing shortages being experienced around the country. Massachusetts is one of only a handful of states supplying rapid tests to its teachers. It is a not a requirement for teachers to return to work, or necessary to reopen schools after the holiday break,\" Colleen Quinn, a spokesperson for the office, said in a statement.\n\n\"It is disappointing,\" the statement added, \"that once again the MTA is trying to find a way to close schools, which we know is to the extreme detriment of our children.\"\n\nAtlanta Public Schools (APS) announced all district schools will operate virtually through Friday, January 7, for all students and staff, according to a statement on Saturday.\n\nCiting the surging Covid-19 cases, APS said the district elected to postpone in-person learning until Monday, January 10. The move will allow students and staff to be tested and if needed, to isolate and quarantine, per CDC and Department of Health Guidelines, according to APS.\n\nAll APS staff members are required to report to their workplaces on Monday for Covid-19 testing, the statement said.\n\nNeighboring Fulton County Schools and DeKalb County Schools also announced Saturday they are starting online next week as students return to classes after the holiday break, according to verified tweets from both districts.\n\nFulton and DeKalb also aim to return to in-person instruction on January 10.\n\nMeanwhile, a growing number of colleges and universities across the country are making changes to the beginning of the 2022 spring semester as a result of the case surge.\n\nDuke University extended its plan for remote classes by another week because of an \"incredibly high\" positive case count among faculty and an increasing number of cases among students who are already in the area, the school said Friday.\n\nMichigan State University announced Friday that classes will start primarily remotely on January 10 and will stay remote for at least three weeks.\n\n\"I realize that students prefer to be in person, and so do I,\" Samuel L. Stanley Jr., the university's president, said in a statement. \"But it is important that we do so in a safe manner. Starting the semester remotely and de-densifying campus in the coming weeks can be a solution to slowing the spread of the virus.\"\n\nCorrection: A previous version of this article misstated the number of records broken this week in the seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases. The most recent average figure has also been updated to reflect the latest data from JHU.", "authors": ["Christina Maxouris", "Alaa Elassar"], "publish_date": "2022/01/01"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/health/covid-ba2-omicron-studies-explainer/index.html", "title": "New studies bring BA.2 variant into sharper focus - CNN", "text": "(CNN) On the heels of concerning new lab and animal experiments suggesting that BA.2 may be capable of causing more severe disease than the original Omicron strain, two new studies are helping to show how well human immunity is defending against this strain in the real world.\n\nBA.2 is about 30% more transmissible than the original Omicron variant, BA.1, according to early studies from the UK and Denmark, and it is now causing about 1 in 5 Covid-19 cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.\n\nEven as Covid-19 cases have been dropping around the world, the relative proportion of cases caused by BA.2 has been increasing. It is outcompeting the original Omicron strain in at least 43 countries , prompting fears of another devastating pandemic wave.\n\n\"As of now, I don't think that we need to sound a global alarm. But I do think that we need to pay attention to BA.2 because it does appear to have a growth advantage over BA.1,\" says Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.\n\nLike the BA.1 strain, BA.2 also has features that help it escape some immunity from vaccines and from most monoclonal antibody treatments, though recent boosters improve personal protection and antiviral pills are still expected to work against this subvariant.\n\nNow new studies are providing some reassurance that while BA.2 may overtake its genetically distant cousin, it won't likely lead to greater numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.\n\n\"The situation that we're seeing on the ground, and I get this from talking to a number of my colleagues who actually do the genomic surveillance, is BA.2 is kind of creeping up in terms of numbers, but it's not the meteoric rise that we saw with BA.1,\" said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.\n\nThat's because in many countries like the US, UK, and Denmark, BA.2 has hit speed bumps left in its wake by BA.1, which was already very contagious.\n\n\"It's so soon after that initial BA.1 peak that you have a lot of people who were either vaccinated or boosted ... [or] got Omicron, and so right now all of those people will have relatively high titers of antibodies, neutralizing antibodies that will protect against infection,\" Rasmussen says.\n\nThe new studies are preprints, which means they were posted to an online library of medical research before being reviewed by outside experts and published in medical journals.\n\nNo increase in hospitalizations\n\nThe first new study comes from South Africa, where BA.2 grew rapidly, rising from 27% to 86% of new Covid-19 infections over the course of a single week in February. Researchers looked at cases tied to more than 95,000 positive Covid-19 tests. Among these, roughly equal proportions of people were hospitalized for their infections -- roughly 3.6% of people who had presumed BA.2 infections compared to 3.4% of those with signs infections caused by BA.1.\n\nAfter researchers accounted for things that might influence a person's risk of severe disease, such as older age, they found no difference in the risk for hospitalization between people infected by BA.1 and those infected by BA.2. Roughly one-quarter of people hospitalized with both BA.1 and BA.2 infections were fully vaccinated.\n\nThose findings echo hospitalization studies from Denmark, where BA.2 is also the predominant cause of Covid-19 infections.\n\nThe lead researcher on the South African study, Dr. Nicole Wolter, says that while it's difficult to say how the South African experience with this variant may translate to other countries, what they're seeing from BA.2 after their fourth wave isn't a second peak, but a longer tail.\n\n\"We have seen an extended wave which has currently plateaued at a higher level than we have seen in previous inter-wave periods,\" Wolter wrote in an email to CNN. \"This may however also be influenced by schools opening following the December holiday period and a general relaxing of restrictions,\" wrote Wolter, who is a principal medical scientist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg.\n\nThough cases have stayed at a high level, and most are now caused by BA.2, hospitalizations have continued to decline.\n\nWhat about reinfection risk?\n\nThe second new study , from Denmark's Statens Serum Institut -- the country's equivalent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- looked at the risk of reinfection with BA.2 after recovery from a Covid-19 infection caused by other recent variants, including Delta and BA.1.\n\nThe study found that people who've recently had a Covid-19 infection caused by Omicron or Delta can be reinfected by the emerging BA.2 subvariant, but such cases appear to be uncommon, afflict mostly those who are unvaccinated and result in mostly mild infections.\n\nBA.2 is currently the dominant cause of Covid-19 in Denmark. It overtook BA.1 during the second week of January there.\n\nTo look at reinfection risk, researchers combed through more than 140,000 viral genomes that were sequenced from infections during the period when Omicron became dominant (late November to mid-February 2022) to find people who had a new positive test 20 to 60 days after a previous one.\n\nThey found a total of 263 reinfections, with 190 of those caused by the BA.2 variant. In 140 cases, the person was reinfected by BA.2 after an infection caused by the Delta variant. There were 47 cases where people were first infected by BA.1 (the original Omicron variant) followed by the BA.2 subvariant.\n\nResearchers then did a more in-depth analysis of those 47 reinfections where BA.2 followed BA.1. Most of the individuals who were reinfected were young -- 30 were under age 20. None of the reinfected individuals was over age 40 and nearly all -- 42 of the 47 individuals -- were unvaccinated.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nFor the most part, reinfections were mild; 28 people had no symptoms or mild symptoms. Five people experienced symptoms that were characterized as moderate, akin to flu-like symptoms. There were no hospitalizations or deaths reported among reinfected individuals.\n\nThe study shows that \"reinfection can happen with people who recently recovered from BA;1, but it's pretty rare. And in all those cases, it wasn't severe,\" says Rasmussen, who reviewed the study but was not involved in the research.\n\nWhat that means she says is that while BA.2 reinfection is a risk, it is a small risk relative to the entire population, and \"that recent immune boost caused by either boosters, or recent Omicron infection is largely going to protect most of the population against it,\" she said.", "authors": ["Brenda Goodman"], "publish_date": "2022/02/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/russia-ukraine-joe-biden-news-conference/index.html", "title": "Russia 'will move in' to Ukraine, Biden predicts, but 'minor incursion ...", "text": "(CNN) President Joe Biden on Wednesday predicted Russia \"will move in\" to Ukraine , citing existential concerns by the country's president, Vladimir Putin, even as he acknowledged disunity within NATO over how to respond to a \"minor incursion.\"\n\nThe candid assessment laid bare the struggle Biden faces in creating meaningful consequences and deterrents for Moscow, which remains closely intertwined economically with the United States' top European partners.\n\nThe remark elicited near-immediate outcry in Kyiv, where officials have been meeting with Biden's top diplomat as Russian troops amass on the country's border . High-level attempts to clean-up the comment soon followed at the White House.\n\nWhile Biden vowed withering economic consequences on Russia should Putin send his troops over the frontier, including restricting its financial transitions in US dollars, he suggested Western nations were not in sync on what to do should a lesser violation occur.\n\n\"It's one thing if it's a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do,\" Biden told reporters at an East Room news conference . \"But if they actually do what they're capable of doing with the forces amassed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine.\"\n\nLater, asked to clarify what he meant by \"minor incursion,\" Biden said he drew the line at \"Russian forces crossing the border, killing Ukrainian fighters\"\n\n\"I think that changes everything,\" the President said. \"But it depends on what he does, to what extent we'll get total unity on the NATO front.\"\n\n\"It's very important that we keep everyone in NATO on the same page. That's what I'm spending a lot of time doing, and there are differences,\" he went on. \"There are differences in NATO as to what countries are willing to do, depending on what happens.\"\n\nThe candid assessment of NATO's divisions -- which have been well documented, even as US and Western officials seek to project unity amid the crisis -- left Ukrainian officials aghast. One told CNN's Matthew Chance he was \"shocked that the US President Biden would distinguish between incursion and invasion\" and suggest that a minor incursion would not trigger sanctions.\n\n\"This gives the green light to Putin to enter Ukraine at his pleasure,\" the official added, claiming he'd never heard any nuance like this from the US administration before.\n\n\"Kyiv is stunned,\" he said, referring to the Ukrainian government.\n\nThe White House sought to explain Biden's remarks by pointing out a Russian attack in cyberspace or through paramilitary forces would prompt a reciprocal response compared to a scenario where Russian troops move from their positions into Ukraine\n\n\"President Biden has been clear with the Russian President: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that's a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our Allies,\" press secretary Jen Psaki wrote in a statement following Biden's marathon news conference.\n\n\"President Biden also knows from long experience that the Russians have an extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyberattacks and paramilitary tactics,\" Psaki went on. \"And he affirmed today that those acts of Russian aggression will be met with a decisive, reciprocal, and united response.\"\n\nA senior administration official said if Russian military forces tried to take Ukrainian territory by force and violated Ukrainian sovereignty -- whether that was a \"small portion or a large portion\" of land -- that would constitute an \"invasion\" by the Biden administration's standards and would warrant severe penalties.\n\nAnd while the official acknowledged the US and NATO members likely will not have the \"same list\" of targets and details matching on every measure, the response would remain \"highly unified\" and \"provide a force multiplier to actions we take.\"\n\nBiden's remarks came as the US entered what officials have deemed a dangerous period, when a Russian invasion could occur at any moment. The President, while acknowledging lingering uncertainty over Putin's intentions, said Wednesday he believed the Russian leader would soon invade Ukraine.\n\n\"I'm not so sure he is certain what he is going to do. My guess is he will move in. He has to do something,\" Biden said, describing a leader searching for relevance in a post-Soviet world. \"He is trying to find his place in the world between China and the west.\"\n\nBiden's prediction of an invasion was the firmest acknowledgment to date the United States fully expects Putin to move after amassing 100,000 troops along the Ukraine border.\n\nAfter speaking with Putin twice last month, Biden said he believed his Russian counterpart had a good understanding of the economic sanctions he was preparing to enact.\n\n\"He's never seen sanctions like the ones I promised will be imposed if he moves, number one,\" he said, adding the level of punishment would depend on what Russia's invasion looks like.\n\nThat includes limiting Russian transactions in US financial institutions -- \"anything that involves dollar denominations,\" Biden said.\n\nThe President warned Russian lives would be lost in an invasion, along with potential Ukrainian casualties.\n\n\"The cost of going into Ukraine in terms of physical loss of life for the Russians -- they'll be able to prevail over time but it's going to be heavy,\" he said. \"It's going to be real. It's going to be consequential. Putin has a stark choice. Either de-escalation or diplomacy. Confrontation and consequences.\"\n\n\"This is not all just a cake walk for Russia,\" he went on. \"Militarily, they have overwhelming superiority. And as it relates to Ukraine, they'll pay a stiff price immediately, near term, medium term and long term if they do it.\"\n\nBiden speculated Putin was not seeking \"any full-blown war,\" but said he did believe he was looking for some type of confrontation: \"Do I think he'll test the west? Test the United States and NATO as significantly as he can? Yes, I think he will. But I think he'll pay a serious and dear price for it.\"\n\nBiden's prediction came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday urged Ukrainians to not panic and to \"calm down\" over fears of a possible Russian invasion.\n\n\"All our citizens, especially the elderly, need to understand this: Everyone needs to exhale. Calm down. Don't run for emergency supplies like buckwheat and matches. To all the media: Remain as the media, not become a source of mass hysteria. Do not help the enemy in the pursuit of hype by reporting daily that war may happen tomorrow! This will definitely not stop it.\"\n\n\"What is new here? Is this not the reality for the past eight years? Didn't the invasion begin in 2014? Did the threat of the war emerge just now?\" he said.\n\nThe only reason for \"panic is that after eight years we are still influenced by this panic,\" he added.\n\nZelensky said Russia's \"aim is to weaken Ukraine\" in order to force Kyiv to concede to Moscow and \"to create such a background that our 'no' sounds weaker.\"\n\nThe Ukrainian leader said Moscow is \"actively attacking your nerves, not our state. So that you have a constant feeling of panic.\"\n\nThis story and its headline have been updated with additional reporting Wednesday.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak"], "publish_date": "2022/01/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_12", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2021/06/29/oilers-connor-mcdavid-wins-hart-trophy-ted-lindsay-award-nhl-mvp/7802229002/", "title": "Oilers' Connor McDavid wins Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award as ...", "text": "Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid dominated the NHL's shortened season and also dominated the voting for the Hart Trophy.\n\nMcDavid received all 100 first-place votes by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL's MVP. He also won the Ted Lindsay Award, which is voted on by players.\n\nHe hit the 100-point mark in his 53rd game and finished with 105 points in 56 games, 21 points ahead of teammate Leon Draisaitl, the league's No. 2 scorer.\n\nMcDavid's strong play helped the Oilers clinch second place in the North Division, though home-ice advantage didn't help as Edmonton was swept in the first round by the Winnipeg Jets.\n\nSTANLEY CUP FINAL:Lightning handily defeat Canadiens in Game 1\n\nMEDIA:ESPN reveals NHL coverage plans, buoyed by big-name talent\n\nSABRES:Coach Don Granato has interim tag removed\n\n“We had a special group this year, and obviously we didn’t do what we wanted to do,” McDavid said. “But it was still so fun to be a part of, and get the fans of Edmonton excited again for what’s to come. We had so many guys take the next step, and I’m just part of that. If we’re all continuing to do that, we’re going to go and do some special things in this league.”\n\nMcDavid previously won the Hart Trophy in 2016-17 and won the player vote in 2016-17 and 2017-18.\n\nHe is the second consecutive Oilers player to sweep the MVP votes. Draisaitl did in 2019-20.\n\nOther NHL awards winners announced Tuesday night:\n\nVezina Trophy (goaltender): Marc-Andre Fleury, Vegas Golden Knights. He finished with 26 wins, a 1.98 goals-against average and .928 save percentage. He carried the team while Robin Lehner was out with a concussion. Fleury, 36, won for the first time in his career.\n\nNorris Trophy (defenseman): Adam Fox, New York Rangers. He finished second among defensemen with 47 points while playing nearly 25 minutes a game. He had 37 points over 31 games in March and April. He's the second player to win the Norris Trophy in his second season or sooner, joining Hall of Famer Bobby Orr.\n\nCalder Trophy (rookie): Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota Wild. He led all rookies and his team with 51 points as the Wild finished third in the West Division. He received 99 first-place votes, with Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson getting the other.\n\nOther awards winners were announced previously: Jack Adams Award (coach), Carolina Hurricanes' Rod Brind'Amour; Selke Trophy (defensive forward), Florida Panthers' Aleksander Barkov; Lady Byng Trophy (sportsmanship), Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin; Masterton Trophy (perseverance), Philadelphia Flyers' Oskar Lindblom; King Clancy Trophy (humanitarian), Nashville Predators' Pekka Rinne; Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year, New York Islanders' Lou Lamoriello, and Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award, Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron.\n\nAll-Star and All-Rookie teams\n\nFirst All-Star team: C McDavid; LW Brad Marchand, Bruins; RW Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs; D Fox; D Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche; G Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning.\n\nSecond All-Star team: C Auston Matthews, Maple Leafs; LW Jonathan Huberdeau, Panthers; RW Mikko Rantanen, Avalanche; D Victor Hedman, Lightning; D Dougie Hamilton, Hurricanes; G Fleury.\n\nAll-Rookie team: Fs Kaprizov; F Robertson; F Josh Brown, Ottawa Senators; D Ty Smith, New Jersey Devils; D K'Andre Miller, Rangers; G Alex Nedeljkovic, Hurricanes.\n\nAround the rinks\n\nMontreal Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber was fined the maximum $5,000 for slashing Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. ... McDavid's teammate, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, agreed to an eight-year, $41 million contract. ... The Toronto Maple Leafs are bringing back forward Wayne Simmonds for $1.8 million over two years.\n\nContributing: Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2020/09/21/nhl-awards-oilers-leon-draisaitl-wins-hart-trophy-league-mvp/5857399002/", "title": "NHL awards: Oilers' Leon Draisaitl wins Hart Trophy as league MVP", "text": "Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, the NHL's lone 100-point scorer in the coronavirus-shortened regular season, won the Hart Trophy Monday as the league's most valuable player.\n\nHe also won the Ted Lindsay Award as the MVP voted by members of the NHL Players' Association.\n\nDraisaitl recorded his second consecutive 100-point season, picking up 43 goals and a career-best 67 assists and 110 points in 71 games to edge teammate Connor McDavid in the scoring race. He had 10 game-winning goals.\n\nHe became the first German-born player to win the Hart Trophy as he topped Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) and Artemi Panarin (New York Rangers) in voting.\n\n\"It's a big honor,\" he told NBCSN. \"Our hockey is getting much better and producing more and more players. Hopefully, this will somehow give little kids more joy playing hockey and starting hockey instead of other sports.\"\n\nDraisaitl helped his cause by scoring 12 points in the six games that McDavid, the 2016-17 Hart Trophy winner, missed in February with an injury.\n\nOther award winners announced Monday:\n\nNorris Trophy (defenseman): Roman Josi, Nashville Predators. He set a franchise record with 65 points by a defenseman and had a 12-game point streak.\n\nVezina Trophy (goaltender): Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets. He finished second in the league with 31 wins while recording a .922 save percentage.\n\nCalder Trophy (rookie): Defenseman Cale Makar, Avalanche. He finished second in rookie scoring with 50 points.\n\nFirst All-Star team: C Draisaitl, LW Panarin, RW David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins), D Josi, D John Carlson (Washington Capitals), G Hellebuyck.\n\nSecond All-Star team: C MacKinnon, LW Brad Marchand (Bruins), RW Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning), D Victor Hedman (Lightning), D Alex Pietrangelo (St. Louis Blues), G Tuukka Rask (Bruins).\n\nAll-Rookie team: Fs Dominik Kubalik (Chicago Blackhawks), Victor Olofsson (Buffalo Sabres), Nick Suzuki (Montreal Canadiens), D Makar, D Quinn Hughes (Vancouver Canucks), G Elvis Merzlikins (Columbus Blue Jackets)\n\nThe NHL earlier in the playoffs announced other winners: Jack Adams Award (Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy), Selke Trophy (defensive forward, Philadelphia Flyers' Sean Couturier); Lady Byng Trophy (gentlemanly play, MacKinnon), Masterton Trophy (perseverance, Ottawa Senators' Bobby Ryan), GM of the Year (New York Islanders' Lou Lamoriello), King Clancy Trophy (humanitarian, Minnesota Wild's Matt Dumba), Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award (Calgary Flames' Mark Giordano) and the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award (Dampy Brar of Apna Hockey).", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/09/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2021/06/29/oilers-mcdavid-doubles-up-as-hart-lindsay-award-winner/46916555/", "title": "Oilers' McDavid doubles up as Hart, Lindsay award winner", "text": "AP\n\nConnor McDavid’s award-winning season came with one regret. In earning his second career MVP honor Tuesday, the Edmonton Oilers captain wished his team was still playing.\n\n“We had a special group this year, and obviously we didn’t do what we wanted to do,” McDavid said, referring to the Oilers being swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Winnipeg Jets.\n\n“But it was still so fun to be a part of, and get the fans of Edmonton excited again for what’s to come,” he added. “We had so many guys take the next step, and I’m just part of that. If we’re all continuing to do that, we’re going to go and do some special things in this league.”\n\nMcDavid became just the second unanimous Hart Trophy selection — joining Wayne Gretzky in 1982 — in receiving all 100 first-place votes from members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. The 24-year-old doubled up on honors by also winning his third Ted Lindsay Award as the league’s most outstanding player, which is voted on by NHL players.\n\nThe NHL presented its awards remotely for a second consecutive season because of the coronavirus pandemic, and a day after Tampa Bay opened the Stanley Cup Final series with a 5-1 win over Montreal. In previous years, the awards ceremony was held in Las Vegas after the playoffs, and with an audience and players present.\n\nMcDavid, who also won MVP honors in 2017, led the way, much like he did during a regular season in which he had already won his third Art Ross Trophy in six years for leading the NHL with 105 points (33 goals, 72 assists) in 56 games. The next closest player in the points standings was teammate Leon Draisaitl with 84, with Boston’s Brad Marchand a distant third with 69.\n\nToronto’s Auston Matthews finished second in the MVP voting, followed by Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.\n\nVegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury beat out Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy and Colorado’s Philipp Grubauer to win his first Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s goalie of the year. The Golden Knights tandem of Fleury and Robin Lehner already won the William M. Jennings Trophy, for combining to allow an NHL-low 124 goals this season.\n\nThe 36-year-old Fleury finished third in the NHL with 26 wins, a 1.98 goals-against, .928 save percentage and six shutouts in 36 games. He also closed the season with a nine-game winning streak, while moving into third place on the NHL career list with 492 wins.\n\nNew York Rangers’ Adam Fox won the Jack Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman, beating out Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman and Colorado’s Cale Makar.\n\nThe 23-year-old Fox led NHL defensemen with 42 assists and second with 47 points. He also ranked seventh among skaters in ice-time. Fox became the second player to win the Norris in his second season, joining Bobby Orr winning in 1968.\n\nMinnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov won the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year in becoming just the fourth rookie since 1993-94 to lead his team in scoring. The 24-year-old from Russia led NHL rookies with 27 goals and 51 points, and became the first Wild player to win the Calder.\n\nCarolina goalie Alex Nedeljkovic and Dallas forward Jason Robertson were the other two Calder finalists.\n\nOilers players have now won the Hart in three of the past five years, with Draisaitl winning it last year.\n\nMcDavid was informed of winning both awards by Draisailt.\n\n“To have your fellow peers recognize you, it means a lot. Just feel so humbled and grateful to have won this award a few times,” McDavid said of winning the Ted Lindsay honor, before personally thanking Draisaitl for personally helping contribute to his point production.\n\nJoining Kaprizov, Nedeljkovic and Robertson on the NHL’s All-Rookie team were Ottawa Senators forward Josh Norris, Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller and New Jersey defenseman Ty Smith.\n\nThe First All-Star team features McDavid at center, Marchand at left wing and Toronto’s Mitchell Marner at right wing, Fox and Makar on defense, with Vasilevskiy in goal.\n\nThe Second All-Star team had Matthews at center, Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau at left wing and Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen at right wing, Hedman and Carolina’s Dougie Hamilton on defense and Fleury in net.\n\nThe NHL previously announced other winners, with Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour winning the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year, and the New York Islanders' Lou Lamoriello winning the Jim Gregory general manager of the year award.\n\nFlorida’s Aleksander Barkov won the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward, and Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct.\n\nPhiladelphia’s Oskar Lindblom, a cancer survivor, was this year’s recipient of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, presented to a player who exemplifies perseverance and dedication to hockey.\n\nThe Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award was presented to Boston’s Patrice Bergeron. Matthews won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for leading the NHL with 41 goals.\n\n___\n\nMore AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/columnist/allen/2015/04/02/mvp-race-too-close-to-call-hart-trophy/70857024/", "title": "NHL's Hart Trophy race too close to call | USA Today", "text": "Kevin Allen\n\nUSA TODAY Sports\n\nAfter St. Louis Blues defenseman Chris Pronger won the Hart Trophy in 2000, he walked into the media room and jokingly asked which reporter he needed to thank. He had won the MVP award by a single point in balloting by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.\n\nIt was assumed voting couldn't get any closer but in 2002, Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jose Theodore and Calgary Flames forward Jarome Iginla tied. Theodore took home the award on the basis of more first-place votes.\n\nThe Hart Trophy has had its share of close finishes, and this season's race seems too close to call. A look at leading contenders:\n\n1. Carey Price (Montreal Canadiens): Theodore and Dominik Hasek (Buffalo Sabres) are the only goaltenders to win the Hart Trophy over the past 50 years, but Price is the favorite to win this season. He's why the Canadiens are challenging for the league's top record.\n\nThe Canadiens ranks 22nd in goals per game, but Price has made them dominant with a 1.95 goals-against average and .935 save percentage.\n\nThe Hart is supposed to go to the player judged most valuable to his team, and that describes Price. No goalie has been as statistically dominant since Hasek had similar numbers in 1998-99.\n\n2. Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals): Ovechkin has scored 52 goals in a season in which the scoring champion likely will finish with the fewest points since 1967-68. Ovechkin, who scored twice against Price Thursday, has 11 more goals than his closest competitor and has a league-best 11 game-winning goals. His work to be a better all-around player has helped the Capitals become a playoff team. He can control a game with his physical play, shot and offensive flair.\n\n3. Devin Dubnyk (Minnesota Wild): General manager Chuck Fletcher's trade for the goaltender turned around the Wild's season. With Dubnyk playing Vezina Trophy-style hockey, the Wild have played like a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. He was the missing piece.\n\n4. Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins): Crosby has missed five games, and his team has been overrun by injuries and hasn't played well. But he is leading the NHL scoring race and has helped the Penguins to the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference. He also ranks among the top 25 in league in the enhanced statistical category of shots attempted vs. shots against his team while he is on the ice. That's a puck possession indicator.\n\nPHOTOS: NHL player power rankings\n\n5. John Tavares (New York Islanders): Tavares is third in the NHL scoring race with 79 points, and no one else on the team has 50 points. He's the flag carrier for the Islanders' rise to contending status, the offensive catalyst, leader and clutch performer. He's the face of the franchise, and the Islanders wouldn't be where they are this season without Tavares showing his teammates how to get there.\n\n6. Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim Ducks): He is the best player on the NHL's best team. The Ducks are leading the Presidents' Trophy race and Getzlaf has a team-high 68 points in 76 games. His blend of size and skill causes matchup problems for most of the Ducks' Western Conference opponents.\n\n7. Vladimir Tarasenko (Blues): Tarasenko, 23, has become one of the NHL's most dangerous offensive players. He's two strides away from being on a breakaway.\n\nThe Blues have a different look and feel this season, mostly because Tarasenko has taken his offensive production to another level. He has a +25 plus-minus to go with his 36 goals.\n\n8. Pekka Rinne (Nashville Predators): Rinne's performance level was on par with Price's early in the season, but he has cooled a bit. His return to health is the primary explanation for the Predators leading the Central Division. He has been the difference in many of his team's wins this season.\n\nPHOTOS: 2014-15 NHL awards season", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/04/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2016/06/22/blackhawks-patrick-kane-hart-trophy-nhl-mvp/86269538/", "title": "Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane wins Hart Trophy, awarded to ...", "text": "AP\n\nChicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player, becoming the first American to win the award.\n\nThe NHL’s scoring champion is the first Chicago player to take home the Hart since Stan Mikita in 1968.\n\nEarlier in the night, Kane won the Ted Lindsay Award as the NHL’s outstanding player selected by his fellow players. He also received the Art Ross Trophy for winning the NHL scoring title.\n\nKane was the runaway winner as expected, getting 121 of the 150 first-place votes. Sidney Crosby finished second with 11 first-place votes, while Dallas’ Jamie Benn was third. Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Braden Holtby of Washington was fourth.\n\nKane, a Buffalo native, also became the first U.S.-born player to lead the league in scoring with 106 points, leading Benn by a whopping 17 points.\n\nKane already is a three-time Stanley Cup champion with a Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP, and he’s only 27 years old.\n\nAllen: Las Vegas a smart, sexy pick for NHL expansion team\n\nVezina Trophy (best goalie): Braden Holtby, Capitals\n\nHoltby was rewarded for a remarkable season in which he tied Martin Brodeur’s record with 48 victories for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Caps. His goals-against average was fifth in the league at 2.20, and he finished eighth in save percentage at .922.\n\nHoltby’s wins record pushed him past fellow finalists Ben Bishop of Tampa Bay, who led the NHL with a 2.06 GAA, and Jonathan Quick of Los Angeles, who played a league-high 4,034 minutes.\n\nSelke Trophy (best defensive forward), Lady Byng Trophy (most gentlemanly): Anze Kopitar, Kings\n\nKopitar has been the Kings’ leading scorer for nine consecutive seasons, but the Slovenian center’s willingness to embrace coach Darryl Sutter’s defense-first mindset was a major reason for Los Angeles’ run to two Stanley Cup titles in three years from 2012-14.\n\nKopitar led all NHL forwards in ice time, averaging nearly 21 minutes per game, while finishing second in the league with a plus-34 rating. His puck possession skills and backchecking acumen were key factors in the Kings finishing third in the league in team defense.\n\nKopitar was a Selke finalist for the award in each of the previous three seasons. He beat out three-time winner Patrice Bergeron of Boston and Anaheim’s Ryan Kesler, the 2011 winner.\n\nThe Slovenian center wasn’t in attendance to claim either of his trophies.\n\nNHL draft 2016: Five trade story lines to monitor\n\nJack Adams Award (best coach): Barry Trotz, Capitals\n\nTrotz earned the award for the first time by leading the Caps to an NHL-best 120 points this season, setting a franchise record with 56 victories. Washington allowed the second-fewest goals in the NHL, adding stellar defense to its traditional winning formula behind Alex Ovechkin’s scoring.\n\nTrotz just finished his second year in Washington after 15 seasons with the Nashville Predators. He is a three-time finalist for the Jack Adams.\n\nHe won it for the first time over fellow finalists Lindy Ruff of the Dallas Stars and Gerard Gallant of the Florida Panthers.\n\nGallant’s Panthers exceeded all expectations with a franchise-record 47 victories and 103 points.\n\nRuff also got a 2015 non-playoff team back to the top, with the Stars winning the Central Division while scoring a league-high 265 goals.\n\nNorris Trophy (best defenseman): Drew Doughty, Kings\n\nDoughty’s first Norris victory ended a lively three-man race that forced voters to decide between pure offensive production and analytical superiority.\n\nDoughty, the two-time Stanley Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, beat out Erik Karlsson of Ottawa and Brent Burns of San Jose.\n\nWhile Doughty didn’t match his competitors’ offensive production, voters recognized his two-way prowess for the defense-minded Kings.\n\n“To my teammates, without you, I couldn’t have done it,” Doughty said. “You guys are everything to me, and we’re brothers for life.”\n\nDoughty led all defensemen in Corsi percentage at 58.9, and he scored 51 points with a plus-24 rating while playing enormous minutes on the Kings’ depleted blue line.\n\nNHL mock draft 2.0: Heavy on forwards early\n\nMasterton Trophy: Jaromir Jagr, Panthers\n\nJagr won the Masterton Trophy for his perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.\n\nThe 44-year-old forward didn’t attend the ceremony in Las Vegas because he was with his ailing father.\n\nJagr was rewarded for his seemingly ageless skills and enthusiasm. The Czech veteran scored 66 points in his 22nd NHL season to lead the Panthers, who set franchise records with 47 wins and 103 points.\n\nCalder Trophy (best rookie): Artemi Panarin, Blackhawks\n\nThe 24-year-old Russian forward beat out Philadelphia’s Shayne Gostisbehere and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, who finished third in the voting.\n\nPanarin scored 77 points in 80 games during his debut season in North America, leading all rookies in goals (30) and assists (47).\n\nAlthough Panarin played seven pro seasons back home before coming stateside, voters didn’t object to his experience, awarding the trophy to a Chicago player for the first time since Patrick Kane won it in 2008.\n\nMcDavid was the No. 1 pick last summer. He scored 48 points in 45 games, his dynamite season shortened by two months thanks to a broken collarbone.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2017/06/21/edmontons-connor-mcdavid-wins-first-hart-trophy-as-nhl-mvp/103093050/", "title": "Edmonton's Connor McDavid wins first Hart Trophy as NHL MVP", "text": "AP\n\nLAS VEGAS (AP) — Connor McDavid won his first Hart Trophy. Hardly anybody in hockey believes it will be his last.\n\nThe Edmonton captain claimed the award as the NHL's most valuable player Wednesday night at the league's postseason awards show at T-Mobile Arena, the new home of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.\n\nMcDavid also won the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the league's most outstanding performer in a vote of his fellow players. He already knew he would win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL scoring champion.\n\n\"To see the trophies up close and personal, touch them, get your picture with them, it makes it a little more real,\" McDavid said. \"Today is a very special day in my life, for sure.\"\n\nThe honors capped a remarkable sophomore season for the 20-year-old center, who won his first scoring title and led the Oilers back to the Stanley Cup playoffs after an 11-year absence. The former No. 1 pick beat out fellow finalists Sergei Bobrovsky of Columbus and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby.\n\n\"I'm so proud to be in Edmonton,\" McDavid said. \"I'm so proud to be an Oiler, and so proud to play with the guys.\"\n\nMcDavid is the third-youngest player to win the award. Only Crosby and Wayne Gretzky claimed the Hart as teenagers.\n\nBoston center Patrice Bergeron won the Selke Trophy for the fourth time as the NHL's best defensive forward, and San Jose's Brent Burns won his first Norris Trophy as the top defenseman. Toronto center Auston Matthews easily took the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie, and Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky won his second Vezina Trophy.\n\nNashville's David Poile was named the NHL's top executive after the Predators' first Western Conference title, and Columbus' John Tortorella won the Jack Adams Award as the top coach.\n\nOttawa goalie Craig Anderson won the Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Anderson left the Senators during the season to support his wife, Nicholle, in her fight against throat cancer, but returned to become Ottawa's career victories leader.\n\nCalgary's Johnny Gaudreau won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanlike play.\n\nThe league also revealed the results of the Golden Knights' expansion draft during the show, with former Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury getting wild cheers from an arena filled with new fans of the NHL's 31st franchise.\n\nWhile Crosby didn't claim the Hart, the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion won the Richard Trophy as the NHL's top goal-scorer.\n\n\"I haven't even thought about that, to be honest with you,\" Crosby said. \"Been a lot of things going on.\"\n\nCrosby was sorry to part ways with Fleury, his longtime teammate in Pittsburgh.\n\n\"I'll let him know how weird it was seeing him in a jersey like that,\" Crosby said. \"I know that he is going to do great things here.\"\n\nBergeron also won the Selke in 2012, 2014 and 2015. The two-way Bruins star beat out Anaheim's Ryan Kesler and joined Bob Gainey as the only players to win the Selke four times.\n\nBergeron paid tribute to Gainey after the Montreal great presented the award to him.\n\n\"I think it's the way that he played the game hard and was always in the right position,\" Bergeron said. \"Not only him on the ice, but also him off the ice as a role model, as a person, I've always respected him for that. It was special to receive that award from him, because he was such an important player for the NHL.\"\n\nBobrovsky got 25 of the 30 first-place votes to outdistance Braden Holtby and Carey Price after leading the league with a 2.06 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage. Bobrovsky, the first Russian to win the award twice, and Tortorella played major roles in the Blue Jackets' revival for the best season in franchise history.\n\nBurns beat out Ottawa's Erik Karlsson for the Norris in a duel of two 70-point scorers. Burns doesn't think offensive numbers alone determine the Norris winner.\n\n\"That's the way I play the game,\" Burns said. \"For me to be successful, to help the team, I've got to help create offense and get into the plays. If I'm not doing that, if I'm not skating and creating things, then I'm not really doing much out there.\"\n\nMatthews was the no-brainer choice for the Calder after his 69-point rookie season for the Leafs, who hadn't had a Calder winner since Brit Selby in 1966.\n\nThe Arizona-raised center was grateful to accept the award in Las Vegas, where he hopes more desert kids will be inspired by the Golden Knights.\n\n\"I think it's going to be great,\" Matthews said. \"For myself, when the Coyotes moved (to Phoenix), that's how I got into hockey. Seeing the teams in California kind of encouraged kids growing up to pick up the stick and start playing. (The Golden Knights) will definitely grow the game.\"\n\n___\n\nFollow AP Hockey Writer Greg Beacham on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gregbeacham\n\n___\n\nMore AP NHL: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/05/01/nhl-award-picks-mvp-vezina-igor-shesterkin/9555883002/", "title": "NHL award picks: MVP race a toss-up; Igor Shesterkin lock for Vezina?", "text": "Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid ran away with the Hart Trophy last season, picking up all 100 first-place votes, as he scored 105 points in the shortened 56-game season.\n\nThis year, the MVP race is loaded with possibilities.\n\nMcDavid won the scoring race again, with 123 points, but there are seven others from playoff teams who have 100-point seasons. Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews is the NHL's first 60-scorer since 2011-12 and three others have 50 goals. Even a goalie, New York Rangers' Igor Shesterkin, could be in the mix.\n\nThe NHL announced its schedule for revealing the three finalists for each award: May 9, Norris (defenseman); May 10, Vezina (goaltender), May 11, Calder (rookie), May 12, Hart (MVP, writers vote), May 13, Ted Lindsay (MVP, players vote), May 16, Masterton (perseverance), May 17, Selke (defensive forward), May 18, Lady Byng (sportsmanship), May 19, Adams (coach), and May 20, King Clancy (humanitarian)\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now for daily updates sent to your inbox\n\nUSA TODAY Sports' NHL staffers are here to make their picks for some of the top regular-season awards:\n\nHart Trophy\n\nJimmy Hascup: McDavid\n\nMike Brehm: Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames\n\nJace Evans: Matthews\n\nThis seems to be one of the more competitive Hart Trophy races in years – with forwards Matthews, Gaudreau, McDavid, Leon Draisaitl (Oilers), Jonathan Huberdeau (Panthers), Kirill Kaprizov (Wild) and goalie Igor Shesterkin (Rangers) worthy of receiving votes. Matthews led the league in goals and had 106 points (sixth), while McDavid finished seventh in goals (44) and first in points (123). Gaudreau was an offensive catalyst for the Flames all season with 40 goals and 115 points, which tied for second.\n\nFinalists (listed alphabetically): Matthews, McDavid, Shesterkin\n\nVezina Trophy\n\nHascup: Shesterkin\n\nBrehm: Shesterkin\n\nEvans: Shesterkin\n\nAn argument could be made that Shesterkin is an MVP contender. In a season that saw scoring reach its highest mark since 1995-96, he carried the Rangers, who often struggled to defend around the net. If you like the traditional stats, Shesterkin's 2.07 goals-against average leads the league. So does his .935 save percentage. He ranks sixth in wins. If the fancier stats are more your thing, he ranks first in goals saved above expected at 34.1. He's probably the surest lock for any of the major awards.\n\nFinalists (listed alphabetically): Jacob Markstrom, Calgary Flames; Juuse Saros, Nashville Predators; Shesterkin\n\nNorris Trophy\n\nHascup: Roman Josi, Predators\n\nBrehm: Josi\n\nEvans: Josi\n\nJosi paced all defensemen with 96 points while Colorado's Cale Makar led defensemen with 28 goals and finished with 86 points in 77 games. Josi finished first, slightly ahead of Makar, in points per 60 minutes at even strength and both averaged about the same time on ice per game. Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman will be in the mix, as always.\n\nFinalists (listed alphabetically): Hedman, Josi, Makar\n\nJack Adams\n\nHascup: Darryl Sutter, Flames\n\nBrehm: Sutter\n\nEvans: Andrew Brunette, Panthers\n\nSutter replaced Geoff Ward last season and now the Flames are playing like everyone expected. Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane had career years under Sutter. The Flames' ranking in goals per game jumped from 20th last season to sixth while their goals-against average went from 16th to third. Brunette led the Panthers to the league's best record after replacing coach Joel Quenneville, who resigned. Mike Sullivan, who led the Penguins to a 103-point season despite Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin missing significant time, and Minnesota's Dean Evason are among those also in the mix.\n\nCalder Trophy\n\nHascup: Moritz Seider, Red Wings\n\nBrehm: Seider\n\nEvans: Seider\n\nForwards Michael Bunting, the flashy Trevor Zegas and Lucas Raymond led NHL rookies in scoring, but Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider was fourth with 50 points. He was 20 for most of the season and showed poise at a position that requires a lot of adjustment at the NHL level. He led the Red Wings in ice time at more than 23 minutes a game, killed penalties and played the power play.\n\nFinalists (listed alphabetically): Bunting, Seider, Zegras", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2018/03/27/why-connor-mcdavid-should-not-repeat-nhl-mvp/464962002/", "title": "Connor McDavid should not win Hart Trophy for NHL MVP", "text": "Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid scored his 40th goal of the season on Tuesday night, the first Oilers player to hit the milestone since Petr Klima in 1990-91.\n\nHe passed the 100-point mark by adding two assists to give him 102 points.\n\nBoth are career highs with five games to go.\n\nHe extended his league scoring lead on idle Tampa Bay Lighting forward Nikita Kucherov by six points. He tied Kucherov with a league-leading 30 multi-point games. He has 13 points in his last five games and leads the league in even-strength points.\n\nHe should be congratulated for all of that.\n\nBut he shouldn't win the Hart Trophy as league MVP because the Oilers aren't a playoff team.\n\nYes, the Hart Trophy criteria — the player judged most valuable to this team — doesn't mention the word playoffs, but the Oilers were already out of contention when he passed his milestones. In fact, they were mathematically eliminated a week before Tuesday's game.\n\nRasmus Dahlin sweepstakes:The six teams that need him most\n\nMore:Linesman Steve Barton taken off ice on stretcher after collision in Blue Jackets-Oilers game\n\nDuring my seven years voting for league awards as part of the Professional Hockey Writers Association — I stopped voting four years ago — I looked at players' scoring totals, whether that was done at clutch times, leadership, whether they helped their team exceed expectations, etc.\n\nBut my first criteria for my top votes was being on a playoff team. Maybe I would have given a player with a McDavid-like season a fifth-place vote. Or fourth if he drove his team to within a point or two of the playoffs.\n\nLast year, McDavid won MVP with a league-best 100 points as he led the Oilers to second place in the Pacific Division.\n\nThis season, he has been just as amazing and his speed has made him unstoppable at times, but the Oilers have been a major disappointment.\n\nIs he to blame for that? Is he to blame for the dropoff in goaltending or the struggles by many defensemen or the long droughts by Milan Lucic or Oscar Klefbom? No.\n\nShould he be commended for being a plus-22 on a team that has a minus-26 goal differential or averaging nearly two points a game in Oilers wins. Yes, but the Oilers aren't even a .500 team.\n\nTuesday, McDavid was amazing again, particularly his short-handed goal, not long after he had to deal with the fact that his accidental collision injured a linesman.\n\nBut after leading the Oilers to a 3-0 lead, they lost 7-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. His fault? No. But it left the Oilers 17 points out of a playoff spot. That's too far back.\n\nBesides, there are plenty of other MVP candidates this year. Nathan MacKinnon, if his Colorado Avalanche make the playoffs. Kucherov. Taylor Hall, Evgeni Malkin, Blake Wheeler. Brad Marchand, depending on how you feel about his on-the-edge play. A Vegas Golden Knights player (William Karlsson?). Anze Kopitar. Maybe even goalie Pekka Rinne.\n\nMacKinnon, again if he made the playoffs, might have received my top vote if I still voted because the Avalanche have exceeded everyone's expectations, and he has been unbelievable. If the Avalanche miss the playoffs, Hall or Kucherov would get top consideration. But fans will get an inside look because the PHWA is making its votes public this year.\n\nI do believe McDavid will win an award this postseason: the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer. And players could give him the Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player.\n\nBut the Hart Trophy? Probably not.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/03/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/21/nhl-awards-auston-matthews-wins-hart-trophy-league-mvp/7693742001/", "title": "NHL awards: Auston Matthews wins Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award", "text": "Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews took a major leap during the NHL’s regular season, picking up the league’s first 60-goal season in 10 years.\n\nTuesday night, he picked up his first Hart Trophy (writers vote) as 2022 MVP, plus the Ted Lindsay Award (players vote) as most outstanding player.\n\nEdmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid, last year’s winner, and New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin were the other finalists.\n\nMatthews had 41 goals in 52 games in the coronavirus-shortened 2020-21 season, finishing second in Hart voting. After offseason wrist surgery, he had 60 goals in 73 games in 2021-22 as the Maple Leafs finished with a franchise-best 115 points.\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now to get daily updates sent to your inbox\n\nMatthews, the second American to win the Hart after Patrick Kane, also set career highs in assists (46) and points (106). He led the league in even-strength goals for the third year in a row.\n\nOther awards winners announced on Tuesday's awards show:\n\nVezina Trophy (goaltender): Shesterkin. His .935 save percentage and 2.07 save percentage were tops among starting goaltenders. He had 36 wins.\n\nNorris Trophy (defenseman): Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche. Makar set franchise records for defensemen with 28 goals and 86 points. He edged the Nashville Predators' Roman Josi 1,631-1,606 in the voting totals.\n\nCalder Trophy (rookie): Detroit Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider. He led rookie defensemen with 50 points and led all rookies with 43 assists and 23:02 in average ice time.\n\nAll-Star and All-Rookie teams announced\n\nFirst All-Star team: G Shesterkin, Rangers. Ds Makar, Avalanche; Josi, Predators. C Matthews, Maple Leafs. LW Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames. RW Mitch Marner, Maple Leafs\n\nSecond All-Star team: G Jacob Markstrom, Flames. Ds Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning; Charlie McAvoy, Bruins. C McDavid, Oilers. LW Jonathan Huberdeau, Florida Panthers. RW Matthew Tkachuk, Flames.\n\nAll-Rookie team: G Jeremy Swayman, Boston Bruins. Ds Seider, Red Wings; Alexandre Carrier, Predators. Fs Trevor Zegras, Anaheim; Michael Bunting, Maple Leafs; Lucas Raymond, Red Wings.\n\nGeneral manager of the year finalists\n\nThe Tampa Bay Lightning's Julien BriseBois, New York Rangers' Chris Drury and Colorado Avalanche's Joe Sakic, whose teams reached the conference finals, were named the finalists for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award.\n\nThe winner will be announced the July 7-8 NHL draft.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2019/06/19/nhl-hands-out-its-trophies-at-annual-awards-show-in-vegas/39604409/", "title": "Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov wins Hart, Lindsay at NHL Awards", "text": "AP\n\nLAS VEGAS (AP) — Nikita Kucherov gratefully accepted the Hart Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award on Wednesday night in recognition of his spectacular 128-point regular season in Tampa Bay.\n\nHe might even be able to enjoy the trophies someday, whenever the sting of the Lightning's first-round postseason loss has faded.\n\nKucherov won the NHL's highest honors Wednesday night, receiving the Hart as the league MVP and the Lindsay Award as the best player according to a vote of his fellow pros.\n\nThe Russian right wing also formally picked up the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's top scorer at the hockey world's annual Vegas ceremony at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.\n\n\"It's a huge night for me and my family,\" said Kucherov, who turned 26 on Monday. \"But the main thing is Stanley Cup. We want to make sure we work harder than we thought we did (last season). All these individual (awards), it's obviously nice, but the main thing is Stanley Cup for me.\"\n\nAndrei Vasilevskiy, Kucherov's Russian teammate, won his first Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goalie in another bittersweet recognition for the Lightning, who won 62 regular-season games before getting swept by Columbus in the opening round.\n\nKucherov received 164 of 171 first-place votes in a runaway Hart victory over two-time MVP Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh, who finished second, and 2017 Hart winner Connor McDavid of Edmonton. The voting was no surprise after Kucherov posted the NHL's highest-scoring individual season since 1996.\n\n\"When the team plays good, the numbers will obviously be good,\" Kucherov said. \"You just try not to think too much about it. If you think too much, your game can just go away, and bad things can happen. All my thoughts were about winning games for my team, and help the team get more points.\"\n\nA year after scoring 100 points, Kucherov emerged as perhaps the most impressive scorer in hockey, putting up a career-best 41 goals and 87 assists. Kucherov tied Jaromir Jagr's NHL record for assists by a wing, and he surpassed Alexander Mogilny's single-season record for points by a Russian-born player.\n\nTampa Bay also posted 128 standings points, the most by any team since 1996 — but Kucherov regrets that he had little impact during the Lightning's stunning sweep by the Blue Jackets. Kucherov served a one-game suspension for a dangerous hit during the series, and he scored his only two playoff points in the Game 4 defeat.\n\n\"When I came (to the U.S.), the main thing was just try and make the team,\" Kucherov said. \"Now all my thoughts are just to win the Cup, and bring the Cup back to Tampa, because people deserve that. We've been playing good hockey, and I'm sure if we keep the team (together), we can bounce back.\"\n\nCalgary's Mark Giordano won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman, earning the award for the first time at 35 years old. Vancouver forward Elias Pettersson won the Calder Trophy given to the league's top rookie, and Ryan O'Reilly added his first Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward to the Blues' Stanley Cup victory.\n\nBarry Trotz of the New York Islanders won his second Jack Adams Award as the best coach, while Boston's Don Sweeney was named the league's top general manager.\n\nBut Kucherov was the headliner on a night of several first-time winners at the NHL Awards ceremony, hosted by \"Saturday Night Live\" veteran Kenan Thompson. The Hart was presented by \"Jeopardy\" host Alex Trebek, who received a standing ovation in one of his first public appearances since announcing his battle with pancreatic cancer.\n\nVasilevskiy beat out Dallas' Ben Bishop and the Islanders' Robin Lehner for the Vezina. The Russian is the first Tampa Bay goalie to win the award, leading the NHL with 39 victories while posting a 2.40 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage.\n\nTrotz beat out Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper and St. Louis' Craig Berube for the top coaching honor. He also won the award with Washington three years ago.\n\nAfter winning the Stanley Cup and subsequently leaving the Capitals last summer, Trotz engineered an impressive 23-point improvement by the Isles for their best single-season record since 1983-84, even after losing John Tavares to Toronto.\n\nTrotz took a moment after accepting the award to honor his goalie.\n\nLehner won the Masterton Trophy as the player exemplifying the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Lehner became a Vezina finalist after revealing during training camp that he has struggled with addiction and bipolar disorder.\n\n\"I'm not ashamed to say I'm mentally ill, but that doesn't mean mentally weak,\" Lehner said after accepting his award.\n\n\"I've had such an incredible outpouring of support,\" he added later. \"There's so many people that have contacted me that I still haven't been able to get to yet, that are just scared to take that first step, scared of doing the things that are necessary to turn their lives around. That's incredibly rewarding.\"\n\nAfter joining several Blues teammates in carrying the Stanley Cup down the Vegas red carpet, O'Reilly won the Selke over Boston's Patrice Bergeron, a four-time Selke winner and a finalist for the eighth consecutive year, and Vegas' Mark Stone.\n\nO'Reilly was the Blues' top scorer with 77 points, including 28 goals in his first season in St. Louis. He also compiled a plus-22 rating and finished fourth in the NHL with 94 takeaways.\n\nGiordano was rewarded for his remarkable performance 13 years into an NHL career spent entirely with the Flames. He is the fourth defenseman to win the Norris at 35 or older, joining Nicklas Lidstrom, Doug Harvey and Al MacInnis.\n\n\"I take a lot of pride in working out off the ice and keeping myself in good shape,\" Giordano said. \"It's not easy to play late into your 30s. I think we're all aware of that as players, but (we) try to last as long as you can.\"\n\nThe Calgary captain led the NHL with a plus-39 rating and scored a career-best 74 points while regularly playing against opponents' best lines. Giordano beat out the last two winners of the Norris: San Jose's Brent Burns and Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman.\n\nThe 20-year-old Pettersson joins Pavel Bure (1992) as the only Calder winners in Canucks' history. Pettersson provided an offensive jolt to the Canucks, scoring a goal on his first NHL shot and finishing with a rookie-best 28 goals and 38 assists.\n\nWild forward Jason Zucker won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for leadership and humanitarian contributions to hockey. Florida center Aleksander Barkov won his first Lady Byng Trophy as the player best combining sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct and ability, while Nashville's Wayne Simmonds won the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award.\n\n___\n\nThis story has been corrected to show that Wayne Simmonds now plays for Nashville, not Philadelphia.\n\n___\n\nMore AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/06/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_13", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2022/06/21/martin-sheen-wishes-he-hadnt-changed-his-name-ramon-estevez/7695139001/", "title": "Martin Sheen wishes he hadn't changed his name from Ramon ...", "text": "Although Martin Sheen’s birth name is listed on his legal documents, the star regrets not professionally going by Ramon Estévez.\n\n\"The West Wing\" actor, 81, said in an interview with Closer Weekly published Saturday that although he has not legally changed his name, he laments replacing it when he began his career.\n\n\"That’s one of my regrets. I never changed my name officially. It’s still Ramon Estévez on my birth certificate. It’s on my marriage license, my passport, driver’s license,” Sheen told the magazine. “Sometimes you get persuaded when you don’t have enough insight or even enough courage to stand up for what you believe in, and you pay for it later.\"\n\nHe continued: \"But, of course, I’m only speaking for myself.\"\n\nSheen, whose mother was from Ireland and his father from Spain, struggled to convince his father to support his career. Sheen said his father was a “very practical” factory worker who wanted him to make “a better living than he did.”\n\nJohn Aylward, 'ER' and 'The West Wing' actor, dies at 75: 'A great friend to many'\n\n“We had some very, very painful confrontations about it,” Sheen said regarding his father’s hesitancy about show business.\n\nSheen’s father came around one night while they were watching Westerns. The “Apocalypse Now” actor told his father about his aspirations to move to New York to pursue entertainment, to which his father responded that he didn’t know how to sing or dance.\n\n“I said, ‘Pop, you sit here every night watching Westerns — do you see anyone singing or dancing?’ He said, ‘No, but you don’t ride a horse either,' \" Sheen said. “He finally saw that I was committed and realized it would be a life and death struggle with me if I didn’t pursue it. When I got ready to go, he blessed me, and he continued to bless me the rest of his life. I adored him.”\n\n'Grace and Frankie' series finale spoilers! Co-creator Marta Kauffman on '9 to 5' reunion\n\nThe “Grace and Frankie” actor went on to have great success after his breakthrough role in the 1968 adaptation of “Hamlet” in New York City.\n\nSheen didn’t object when his own children — Emilio Estévez, 60, Ramon Estévez, 58, Charlie Sheen, 56, and Renée Estévez, 55 — decided to go into acting.\n\nSheen said that in fact, due to his own self-involved nature, he had become unaware of their ambitions.\n\n'The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers': Emilio Estevez's surly Bombay is 'a guy who's given up'\n\nHowever, he did give one piece of advice to his oldest son, Emilio, regarding his acting career.\n\n“I was doing a show one time, and Emilio showed up. I thought he was there to visit me, but he’d gotten a part in the same show. The only influence I had on Emilio was to keep his name,” Sheen said. “When he started out, his agent was advising him to change his name to Sheen and he wouldn’t do it. And I thank God he didn’t.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_14", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:15", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2021/10/06/uber-ride-airport-can-ready-once-your-flight-lands/6020843001/", "title": "Uber ride from the airport can be ready once your flight lands", "text": "Uber Reserve that allows you to automatically order an Uber once your flight lands.\n\nThe feature allows you to reserve your ride up to 30 days in advance, so you know your ride is taken care of before you arrive.\n\nYou have to request a more expensive Uber Black or Uber Black SUV to sync your flight information, according to CNBC.\n\nUber announced Wednesday new features, including an update to Uber Reserve that allows you to automatically order an Uber once your flight lands.\n\nHere's how it'll work.\n\nAfter you book your flight, you can reserve your ride up to 30 days in advance, so you know your ride is taken care of before you arrive.\n\nUber will automatically adjust your reservation based on the flight information you provide, so your driver is ready and waiting at the airport when your flight lands –whether it’s on time, early or delayed.\n\nEven though your ride will be requested for you when you land, it'll only come pick you up when you're ready. With options for pickup in 20 minutes, 10 minutes or as soon as possible, Uber's \"Ready When You Are\" feature allows riders to select a pickup time depending on how long they think it'll take for them to get off the flight and gather their luggage.\n\n►Uber price glitch: An Uber glitch made my ride price go from $20 to $98. How can I get a refund?\n\nYou have to request a more expensive Uber Black or Uber Black SUV to sync your flight information, though, according to CNBC. An Uber Black is a luxury vehicle with a professional driver and typically costs at least 1.5 times more than a regular UberXL but it can go higher depending on demand and other variables, according to Ridester.\n\nReady When You Are is currently piloting at six airports including Nashville (BNA), New Orleans (MSY), Portland (PDX), Philadelphia (PHL), Seattle (SEA) and Toronto (YYZ). It is available on Android starting Wednesday, and the iOS version is coming in November, according to Uber.\n\nUber is also throwing in a free 60-minute wait time, so you won't be charged if you need an extra hour to meet your driver.\n\nThe driver will be waiting for you at the curbside for your pickup.\n\nUber also has a feature in the works that uses machine learning to predict demand at airports and has a line of cars waiting at the curb for when major flights arrive.\n\nThis curbside pickup feature is available at more than 15 airports across the world including Chicago Midway (MDW), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX), New Orleans (MSY), New York (JFK and LGA), Philadelphia (PHL), Portland, Oregon (PDX), Salt Lake City (SLC), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), San Jose, California (SJC), and Seattle (SEA) in the U.S. as well as a handful of international destinations. These include Kolkata, India (CCU); London Heathrow (LHR); Montreal (YUL), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (RUH) and Toronto (YYZ).\n\nNow that vaccinations are available across the U.S. and travel is picking back up, riders are returning at a faster pace than drivers. As a result, riders have had to wait significantly longer times as drivers remained in shortage.\n\n► Uber, Lyft shortages leave travelers frustrated and waiting: 'I marinated in Fort Lauderdale for 45 minutes':\n\nIf you're hungry after a long flight, Uber Eats customers can order and pay in-app from select airport restaurants and skip the line to pick up their meal. This feature is currently piloting at the Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ), and will continue to roll out to U.S. airports in the coming months.\n\nUber's strategic airport upgrade comes at a time when travel is rebounding after more than a year and a half into the pandemic. Passenger traffic at airports has more than doubled compared to last year, but it's still lower than 2019 levels, according to TSA checkpoint data.\n\nThe number of U.S. airport trips on Uber grew 15% in the last two weeks of September, reaching a new high for 2021, according to an Uber news release.\n\nHowever, travel spending has still not returned to pre-pandemic levels. In a report released by the U.S. Travel Association on Tuesday, it found that August 2021 travel spending totaled to $92 billion, 11% below August 2019 spending levels. August was also the first month in 2021 that travel spending dropped since January 2021, with levels for the year peaking at $100 billion in July.\n\nThe drop in spending corresponds to the prolonged spread of the delta variant and increasingly limited international options for American travelers. In recent weeks, destinations such as Bali, Argentina and Bulgaria have all banned U.S. travelers.\n\n►Bali travel: Bali welcomes some international flights back, but American tourists still have to wait\n\n►Why travelers may have to settle for alternative vacations: 'It’s slim pickings right now'\n\nMichelle Shen is a Money & Tech Digital Reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her @michelle_shen10 on Twitter.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/06/21/uber-share-returns-save-costs/7689979001/", "title": "Is Uber Share available? Ride sharing option returns in select cities", "text": "Uber riders in select cities will have a chance to trim down their fares, as long as they’re comfortable sharing a ride with a stranger.\n\nRide-hailing service Uber on Tuesday announced the return of shared rides through UberX Share – formerly Uber Pool – in select U.S. markets. Shared rides, which allow drivers to pick up additional passengers along a route, are now available New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, with more cities slated to join this summer.\n\nCompetitor Lyft also brought back shared rides in May to Philadelphia, Miami, San Francisco, San Jose, Denver, Las Vegas and Atlanta.\n\nUber scrapped shared rides in 2020 after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The feature can help passengers shave up to 20% off of their total fare, according to the company – welcome news for passengers who have noticed the price of Ubers and Lyfts ticking up in recent months amid rising gas prices and a driver shortage.\n\nStory continues below.\n\n\"At Uber, we know affordability is important to making transportation more accessible for more people – especially in the current economic climate,\" the company said in a news release. \"By helping to match more people in fewer cars faster, we can help cut gas use, vehicle-miles and emissions per passenger, and make transportation more affordable.\"\n\nUber said the redesigned UberX Share will only match passengers with riders heading in the same direction to prevent delays and will add no more than 8 minutes to an arrival time compared to a normal UberX ride.\n\nUber’s website notes that mask-wearing is optional but recommended for all riders and drivers.\n\nHow much do drivers earn on shared rides?\n\nRideshare Drivers United, a California-based organization of Uber and Lyft drivers, says it is against the return of shared rides during the COVID-19 pandemic. The group demanded in February that Lyft end its shared rides program and has filed a complaint with the Division of Occupational Safety and Health of California.\n\nRidershare Drivers United argues that shared rides are unsafe and do not earn drivers enough money, according to member and part-time Lyft driver Nicole Moore.\n\n\"Our position right now is that shared rides during COVID are unsafe,\" Moore told USA TODAY. \"They put more human beings in the car at once, so it's harder to keep that distance.\"\n\nShe added that the organization is not against large groups of people who are booking a typical UberX or Lyft ride.\n\nHOW MUCH DO UBER DRIVERS MAKE?:That depends on where you drive.\n\nUBER EATS:Uber Eats testing autonomous deliveries, allows food ordering at stadiums\n\nYou can follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter @bailey_schulz and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter here for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2021/08/11/pumpkin-spice-2021-dunkin-return-august-starbucks-psl/5560107001/", "title": "Dunkin' pumpkin spice is back; Starbucks PSL return unknown", "text": "Dunkin' has released a new Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew along with returning seasonal items.\n\nWhen does Starbucks release its Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2021? The coffee giant hasn't announced a date.\n\nPumpkin spice cup noodles will be released in late October at select Walmart stores.\n\nPumpkin spice season is back at Dunkin' earlier than ever before.\n\nThe fall menu will be available at participating Dunkin’ restaurants nationwide by Aug. 18, the chain announced Aug. 11. It features the new Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and returning Pumpkin Spice Signature Latte, pumpkin-flavored coffee, donuts, muffins and Munchkins donut holes.\n\nDunkin's seasonal menu also features the Apple Cider Donut and two new drinks: Apple Cranberry Dunkin’ Refresher and Apple Cranberry Dunkin’ Coconut Refresher.\n\nIntroducing the official flavor of fall earlier and earlier has been a trend for coffee chains. Last year, pumpkin pandemonium returned to Dunkin’ Aug. 19, two days earlier than in 2019. In 2020, pumpkin came back to Starbucks on Aug. 25.\n\n►McDonald's celebrity meal:Saweetie Meal arrives at McDonald's Monday for a limited time with a new ‘Saweetstakes’ contest\n\n►Chicken recall:Frozen, raw chicken products sold at Aldi, other stores recalled for possible salmonella\n\nFor a limited time, the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and Pumpkin Spice Signature Latte in medium will be available for $3, Anh-Dao Kefor, Dunkin’ director of integrated marketing, said in a statement to USA TODAY.\n\nStarbucks has not yet confirmed when its Pumpkin Spice Latte – the drink that started the pumpkin craze 18 years ago – will be released.\n\nAccording to a survey of 2,000 consumers 18 and older by Nissin Foods, more than 50% of Gen Z respondents are obsessed with pumpkin spice. The ramen noodle company is releasing a limited-edition Cup Noodles Pumpkin Spice flavor at select Walmart stores in late October.\n\nStarbucks PSL, Dairy Queen and more\n\nWhile a firm date isn't known for the return of Starbucks PSL, the coffee giant said earlier this month that seasonal products were returning to grocery store shelves in August along with some new additions, including Pumpkin Spice Flavored Non-Dairy Creamer and Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew Concentrate.\n\nCracker Barrel kicked off fall Tuesday with the limited launch of its Pumpkin Pie Latte, which is available iced or hot until Nov. 29.\n\nTim Hortons' pumpkin spice drinks and baked goods launch Aug. 25. Dairy Queen also said it is bringing back its Pumpkin Pie Blizzard Treat and Pumpkin Cookie Butter Shake for a limited time. Originally, Dairy Queen announced its pumpkin items would return Aug. 30, but told USA TODAY now the products are \"coming soon in early September.\"\n\nMore pumpkin announcements are expected soon with products hitting store shelves and restaurant menus in the coming weeks.\n\n►Save better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\n►Sephora at Kohl's locations are opening:See which stores are getting a makeover and when.\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2017/07/03/uber-etiquette-rides-haring/433742001/", "title": "Uber etiquette: Do's and don'ts for passengers", "text": "Johnny Diaz\n\nSun Sentinel via TNS\n\nUber made headlines last week with new changes to its ride-sharing app.\n\nThe company introduced a tipping feature that is expected to roll out to all its U.S. markets by the end of July.\n\nBut do you know how much to tip? Whether you can request a ride for another? Or whether you can request your own music on the radio? Or eat in the back seat?\n\nWhether you’re using Uber, or rival Lyft, here are some do’s and don’ts for first-time riders, gathered from the companies and drivers themselves.\n\nCall me ready\n\nUsing your smartphone app, request the driver when you are absolutely ready. “Don’t make the driver wait once they’ve arrived,” said Uber driver Virginia Davis, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. “Text or call the driver if the location is hard to find, like a hard-to-see house number or street.”\n\nYou can spot the car by the lighted emblems on the front windows.\n\nRead more:\n\nRegulators scramble as self-driving cars are poised to take to the road\n\nUber adds option to tip drivers as it heads in new direction\n\nUber also recently announced it will be charging passengers by the minute for making a driver wait more than two minutes, beginning in August. And it will charge riders $5 if they cancel a ride two minutes after they requested it.\n\nFirst-time riders\n\nAs a courtesy, so that you’ll become a repeat customer, your first ride with Uber and Lyft is free (up to $15 on Uber and $20 for Lyft). You can also get free rides by referring new passengers using a coupon code. The promo codes can be found on each of the apps and websites.\n\nHopping in\n\nDepending on the driver, he or she may open the door for you and load your luggage.\n\n“Some passengers don’t give you enough time to open the door,” said Alex Figueroa, a Lyft driver from Miami. “I always suggest to drivers that if you have extra time, open the door. The passenger will feel very welcomed.”\n\nMost passengers hop into the rear seats and often sit diagonal from the driver. But if you prefer to ride in the front seat, check with your driver if that’s cool.\n\nNo, right turn\n\nDrivers use GPS in their app to ferry drivers to their destinations. “If you’d like a different route than the Uber app, please do tell,” said Davis.\n\nTo tip or not to tip\n\nUber has been known for being a cashless experience. Some drivers welcome cash tips, but it’s completely voluntary. A new feature on the app will allow passengers to tip its U.S. drivers by the end of July. Riders can tip after they’ve rated their driver. Passengers will have up to 30 days after their trip to tip the driver. Don’t know how much to tip? Uber will have a “set tip” option once the feature is available.\n\nIn the meantime, if you’re in an Uber and you enjoyed the experience, ask the driver whether he or she would like to accept a cash tip.\n\nPassengers using Lyft can leave a cash tip, or add a tip using the app. The tip will be charged to the credit card on file. Lyft customers have up to 72 hours to leave a tip after a ride.\n\nYes, you can order a ride for another\n\nAnother new feature out last week in an app update is primarily designed for Uber users who want a simple way to arrange rides for parents, grandparents and other loved ones unable to drive themselves. Previously, Uber users ordering on behalf of another passenger had to call the driver to explain the situation.\n\nWhen you ask to be picked up at somewhere besides your current location, the app will give you the option to designate the ride for someone else. The passenger won't need the Uber app; they'll get a text identifying the driver, car make and other information. Uber will charge the you, the person who ordered the ride.\n\nFive stars\n\nIf you want to tip in a different way, give the driver a good rating on the app. The driver will also rate you as a passenger, so behave!\n\nClean up\n\nSpeaking of good behavior, the drivers mostly use their own cars (typically a Toyota Camry or a hybrid). If you need to munch on a snack, don’t leave things behind (wrappers, water bottles, trash). “As soon as you’re dropping off that passenger and are ready to pick up someone else, you don’t have time to clean up your car,” said Figueroa. Also, no smoking.\n\nWhat's your jam?\n\nSome drivers let riders play their own music in the vehicle. Or they may have power cords available for passengers to charge their phones.\n\n“It’s up to the driver to offer things like that,” Figueroa said. “Ask (the passengers) if they want to play their own music. It makes (the drive) fun and easy.”\n\nUSA Today contributed to this report", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/07/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/06/18/ubers-driver-perk-bathroom-breaks/85712710/", "title": "Uber's Latest Plan to Make Its Drivers Happier: Bathroom Breaks ...", "text": "John Rosevear\n\nThe Motley Fool\n\nRide-hailing giant Uber said this week it's rolling out a host of changes to its software app that aim to improve its drivers' experiences.\n\nIt's the latest move in the escalating battle between Uber and its smaller rival, Lyft. Both are pushing aggressively to expand, and both are battling hard to lure — and retain — drivers to their services.\n\nUber pointedly showed off improvements for its drivers\n\nIn a post on its official blog, Uber announced several new features in the drivers' version of its smartphone app. All are intended to make life a bit easier for Uber drivers. Among the new features:\n\n\"Driver Destinations\": Twice a day, drivers can input a destination and Uber will only send trip requests that are along the inputted route. The idea is to help drivers stay on course if they're headed home at the end of the day, for instance, or if they're heading to work (at another job) in the morning and want to be able to pick up a rider or two on the way.\n\n\"Pause Requests\": Drivers can now hit a button in the app to \"pause\" service requests and take a break. In the past, drivers have had to decline trip requests in order to buy time for a bathroom break, for instance, or to refill their vehicle with gas.\n\nOther new features include a new function that will allow drivers to be paid on demand, rather than weekly, and a new policy (rolling out gradually across the country) that will pay drivers who spend more than two minutes waiting for a passenger.\n\nUber didn't already have all of that?\n\nIt does seem odd that Uber didn't build in functions allowing its drivers to take bathroom breaks and head home right from the start. But treating its drivers with thoughtful consideration has not exactly been an Uber hallmark.\n\nIn fact, Uber has long had a tense relationship with its drivers. Groups of drivers have organized protests against policy changes and fare cuts. Drivers have also sued to be recognized as employees rather than contracts. Uber recently settled a pair of class action suits filed by drivers, promising to increase pay and to spell out certain policies more clearly to its drivers.\n\nUber now seems to be facing up (at least a little bit) to the need to make its service more attractive to new drivers — not to mention to hang on to the drivers it has already brought on board. That includes finding ways to make suitable vehicles available to potential drivers who may not have one of their own. About a year ago, Uber started a program called Xchange to lease vehicles to new drivers — but the program has recently been sharply criticized: Drivers with subprime credit pay huge charges to lease vehicles via Xchange.\n\nToyota (NYSE:TM), which recently made a modest investment in Uber, will begin leasing vehicles to Uber drivers later this year under a new program, one that will hopefully give drivers a better deal.\n\nBut meanwhile, Lyft is responding with a different program put together with its new partnerGeneral Motors (NYSE:GM), one that could be more appealing to cash-strapped potential drivers.\n\nLyft's new program with GM rents vehicles to drivers at a weekly rate that starts at $99 and drops as drivers give more rides to Lyft customers. Give enough rides, and the rate drops all the way to zero.\n\nThe upshot: It's a start, but Uber needs to do a lot more\n\nThere's a sense that Uber is just biding its time until it can replace all of its pesky human drivers with self-driving cars. But while self-driving technology is making huge strides, it's clear Uber is going to have to deal with human drivers for at least several more years.\n\nThese latest changes to its app won't hurt its relationships with its drivers. But I don't know that they'll help a whole lot, either — and meanwhile, Lyft will do its best to take advantage.\n\nSPONSOR CONTENT: 10 stocks we like better than Tesla\n\nWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*\n\nDavid and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Tesla wasn't one of them! That's right — they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.\n\nClick here to learn about these picks!\n\n*Stock Advisor returns as of June 3rd, 2016.\n\nThe author(s) may have a position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns and recommends shares of Tesla.\n\nJohn Rosevear owns shares of General Motors. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.\n\nThe Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/06/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/05/19/nashville-symphony-announces-return-2021-22-season/5167125001/", "title": "Nashville Symphony announces return for 2021-22 season", "text": "After a year and a half of silence at the Schermerhorn, the Nashville Symphony will make its long-awaited return this September — just in time to celebrate its 75th anniversary.\n\nThe symphony has just revealed its 2021-2022 season which features more than 100 concerts. It will kick off September 16-18 with the ensemble's triumphant return to Schermerhorn Symphony Center, where they'll perform pieces by Copland, Tower, Dvořák and Schubert during \"Fanfare For Music City.\"\n\nOther highlights include a pop series with concerts from Leslie Odom, Jr., Stewart Copeland and Ben Folds, an Easter presentation of Handel's \"Messiah,\" collaborations with Nashville Ballet and live performances of the \"Star Wars,\" \"Harry Potter\" and \"Toy Story\" film scores.\n\nLast summer, after shutting down live performances in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nashville Symphony ultimately decided to go on hiatus through July of 2021, issuing furloughs to 128 employees.\n\nWhen the musicians return to the stage with longtime music director Giancarlo Guerrero, they'll do so as a smaller chamber orchestra, allowing for social distancing. The symphony plans to bring the full orchestra back together in January.\n\n“For the past year I have been lucky enough to make music with several orchestras in Europe, so I have become an expert at working with the smaller, distanced orchestra,” Guerrero said in a release.\n\n\"...While I am so looking forward to having all of the musicians back onstage by the end of the season, the reduced orchestra size this fall will allow us to dive into repertoire that we have never performed before. This season, the orchestra and I will get to flex some new creative muscles. Even as we relearn what normal is, there is an opportunity to be more than what we were. We can learn from these challenges and get to something better than normal. The bumps along the road can become tools to finding better ways to serve our musicians and our community.”\n\nSeason ticket packages are on sale now at www.nashvillesymphony.org. Tickets to individual concerts go on sale July 30.\n\nNashville Symphony 2021-22 season schedule\n\nBelow is the Nashville Symphony's official rundown of all concerts announced for 2021-22.\n\nAmazon Classical Series\n\nOpening Weekend: Fanfare for Music City, September 16-18, 2021 – Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman kick off the Nashville Symphony’s return to the stage, followed by Dvořák’s Serenade in D Minor for Winds and Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony. This performance will also feature Strum by Leonard Bernstein Award-winner and Sphinx Organization composer-in-residence Jessie Montgomery.\n\nBeethoven’s First, October 21-23, 2021 – The woodwind and brass sections will be featured on Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, and the Nashville Symphony’s Organ Curator Andrew Risinger takes the stage for Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. The performance closes with Beethoven’s First, as the orchestra continues to belatedly celebrate the composer’s 250th birthday.\n\nNext Generation of Classical Musicians, November 4-6, 2021 – Accelerando program alumna Aalia Hanif, flute, joins the orchestra as soloist on Borne’s Fantaisie brillante, followed by another Accelerando alumnus, Bernard Ekwuazi, trombone, on Larsson’s Concertino for Trombone and String Orchestra. Originally commissioned by Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony in 2010, Richard Strauss’ lyrical Ariadne auf Naxos Symphony-Suite, arranged by former Nashville Symphony Principal Librarian D. Wilson Ochoa, will close the program.\n\nStrings on Parade with Jun Iwasaki, November 18-20, 2021 – Concertmaster Jun Iwasaki leads and performs in this performance featuring Philip Herbert’s Elegy: In Memoriam – Stephen Lawrence, which memorializes Stephen Lawrence, a Black British teenager murdered in 1993 by a gang of young white men. The work is composed for 18 string players, each representing one year of Lawrence’s life. This performance also includes Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and Dvořák’s Serenade in E Major for Strings.\n\nDvořák & Mozart, January 7-9, 2022 – In the first concert that sees the full orchestra reunited onstage, this performance will open with Suppé’s Poet and Peasant: Overture, followed by Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 featuring up-and-coming soloist George Li and closing with Dvořák’s genial Symphony No. 8. Lawrence S. Levine Memorial Concert\n\nTchaikovsky's ‘Pathétique’, January 20-22, 2022 – Tchaikovsky’s brooding Sixth Symphony mirrors the composer’s own personal torment, while Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp will feature Nashville Symphony Principal Flute Érik Gratton and Principal Harp Licia Jaskunas. Opening the performance will be Florence Price’s Dances in the Canebrakes, a short orchestral suite composed just months before the composer’s unexpected death.\n\nBrahms, Birds & ‘blue cathedral’, February 11 & 12, 2022 – Concertmaster Jun Iwasaki and Principal Cellist Kevin Bate perform Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello, the first orchestral concerto to feature violin and cello together. Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral, her most performed work, places a special emphasis on Higdon’s own instrument, the flute, and was written as a commission to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Curtis Institute of Music. Also included are Sibelius’ The Swan of Tuonela and Ravel’s Mother Goose: Suite.\n\nJoyce Yang Plays Grieg, February 24-26, 2022 - Pianist Joyce Yang returns as the featured soloist on Grieg’s Piano Concerto. The performance opens with one of the most popular works in orchestral literature, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. Closing the program will be Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, arguably the most popular of the composer’s 15.\n\nAn Evening of Firsts, March 17-19, 2022 – The only live recording event of the season features Brad Warnaar’s Cornet Concerto, featuring José Sibaja on cornet, and C.F. Kip Winger’s Symphony No. 1, both of which will be included on forthcoming releases on Naxos. John Adams’ The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra and Barber’s Symphony No. 1 complete the all-American evening.\n\nMendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Debussy’s La Mer, April 8-10, 2022 – Thomas Wilkins, music director of the Omaha Symphony and principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, comes to Nashville as a guest conductor for the weekend. Highlighting the performance will be Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto featuring acclaimed soloist Adele Anthony and Debussy’s impressionistic La mer. Also included are Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha: Suite from the Ballet and Holst’s Hammersmith.\n\nGuerrero Conducts Messiah, April 14-16, 2022 – The Nashville Symphony Chorus returns for their first Classical Series performance in two years for this springtime performance of Handel’s Messiah, presented here as an Easter Oratorio, as it was during the composer’s own lifetime.\n\nTchaikovsky, Ravel & Sibelius, May 6 & 7, 2022 – Assistant Conductor Nathan Aspinall makes his Classical Series debut to conduct Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest, a tone poem based on the Shakespeare work. GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Terrence Wilson returns to Nashville to perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 rounds out the weekend.\n\nBallet Extravaganza, May 19-22, 2022 – The Nashville Ballet returns to Schermerhorn Symphony Center for a full performance of Stravinsky’s ultimate Russian fairytale, The Firebird, and Copland’s evocation of the notorious bandit on the American open prairie in Billy the Kid.\n\nBeethoven’s Ninth, June 2-5, 2022 – Marking the 75th Anniversary celebration of the Nashville Symphony, the season will close with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, featuring the Nashville Symphony Chorus. This performance opens with a new work by Nashville Symphony violist Christopher Farrell, a special 75th Anniversary commission, along with Brio by Augusta Read Thomas and Pulse by Composer Lab fellow Brian Raphael Nabors.\n\nFirstBank Pops Series\n\nThis eight-weekend series features big-name guest artists and dynamic themed programs, all accompanied by the orchestra.\n\nMusic City Christmas, December 9, 10, 12 & 16-18, 2021 – Lopez-Yañez hosts this one-of-a-kind holiday symphonic spectacular featuring dancers, Broadway singers and some very special guests, including Jolly Old Saint Nick himself.\n\nRevolution: The Music of the Beatles. A Symphonic Experience, January 13-15, 2022 – The Beatles come to life in this new authorized symphonic tribute featuring orchestral arrangements of more than 25 Fab Four hits, accompanied by stunning video, animation and hundreds of rare and unseen photos.\n\nDisco Fever: Get Down Tonight, February 3-5, 2022 – Celebrating the unforgettable era of songs you love to love with orchestrations written by Lopez-Yanez.\n\nPops Spectacular: Orchestral Greatest Hits, March 3-6, 2022 – This powerhouse program features Guerrero leading the Nashville Symphony in a selection of orchestral favorites, including Ravel’s Boléro, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, Strauss’ The Blue Danube and Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.\n\nStewart Copeland: Police Deranged, March 24-26, 2022 – It’s a high-energy orchestral celebration of The Police’s biggest hits, including “Roxanne,” “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” “Message in a Bottle” and many more, with Copeland on drums, three singers and a guitarist joining the orchestra.\n\nNat King Cole at 100, April 28-30, 2022 – A celebration of Nat King Cole's legacy featuring the orchestra, a full band and a parade of special guests led by Patti Austin and Terri Lyne Carrington.\n\nMovies Series\n\nMovie lovers can experience their favorite films as never before, with the Nashville Symphony providing live accompaniment to beloved movies screened in HD above the stage:\n\nThe Muppet Christmas Carol in Concert, December 3-5, 2021\n\nStar Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens in Concert, April 1-3, 2022\n\nHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince™ in Concert, May 12-15, 2022\n\nBack to the Future in Concert, June 17-19, 2022\n\nToy Story in Concert, July 8-10, 2022\n\nJazz Series\n\nThe Nashville Symphony is one of Music City’s leading presenters of jazz, and this series offers the chance to hear world-class artists in a sparkling acoustical setting:\n\nPat Metheny Side-Eye w/ James Francies & Joe Dyson, February 7, 2022 – 10-time GRAMMY®-winner Pat Metheny makes his first-ever Schermerhorn appearance.\n\nJazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, March 22, 2022 – Trumpeter Marsalis brings his award-winning ensemble back to the Schermerhorn.\n\nProhibition with the Nashville Symphony, May 25, 2022 – This concert celebrates the Roaring ’20s with singers, dancers, vintage photos and video, all accompanied by the orchestra. Classics include “Mack the Knife,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and more.\n\nThe Ann & Monroe Carell Family Trust Family Series\n\nCreated for children ages 10 and under, Family Series concerts offer a relaxed, sensory-friendly atmosphere for all patrons. Each themed concert is preceded by family-friendly activities, including the Symphony’s Instrument Petting Zoo.\n\nSymphony in Space!, January 15, 2022 – Blast off with Cadet Enrico and the Nashville Symphony’s Sonic Spaceship on a mission to save the galaxy! Set a course for adventure with selections from The Planets, The Firebird and more out-of-this-world music.\n\nCarnival of the Animals, February 5, 2022 – Take an imaginative journey through the animal kingdom in this zoological musical, featuring a fully orchestrated setting of Saint-Saëns’ classic score, along with engaging songs like “Talk to the Animals” and “Kokowanda Bay.”\n\nWhen Instruments Roamed the Earth, March 26, 2022 – In prehistoric times, strange creatures walked the planet. These were the ancient ancestors of musical instruments that inspired melodious makers in brass and wood to create the instruments we see in the orchestra today. Join Sir Humphrey Treble-Clef on a journey into the times When Instruments Roamed the Earth®!\n\nGold Rush: An American Musical Adventure, April 30, 2022 – Race across America with Rico the Roughrider and stake a claim for gold in the Wild West! Outwit outlaws and befriend buffalo as you discover the sounds of American music by Copland, Sousa, Grofé, Elmer Bernstein and more.\n\nBlakeford Matinee Series\n\nFeaturing concerts on Sunday afternoons, including selections from the Nashville Symphony’s Classical and Pops Series.\n\nMusic City Christmas, December 12, 2021\n\nDvořák & Mozart, January 9, 2022\n\nPops Spectacular: Orchestral Greatest Hits, March 6, 2022\n\nMendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Debussy’s La Mer, April 10, 2022\n\nBeethoven’s Ninth, June 5, 2022\n\nAdditional Concerts\n\nAll concerts listed below are with the Nashville Symphony, except where noted. More concerts will be announced in the coming months.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2015/03/17/uber-pairs-with-smart-suitcase-to-deliver-your-lost-bags-to-you/83202090/", "title": "Uber pairs with smart suitcase to return your lost bags", "text": "Jelisa Castrodale\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nUber seems to connect with other companies faster than Leonardo DiCaprio can, um, connect with would-be starlets at a Cannes pre-party. The private car service has just announced a new partnership with Bluesmart, the smartphone-connected carry-on bag that raised a ridiculous $2 million in Indiegogo funding. The $299 bags have all kinds of integrated technology including real-time location tracking, proximity alerts and notification if the suitcase is left behind at your departure airport. And that's where Uber comes in: if your Bluesmart bag lands after you do, you'll receive a notification that it has arrived and would be prompted to order an Uber to deliver it to you.\n\nDiego Saez-Gil, the CEO and co-founder of Bluesmart said in a statement\n\n\"We are super excited to announce this integration with Uber, a company that shares our mission. With this integration we hope to reduce the hassle that travelers have to experience when airlines lose their bags. We believe that technology should make our lives easier and this is the goal of this collaboration.”\n\nYes, an airport would deliver your bag to you for free. But so will Uber, and its Bluesmart delivery service eliminates the need to wait around your hotel for hours, pacing the plush carpet until your bag arrives, or trying to go about your day wondering whether you're going to have a change of clothes when you get back to your room. Also, this partnership doesn't just benefit the bags themselves; when you land at your destination airport, your smartphone will immediately give you the option of ordering an Uber for both you and your Bluesmart.\n\nEven better, people who order the bag will receive a coupon code giving them a free ride to the airport from Uber.\n\nThis partnership is a smart move by a bag that's already smarter than I am. As Tnooz pointed out, Bluesmart needs to provide as many unique or proprietary features as it can to justify their early adopters' high expectations, as well as their high price.\n\nThe first Bluesmart bags will be delivered in October, 2015. That gives them plenty of time to figure out how I can score a Cannes date with Leo next May.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/03/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/06/20/uber-adds-tipping-feature-matching-lyft/103039304/", "title": "Uber adds tipping feature, matching Lyft", "text": "Marco della Cava\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nSAN FRANCISCO — Uber is adding a tipping option to its ride-hailing service, a feature that has long been a part of rival Lyft and something Uber drivers have been requesting for years.\n\nThe new feature debuts in Seattle, Minneapolis and Houston on Tuesday, with more cities to roll out over the next few weeks and every market covered by the end of July, according to an email Uber sent drivers signed by head of U.S. operations Rachel Holt and head of driver experience Aaron Schildkrout.\n\n\"We've heard you,\" the note reads. \"You've told us what you want, and now it's time we step up and give you the driving experience you deserve, because simply put, Uber wouldn't exist without you.\"\n\nUber is committing to what it calls \"180 days of change (and beyond),\" which will also include driver-focused updates such as a shorter cancellation window (the driver gets a fee if you cancel your ride after more than 2 minutes, down from 5 minutes); a small fee for waiting for a passenger starting at the 2-minute mark; and a new $2 charge is being added to Teen Account trips.\n\nTips will be voluntary, and do not impact how a driver might rate a passenger because the driver's rating is required before the tipping request is sent out, according to both Uber and Lyft spokespeople.\n\nMORE FROM USA TODAY:\n\nShould you tip your Uber driver (and if so, how much?)\n\nHow much should you tip your delivery driver?\n\nInvestigations: How port truckers are today's modern-day indentured servants.\n\nThe news comes as Uber begins implementing 47 recommendations from a three-and-a-half month internal investigation led by former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, which were revealed to Uber staff last week.\n\nBut those findings were all focused on addressing Uber's myriad corporate issues, which range from accusations of fostering a sexist and cut-throat work environment to promoting a culture where only workaholics following CEO Travis Kalanick's mandate were rewarded.\n\nUber's driver relationship issue have persisted for some time independent of its workplace problems. Uber's former president Jeff Jones, who left the company in the wake of ex-engineer Susan Fowler's explosive allegations about sexism at the ride-hailing company, was brought on board specifically to address its relationship with drivers, to little avail.\n\nOn Tuesday, Uber co-founder Garrett Camp posted an introspective essay on Medium in which he lamented how the company went off its tracks and specifically spotlighted its relationship with its street-level contractors.\n\n\"A friend recently asked me, 'What went wrong?' and the answer is that we had not listened well enough to those who got us here… our team and especially our drivers,\" wrote Camp, who remains a powerful figure on Uber's board but otherwise has not been involved in the company's day to day operations for some time.\n\nIn a recent report on Uber drivers called \"The Faceless Boss,\" NPR reporter Aarti Shahani surveyed 1,000 drivers and found that the company's drivers had a few overarching complaints.\n\n\"For one, they felt this was a weird job because it's the only one most have had were they literally can't reach the person in charge,\" Shahani says.\n\nThe other big issues were not being sure what they would make on each ride, and being tracked while on duty via the Uber app. Shahani says that \"many drivers fell like Uber controls them in ways that are odd, and they don't like it.\"\n\nRegardless of Uber's urgent need to change both its internal culture and its tarnished brand image, the new tipping option may have been inevitable.\n\nIn April, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission granted a petition by the city's Independent Drivers Guild — a union affiliate representing 50,000 app-based drivers — to create a rule that would require ride-hailing services to add in-app tipping, a move that could ultimately have had a ripple effect nationwide.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Guild celebrated Uber's move as \"an important win for drivers\" given that \"cuts to driver pay across the ride-hail industry have made tipping income more important than ever,\" said Jim Conigliaro Jr., IDG founder and Machinists Union official.\n\nUber executives had long argued that the no-muss aspect of its non-tipping approach — get in a car, ride to your destination, and get out — was one of the most popular aspects of its service with riders.\n\nMuch as with Lyft's long-time tipping option, Uber passengers can use the new feature to reward a particularly memorable ride after the fact. On Monday, Lyft announced it had distributed $250 million in tips to its drivers.\n\nUber's issues with drivers reached a low point in February, when Kalanick was caught berating a driver who was complaining about fare changes on a dashcam video.\n\nWhat's more, Uber's tenuous business model — analysts suspect current ride-hailing prices are being kept artificially low with subsidies — is hampered by having to pay the humans at the wheel. Kalanick has pushed his company into the fierce race for self-driving car technology specifically so he could eliminate the driver.\n\n“The reason Uber could be expensive is you’re paying for the other dude in the car,\" Kalanick said at a Code Conference in 2014. \"When there is no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere is cheaper.”\n\nFollow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/06/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2022/03/31/szechuan-sauce-mcdonalds-2022/7231520001/", "title": "McDonald's Szechuan Sauce can be ordered on app for a limited time", "text": "McDonald's viral Szechuan Sauce is back at restaurants for a limited time.\n\nThe fast-food chain announced the limited return last week and said the dipping sauce would be available for a few days, while supplies last. It’s described as a savory and slightly sweet taste profile with hints of soy, garlic, ginger and mild vinegar.\n\nThe sauce originally debuted in 1998 as part of a McDonald's promotion for the Disney animated film Mulan.\n\nIn 2017, after a nearly 20-year hiatus, interest got a big uptick when the sauce was mentioned on an episode of “Rick and Morty” – an edgy, adult-oriented animated series on Cartoon Network. The sauce returned for one day in 2017 and supplies quickly ran out.\n\nDAILY MONEY NEWSLETTER: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nDUNKIN' MAKEUP?:Dunkin' has a new makeup collection with e.l.f. Cosmetics inspired by donuts and coffee\n\n“It’s only returned three other times in the past 24 years, and we’re excited for fans to get another taste of the elusive favorite for just a few days,” McDonald’s said in a statement.\n\nIt also came back in 2018 and there are packages of the old sauce for sale on eBay. Prices vary but a single sauce that expired in 2017 was listed for $950 March 21.\n\nMcDonald’s Szechuan Sauce 2022: How to get\n\nThis time, the sauce will only be available on the McDonald’s app for free when selected as a dipping sauce option for Chicken McNuggets. Five sauces can also be purchased a la carte on the app, McDonald's said.\n\nThe sauce also will come in five different golden foil designs that spell out \"Szechuan.\"\n\nNEW TV:Samsung re-enters the OLED game with the new S95B OLED TV—here's how to save on a pre-order\n\nMEET CHIPPY:Chipotle is testing a robot named Chippy to make its tortilla chips as restaurants turn more to tech\n\nMcDonald's app deals\n\nMcDonald's has several ongoing deals on its app and with the MyMcDonald's Rewards program. Offers and daily deals can vary by account and region.\n\nDon't have the app? McDonald's says on its website that you'll get a free large fries when you download the app and join MyMcDonald’s Rewards through March 31. Then after your first purchase, you get the choice of Hash Browns, Vanilla Cone, McChicken or a Cheeseburger for free.\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/31"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/24/entertainment/johnny-depp-amber-heard-defamation-trial/index.html", "title": "Johnny Depp to return to the stand in his defamation case against ...", "text": "(CNN) Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are in a contentious defamation trial in a Virginia court, with proceedings set to resume on Monday.\n\nBoth Heard and Depp, who met in 2009 and were married from 2015-2016 , accuse the other of acts of physical violence during their relationship. They have both denied the other's claims.\n\nThe former couple settled their divorce in August 2016, releasing a joint statement which read in part, \"Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love.\"\n\nThe trial, which started on April 11, is set to last six weeks. Heard has not yet testified.\n\nDepp began his testimony on April 19, and he is expected to continue being cross-examined by Heard's attorney on Monday.\n\nHere's some of what came up during his testimony so far.\n\nFrequent arguments\n\nHeard alleged in 2016 that Depp was \"verbally and physically abusive\" to her, according to a complaint she filed that year, alleging Depp bruised her face after throwing a phone at her in their Los Angeles home.\n\nDepp denied the allegation and was not charged with any crime.\n\nDepp testified Tuesday that the couple frequently argued but said, \"Never did I myself reach the point of striking Ms. Heard in any way nor have I ever struck any woman in my life.\"\n\nAudio recordings of some of their heated exchanges have been played in court, including one in which Heard discussed striking Depp.\n\nAmber Heard speaks to one of her attorneys at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse on April 19.\n\n\"You didn't get punched; you got hit. I'm sorry I hit you like this, but I did not punch you,\" Heard purportedly said.\n\nLaurel Anderson, a clinical psychologist who worked with Depp and Heard in 2015 as their marriage counselor, testified in a video played in court on April 14 that Heard told her she \"fought back\" after Depp would become physical. Anderson said the former couple \"engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse.\"\n\nDepp has also claimed he physically defended himself at times, speaking about one incident in which Heard said her nose was injured. Depp said in court that his head connected with Heard's forehead while he was trying to \"restrain\" Heard.\n\n\"There was not an intentional head butt,\" the actor said.\n\nA severed finger\n\nDepp testified that his finger was severed by shattered glass in 2015 after Heard allegedly threw a bottle of vodka at him . He sought medical care but said in court that he told others at the time that he injured his finger by slamming it in a door.\n\n\"I didn't want to disclose that it had been Ms. Heard that had thrown a vodka bottle at me and then took my finger off,\" he said during his testimony. \"I didn't want to get her in trouble. I tried to just keep things as copacetic and easy as possible for everyone. I didn't want to put her into that mix.\"\n\nJohnny Depp displays the middle finger of his hand in court, injured in 2015.\n\nDepp said he has had multiple surgeries to repair the finger and contracted Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) during recovery. MRSA causes staph infections that are resistant to some antibiotics and often are difficult to treat.\n\nDr. David Kipper, who has treated Depp, corroborated portions of Depp's story in a deposition played in court this week.\n\nHeard's lawyers have referenced statements Depp made to ER doctors at the time to argue that Depp cut off his own finger. Depp denies this.\n\nDepp was also asked about his actions following his injury, including when he used his injured finger to write on the walls with a mixture of his blood and paint. Depp confirmed in court that he had done so.\n\nText messages\n\nDepp testified he was \"embarrassed\" by the messages read in court and said he uses \"dark humor\" at times to express himself.\n\nJohnny Depp during testimony on April 21.\n\nOther text messages were shared in which Depp discussed his drug use and alcohol use with friends like actor Paul Bettany and musician Marilyn Manson.\n\n'Pirates of the Caribbean'\n\nAs Depp's lawsuit focuses on the damage that has been done to his once lucrative career, some conversation was focused on \"Pirates of the Caribbean,\" the popular franchise that Depp led for five films over 15 years.\n\nRottenborn, Heard's lawyer, argued that Depp was aware he was \"likely out\" of the sixth film or that Disney would drop or shrink his role in it, prior to the publication of Heard's op-ed. Depp denied this.\n\nJohnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in \"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.\"\n\n\"I would be a real simpleton to not think that there was an effect on my career based on Ms. Heard's words, whether they mentioned my name or not,\" Depp said on the stand.\n\nDepp sheepishly admitted in his testimony that he has not seen the first film in the \"Pirates\" franchise. He said, however, \"I believed in the character wholeheartedly.\"\n\nHowever, when asked by Rottenborn, \"If Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this Earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film, correct?\"\n\n\"That is true, Mr. Rottenborn,\" Depp replied.", "authors": ["Chloe Melas"], "publish_date": "2022/04/24"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_15", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/politics/gas-tax-suspension-biden/index.html", "title": "Biden calls for three-month suspension of federal gas tax but faces ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes until the end of September, framing the move as necessary to provide relief to American consumers but itself not enough to resolve the problem of surging energy prices.\n\nBiden's decision to call for a federal gas tax holiday -- a move once derided as a gimmick by Barack Obama and viewed skeptically by leading economists -- almost certainly won't make it through Congress, especially as it faces blowback from the President's own allies on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stopped short of endorsing the plan in a statement after Biden's remarks.\n\nBut he cast the move as a way to give some relief to families as he tries to find solutions to one of his top political problems.\n\n\"By suspending the 18-cent gas tax, federal gas tax for the next 90 days, we can bring down the price of gas and give families just a little bit of relief,\" Biden said in a speech from the White House.\n\n\"I fully understand that a gas tax holiday alone is not going to fix the problem,\" he continued, \"but it will provide families some immediate relief, just a little bit of breathing room as we continue working to bring down prices for the long haul.\"\n\nBiden also called on states to take steps removing their own taxes on gas and diesel. And he told oil refining companies to increase their capacity ahead of their planned meeting this week with administration officials.\n\nCombined, Biden claimed, the wish list could reduce the price per gallon of gas by $1. Yet that figure relies on a number of steps entirely out of the President's control -- not least of which is convincing a skeptical Congress to approve his plan.\n\nIn her statement after Biden's remarks, Pelosi did not commit to bringing a gas tax holiday up for a vote.\n\n\"We will see where the consensus lies on a path forward for the President's proposal in the House and the Senate,\" she wrote.\n\nThe steps amounted to Biden's latest attempt to show he's taking initiative in reducing fuel prices as Americans grow more frustrated by the financial burden. White House officials had been considering a gas tax holiday for months, but held off until now in part because of concerns at how it might be received in Congress.\n\nRepublicans widely oppose lifting the gax tax. Even some Democrats -- including President Barack Obama on the campaign trail in 2008 -- have cast a gas tax holiday as a \"gimmick.\"\n\nYet facing growing anger and the start of the summer driving season, Biden determined that even small steps bordering on symbolic are worth taking.\n\n\"In the conditions that we are in today, that's not a gimmick, that's a little bit of breathing room for the American people as we get into the summer driving season,\" said Amos Hochstein, senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, in an interview on CNN's \"New Day\" Wednesday morning.\n\nThe current federal tax on gas is about 18 cents per gallon, while the federal tax on diesel stands at 24 cents per gallon. Even if savings from lifting those taxes were passed directly to consumers -- which isn't guaranteed -- the savings for one fill-up could only be a few dollars.\n\nEven some Democrats have cast doubt previously on a gas tax holiday , noting that the tax provides an important source of funding for road construction. Officials said Biden would call for using other revenue sources to make up for the shortfall, and he worked to allay some of those concerns in his speech.\n\nHe also sought to use the occasion to explain his decisions that have contributed to higher gas prices. The President defended banning Russian energy imports to the US after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine -- a move Biden acknowledged at the time would raise gas prices. Imports from Russia make up a small slice of the American energy portfolio, roughly 8% in 2021, of which only about 3% was crude oil.\n\n\"We could have turned a blind eye to Putin's murderous ways, and the price of gas wouldn't have spiked the way it has. I believe that would have been wrong,\" Biden said. \"I believed then and believe now that the free world had no choice.\"\n\nEconomists skeptical\n\nSome economists also say that the savings passed along to consumers could be minimal as retailers simply raise the base price of gas to make up the difference.\n\n\"Whatever you thought of the merits of a gas tax holiday in February, it is a worse idea now,\" Jason Furman, a senior economic official in Obama's administration, wrote on Twitter. \"Refineries are even more constrained now so supply is nearly fully inelastic. Most of the 18.4 cent reduction would be pocketed by industry -- with maybe a few cents passed on to consumers.\"\n\nSenior administration officials have acknowledged that criticism, but said Biden would pressure companies to pass along the savings.\n\n\"There's no time now for profiteering,\" Biden said, adding later that energy companies must increase refining capacity to produce more gas for American consumers and bring down prices.\n\n\"To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump -- this is a time of war, global peril, Ukraine. These are not normal times,\" he said. \"Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product.\"\n\nYet even there, quick action seems difficult. Refining capacity that was cut during the Covid-19 pandemic would take months to get back online, and refineries now are running at nearly 90% of their capacity.\n\nBiden looks for scapegoats\n\nThe President has turned up the heat on oil and gas companies in recent weeks as gas prices have shot up, with the national average climbing above $5 per gallon at one point last week.\n\nBiden has made Russia's war in Ukraine his top scapegoat for climbing gas prices but has also called out oil and gas companies, saying they aren't doing enough to bring down costs and accusing them of profiting off the war. He repeated some of those arguments on Tuesday, saying the country needs \"more refining capacity.\"\n\n\"This idea that they don't have oil to drill and to bring up is simply not true,\" he said.\n\nIn response to the President's criticisms, the oil industry has largely said that it is the Biden administration's fault that prices are so high because of what they perceive as limits on domestic oil and gas production.\n\nChevron CEO Mike Worth said in a letter on Tuesday that Biden should stop criticizing the oil and gas industry and called for a \"change in approach\" from the White House.\n\n\"Your Administration has largely sought to criticize, and at times vilify, our industry,\" Worth wrote in an open letter to Biden. \"These actions are not beneficial to meeting the challenges we face and are not what the American people deserve.\"\n\nBiden responded later in the day: \"He's mildly sensitive,\" adding: \"I didn't know they'd get their feelings hurt that quickly.\"", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak", "Kate Sullivan"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/22/biden-gas-tax-holiday/7695037001/", "title": "Gas tax holiday: Biden proposes 3-month break from federal gas tax", "text": "Biden's proposal would eliminate a federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon of gas through September.\n\nThe plan would cost $10 billion, but Biden wants to offset the loss of highway revenue.\n\nIt's unclear whether the White House has enough support in Congress to pass the gas tax holiday.\n\nWASHINGTON – President Joe Biden called on Congress Wednesday to suspend the federal gas tax for the next three months in one of his administration's most controversial efforts to give Americans relief as gas prices soar above $5 a gallon in many states.\n\nThe proposal was met with widespread skepticism. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats were noncommittal, signaling it could be doomed in Congress.\n\nA three-month federal gas tax holiday would suspend a tax of 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.4 cents for diesel that drivers pay when they fill their tanks. The White House billed the holiday as a way to provide some \"breathing room\" as it works to bring costs down over the long term. The pause, which Biden envisions lasting through September, would require congressional approval.\n\n\"We can bring down the price of gas and give families just a little bit of relief,\" Biden said, urging companies to pass on \"every penny\" of the reduction to consumers. \"There's no time now for profiteering.\"\n\nIn a speech from the White House, the president also encouraged states and local governments to suspend their gas taxes.\n\nPreviously:Biden says he will decide on federal gas tax holiday 'by the end of the week'\n\nRevenue from the federal gas tax supplies the Highway Trust Fund, which is used to pay for transportation and mass transit projects. Biden wants Congress to offset the loss of highway funds – about $10 billion – with other federal tax revenue. The federal government's deficit is down $1.6 trillion this year, Biden said, so the United States can afford to pause the gas tax.\n\nBiden has struggled to rein in historic gas prices amid skyrocketing inflation that has taken a toll on his presidency before the midterm elections in November. Suspending the gas tax is one of the quickest steps he can take to try to ease the pain for drivers. The national average for a gallon of gas was $4.968 on Wednesday, according to AAA, jumping more than $1.50 since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.\n\nA federal gas tax holiday, floated over the years but never enacted, has plenty of critics. This week, Larry Summers, Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration and an economic adviser for President Barack Obama, called it \"a gimmick\" that wouldn't solve the underlying issues causing the price spike.\n\nYour wallet:Biden weighs a gas tax holiday. How much would consumers save?\n\nA statement from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, warned that the holiday could drive up inflation after it ends and that it would deplete transportation funds and reduce only a fraction of the overall historic spike in gas prices. Environmentalists argued a gas tax holiday undermines the goal of moving toward clean energy.\n\nThere's no guarantee Biden's gas tax holiday proposal will pass Congress, where Democrats would need 60 votes in the evenly divided Senate to overcome any filibuster from Republicans. Not even Democratic leaders are on board.\n\n“We will see where the consensus lies on a path forward for the President’s proposal in the House and the Senate,\" Pelosi said in a statement.\n\nHouse Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., questioned whether the holiday would provide significant savings for drivers and said he's unsure it has the votes to pass the Democratic-controlled House. \"But I also think that trying to get the prices down for consumers at the pump is an important objective,\" Hoyer said.\n\nPelosi resisted the idea of a gas tax holiday earlier this year. So did Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., called the proposal \"shortsighted and inefficient,\" saying it would jeopardize funds used for transportation.\n\nIn February, a coalition of Senate Democrats from battleground states – including Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Mark Kelly of Arizona and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire – proposed suspending the gas tax through the end of the year. Their legislation faced resistance from Republicans who slammed it as a political stunt to help in the midterms. The White House never rallied behind the legislation, which did not advance, but remained open to it publicly.\n\nBiden's dilemma:Pushing fossil fuels to cut gas prices while promoting clean energy agenda\n\nAll 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, impose a gasoline tax, the revenue from which typically pays for transportation and other infrastructure projects. The average state gas tax is about 29 cents nationwide; California pays the highest rate and Alaska the lowest.\n\nThe White House wants states, as well as cities that have gas fees, to replicate Connecticut, New York, Maryland and other states that suspended gas taxes this spring amid rising inflation.\n\nMore:Biden to release up to 180 million barrels of oil from reserve to drive down gas prices\n\nOne common concern raised by critics of a federal gas tax holiday – including Pelosi – is that oil companies will pocket the tax cut. Research suggests that might not be the case.\n\nThe Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania released budget estimates last week showing the majority of cost savings during gas tax holidays that Maryland, Connecticut and Georgia enacted this year went to consumers instead of gas companies or filling stations.\n\nIn Maryland, 72% of all tax savings passed to consumers, the study found. In Georgia, it was 58% to 65% and in Connecticut 71% to 87%.\n\nPain at the pump:While gas prices at $5 a gallon, Biden tells oil companies to cut costs for Americans\n\nThe federal gas tax, created in 1932 during the Great Depression, has stayed at 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993.\n\nDuring the 2008 presidential campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama opposed calls from Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic primary opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton to enact a gas tax holiday amid the Great Recession.\n\n“This isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer,\" Obama said at the time. \"It’s an idea designed to get them through an election.”\n\nBiden also renewed his call for oil companies to increase refinery capacity and output and for retailers to pass savings on to consumers as the price of oil lowers. The president criticized oil company CEOs for collecting $35 billion in profit during the first quarter of 2022 as gas prices spiked. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is set to meet with oil company executives Thursday.\n\n\"This is a time of war, global peril, Ukraine,\" Biden said. \"These are not normal times. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product. Do it now. Do it today. Your customers, the American people, they need relief now.\"\n\nReach Joey Garrison on Twitter @joeygarrison.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/politics/gas-tax-holiday-congress-reaction/index.html", "title": "Gas tax holiday likely to land on empty amid Democratic opposition ...", "text": "(CNN) President Joe Biden's call for Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes will likely land on empty in the Senate.\n\nEven if he can get all 50 Democratic senators behind the legislation, he would still need 10 Republicans to join the cause to advance the measure, which seems extremely unlikely.\n\nRepublicans widely oppose lifting the gas tax — even some Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have been cool to the idea that former President Barack Obama labeled a \"gimmick\" in 2008 when he was a candidate. Pelosi has previously argued that oil companies could pocket the savings and not pass it onto the consumers.\n\nIn a sign of an uphill climb for Biden, moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told CNN's Manu Raju Tuesday evening that he's \"a little skeptical\" of the gas tax holiday that Biden plans to embrace, saying \"there's no guarantee\" it will reduce gas prices.\n\nAnd Sen. Tom Carper, a Democrat from Biden's home state of Delaware, said in a tweet he was \"glad\" Biden was exploring ideas for gas prices, but added it was a \" a shortsighted and inefficient way to provide relief.\"\n\nWith Manchin and Carper sounding opposed, Democrats also would fail if they tried to pass such a measure themselves through a procedure called reconciliation , which would only require 50 votes to advance.\n\nDemocratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told CNN Wednesday he's supportive of the proposal, but he warned that the administration and Congress needed to be \"honest\" about the effects it would actually have in effectively driving down the cost of gas. He also warned it could affect infrastructure funding, which the federal gas tax supports.\n\nThose most likely to rally behind the political ploy are vulnerable Democrats facing reelection this fall who are taking a beating with voters over the inflated gas prices, among other troubling economic news.\n\nDemocratic Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Mark Kelly of Arizona -- facing heated reelection bids in swing states -- introduced a bill to suspend the federal gas tax back in February, but Senate Democratic leadership hasn't made any moves to advance the measure.\n\nSenate Democrats largely hesitated to embrace Biden's push for a gas tax holiday. They acknowledged the President has few options to ease inflationary burdens but warned the policy might not yield the desired results.\n\nSome Democrats, however, have reluctantly said they would embrace the policy. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, one of Biden's closest allies in the Senate, said he knows gas prices is a concern for Biden, so \"I'm willing to embrace his proposals for a gas tax holiday.\" He noted, however, he wasn't sure it has the support to pass the Senate.\n\n\"What I hear from Delawareans is that the price at the pump is causing a lot of pain for working families,\" Coons said. \"That's something I know the President is concerned about and sensitive to and I'm willing to embrace his proposals for a gas tax holiday. I don't know whether it will get the votes it needs here in the Senate, but I am talking to my colleagues about that.\"\n\nHouse Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters on Wednesday he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have \"reservations\" about a gas tax holiday.\n\n\"Pelosi, myself, we've all expressed reservations about it,\" Hoyer said. \"But the President of the United States proposed it. We'll look at it.\"\n\nHoyer said that although he supports what Biden is trying to do, he is worried that such a provision would hurt consumers.\n\n\"The question is, if you reduce the tax, does it endure to the benefit of the consumer? That's the real key,\" Hoyer said.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.", "authors": ["Daniella Diaz", "Annie Grayer", "Lauren Fox", "Sarah Fortinsky"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/03/08/whitmer-congress-federal-fuel-tax/9428744002/", "title": "Gov. Whitmer calls on Congress to suspend the federal fuel tax", "text": "LANSING – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined five other Democratic governors Tuesday in calling on Congress to suspend the federal fuel tax as a way of addressing record-high gas prices.\n\nWhitmer joined the governors of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania in writing to the four leaders of the U.S. House and Senate from both parties about suspending the federal fuel tax of 18.3 cents a gallon on unleaded gasoline, until 2023.\n\nBut Whitmer is not calling for suspension of the state fuel tax of just over 27 cents per gallon, spokesman Bobby Leddy said.\n\n\"Right now, the best way to bring down the price of gas without impacting our ability to fix the damn roads is by suspending the federal gas tax,\" Leddy said.\n\nMore:Michigan gas prices set new 2022 record — and they're likely to keep climbing\n\nMore:Michigan gas prices likely to keep climbing: Here's why — and how you can save\n\nSuspending the federal tax is proposed in the Gas Prices Relief Act, which is supported by several Michigan members of Congress. The average price of unleaded fuel in the U.S. is now at historic levels of about $4.17 a gallon, and rising.\n\nSuspending the tax \"would alleviate the consumer cost of rising gas prices while protecting the federal government’s capacity to make infrastructure investments,\" the governors said in the letter.\n\nThat's because the federal legislation would authorize the U.S. Department of Treasury to transfer general fund dollars to replace the lost fuel tax revenue, the governors said. The governors also noted that the recent Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act championed by President Joe Biden dedicated an additional $118 billion to the Highway Trust Fund, used to maintain federal highways and bridges.\n\nSigning the letter along with Whitmer were Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.\n\nIn addition to the state fuel tax, Michigan, unlike many states, also applies its 6% sales tax to gasoline sales.\n\nFormer Detroit Police Chief James Craig, a Republican candidate for governor, on Monday called on Whitmer to suspend the state gas tax. Such an action would likely require approval from the Legislature.\n\nThe federal fuel tax has not increased since 1993.\n\nMichigan passed legislation in 2015 that increased its 19-cent-per-gallon fuel tax by 7 cents per gallon. That 7-cent increase is partially indexed to inflation, so it can increase over time.\n\nPreya Samsundar, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said Whitmer's \"posturing about a federal gas tax holiday\" is \"a slap in the face to Michiganders who live under the constant threat of rising energy prices as a result of her campaign to shut down Line 5\" — an Enbridge line that carries crude oil and natural gas liquids across the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac.\n\nStudies differ on what impact a Line 5 shutdown would have on Michigan fuel prices. Though it delivers propane to the Upper Peninsula and crude oil to refineries in southeast Michigan and northern Ohio, Line 5 mostly carries Canadian product to Canadian markets.\n\nContact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.\n\nBecome a subscriber.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/06/23/gas-tax-holiday-save-states/7700634001/", "title": "Federal gas tax holiday aims to ease prices at the pump, but how ...", "text": "President Biden is calling on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax through the end of September.\n\nIt's not clear how much of the 18.4 cents in tax savings will be passed along to consumers.\n\nOne report that looked at state gas holidays found up to 72% of savings were passed on to consumers.\n\nPresident Joe Biden called on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax through the end of September “to give Americans a little extra breathing room” as they face soaring gas prices. If there is a gas tax \"holiday,\" how much would U.S. drivers see in savings?\n\nThe federal gas tax is imposed on refiners such as Exxon Mobile and Chevron, which means any savings from a tax holiday would trickle down to consumers instead of going into effect directly at the pump. The tax is 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel fuel.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/23/states-congress-biden-gas-tax-holiday/7700590001/", "title": "States, Congress skeptical of Biden's gas tax holiday", "text": "Biden's proposal would eliminate a federal tax for 90-days.\n\nIt is unclear whether there is enough support in Congress to suspend the federal gas tax.\n\nWhile some states praised Biden’s proposal, it's unclear how many states will suspend their gas tax.\n\nWASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is facing an uphill battle to get Congress and some states on board to suspend federal and state gas taxes — a move aimed at offering relief to Americans as gas prices surpass $5 a gallon around the country.\n\nBiden was met with skepticism Wednesday as he called on lawmakers on Capitol Hill and states to suspend the federal gas tax for the next three months. The move would pause a federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.4 cents for diesel.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/22/president-joe-biden-federal-gas-tax-holiday-inflation-congress/7705027001/", "title": "President Biden calls for federal gas tax holiday to fight inflation", "text": "Happy Wednesday, OnPolitics readers!\n\nTuesday night's primaries proved to be a good night for women, such as D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who was renominated for a third term.\n\nBowser claimed the primary victory despite the headwinds of increased crime in the nation’s capital and two Democratic challengers from the city council who unsuccessfully tried to unseat her.\n\nHer win is another ding against progressives during the June primaries, which have further revealed the stark differences between progressives and moderates on addressing violence.\n\nNo more Mo: Business executive Katie Britt claimed the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama on Tuesday, easily winning a runoff over congressman Mo Brooks, who was a vocal advocate of Trump's protests over the 2020 election.\n\nMany once favored Brooks for the GOP nomination because he had the endorsement of Trump. But the former president pulled his support from Brooks in March after the latter began saying it was time for Republican voters to move past all the 2020 election disputes.\n\nIt's Amy and Chelsey with today's top stories out of Washington.\n\nPresident Biden calls on Congress to pass federal gas tax holiday\n\nPresident Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for the next three months in one of his administration's most controversial efforts to give Americans immediate relief as gas prices soar above $5 a gallon in many states.\n\nThe proposal was met with widespread skepticism. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats were noncommittal, signaling it could be doomed in Congress.\n\nA three-month federal gas tax holiday would suspend a tax of 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.4 cents for diesel that drivers pay when they fill their tanks. The White House billed the holiday as a way to provide some \"breathing room\" as it works to bring costs down over the long term. The pause, which Biden envisions lasting through September, would require congressional approval.\n\nHow much would consumers really save? While it might provide some short-term relief, the policy has plenty of critics. Many economists argue a pause in the federal gas tax could drive up inflation once the holiday ends, deplete transportation funds and only reduce a fraction of the overall historic spike in gas prices.\n\nA study from the University of Pennsylvania in April estimated the price of gas would decrease by 14.72 cents a gallon if 80% of the benefit were passed along to consumers. A federal gas holiday from March to December would lower average per capita gasoline spending by $47.\n\nWant this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter here.\n\nReal quick: stories you'll want to read\n\nSeven lawmakers, seven abortion stories\n\nAhead of a Supreme Court ruling that could change the landscape of abortion rights throughout the country, seven lawmakers shared their own abortion stories as the right to guaranteed access is under threat.\n\nThe representatives are all Democrats, parents and supporters of Roe v. Wade, the high court ruling protecting the constitutional right to an abortion.\n\n\"The (leaked draft) opinion (overturning Roe) is so misogynistic that I can't even begin to even put into words how vile I think the decision is,\" Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said of the leaked ruling in May. Speier was the first sitting member to share her story in 2011.\n\nReps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Barbara Lee of California opened up about their abortions last September at a House Oversight Committee hearing on abortion rights. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters was encouraged to come forward about his ex-wife's abortion after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020. Ginsburg was an advocate of abortion rights.\n\nReps. Marie Newman of Illinois and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin went public with their stories after the draft ruling was leaked to the public.\n\nEach lawmaker fought reservations to sharing their intimate experiences in light of what many fear is an anticipated reversal to abortion rights.\n\n\"I feel like it's important for people to know I'm there with them and I'm gonna do everything I can do to help them once they make their own personal decision,\" said Lee. \"So as hard as it is for me still, I hope it's helping other people.\"\n\nAbortion left up to the states: Women seeking an abortion will have to navigate a maze of individual state laws if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Within a year as many as 75,000 women won’t make it to a provider, according to one estimate.\n\nQuick-thinking: A clever New York City woman was rescued from a hostage situation after including a message to call the police in her GrubHub order. --Amy and Chelsey", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/politics/gas-tax-suspension-biden/index.html/", "title": "Biden will call for 3-month suspension of gas tax, though officials ...", "text": "U.S. President Joe Biden calls for a federal gas tax holiday as he speaks about gas prices during remarks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building's South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 22, 2022.\n\nWashington CNN —\n\nPresident Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes until the end of September, framing the move as necessary to provide relief to American consumers but itself not enough to resolve the problem of surging energy prices.\n\nBiden’s decision to call for a federal gas tax holiday – a move once derided as a gimmick by Barack Obama and viewed skeptically by leading economists – almost certainly won’t make it through Congress, especially as it faces blowback from the President’s own allies on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stopped short of endorsing the plan in a statement after Biden’s remarks.\n\nBut he cast the move as a way to give some relief to families as he tries to find solutions to one of his top political problems.\n\n“By suspending the 18-cent gas tax, federal gas tax for the next 90 days, we can bring down the price of gas and give families just a little bit of relief,” Biden said in a speech from the White House.\n\n“I fully understand that a gas tax holiday alone is not going to fix the problem,” he continued, “but it will provide families some immediate relief, just a little bit of breathing room as we continue working to bring down prices for the long haul.”\n\nBiden also called on states to take steps removing their own taxes on gas and diesel. And he told oil refining companies to increase their capacity ahead of their planned meeting this week with administration officials.\n\nCombined, Biden claimed, the wish list could reduce the price per gallon of gas by $1. Yet that figure relies on a number of steps entirely out of the President’s control – not least of which is convincing a skeptical Congress to approve his plan.\n\nIn her statement after Biden’s remarks, Pelosi did not commit to bringing a gas tax holiday up for a vote.\n\n“We will see where the consensus lies on a path forward for the President’s proposal in the House and the Senate,” she wrote.\n\nThe steps amounted to Biden’s latest attempt to show he’s taking initiative in reducing fuel prices as Americans grow more frustrated by the financial burden. White House officials had been considering a gas tax holiday for months, but held off until now in part because of concerns at how it might be received in Congress.\n\nRepublicans widely oppose lifting the gax tax. Even some Democrats – including President Barack Obama on the campaign trail in 2008 – have cast a gas tax holiday as a “gimmick.”\n\nYet facing growing anger and the start of the summer driving season, Biden determined that even small steps bordering on symbolic are worth taking.\n\n“In the conditions that we are in today, that’s not a gimmick, that’s a little bit of breathing room for the American people as we get into the summer driving season,” said Amos Hochstein, senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, in an interview on CNN’s “New Day” Wednesday morning.\n\nThe current federal tax on gas is about 18 cents per gallon, while the federal tax on diesel stands at 24 cents per gallon. Even if savings from lifting those taxes were passed directly to consumers – which isn’t guaranteed – the savings for one fill-up could only be a few dollars.\n\nEven some Democrats have cast doubt previously on a gas tax holiday, noting that the tax provides an important source of funding for road construction. Officials said Biden would call for using other revenue sources to make up for the shortfall, and he worked to allay some of those concerns in his speech.\n\nHe also sought to use the occasion to explain his decisions that have contributed to higher gas prices. The President defended banning Russian energy imports to the US after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine – a move Biden acknowledged at the time would raise gas prices. Imports from Russia make up a small slice of the American energy portfolio, roughly 8% in 2021, of which only about 3% was crude oil.\n\n“We could have turned a blind eye to Putin’s murderous ways, and the price of gas wouldn’t have spiked the way it has. I believe that would have been wrong,” Biden said. “I believed then and believe now that the free world had no choice.”\n\nEconomists skeptical\n\nSome economists also say that the savings passed along to consumers could be minimal as retailers simply raise the base price of gas to make up the difference.\n\n“Whatever you thought of the merits of a gas tax holiday in February, it is a worse idea now,” Jason Furman, a senior economic official in Obama’s administration, wrote on Twitter. “Refineries are even more constrained now so supply is nearly fully inelastic. Most of the 18.4 cent reduction would be pocketed by industry – with maybe a few cents passed on to consumers.”\n\nSenior administration officials have acknowledged that criticism, but said Biden would pressure companies to pass along the savings.\n\n“There’s no time now for profiteering,” Biden said, adding later that energy companies must increase refining capacity to produce more gas for American consumers and bring down prices.\n\n“To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump – this is a time of war, global peril, Ukraine. These are not normal times,” he said. “Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product.”\n\nYet even there, quick action seems difficult. Refining capacity that was cut during the Covid-19 pandemic would take months to get back online, and refineries now are running at nearly 90% of their capacity.\n\nBiden looks for scapegoats\n\nThe President has turned up the heat on oil and gas companies in recent weeks as gas prices have shot up, with the national average climbing above $5 per gallon at one point last week.\n\nBiden has made Russia’s war in Ukraine his top scapegoat for climbing gas prices but has also called out oil and gas companies, saying they aren’t doing enough to bring down costs and accusing them of profiting off the war. He repeated some of those arguments on Tuesday, saying the country needs “more refining capacity.”\n\n“This idea that they don’t have oil to drill and to bring up is simply not true,” he said.\n\nIn response to the President’s criticisms, the oil industry has largely said that it is the Biden administration’s fault that prices are so high because of what they perceive as limits on domestic oil and gas production.\n\nChevron CEO Mike Worth said in a letter on Tuesday that Biden should stop criticizing the oil and gas industry and called for a “change in approach” from the White House.\n\n“Your Administration has largely sought to criticize, and at times vilify, our industry,” Worth wrote in an open letter to Biden. “These actions are not beneficial to meeting the challenges we face and are not what the American people deserve.”\n\nBiden responded later in the day: “He’s mildly sensitive,” adding: “I didn’t know they’d get their feelings hurt that quickly.”", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak Kate Sullivan", "Kevin Liptak", "Kate Sullivan"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/politics/state-gas-tax-holiday-savings/index.html", "title": "Drivers don't see full benefit from state gas tax holidays - CNNPolitics", "text": "But consumers don't receive the full benefit of gas tax holidays, according to a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model, which looked at suspensions in three states through mid-May. Instead, they have to share the savings with gas suppliers, which capture part of the economic benefit if pump prices don't fall by the full amount of the suspended tax.\n\nThe report quantifies some of the criticism that economists and budget experts have voiced about gas tax holidays. In addition, they argue that temporarily eliminating the tax does not help curb inflation in the long run, since it spurs demand by lowering prices without enhancing supply. Plus, it reduces tax revenue and funding for transportation repairs and infrastructure.\n\nSo far, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maryland and New York have temporarily suspended their gas taxes, while Illinois and Kentucky blocked scheduled gas tax rate hikes, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Other states have expressed interest in gas tax holidays or other measures to help residents pay for fuel.\n\nCongress is unlikely to act on Biden's call. Though past administrations have called for gas tax holidays, lawmakers have never approved such a measure.\n\nState gas tax holidays\n\nIn Maryland, 72% of the tax savings was passed on to consumers, according to Penn Wharton, which used two separate methods to calculate the benefit in each state it examined.\n\nThe state suspended its gas tax of 36.1 cents per gallon from March 18 to April 16. Drivers saw a drop of about 12 cents the day after the holiday took effect, but the reduction grew to a little less than 30 cents for much of the period.\n\nGeorgia eliminated its 29.1 cents per gallon tax on gas from March 18 to May 31. Consumers there received between 58% and 65% of the savings, depending on which method Penn Wharton used.\n\nPeach State drivers saw prices decline more gradually, starting with 7 cents soon after the holiday began to about 30 cents in mid-May.\n\nBetween 71% and 87% of the savings was passed on to consumers in Connecticut, Penn Wharton found. The state eliminated its gas tax of 25 cents per gallon from April 1 to June 30. Gas prices slid 11 cents the day after the holiday began. The decline grew to 23 cents on April 15 but then shrank slowly to about 14 cents in mid-May.\n\n\"Based on our study, we don't find the entire tax decrease was passed on to consumers,\" said Zheli He, a Penn Wharton economist who's a co-author of the report. \"The rest of it was captured by distributors.\"\n\nFederal gas tax holiday\n\nOn Wednesday, Biden pushed Congress to suspend the roughly 18-cent federal gas tax, saying it would \"give families just a little bit of relief.\"\n\nExperts have questioned how much gas tax holidays really help drivers.\n\nConsumers would probably get only one-third of the benefit of a federal gas tax break, tweeted Jason Furman, an economics professor at Harvard University who was chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration.\n\n\"Whatever you thought of the merits of a gas tax holiday in February it is a worse idea now,\" Furman tweeted . \"Refineries are even more constrained now so supply is nearly fully inelastic. Most of the 18.4 cent reduction would be pocketed by industry -- with maybe a few cents passed on to consumers.\"\n\nSenior administration officials have acknowledged that criticism but said Biden would pressure companies to pass along the savings to drivers.\n\n\"The President is calling and demanding that the industry, the companies and the retailers, pass that on to the consumer at the pump,\" Amos Hochstein, senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, told CNN \"New Day\" co-anchor John Berman on Wednesday.\n\n\"We would scrutinize it and we would call on the industry to do exactly that, to pass it on,\" he said.", "authors": ["Tami Luhby"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/20/biden-federal-gas-tax-decision-end-week/7681782001/", "title": "Biden could decide on federal gas tax holiday by end of this week", "text": "President Joe Biden said Monday that he hopes to make a decision about a gas tax holiday by the end of the week, as the administration looks for ways to ease record fuel prices in a midterm election year.\n\nBiden said he is considering a pause on the federal gas tax, which some lawmakers in his party have pushed as a way to reduce prices at the pump for Americans.\n\n\"Well, I hope I have a decision based on the data I'm looking for ... by the end of the week,\" Biden said Monday on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.\n\nThe gas tax adds 18.4 cents total per gallon of gasoline – 18.3 cents in excise tax plus 0.1 cent in a storage fee. For diesel, it is 24.3 cents plus the 0.1 cent fee. The national average price for a gallon was $4.981 on Monday, according to AAA.\n\nPause on tax? Biden officials say recession isn't 'inevitable,' gas tax holiday remains a possibility\n\nBiden administration officials suggested Sunday that the administration could suspend the federal tax gas. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told ABC's \"This Week\" that it's \"an idea that’s certainly worth considering,\" and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on CNN's \"State of the Union\" that the idea was under evaluation.\n\n\"Part of the challenge with the gas tax, of course, is that it funds the roads, and we just did a big infrastructure bill to help fund the roads,\" Granholm said.\n\n\"If we remove the gas tax, that takes away the funding that was just passed by Congress to be able to do that,\" she said.\n\nBiden said he talked Monday morning with Larry Summers, Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration and economic adviser in the Obama administration, who has raised alarm about a potential recession as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to tame inflation.\n\n“There’s nothing inevitable about a recession,” Biden said.\n\nSummers blamed spending from Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in 2021, for fueling inflation and blasted the idea of a gas tax holiday as “shortsighted, ineffective, goofy and gimmicky.”\n\nBiden said members of his administration plan to sit down this week with CEOs of oil companies and seek “an explanation how they justify making $35 billion” during the first quarter of 2022.\n\nThe president expressed optimism that he will find support in Congress to lower health care costs, including capping the cost of insulin at $35 – one piece of his domestic agenda that stalled this year.\n\n“I think we’re going to be able to get a change in Medicare and a reduction in the cost of insulin,” Biden said.\n\nBiden said he wants to increase taxes on corporations to pay for the proposals, but his plan to overhaul the tax system has faced resistance in the evenly divided Senate.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/20"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_16", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/weather/yellowstone-national-park-flooding-closed-thursday/index.html", "title": "Yellowstone Park flooding: Parts may reopen to tourists on Monday ...", "text": "(CNN) Yellowstone National Park could partially reopen as early as Monday as officials continue to assess the damage caused by historic flooding , which now threatens to hamper the peak of the summer tourist season.\n\nHeavy rains and rapid snowmelt caused rivers to swallow bridges, sweep away entire sections of roadway and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 visitors. The sudden closure has fueled concerns from business owners and employees in surrounding communities who rely on Yellowstone visitors as a key source of revenue.\n\nThe park's northern region, which bore the brunt of the flood damage, is expected to be closed for a \"substantial length of time,\" which will likely go through the end of the season, the park said in a release Tuesday.\n\nThe less-impacted southern loop could reopen as early as Monday, Park Superintendent Cam Sholly told residents and tourists in Cody, Wyoming, on Wednesday, according to the Casper Star-Tribune\n\nBut while the southern loop reopening may provide relief to some tourism industry workers, those bordering the northern entrance are still left to wait.\n\nA North Entrance road in Yellowstone National Park was inundated with water.\n\nIn the south Montana city of Gardiner, which acts as a gateway to Yellowstone's northern entrance, hotel owners are already feeling the impact.\n\n\"There's nobody here,\" Kari Huesing, office manager of Yellowstone Gateway Inn, told CNN. \"We were booked solid for a year.\"\n\nNow, she says, all but one of her visitors are gone following the flooding, and one neighboring hotel has shut down and sent its employees home.\n\n\"It's a Yellowstone town, and it lives and dies by tourism,\" Park County Commissioner Bill Berg said of Gardiner.\n\nIn Cody, which lies east of the park, tourism industry workers were eager for answers from Sholly on the southern loop reopening, the Casper Star-Tribune reported. Sholly hopes gateway communities and park staff can determine how to sustain local businesses without attracting more visitors than the park can host, the paper reported.\n\nThe dangerous flooding fueled by heavy rainfall and snowmelt began to inundate the park and several surrounding communities Monday, overtaking essential roadways and bridges, and making it dangerous or impossible for some people to evacuate.\n\nAs some communities became surrounded by water, at times without power or drinking water, search and rescue teams worked to evacuate residents. The Montana National Guard this week carried out 87 rescues by helicopter, it said Wednesday on Facebook.\n\nIn Montana's Park County, which includes Gardiner, water has been receding, and access to the communities that had been surrounded by floodwater has been restored for emergency vehicles at a minimum, Greg Coleman, the county's emergency services manager, said Wednesday morning.\n\nPresident Joe Biden on Thursday approved a disaster declaration for Montana in areas affected by flooding. \"Federal funding is available to State, tribal, eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storm and flooding in the counties of Carbon, Park, and Stillwater,\" the declaration states.\n\nPark temporarily closed as locals try to recover\n\nAll five entrances to Yellowstone will remain closed through at least the weekend, the park said in a release Tuesday , and the northern roads of the park will likely be closed for an extended period due to \"severely damaged, impacted infrastructure.\"\n\nThe battering floodwaters wiped away entire segments of paved road near the northern entrance, downed trees and triggered multiple mudslides.\n\nCommunities surrounding Yellowstone are also reeling from the catastrophic damage. Quickly moving waters compromised several roads and bridges, submerged cars and even swept away homes as the underlying foundations became completely worn away.\n\nMicah Hoffman uses a pump to remove water from his basement in Red Lodge, Montana.\n\nIn Park County, at least two homes collapsed into the intruding Yellowstone River early this week, and numerous homes and businesses were flooded, said Coleman, the county emergency official.\n\nVideo from witnesses showed one building in Gardiner collapsing into the river on Monday. Gardiner was isolated by water Monday and into Tuesday as flooding rendered roads and bridges impassable.\n\nAerial video captured by CNN shows one Montana home hanging precariously over the edge of a severely eroded embankment. Photos of the aftermath in the city of Red Lodge, Montana, on Tuesday show several streets piled with rocks and debris as water still runs over the sidewalks.\n\nThe flooding in Red Lodge, Montana, left the roads covered in rocks and debris.\n\nRegion braces for more potential flooding\n\nThe record flooding was caused by a combination of heavy rainfall and snowmelt from high elevations over the weekend in the Beartooth and Absaroka mountain ranges, which stretch across the Montana-Wyoming state line.\n\nThe level of runoff is comparable to the region receiving two to three times a normal June's precipitation in only three days, according to CNN meteorologists.\n\nflood wave moved east Tuesday and Wednesday along the Yellowstone River, the National Weather Service said, leading to reports of major flooding in Billings, which is about a 175-mile drive east of Gardiner. By Tuesday afternoon, the river at Billings had surged well above its previous record of 15 feet, according to the weather service.\n\nThe flooding prompted officials to shut down the city water plant late Tuesday night, the city's public works department said.\n\nThe plant resumed operations at a low level Wednesday afternoon, and by Thursday morning it was working at full capacity, city officials said.\n\nEven as water levels began to recede in areas on Tuesday and Wednesday, park officials and residents in the region are bracing for the possibility of more flooding in the coming days.\n\nMore snow could soon melt in the mountains of Wyoming and Montana, and that, coupled with more rain this weekend, could cause river levels to rise again, the National Weather Service's office in Billings said.\n\nWarm air is expected to move over the mountains Thursday night, keeping the low temperatures above freezing. This, along with plenty of sunshine during the day, should get snow melting. \"Temperatures will be in the 50s and 60s in the high country both Friday and Saturday afternoon,\" the weather service said.\n\n\"Expect a few days of melting of what is still a substantial snowpack in the mountains.\"\n\nShowers and thunderstorms are expected to hit the area Saturday night and Sunday.\n\nThe weather service's latest river forecasts predict substantial rises due to the melt. Still, the levels are predicted to be well under flood stage, because the rainfall amounts look very light. River projections show this new rise in water peaking over the weekend around Yellowstone and in Billings on Monday.\n\n\"By the time slightly more substantial precipitation arrives Sunday night into Monday, temperatures drop into the 30s, and snow is probable above 8,500 feet Sunday night,\" the weather service said.\n\n\"That said, those with interests near waterways in the western foothills should pay attention to the forecasts through the weekend in case the forecast changes significantly,\" the service added.\n\nThe intense rainfall and rapid snow melt already experienced by the park and nearby communities are consistent with projections laid out in a climate assessment report released last year from scientists with the US Geological Survey, Montana State University and the University of Wyoming.\n\nThe climate crisis is already driving more annual precipitation and runoff from melting snowpack in the Greater Yellowstone Area, and the trend will continue in the coming years, the report said.\n\nCorrection: A previous version of this story misspelled Kari Huesing's first name and incorrectly identified her position at the Yellowstone Gateway Inn. Huesing is the office manager.", "authors": ["Elizabeth Wolfe", "Jason Hanna", "Claudia Dominguez"], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/14/us/yellowstone-national-park-closed-visitors-flooding-tuesday/index.html", "title": "Unprecedented flooding conditions force Yellowstone park to close ...", "text": "'Get this man out of our lives': Uvalde victim's grandmother calls for police chief's resignation\n\n'This turned my life upside down': Former election worker testified in Jan 6 hearing\n\nWandrea \"Shaye\" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother Ruby Freeman, right, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 21, 2022.\n\nVoter on Jan. 6 hearings: They're after Trump, not the truth\n\nEvidence against Trump is growing: An impeachment lawyer's perspective on the Jan. 6 hearings\n\nUS President Donald Trump speaks to supporters from The Ellipse near the White House on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. - Thousands of Trump supporters, fueled by his spurious claims of voter fraud, are flooding the nation's capital protesting the expected certification of Joe Biden's White House victory by the US Congress. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nRepublican who fought Trump's coup plot says he'd vote for him in 2024\n\nRusty Bowers, Arizona House Speaker departs after testifying before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol at 390 Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, in Washington, DC.\n\nGraphic shows all the changes in global temperature since 1850\n\nA man stands by fans spraying air mixed with water vapour deployed by donors to cool down pedestrians along a street in Iraq's capital Baghdad on June 30, 2021 amidst a severe heat wave. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nDad tries to stop son's arrest by swinging excavator at police\n\nSee Pence's reaction when he received a request to invoke 25th Amendment against Trump\n\nCNN —\n\nYellowstone National Park will remain closed to visitors through at least Wednesday due to dangerous flooding conditions, which have prompted park evacuations and left some in surrounding communities trapped without safe drinking water, officials say.\n\nA Montana helicopter company transported about 40 people on Monday and Tuesday from a community airstrip in the town of Gardiner in Park County, Laura Jones of Rocky Mountain Rotors told CNN.\n\n“We haven’t ‘rescued’ anyone that was in danger, we have mainly been transporting people out of there,” Jones said via email. “We have also taken some passengers in who had pets they needed to get to or live there and needed to get home.”\n\nThe park announced Monday afternoon that all park entrances were closed to visitors, citing “record flooding events” and a forecast of more rain to come.\n\nThe abundant rainfall and rapid snowmelt combined to produce up to three-quarters of a foot of water runoff, which is similar to the area receiving 2 to 3 months of June precipitation in only three days, according to CNN Weather calculations.\n\n“Our first priority has been to evacuate the northern section of the park where we have multiple road and bridge failures, mudslides and other issues,” Yellowstone Park Superintendent Cam Sholly said in a statement Monday.\n\n“Well over 10,000 visitors” were in the park, according to Sholly, who said at a news conference Monday he didn’t have an exact number, but average visitation in June can be between 15,000 and 20,000 people.\n\nA road in Yellowstone National Park partially collapsed due to flooding Monday. National Park Service/AP\n\nImmediately north of the Yellowstone, several cities in Montana’s Park County were also experiencing extensive flooding, which has washed out bridges and roads, making it unsafe to travel or impossible to evacuate, Park County officials said on Facebook.\n\nOfficials have also issued warnings in many areas for residents to avoid drinking local water due to a broken water main and submerged wells.\n\nThe Park County town of Gardiner, located at the northern entrance to Yellowstone, is isolated and surrounded by water after heavy flooding washed out bridges and roads, county officials said on Facebook on Tuesday.\n\nDamage from flooding in the town is “significant,” Park County Sheriff Brad Bichler said Tuesday.\n\n“The water’s coming down and it’s kind of showing us exactly what kind of damage we’re dealing with,” Bichler said at a news conference.\n\nSholly told reporters Tuesday evening that the road between Gardiner and Cooke City will likely remain closed for the remainder of the season. He said no damage estimates are yet available.\n\n“This is not going to be an easy rebuild,” Sholly said, referring the five-mile stretch of road most affected by the flooding. He said officials will have to assess whether it make sense to rebuild the road in that area.\n\nGardiner is a hub of activity in the region and the only entrance that remained open to wheeled-vehicle use year-round, according to the town website.\n\nCNN tried to contact Park County officials to confirm how many people are affected but has been unable to reach them.\n\nMany roads and bridges are inaccessible, along with some railroad tracks. A few roads and bridges remain open to emergency traffic. The National Guard and local rescue groups were conducting evacuations, water rescues and airlifts.\n\nOfficials on Tuesday warned residents that displaced wildlife could traverse their properties, with bears, deer and domestic livestock already spotted.\n\n“The river has never been this high before by my house,” said Elizabeth Aluck, who lives in Gardiner. Aluck told CNN Monday afternoon that she cannot evacuate because the roads and bridges around her home are washed out.\n\nAn Indiana family staying at a short-term rental cabin in Gardiner told CNN they were supposed to leave Monday morning, but the flooding left them stranded.\n\n“The water levels were high on Saturday but within the past 10 to 12 hours things have gotten rougher,” Parker Manning said. “Our way out of town would be north on 89, but those roads are currently all underwater.”\n\nVideo Ad Feedback 01:15 - Source: CNN See the severe flooding that shut down Yellowstone National Park\n\nThe Yellowstone River, which runs through the park and several Park County cities, swelled to a record high Monday due to recent heavy rainfall and significant runoff from melting snow in higher elevations, according to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.\n\nThe Yellowstone River gauge at Corwin Springs, Montana, reached 13.88 feet Monday afternoon, surpassing the historical high crest of 11.5 feet from 1918, NOAA river gauge data shows.\n\nGovernor declares statewide disaster\n\nMontana Gov. Greg Gianforte declared a “statewide disaster” on Tuesday “to help impacted communities get back on their feet as soon as possible,” according to a Twitter post.\n\nSnow melt and rainfall across the Beartooths and Absarokas – which span the Montana-Wyoming border – have led to “flooding rarely or never seen before across many area rivers and streams,” the National Weather Service in Billings said on its on website.\n\nThe Montana National Guard had evacuated 12 people stranded from flooding in Roscoe and Cooke City, the governor said in a separate Twitter post. The National Guard said it also was responding to a search and rescue request in the East Rosebud Lake area.\n\nSeveral roads and bridges are severely damaged in southern Montana and may be temporarily closed, according to an tweet from Montana’s Disaster and Emergency Services.\n\nAcross the nation in recent days, extreme weather events have battered communities, including thunderstorms that left nearly 300,000 customers without power in the Midwest, a tornado threat in Chicago, and a severe heat dome which has left more than a third of the US population under heat alerts.\n\nA large rockslide on North Entrance Road in Yellowstone National Park Monday. National Park Service/AP\n\nSome are evacuated while others remain trapped\n\nAs several roads and bridges were rendered impassable by floodwaters, park and county officials in Montana worked to evacuate whoever they can and provide support to those who are unable to leave.\n\nThe National Guard and local search and rescue teams were assisting with evacuations and rescues throughout the county, including two air lifts and one swift water rescue, the county said.\n\nVideo Ad Feedback 00:25 - Source: CNN Video shows Yellowstone River flooding take out part of waterfront home\n\nMultiple communities in Park County were isolated and surrounded by water, including Gardiner, Cooke City and Silver Gate, an update on the county Facebook page said. Quickly rushing floodwaters have also damaged homes, as images show houses either partially or fully collapsing.\n\nIn neighboring Carbon County, Montana, flooding compromised utility service lines, leaving many customers in Red Lodge without power, officials said.\n\nMeanwhile, several roads and bridges in Yellowstone have also been compromised by flooding, park officials say. Videos released by the park show portions of paved road washed out or severely eroded.\n\nA bridge at Rescue Creek in Yellowstone National Park was washed out by rushing waters. National Park Service/AP\n\nDue to predictions of higher flood levels and concerns about water and wastewater systems, the park also began moving visitors out of the southern loop of the park Monday, Sholly said.\n\n“We will not know timing of the park’s reopening until flood waters subside and we’re able to assess the damage throughout the park,” Sholly said. “It is likely that the northern loop will be closed for a substantial amount of time.”\n\nDramatic increase in rain strengthens floodwaters\n\nIn June, precipitation across northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana has been more that 400% of the region’s average, according to Miller.\n\nThe dramatic increase in rain has been coupled with near-record temperatures in the region that have caused snowmelt in areas of high elevation, the NWS in Riverton, Wyoming, said. Overnight Sunday, the snowmelt made its way into streams and rivers, further adding to the floodwaters, the NWS said.\n\nIn addition to the record set at Corwin Springs, the Yellowstone River reached 10.9 feet in Livingston, Montana, Monday exceeding the area’s 1997 record of 10.7 feet, the NWS in Billings said.", "authors": ["Elizabeth Wolfe Claudia Dominguez Ray Sanchez", "Elizabeth Wolfe", "Claudia Dominguez", "Ray Sanchez"], "publish_date": "2022/06/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/america/national-parks/2020/06/02/national-parks-reopening-what-know-yellowstone-zion-more/5309391002/", "title": "National parks reopening: What to know about Yellowstone, Zion ...", "text": "Many national park sites are at least partially open to visitors as the country rebounds from coronavirus closures. But not all facilities and services are available.\n\n\"In accordance with this guidance and in coordination with governors across the country, the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service are working to reopen the American people’s national parks as rapidly as possible,\" Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said in a statement.\n\nBut before you go, check each park's website for the latest information on what's open and what's not. In each case, it depends on where states are in their reopening plans.\n\nHere are some other considerations, from the National Park Service:\n\nMany states still require out-of-state visitors to quarantine for 14 days, which may make visiting parks in some states more challenging. The National Governors Association offers an up-to-date interactive map that shows what states have a quarantine order.\n\nPostpone challenging hikes. Having to rescue and treat stranded hikers could divert first responders and medical professionals from the pandemic response.\n\nTrash collection and restroom facilities may not be available. Campgrounds are generally closed.\n\nStay in groups from your own household and maintain social distance from other groups. Prepare to cover your nose and mouth when other people are around.\n\nHere's what's going on at the 10 most-visited national parks:\n\nGreat Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina\n\nThe park is the nation's most visited, with 12.5 million visitors annually. Roads, trails, picnic areas and restrooms are open. Visitors centers, campgrounds and concessions remain closed. Some roads are closed to vehicles but open to hiking and biking.\n\nGrand Canyon National Park, Arizona\n\nThe Grand Canyon is America's second-most visited national park, with 5.97 million annual visitors. The South Rim opened to limited access on May 15. On June 5, the South Rim will be open 24 hours, and the Mather Campground will be open for existing reservations. The North Rim will open for day use on June 5, with the campground closed for construction until July 1. The Colorado River will reopen to recreational use with existing permits beginning June 14. North and South Rim lodging will reopen in phases throughout June.\n\nRocky Mountain National Park, Colorado\n\nStarting June 4, the park will implement a timed, reserved entry system that will last through the summer. Visitors will reserve and pay the entrance fee in advance at recreation.gov and enter the park within a two-hour window between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. In this phase, 60% of the park's capacity, or 4,800 vehicles and 13,500 visitors a day.\n\n\"This system will more safely manage the pace and flow of visitor use, reduce crowding, and provide an improved visitor experience in alignment with the park’s safe operational capacity,\" said park superintendent Darla Sidles.\n\nZion National Park, Utah\n\nThe park has been open during daylight hours since May 13. The Zion Canyon Scenic Drive is open to private vehicles until parking capacity is reached, and the last entry is at 6 p.m. The 6-mile road has about 400 parking spots. The park's shuttle operation is suspended. Trails are open to day hiking but not to overnight backpacking. The Zion Lodge is open with limited rooms and amenities.\n\nYosemite National Park, California\n\nThe park, which gets 4.4 million visitors annually, is reopening June 11. One big change: For now, visitors must reserve day passes in advance instead of driving up to the park for entry.Visitors can reserve a day-use entry pass at Recreation.gov. Passes will be validated at the park's entrance gate and can be used for seven days of entry. The person who booked the day pass must be in the vehicle and show a government ID matching the name on the reservation.\n\nEach user can make one reservation per day. The park will only accept credit cards for payment of entrance fees. Overnight camping and lodging will also resume June 11 and those visitors will not need a day reservation. Most retail and food and beverage services will also open by June 15. Visitor center services will be moved outdoors. No shuttle buses will be available this season.\n\nYellowstone National Park, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana\n\nThe park's Montana entrances opened Monday, as the state lifted its 14-day quarantine requirement. The Wyoming and Idaho entrances are also open. The park is day-use only, with campgrounds, visitors centers and other facilities closed. Limited overnight accommodations will start later in June. The Grand Loop Road is open, except for a segment from Canyon to Tower that's under construction.\n\nAcadia National Park, Maine\n\nThe park partially reopened Monday, though Maine visitors are under a 14-day quarantine order. The Park Loop Road is now open, along with most nearby restrooms. Hiking trails are open, and trash collection has resumed. The Carriage Roads will open June 5 for pedestrians, but they will remain closed to bicycle and equestrian riders. The Hulls Cove Visitors Center is open with limited outdoor information services from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Campgrounds remain closed and will reopen no earlier than July 1.\n\nGrand Teton National Park, Wyoming\n\nThe park reopened May 18 for limited recreational use. Primary roads are open, as are hiking trails for day access. Riverbank and lakeshore fishing is permitted, as are limited biking and wildlife tours. Campgrounds, overnight lodging, visitors centers, marinas and food service remain closed. Boating on lakes and rivers is prohibited.\n\nOlympic National Park, Washington\n\nThe park is partially open to day use recreation. All coastal areas, however, remain closed. That includes beaches, parking areas, trails and facilities. No areas of the park are open to camping. Visitors' centers and ranger stations remain closed. Limited lodging and take-out dining are open.\n\nGlacier National Park, Montana\n\nPortions of the west side of the park reopened June 8 for day-use only. The rest of the park will remain closed through June 30 in coordination with the Blackfeet Tribe, which continues to restrict nonessential travel. Lodging, food service and gift shop operations will reopen on June 15. Food service will be limited and take-out only. Guided day hikes will resume on June 12, and guided overnight trips on June 20. But tours remain unavailable, and campgrounds remain closed until further notice.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2020/06/02/park-changes-social-distancing-lifeguards-pear-plant-outbreak-news-around-states/111894910/", "title": "Park changes, social-distancing lifeguards: News from around our ...", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: The city might become the state’s latest to require the wearing of face masks in public amid rising COVID-19 cases. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Friday that the proposal may be brought to the City Council as soon as Tuesday. Birmingham currently has an ordinance requiring face masks in public. The Birmingham City Council on Friday voted to extend the ordinance through June 12. “I don’t go from encouragement to enforcement very easily,” Reed said. “However, right now we have not seen the behavior that we need to see, nor have we seen the data showing us that the encouragement approach is working.” Montgomery has become an emerging hot spot for coronavirus. State Health Officer Scott Harris said last week that there is evidence of community spread instead of cases being linked to a singular location, like a nursing home, or an event.\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: The state on Sunday reported 27 new coronavirus cases, the largest one-day increase reported since the start of the pandemic. Cases have spiked since Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, loosened restrictions put into place to guard against the virus’s spread. The state on April 24 began easing restrictions on businesses. Most restrictions on businesses were lifted May 22, though some local governments opened later. Dunleavy said at the time that he expected case numbers would rise and that the state would respond to any spikes or clusters. Sunday’s count was the most single-day cases since 22 were reported April 6. This comes after 13 new cases were reported Thursday, which was the state’s first double-digit increase in cases in six weeks. The state now has a total of 460 cases involving residents. Its death count remains at 10, and a death attributed to COVID-19 hasn’t been recorded since May 5.\n\nArizona\n\nEloy: Immigrants detained at the La Palma Correctional Center have become increasingly desperate as the coronavirus outbreak at the facility has grown into one of the biggest in the nation. At least 76 undocumented immigrants detained at the 3,060-bed detention center had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Saturday. That is sixth-largest coronavirus outbreak at an immigration detention facility in the country, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. La Palma Correctional Center, a former prison, is run by the private, for-profit company CoreCivic, under a contract with ICE. The outbreak at La Palma has become increasingly concerning in light of two detainees’ recent deaths of coronavirus complications at other detention centers. In letters written to relatives and immigration advocates, detainees, some with medical conditions, say they are fearful of becoming infected and dying because they don’t have any way to social distance.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arkansas has surpassed 7,000, and one additional death is reported due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, the Arkansas Department of Health said. The department had reported at least 7,253 cases and 133 deaths by Monday morning, up from 6,777 cases and 132 deaths reported Friday. The true number is likely higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick. The state health department reported that 5,275 people have recovered from the virus and that 115 were hospitalized, versus 113 hospitalizations reported Friday.\n\nCalifornia\n\nPalm Springs: Two months after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state would be the nation’s first placed under a stay-at-home order lasting “many, many months,” he began rolling back restrictions in favor of reopening businesses. But when counties initially couldn’t meet stringent reopening metrics, Newsom loosened those criteria. Counties soon began receiving the green light to restore portions of their economies even though many regions still struggled to show a significant downward trend in COVID-19 cases and lacked resources to track and respond to potential upticks. Of the 49 counties that received approval to speed along this quicker path to normalcy, 49% failed to meet at least one of the reopening criteria mandated by the state, according to an analysis by the Palm Springs Desert Sun. Nearly a third of the counties that received authorization didn’t have enough contact tracers, and more than 20% failed to conduct enough coronavirus tests on a daily basis.\n\nColorado\n\nFort Collins: The more than 4 million visitors who flock to Rocky Mountain National Park each year will see significant changes as the park balances visitors’ safety with their love of nature while reopening after its COVID-19 shutdown. National Park Service sites have taken a financial hit as many closed for two months or more. Rocky Mountain National Park – the third-most-visited national park – partially reopened Wednesday after shutting down March 20. Kyle Patterson, spokesperson for the park, said last year it collected about $2 million in entrance and campground fees from mid-March through May. Without that revenue and with new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in place that restricted the park’s ability to house and train seasonal workers, the park will only partially open some of its campgrounds and restrooms, while evaluating the opening of others.\n\nConnecticut\n\nNew London: Health care workers rallied Saturday to protest what they called a shortage of personal protective equipment and pay tribute to a nurse’s aide who died last month after contracting the coronavirus. Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., joined workers for Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and the Visiting Nurses Association of Southeastern Connecticut for the rally. Union leaders said nurses, aides and other health care workers are risking their lives caring for COVID-19 patients while lacking sufficient protective gear such as masks and gowns to keep them safe. People at the rally also remembered Elva Graveline, a 52-year-old nurse’s aide at Lawrence + Memorial who contracted the coronavirus and died May 19. Hospital officials said in a statement Saturday that workers have not been without protective gear during the pandemic and credited staff for doing a “phenomenal job.”\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington: A federal judge and a federal appeals panel have rejected a request from a preacher for an emergency injunction to lift state restrictions on church worship to prevent spread of the coronavirus. Neither the ruling Friday from a judge in Wilmington nor the 2-1 ruling Saturday from the federal appeals court in Philadelphia end the matter. They only leave the restrictions in place while a judge considers the merits of the issue. Christopher Allan Bullock, a well-known Wilmington pastor and community activist, had requested an emergency injunction to lift the restrictions ahead of Sunday, which was Pentecost. Judge Colm Connolly said the pastor could not prove he would be irreparably harmed, a legal standard required for issuing an injunction. But he made clear in his ruling that Bullock’s claims “implicate one of our most treasured rights protected by the Constitution – the right to exercise freely one’s religion.”\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: The district lowered the speed limit on streets to 20 miles per hour effective Monday, WUSA-TV reports. The change was made in an effort to keep D.C. streets safe during the pandemic and social distancing era after officials noted an increase in speeding on city streets. D.C.’s seven-day moving average for new coronavirus cases has dropped to 101 – the lowest number since April 6.\n\nFlorida\n\nKey Largo: The Florida Keys reopened for visitors Monday after the tourist-dependent island chain was closed for more than two months to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. As the Keys took down barriers, Miami-Dade County decided to keep its beaches closed because of protests in South Florida and across the country over the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Roadblocks were taken down shortly after midnight near Key Largo, the northernmost island in the chain. Almost half of all workers in the Keys are employed by hotels, bars and other hospitality industries, and many of the rest are involved in commercial and sport fishing. Richard Stanczyk, owner of Bud N’ Mary’s marina in Islamorada, said the 40 captains who operate fishing boats out of the 76-year-old business have had virtually no customers for weeks and welcome the reopening of the area to visitors.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Emergency officials in some coastal counties are nervously bracing for this year’s hurricane season amid new dangers posed by the coronavirus to people who would require help evacuating. “If we have to evacuate, it’s going to be a nightmare,” said Ty Poppell, director of the Emergency Management Agency in McIntosh County south of Savannah. Poppell said putting evacuees on a bus and maintaining 6 feet of space around each person to help prevent potential exposure to the virus would be a big problem. As of mid-May, the county was still working to update its hurricane response for the virus, Poppell said. In neighboring Liberty County, emergency management director Larry Logan said he didn’t have enough shelters to maintain social distance in case of a mass evacuation. He was concerned that fear of contracting the virus at a shelter would lead more residents to ignore any evacuation orders.\n\nHawaii\n\nWailuku: The Maui County Liquor Control Department has issued a written notice of warning to Maui Brewing Co. after an investigation revealed the company violated state law by advertising free hand sanitizer with the sale of liquor. The department released a statement about the notice following its investigation last month into the made-in-house hand sanitizer and giveaway promotions, The Maui News reports. “It is short of subjecting Maui Brewing to an adjudicatory hearing,” the department said. Maui Brewing CEO Garrett Marrero has said the company – which sells food, alcoholic beverages, coffee, soda and merchandise – did not violate rules. It had offered a free 16-ounce hand sanitizer with the purchase of any to-go item, not just alcohol, after its Kihei and Lahaina restaurant locations closed in March amid the coronavirus pandemic. But the giveaway promotion was flagged by the state liquor department and led to an investigation.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: New data shows a recent spike in coronavirus cases has hit Latinos in rural Idaho, an already disproportionately affected community that makes up a third of the state’s cases where the race is known. Data collected from all seven Idaho public health districts has shown a majority of the people who have contracted the coronavirus in multiple Magic Valley counties are Latino, the Idaho Statesman reports. The report released Wednesday showed Latinos made up more than half of the positive coronavirus cases in Lincoln, Minidoka, Gooding, Jerome and Cassia counties. Lincoln County had the highest percentage in Magic Valley, with Latinos making up 78% of the county’s 33 COVID-19 cases. The data provided by other Idaho health districts also shows similar effects on Latino communities, the Statesman reports.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: The state will offer free meals to school-age children at hundreds of sites this summer, using options such as home delivery and drive-thru distribution to ensure families that need help can get it during the pandemic. The Illinois State Board of Education said more organizations are needed to participate in the summer food program, as the number of families relying on the assistance for meals when school isn’t in session has increased due to the coronavirus outbreak. “COVID-19 has turned many families’ lives upside down,” said State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala. “Illinois’ summer meals programs help to ensure that one thing families do not have to worry about is where their children will get their next meal.” Ayala said schools have found safe and creative ways to provide food to students, including curbside pickup and providing meals for multiple days at one time. Families may locate their summer food site by calling (800) 359-2163, texting “FoodIL” to 877-877, or visiting summermealsillinois.org.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: Central Indiana trash haulers have collected record levels of residential trash since a statewide stay-at-home order that’s now being eased took effect in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. In the wake of that trash surge, Indianapolis city workers and private trash-collecting contractors have experienced longer days for drivers, lengthy lines at the dumping site, increased repairs for hard-running trucks and higher expenses. Republic Services, which serves homes in Marion County and many of Indianapolis’ surrounding suburban counties, saw the volume of weekly residential trash increase 28% when colleges and schools closed and families began eating at home and ordering takeout, the Indianapolis Business Journal reports. Residents stuck at home also started spring cleaning that resulted in a surge of castoffs, which Republic said led to a 48% increase of trash in April.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: Another five people with COVID-19 have died, and there have been an additional 204 positive cases, the state reported Monday morning. The state confirmed 538 COVID-19-related deaths, an increase of five since the state’s tally at 10 a.m. Sunday. According to the state’s coronavirus.Iowa.gov website, two deaths were reported for Sunday. COVID-19 is the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. The state reported Monday that there were 19,688 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 204 since Sunday. Of the 19,688 people who have tested positive, 11,185 have recovered, according to the state. The total number of people tested is 159,292. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced last week that she will no longer be holding daily coronavirus news conferences. Instead, she plans to hold them on Tuesdays and Thursdays.\n\nKansas\n\nWichita: Hundreds of people in the state’s largest city flocked to bars and clubs on the first weekend they were open after Gov. Laura Kelly and local officials lifted restrictions meant to check the spread of the coronavirus. By 11 p.m. Friday, bars in the Old Town district of downtown Wichita were packing in customers for a celebration after being closed for two months, The Wichita Eagle reports. Knots of people moved through the streets, hugging friends they met and, in some cases, turning cartwheels. “It feels like a freaking high school reunion,” said Megan Gilbert, who works in Old Town and for a roofing company. “I’m seeing all of these people that it seems like I haven’t seen in years.” Kelly last week converted her directives for a phased reopening of the state’s economy into recommendations for local officials to follow. Her reopening plan would have kept bars and nightclubs closed over the weekend.\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: More of the state’s parks are set to reopen this month. Four Kentucky State Park lodges – Lake Cumberland State Resort Park, Lake Barkley State Resort Park, Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park and Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park – that were previously designated as part of the state’s coronavirus emergency response will reopen June 8, Gov. Andy Beshear announced. A decline in cases of the virus means the lodging is no longer necessary for response efforts, officials said. Officials also plan to reopen Kentucky Horse Park on June 11. “We are making every effort to safely reopen tourism attractions across the commonwealth and offer in-state travel opportunities for Kentuckians to enjoy,” Beshear said. “The revenue generated from in-state travel will foster economic growth in local communities and help Kentucky rebound with a healthy economy.” Health officials still stress the need for masks and social distancing.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: The Audubon Zoo plans to reopen Wednesday with special guidelines in place designed to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. According to the guidelines announced by the zoo Friday, it will open at 25% capacity, and reservations will be required in order to keep numbers low and assist in keeping visitors spread out. “We look forward to reconnecting the community with the animals in our care,” Audubon Nature Institute President and CEO Ron Forman said in a statement. “While our doors were closed to help stop the spread of COVID-19, Audubon’s dedicated staff continued to provide outstanding care for our animals and parks.” The zoo said in a news release that it had consulted with other zoo and aquarium officials around the country and with experts at other museums and attractions in Louisiana to come up with its reopening plan.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: A federal judge has denied a motion in a lawsuit by some campground operators who believe a state quarantine order for out-of-state visitors is unconstitutional. The move came Friday, hours after the U.S. Department of Justice said it filed court papers in support of campground operators. The campgrounds sued in federal court saying they believe the rule treats Maine residents more favorably than out-of-state residents, and that is hurting them economically. U.S. District Judge Lance Walker on Friday denied a motion for a preliminary injunction, allowing the rule to stand while the lawsuit proceeds, the Portland Press Herald reports. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said that the quarantine is “a proven tool to prevent the spread of this deadly disease” and that the Justice Department is “making a concerted effort to undermine the health of the people of Maine.”\n\nMaryland\n\nCollege Park: The 12 state schools that constitute the University System of Maryland will use a mix of in-person and remote learning when they reopen in the fall. The system, which includes the flagship University of Maryland at College Park, announced a framework Friday for schools to respond to the coronavirus. Each school will announce its own specific plans in the next two weeks as to how they’ll adjust their calendars and classroom settings. The release said all schools will provide at least some on-campus, in-person instruction in combination with remote learning. Some schools may adjust calendars to start the fall semester as early as July so the semester can conclude by Thanksgiving. All schools will enact plans to reduce crowding in residence and dining halls.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: City officials are concerned that many Asian American residents may not be getting tested for the new coronavirus. Boston’s Chinatown zip code, where half the residents are of Asian descent, is one of the city’s neighborhoods with the lowest percentage of positive coronavirus cases, Marty Martinez, the city’s chief of Health and Human Services, told the Boston Globe. Only 13% of those tested were positive, compared to the citywide cumulative percentage of 26%. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up just less than 10% of Boston’s population but account for only 4% of confirmed COVID-19 cases and 6% of deaths, according the newspaper. At the same time, black residents, who comprise 25% of the city’s population, account for 38% of COVID-19 infections and 35% of deaths, in cases where the race and ethnicity is known. Latinos make up nearly 20% of the Boston population and account for 25% of cases and 11% of deaths.\n\nMichigan\n\nDetroit: Public health officials worry future outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases could emerge in the state, as vaccination rates have dramatically fallen during the coronavirus pandemic. Vaccination rates for those 18 and younger fell by more than 20%, according to a study published by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles vaccinations in particular dropped about 76% among 16-month-old children. Other diseases include mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, also known as whooping cough. Many parents worried about the virus have kept their young children home, doctors say. “I’m extremely concerned that anytime we see a drop-off in our vaccine rates that it does leave the door open for a potential outbreak,” Bob Swanson, director of the division of immunization at the Michigan Department of Public Health, told The Detroit News.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: Minnesota health officials reported 10 new deaths from COVID-19 on Monday, raising the state’s death toll to 1,050 on the same day Gov. Tim Walz allowed restaurants and bars to start offering outdoor dining. Salons and barbershops were also able to reopen starting Monday. The number of positive tests for the coronavirus grew Monday by 361, raising the state total to 25,208. The number of health care workers who have been infected rose to 2,725. The latest state figures showed 253 patients in Minnesota intensive care units Monday.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: The Mississippi Department of Corrections says it will soon restart the transfer of inmates from county jails into state prisons and from one prison to another – a practice that has been on hold for about two months because of the coronavirus pandemic. The department said in a news release Friday that transfers will be done in a “limited, controlled and safe manner,” beginning in mid-June. Mississippi has about 18,000 prisoners in custody. As of Friday, 28 inmates and 17 employees had tested positive for COVID-19, the department said. Advocates for inmate safety have questioned whether Mississippi is doing enough testing for the highly contagious virus. Inmates will be quarantined at least 14 days before being moved out of South Mississippi Correctional Institution, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility or the privately run Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility.\n\nMissouri\n\nO’Fallon: Casinos are beginning to reopen in the state after a more than two-month shutdown caused by the coronavirus, and it was clear Monday that many people were eager to gamble. Nearly 100 people lined up awaiting the 9 a.m. reopening of Lumiere Place casino in downtown St. Louis, including many older adults, most wearing masks, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. According to state health department data, 579 of the 772 people in Missouri who have died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, were age 70 or older. Darryl Foster, 54, told the newspaper he wasn’t worried about the virus. “I look at it like it is what it is,” he said. “If it’s gonna get you, it’s gonna get you.” In the Kansas City area, gambling was resuming at Ameristar, Argosy, Isle of Capri and Harrah’s. The Kansas City Star reported several casinos would operate at a limited capacity, and some amenities such as live entertainment and buffets would remain closed.\n\nMontana\n\nBozeman: The Montana entrances to Yellowstone are still closed, but that hasn’t stopped several Big Sky tour companies from teaming up to be ready when those gates do open. Big Sky Adventures & Tours, Discover Yellowstone Tours, Yellowstone Scenic Tours, Yellowstone Tour Guide and Yellowstone Touring Company are normally in competition to get tourists on their vehicles and into the park. But this year is far from normal. “It makes more sense for us to work together and put aside competition and make a common plan so people feel safe,” said Andrea Saari, a co-owner and guide with Big Sky Adventures and Tours. The five companies got together to create a COVID-19 operating plan to submit to the park, a requirement for all commercial business going in and out of Yellowstone. Each company submitted its own copy, and, in a memo dated May 17, the park accepted Big Sky Adventures & Tours’ operating plan.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: Bars, zoos, swimming pools and other public venues were allowed to reopen Monday even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to loom as a major public health threat. The new, lighter restrictions approved by Gov. Pete Ricketts went into effect in 89 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. The new rules also allowed non-contact sports such as baseball, softball and volleyball to resume practices Monday, and games can begin June 18. Rodeos can also resume Monday, but contact sports such as football, basketball and wrestling will remain prohibited. Ricketts imposed the rules to try to prevent the coronavirus from spreading and overwhelming the state’s hospitals. State officials confirmed another 196 new cases Sunday, bringing the statewide total to 14,101. Of that number, 170 people have died from the virus. More than 103,800 people have been tested so far.\n\nNevada\n\nCarson City: Health officials are reporting the state’s total number of COVID-19 cases is now past 8,600. The state Department of Health and Human Services updated its testing data Monday with a new total of 8,688 positive coronavirus cases. The number of known deaths is now up to 421. Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, last week eased closure orders enacted to prevent groups of people from gathering and possibly spreading communicable COVID-19. The governor allowed a second wave of businesses including bars and health facilities to reopen Friday and raised from 10 to 50 the number of people allowed at social gatherings, including religious services. He said gambling can resume Thursday under strict rules and oversight of gambling regulators. Casino companies have begun calling back some of their hundreds of thousands of furloughed employees.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: The owner of the Mount Washington Cog Railway implored a task force Monday to allow his business to reopen, even if it means stopping short of the summit of the Northeast’s highest peak. Wayne Presby, owner of the 150-year-old tourist train, presented proposed rules to the governor’s Economic Reopening Task Force that include initially limiting passenger car capacity to 50%, requiring passengers to wear face coverings, and running separate trains for New Hampshire residents and out-of-staters. By mid-July, capacity restrictions would be lifted, and individuals from any state would be allowed on all trains. “We also have the ability to offer shorter trips to reduce the time spent by guests in confined spaces,” he said. “If the committee feels it’s inappropriate for us to be taking trips all the way to the summit of Mount Washington, we can limit those to trips only partway up the mountain.”\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: Shoppers will soon be able to enter nonessential retail establishments, and restaurants may allow outdoor dining as of June 15, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday. Salons and barbershops can serve customers June 22, if coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to decline, he said. Currently, retail stores and restaurants may only offer customers drive-thru or pickup options, but the governor said retail shops could let in a fraction of their capacity inside the stores. Murphy said the state will next discuss how gyms and health clubs can reopen safely but did not give an anticipated reopening date. Murphy has been taking a piecemeal approach to lifting measures meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus, announcing new measures each day. All day cares can reopen June 15, non-contact youth sports can resume June 22, and children can attend summer camps July 6. Indoor religious services may allow more people than the current 10 inside starting June 12 if coronavirus data continues to trend downward.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nAlbuquerque: The state’s largest electric provider is asking state regulators to consider a proposal that would allow it to recover fixed service costs independent of how much electricity is actually consumed by customers. Public Service Co. of New Mexico is pursing what is known as decoupling, pointing to uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic. The utility recently filed its request with the Public Regulation Commission after announcing its intentions to shareholders in May. “Decoupling is designed to collect fixed costs – no more, no less,” PNM Director of Pricing Stella Chan told the Albuquerque Journal. “If we over collect, we’ll credit that back to customers, and if we under-collect, we’ll charge customers the difference to recover the costs we incurred.”\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Saturday granting death benefits to the families of police officers, public health workers and other front-line workers who have died of the coronavirus. “You gave your lives for us; we will be there for your families going forward,” Cuomo said as he signed the legislation at his daily briefing on the virus. The bill passed by state lawmakers last week provides an accidental death benefit that is more substantial than the regular death benefit that public workers’ families receive. Dozens of police officers, public health workers, transit workers and paramedics have died of COVID-19 in the months since New York became the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. Cuomo said he will focus this week on providing more testing for the coronavirus and more supplies like masks to neighborhoods in the outer boroughs of New York City where infection rates remain stubbornly high.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: As hurricane season began Monday, most of the state’s coastal counties are grappling with shortfalls or concerns about equipment and resources as they balance the dual threat of tropical weather and the COVID-19 pandemic. All 20 counties in the state’s coastal management zone said COVID-19 is factoring into hurricane preparations. Five of those – Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Hyde and Washington – said overall plans hadn’t changed, but they’re ready to adjust to the virus if needed. Fifteen counties acknowledged shortfalls or concerns about supplies, with protective gear being the most common worry during a national shortage. However, three others – Dare, New Hanover and Pender – said they have sufficient resources for hurricane season. The pandemic increases the stakes for a state hit hard in recent years by hurricanes Florence and Matthew. North Carolina Emergency Management Director Mike Sprayberry said hotels, classrooms and dorms are being considered as shelters to increase social distancing.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: State corrections officials are seeking up to $2.5 million in federal COVID-19 aid to give temporary pay increases to employees who are required to be in close contact with prisoners and others during the pandemic. The state’s top budget writer said Friday that other agencies whose workers cannot practice social distancing as part of their job may submit similar requests. The Department of Corrections will request the funds next month from the state’s Emergency Commission, which is headed by Gov. Doug Burgum. The money would come from the $1.25 billion that was given to the state in the federal stimulus package approved in March. Dave Krabbenhoft, the agency’s director of administration, said monthly pay increases of up to $300 would be provided until the end of the year to each of the more than 800 employees who qualify for the “hazard pay.”\n\nOhio\n\nCincinnati: Child care providers can begin to reopen this week, but they will look much different from how they did in March. There are new rules for cleaning and washing hands. Classrooms are capped at six for infants and toddlers or nine children for preschoolers and school-age children – half or fewer than they held before the coronavirus pandemic. Day camps were also given the green light to open Sunday with groups of nine children at most. But not all will start this week. Some might not open at all. Learning Grove, a nonprofit child care provider that has centers in Ohio and Kentucky with 60% low-income children, is staggering its openings. Some centers will open Monday and others June 8. Patricia Gleason, chief operating officer, said two state grants will help keep Learning Grove centers afloat for about two months. The agency is losing $10,000 to $25,000 per site per month, she said, because of pandemic-related rules.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: State prisons will reopen for inmate visitation starting next weekend, but with precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to the state Department of Correction. Visitors must remain in their vehicle until called, wear a mask provided by the facility, complete a health screening, show no symptoms of the virus and maintain social distancing, the department said Friday. Visitors will be allowed to carry only an identification card, car key, and baby care items if a young child is present. The DOC suspended inmate visitation in March in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.\n\nOregon\n\nHood River: State officials disclosed Friday that a Hood River County pear-packing company is the site of the latest COVID-19 outbreak connected to the agriculture industry. Six employees of Duckwall Fruit have tested positive for coronavirus, the Oregon Health Authority said. Duckwall Fruit is the first employer identified by state officials after they announced Thursday that they would disclose workplace outbreaks of at least five infections, The Oregonian/OregonLive reports. The decision came after the state received heavy criticism for initially declining to identify Townsend Farms in Multnomah County, which has had two outbreaks since late April, totaling more than 100 coronavirus cases. The investigation into the Duckwall Fruit outbreak started Friday, the state said. Officials say they are working with the business to address the outbreak and protect the health of workers.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: State officials reported comparatively low figures for new COVID-19 infections and deaths Monday, a sign the pandemic’s impact may be on the wane. The Health Department said there were 12 additional deaths, bringing the total number this year to 5,567, of which 3,557 have occurred among nursing homes or personal care facilities. The agency said 356 new cases were reported, a figure that may reflect that reports from weekends have generally brought lower numbers. So far more than 72,000 Pennsylvanians have had confirmed cases of COVID-19. The number of infections is thought to be far higher than the confirmed count because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected without feeling sick.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Malls welcomed shoppers Monday as the state moves into the second phase of its economic restart. Providence Place and the Warwick Mall were both reopening late in the morning. Both closed in mid-March in response to the coronavirus crisis. The shopping centers are placing hand-sanitizing stations in common areas and will undergo frequent cleanings. At Providence Place, the food court will be open but with adjusted seating to maintain social distancing. Providence Place is also offering curbside pickup. Hair stylists, nail salons, gyms and child care centers are among the businesses that were allowed to open with restrictions Monday. Restaurants will also be allowed to offer indoor dining, but with limited capacity.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nCharleston: As the debate heats up over how to secure restaurant spaces during the coronavirus pandemic, a mainstay of downtown Charleston dining has come up with a particularly summery solution, The Post and Courier reports. “It’s a hard-core, full-height, double-wide lifeguard tower,” Edmund’s Oast owner Scott Shor said proudly, referring to the custom-built elevated watchtower that now looms over the restaurant’s popular patio. Shor was quick to point out that this is no mere social-media ploy, though it’s a sure bet it will pay dividends in free marketing via customers’ Instagram feeds. Like many restaurants reopening in the Charleston area, Edmund’s Oast has incorporated into its reopening plan new workplace roles responsible for overseeing dining areas and ensuring guests are complying with its safety guidelines. At the brewpub they’re calling that job the “lifeguard.”\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nPierre: The state has surpassed 5,000 confirmed cases of the coronavius, the South Dakota Department of Health said Monday. State health officials reported 41 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the state’s total to 5,034. The number of active cases was 1,069. The number of deaths reported in South Dakota since the start of the pandemic remains at 62. The Department of Health reported 87 people were hospitalized, an increase of one since Sunday. Of South Dakota’s confirmed coronavirus cases, Minnehaha County, the state’s most populous county, leads with 3,355.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: A sexual and reproductive health advocacy group is launching a billboard and digital ad campaign intended to show how COVID-19 has exposed inequality, according to a news release. A billboard image released to media by Healthy & Free Tennessee reads, “End mass incarceration. Make parenthood and abortion accessible for everyone. Protect transgender youth.” Efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Tennessee jails and prisons have included releasing inmates who are in jail solely because they cannot afford bail. Criminal justice reform advocates have said changes like that one need to become permanent. Gov. Bill Lee earlier tried to shut down surgical abortions to preserve personal protective equipment for COVID-19, but his executive order was overturned in federal court.\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state rose by nearly 2,000 Sunday, and there were another 24 deaths tied to the disease caused by the new coronavirus, according to health officials. There were at least 64,287 cases and 1,949 deaths, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported Sunday, an increase from 62,338 cases and 1,648 deaths reported Saturday. The true numbers are likely higher, however, because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick. The department also estimated that there were 20,192 active cases and that 42,423 people have recovered.\n\nUtah\n\nLogan: With outdoor recreation being one of the few activities available during the COVID-19 pandemic, campsites are undergoing a large uptick in positive and negative use. Local forest rangers are encouraging folks to treat campgrounds respectfully, extinguish campfires and plan ahead for trips. Cache National Forest Logan District Ranger Jennefer Parker said irresponsible gun shooting, garbage and trespassing are all on the rise this season. However, an increase in unattended fires is prompting the most concern. Parker said multiple citations were recently issued for people who “completely walked away” from their campfires. Parker said each time firefighters are called out increases their risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus. Additionally, Parker said the area is drier than usual for this time of year, which could cause a potentially higher fire risk.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: The state’s courthouses resumed more routine operations Monday for the first time since mid-March, but people will be required to wear masks and answer questions about their health. Courtroom staff have been instructed to maintain social distancing among the members of the public. “I think it’s going to look different in every courtroom because even if there’s a capacity for, let’s say, 25, not all of our courtrooms will allow for that,” said Vermont chief superior Judge Brian Grearson. The reopenings of the courts comes as a number of additional sectors of the Vermont economy are reopening. Other areas opening include massage therapists, indoor gymnasiums, cleaning services and some other close-contact businesses that will be able to resume limited operations. Vermont on Sunday reported a total of 981 positive cases and 55 deaths from COVID-19 so far.\n\nVirginia\n\nNorfolk: As hurricane season begins and the pandemic continues, the state’s largest city is facing the prospect of having fewer resources to respond to a major storm. Plummeting tax revenues are raising questions in Virginia Beach about how much funding would be available. Money would be needed for everything from running generators at pump stations to approving contracts to remove downed trees. “We know we get reimbursement down the road from FEMA,” said Erin Sutton, the city’s emergency management director. “But that takes time. And everything we do to respond to a hurricane is out of the city’s budget.” When a hurricane hits, Virginia Beach partners with about 35-plus relief groups, such as food banks, the Red Cross and Catholic Charities. Many have already stepped in to help people who’ve been hurt economically by the pandemic. Before that, some were aiding those affected by last year’s mass shooting at a municipal building.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: King County planned to apply for approval to enter into a modified Phase 1 on Monday after Gov. Jay Inslee announced he wouldn’t extend the state’s COVID-19 stay-home orders. The Seattle Times reports that County Executive Dow Constantine announced Friday that the county, in consultation with officials at Public Health – Seattle & King County, will apply and begin reopening some business activity with limited or modified openings. The stay-home order, in place since March 23, expired Sunday night. So far, 26 of the state’s 39 counties are approved to enter Phase 2, which allows restaurants and taverns to reopen at half-capacity with limited table sizes; hair and nail salons and barbershops to resume business; and retail stores to reopen for in-store purchases at 30% capacity. It also allows additional outdoor recreation and gatherings with no more than five people outside of a person’s household.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: Three people have tested positive for the coronavirus at Marshall University as the college is allowing athletes to return to campus for training, officials said Monday. A news release from the school said two student athletes and one staffer tested positive over the weekend. They have been quarantined, and a contact tracing investigation is underway. The college is making all student athletes self-isolate for a week when they return to campus. They must test negative before being allowed to leave. Marshall canceled in-person classes in March but plans to resume them Aug. 24, the college said. The school has reported five total cases since the outbreak began. The new cases come as Gov. Jim Justice moves forward with a plan to lift virus restrictions on sports in the state. The Republican is allowing youth sports teams to begin practicing again June 8, and games can resume with spectators June 22.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: The percentage of new positive COVID-19 cases in the state continued a downward trend Monday, based on the latest figures reported by the Department of Health Services. Only 4% of all tests reported Monday were positive, the third-smallest total in the past two weeks. In total, just over 18,500 people have tested positive in Wisconsin, and 595 have died. That was up by three from Sunday. However, there was a sharp decline in the number of overall tests processed. Gov. Tony Evers in April set a goal of testing 12,000 people a day for the virus, a target he said was needed before the state could safely reopen. However, on Monday only about 3,600 tests were reported as being completed. That was about half of the 7,300 tests reported Sunday and more than three times less that the 13,500 that were done Friday. Evers and health officials have urged anyone who wants a test to get one.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: Vital social services including child care assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are experiencing growing pressures resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. State Department of Family Services Director Korin Schmidt told lawmakers that additional funding will likely be required to meet rising demand, The Casper Star-Tribune reports. Schmidt told the Joint Committee on Labor, Health and Social Services that family enrollment in programs including SNAP, which provides food to needy families, experienced sharp increases between March and April that will likely continue into the summer. Measures implemented by the United States Department of Agriculture have increased the flexibility of the SNAP program, while the office of Wyoming first lady Jennie Gordon has helped organize funding to feed young people. But a federal block grant to cover child care services is likely to run out.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2020/07/22/great-smokies-and-blue-ridge-parkway-add-billions-dollars-wnc-economy/5425869002/", "title": "Great Smokies and Blue Ridge Parkway add billions of dollars to ...", "text": "Normally, Laurel Rematore would not be excited about pulling in only 60-70% of her usual business in the high tourist season of July.\n\nBut as the CEO of Great Smoky Mountains Association, a nonprofit that operates 12 stores that sell educational books, maps, trail guides and toys to support Great Smoky Mountains National Park activities, Rematore is thrilled to see these numbers during the coronavirus pandemic, which she said speaks to the magnetic power of the Smokies.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/04/19/coronavirus-lockdown-reopening-states-us-texas-florida/5155269002/", "title": "Are lockdowns being relaxed in my state? Here's how America is ...", "text": "As state governments continue to unveil a patchwork of plans to gradually reopen the American economy, the question that looms in the coming weeks is whether increased resident mobility leads to a surge in new coronavirus cases.\n\nAnd that question will likely be answered soon. The majority of states are moving forward with phased-in approaches that often vary by county and city.\n\nTexas could be a telling case. The state became one of the first to take aggressive measures, allowing restaurants and retailers to reopen to limited customer capacity May 1. Last week, on May 14, Texas reported its highest single-day increase of new cases, with 1,448, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.\n\nBy Saturday, that mark swelled to 1,801. Just in Amarillo, a city in North Texas whose population is a shade under 200,000, there were more than 700 new cases Saturday.\n\nThat prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to release a statement that said as Texas \"continues ramping up its testing capabilities, there will be an increase in positive cases as the state targets the most high-risk areas.\"\n\nThe administration of President Donald Trump has pivoted to a three-phase plan that leaves the decision to reopen the economy to states, creating an uneven strategy that some health experts warn could undermine the progress that has been made in stemming the spread of coronavirus.\n\nDr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned May 12 in a Senate committee hearing that reopening the country amid the coronavirus may lead to \"some suffering and death.\"\n\nGet daily coronavirus updates in your inbox:Sign up for our newsletter now\n\nU.S. coronavirus map:Track how the outbreak has spread in your state\n\nThis week, almost half of the 50 states are lightening restrictions in some form. We will keep this file updated as measures are announced:\n\nAlabama\n\nOn May 23, large entertainment venues, athletic activities, and school and child-care facilities will be allowed to reopen with physical distancing guidelines and capacity limits, the Washington Post said. Entertainment venues include bowling alleys, arcades, casino, theaters and concert venues.\n\nGov. Kay Ivey loosened coronavirus restrictions effective May 11, allowing limited operations of restaurants, hair and nail salons, and gyms.\n\nRestaurants, bars and breweries may open with limited table seating. Restaurants must limit tables to eight people and maintain six-foot distances between dining groups. The establishments are urged to offer curbside service.\n\nGyms, athletic facilities and hair and nail salon providers also opened \"subject to social-distancing and sanitation rules and guidelines.\" Gyms are forbidden from offering sports that require close contact with others or sharing sporting apparatus and equipment. They must also limit capacity to 50%.\n\nThe order also removed a 10-person restriction on nonwork gatherings. That will allow churches to resume regular services.\n\nPreviously, Ivey loosened some restrictions on retail operations, and said the state would monitor the situation to decide what further steps could be taken.\n\nAlaska\n\nLife went back to the way it was \"prior to the virus\" on May 22, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced.\n\nAll businesses – including restaurants, bars, retail stores and gyms – will be allowed to open without any capacity restrictions and without needing to provide hand sanitizer or enforcing social distancing guidelines.\n\nPreviously, Dunleavy and state officials had issued a number of health orders as a part of the phased Reopen Alaska Responsibly Plan. The final two phases were carried out simultaneously on May 22.\n\nOn April 24, Alaska began allowing restaurants to resume dine-in service and for retail shops and other businesses to reopen, all with limitations, under an initial phase of the state's reopening plan.\n\nPersonal care services, like barbershops and nail and hair salons, were allowed to reopen April 27.\n\nGatherings have been limited to 20 people, or 25% maximum capacity, whichever number is smaller and can now include guests from other households. Social distancing, however, must be obeyed.\n\nReligious services must also follow the gathering guidelines.\n\nArizona\n\nGyms, spas and community swimming pools were allowed to open May 13, and professional sports leagues were allowed to begin practicing in Arizona after the state's current stay-at-home order expired May 15, Gov. Doug Ducey said.\n\nMovie theaters also opened May 16.\n\nThose activities can resume as long as appropriate health precautions are in place, Ducey said.\n\nAdditionally, The Grand Canyon National Park opened its South Rim entrance on May 15, with some restrictions. It opened despite objections from Navajo officials and others that it could hurt efforts to control the coronavirus.\n\nBarbershops and salons were able to resume hair, nail, waxing and other services by appointment May 8, if they limit occupancy, implement social distancing measures, up sanitation protocols and provide cloth masks to employees, the governor said.\n\nOn May 11, restaurants and coffee shops started offering dine-in service. To do so, they are required to limit occupancy and physically distance diners, in addition to checking employees for COVID-19 symptoms before their shifts.\n\nArkansas\n\nPools and water parks can reopen on May 22 with new capacity limits and other restrictions, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said May 8.\n\nArkansas restaurants were also able to reopen their dining rooms on May 11 with restrictions.\n\nDental services resumed May 11. State Health Secretary Dr. Nate Smith said the original plan was to resume dental services on May 18, but the dental lobby persuaded the state that protective gear supplies were sufficient and that protective protocols were planned by most dentists.\n\nThe state's three casinos reopened on May 18.\n\nLarge outdoor venues may reopen to the public with a limit on the size of crowds, Hutchinson said May 4. On May 18, Arkansas reopened large indoor venues such as movie theaters, museums, and bowling alleys.\n\nHutchinson also reiterated the state's COVID-19 guidelines for places of worship and gave his blessing on churches resuming in-person services.\n\nArkansas' barbershops and beauty salons, which have been closed since March 25, reopened May 6.\n\nGyms, fitness centers and indoor athletic facilities reopened on May 4 with restrictions including guidance on face masks, hand sanitizer and social distancing.\n\nFacilities will not be allowed to admit anyone displaying possible COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath. Those with compromised immune systems or chronic diseases will also be barred from entry. Pools, spas, showers and saunas at gyms and similar facilities will remain closed until further notice.\n\nHutchinson had announced April 22 that the state would begin lifting restrictions on elective medical procedures; that went into effect April 27.\n\nCalifornia\n\nOn May 18, Gov. Gavin Newsom said sports would be permitted to return to his state the first week of June, with certain restrictions and without spectators.\n\nThe California State University system that comprises 23 campuses such as Fresno State, San Diego State and San Jose State announced May 12 that it would cancel in-person classes for the fall semester. Online instruction will still be offered, with a few exceptions for courses.\n\nNewsom said more businesses could reopen statewide and approved requests from counties to move ahead more quickly if they have been minimally harmed by the pandemic. Los Angeles County, the most populated in the state, has targeted July 4 for a fuller reopening.\n\nOn May 20, Ventura County, which has been under stay-at-home orders since mid-March, became the first county in Southern California to be approved for accelerated reopening.\n\nLos Angeles County reopened its beaches May 13 for “active recreation,” and similar moves were announced for several beaches along Ventura County's south coast.\n\nNewsom has repeatedly said counties can impose restrictions that are more stringent than state orders. In mid-May, Tesla's car plant reopened, defying orders from the Alameda County Public Health Department, which has deemed the factory a nonessential business that can’t fully open under virus restrictions.\n\nColorado\n\nCamping in state parks resume by reservation only on May 12, Gov. Jared Polis said. Counties can decide independently if they do not want to reopen camping in state parks within their boundaries.\n\nPolis said officials expect to have more data about how the coronavirus is being transmitted on May 25, giving them \"more data to make the call\" on next steps for restaurants, summer camps and spring skiing.\n\nOffices deemed nonessential were allowed to reopen May 4 with reduced staff. Current restrictions allow curbside retail and real estate showings. Getting a haircut and shopping in person at retail stores were allowed again in much of Colorado starting May 1 as the state eased restrictions.\n\nDenver lifted its stay-home restrictions on the weekend of May 9, and Polis said state officials would be paying close attention to potential health impacts.\n\nOne week before the state's stay-at-home order lifted April 27, Polis announced the next phase, called \"safer at home\": The goal is for Coloradans to maintain 60% to 65% social distancing, and vulnerable residents should continue to shelter in place.\n\nSchools will remain closed, and bars and restaurants will not immediately reopen.\n\nColorado hospitals, dental offices, optometrists and other health care providers could start seeing patients for elective procedures again by early May.\n\nConnecticut\n\nThe Constitution State took its first steps toward a return to normalcy on May 20, as offices, retail stores, malls, restaurants (for outdoor dining), outdoor museums and zoos are now open.\n\nBut, Gov. Ned Lamont pushed back the reopening of barbershops and nail salons, originally set for the same day, until June 1.\n\nBeth Bye, the commissioner of the state Office of Early Childhood, said May 11 that summer camps could open on June 29 with strict public health guidelines in place. The governor’s office later clarified that would not include overnight camps.\n\nOn May 5, Lamont canceled in-person classes at all Connecticut K-12 public schools for the rest of this school year, requiring districts to continue distance learning.\n\nDelaware\n\nGov. John Carney announced that all retail establishments in Delaware may operate by appointment only beginning May 20.\n\nGov. Carney earlier had announced that arts facilities, retail stores, malls, barbershops and hair salons, exercise facilities, tanning salons, casinos and racetracks and food/drink establishments can reopen with strict requirements on June 1.\n\nAt restaurants, breweries and bars that offer table service, guests must be given single-use, paper disposable menus. All condiments also have to be in single-use disposable containers unless the reusable containers are thoroughly cleaned between each patron's use.\n\nCarney said there would be “interim steps” to reopen the economy between May 8 and June 1.\n\nIn mid-May, Rehoboth Beach joined a handful of coastal towns that are slowly loosening their grip on beach access.\n\nCarney announced plans May 5 to allow some businesses to operate again under social distancing rules to limit the spread of coronavirus.\n\nMany businesses could resume \"limited operations\" starting May 8, according to the announcement from the governor's office.\n\nRetail stores, such as clothing, book or music stores, will be able to do curbside pickup. Barbershops and salons can reopen for some customers but under strict rules.\n\nFarmers markets were allowed to open starting May 15 if they follow safety guidelines issued by the Delaware Department of Agriculture on May 11.\n\nDelaware residents are required to wear face coverings in public settings, according to Carney's state of emergency declaration.\n\nFlorida\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced May 22 that summer camps and youth activities can open without restrictions. He said local organizations and governments can set rules and guidelines. The state won’t preempt those rules, he added.\n\n“I hope that this will be good for folks over the summer,\" he said. \"I really trust parents. I trust the physicians who work with the kids, the local leaders, coaches, camps.\"\n\nGov. DeSantis said May 15 that people who are healthier are less likely to die from the coronavirus, which is part of his rationale to include gyms as the state expands the first phase of its reopening.\n\nBeginning May 18, the state also increased restrictions on restaurant and retail store capacity from 25% to 50%, as well as allowing the reopening of museums, libraries and gyms at 50% capacity. Bars and movie theaters will remain closed.\n\nOn May 20, the state's biggest tourist destination – Walt Disney World – began its reopening by opening its shopping and entertainment complex (but not the park itself.)\n\nOn May 14, DeSantis signed an executive order to move Miami-Dade County and Broward County – both of which are the hardest hit in the state – into Phase One of his reopening plan.\n\nBeaches in the two counties will remain closed. Miami, Miami Beach and Hialeah – Miami-Dade’s bigger cities – will allow retailers to reopen May 20 and restaurants to open, likely, the following week.\n\nThe counties account for almost half of the state's confirmed virus cases.\n\nBoth Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Broward County Mayor Dale Holness said that when beaches do open in their counties, they will be at the same time to avoid people flocking to one location. Beaches will not open until at least May 26, Holness said.\n\nDeSantis allowed hair stylists, barbers and nail technicians to reopen, he announced May 8. In mid-May, DeSantis signaled the state's openness to pro sports returning..\n\nGeorgia\n\nGov. Brian Kemp on May 12 announced plans to relax some restaurant restrictions and allow some summer camps to open but extend bar and nightclub closures through May.\n\nKemp allowed businesses such as tattoo parlors, bowling alleys and hair and nail salons to reopen with restrictions in late April, a sweeping move that prompted national criticism. Restaurants and movie theaters have since been able to welcome customers back in on a limited basis, and a statewide shelter-at-home order has expired.\n\nSome malls reopened May 4, though things were far from normal with many businesses inside still shuttered and parking lots sparsely filled.\n\nKemp allowed his statewide shelter-in-place order to expire at midnight April 30 but extended his emergency powers to June 12 and told the elderly and medically fragile to stay at home until then.\n\nIn-person religious services resumed over the April 25-26 weekend, and restaurants and theaters reopened on April 27 with \"specific social distancing and sanitation mandates.\"\n\nHawaii\n\nGov. David Ige has relaxed some restrictions, including allowing shopping malls to reopen. In Maui, they did so May 11; in Oahu they reopened May 15.\n\nBeaches on Oahu opened on May 16.\n\nIge in early May issued an updated proclamation allowing certain establishments to reopen, including astronomical observatories. He previously allowed businesses such as golf courses, some real estate services and car dealerships to reopen.\n\nIn April, Ige announced that he would be extending the state's stay-at-home directive and mandatory quarantine for travelers entering Hawaii through May 31.\n\nIge said beaches could be used to access oceans for outdoor water exercise like swimming and surfing and for \"running, jogging, or walking on the beach, so long as social distancing requirements are maintained.\"\n\nElective surgeries can resume \"as each facility determines to be appropriate.\"\n\nIdaho\n\nGov. Brad Little allowed his five-week stay-at-home order to expire April 30. Idaho residents have been successful at reducing infections and deaths, Little said.\n\nOn May 14, Little gave the go-ahead to begin stage two of reopening Idaho as scheduled on May 16. That meant that dine-in restaurants, nail and hair salons, and gyms began reopening on May 16.\n\nOn May 1, the state entered the first of his four-stage plan to recover from the economic damage caused by the virus. Little said the process will take time, and advancing through the stages to return the state to near normalcy by the end of June will be based on declining infections and strong testing. The readiness of the health care system is another factor.\n\nChild-care centers were able to reopen May 1. Churches also reopened with distancing and sanitation rules. Bars, gyms, salons, movie theaters and sporting venues remain closed. Restaurants can offer curbside and delivery service.\n\nIllinois\n\nGov. J.B. Pritzker announced a five-phase reopening plan May 5 called \"Restore Illinois\" and indicated at that time that the state was already in the plan's second phase, with nonessential businesses open for curbside pickup and delivery.\n\nAlso part of the second phase, residents are directed to wear face coverings when outside and can resume outdoor recreational activities such as golf, boating and fishing as long as social distancing is practiced.\n\nPritzker first issued a stay-at-home order in March, which has been extended to the end of May with some restrictions eased, including the reopening of some state parks. The plan says reopening contingent on meeting certain metrics, with the last phase allowed only if there's a vaccine or an effective treatment.\n\nOn May 8, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot released the city's five-step path toward re-opening, which includes some stricter standards than the state plan.\n\nThe next phase of the state plan will see manufacturing, offices, retail, barbershops and salons reopen with capacity limits and social distancing requirements. Health clubs, gyms and fitness studios will be allowed to provide one-on-one personal training in indoor facilities and outdoor fitness classes. Gatherings of 10 or fewer will be allowed, including groups boating and camping, and face coverings and social distancing will also remain standard.\n\nPritzker announced Wednesday that the state was on track to enter the next phase on May 29. Restaurants and bars would also be allowed to reopen for outdoor service starting in the third phase, earlier than expected,Pritzker said.\n\nIndiana\n\nOn May 24, a major reopening of Indiana will occur, with gyms, fitness centers, playgrounds, pools, campgrounds, and movie theatres scheduled to open, all with restrictions. Also, retail stores and malls may move to 75% of capacity while maintaining social distancing, WHTI-TV reports.\n\nAs of May 4, Gov. Eric Holcomb began lifting social distancing restrictions in Indiana. Gatherings of up to 25 people are allowed in all but the three hardest-hit counties; malls and other nonessential retailers can open at 50% capacity and churches can begin holding services with no limits on the number of attendees\n\nThe reopening plan calls for the removal of additional restrictions in phases through July 4. Beginning May 11, for example, restaurants opened at half capacity in all counties but Marion, Lake and Cass, which have been hotspots for the virus. Lake County restaurants opened at half capacity on May 18.\n\nSome cities and counties have set their own restrictions. Indianapolis and Marion County residents will remain under Mayor Joe Hogsett's stay-at-home order until at least May 18.\n\nIowa\n\nGov. Kim Reynolds announced that Iowa movie theaters, museums, zoos and wedding reception venues would reopen May 22 as she expressed confidence the state can respond if there’s an outbreak. Also reopening in time for Memorial Day activities are state campground restrooms, showers and cabins.\n\nEarlier, she said that she's lifting mandated closures of barbershops, salons and massage therapy businesses statewide starting May 15.\n\nRestrictions on establishments such as restaurants' dining areas, libraries, race tracks and fitness centers were previously lifted in 77 of Iowa's counties; on May 15, they were lifted statewide, Reynolds said. Those establishments will continue to be subject to some capacity restrictions and extra health measures.\n\nReynolds said May 6 she will allow dental services to resume and campgrounds, drive-in theaters, tanning facilities and other businesses to reopen statewide beginning May 8 if they meet certain requirements.\n\nReynolds is allowing retail stores in malls to reopen, but the shopping centers must keep common spaces such as play areas and food courts closed. She's also allowing fitness centers to reopen by appointment only, limiting to one person inside at a time.\n\nDentists may resume providing services if they comply with guidelines for safely reopening adopted by the Iowa Dental Board, have adequate personal protective equipment, demonstrate a plan to preserve such equipment and have a supply chain to obtain more equipment if needed.\n\nKansas\n\nGov. Laura Kelly’s stay-at-home order expired May 3 as she moved the state into the first part of a multi-phase plan to reopen Kansas between now and at least June 15. Some businesses, including restaurants, opened their doors for the first time in weeks, with the addition of social distancing protocols.\n\nThe first stage allows dine-in service in restaurants and the reopening of stores, though social distancing must be observed.\n\nThe transition included a passing of the baton to county health officials, who have the option of imposing tighter restrictions based on local infections, hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus.\n\nThe state plans to recruit and train 400 new workers for a robust contact tracing program.\n\nOn May 14, Gov. Kelly signed an order that establishes a new phase to the state's plan to reopen Kansas. The new “1.5” Phase, effective May 18, continues reopening efforts while preserving some data-driven restrictions.\n\nOn the 18th, gyms, barber shops and salons were allowed to reopen.\n\nKentucky\n\nGov. Andy Beshear on May 7 announced Phase 2 of his plan for reopening Kentucky's economy, which includes restaurants, would begin in late May.\n\nUnder the plan, restaurants were able to reopen their doors to in-person traffic on May 22 at 33% capacity indoors and unlimited seating outdoors, so long as they follow social distancing guidelines.\n\nAlso on May 22, the state’s travel ban expired, according to Fox19.\n\nBeshear announced that movie theaters, fitness centers, campgrounds, child care centers and certain youth sports will be able to reopen under public health guidelines in June.\n\nOn May 6, Beshear issued a new travel ban in response to a federal judge's ruling that knocked down the previous prohibition.\n\nBeshear laid out his first phase of a plan for re-opening several portions of Kentucky's economy on April 29.\n\nIn order to re-open, various businesses must follow public health guidelines set forth by industries and the state in its \"Healthy at Work\" initiative.\n\nUnder phase one of the plan, manufacturing companies re-opened their doors on May 11, and horse racing could occur without fans. On May 20, places of worship can hold in-person services, and retail shops can welcome back customers. And on May 25, 10-person or less social gatherings can occur, and barbershops can re-open doors.\n\nLouisiana\n\nGov. John Bel Edwards announced the state's stay-at-home order will be lifted as the state moves into phase one of reopening on May 15.\n\nNew Orleans took its first steps May 16 to loosen restrictions that have been in place for two months.\n\nThe city is restricting buildings to 25% of capacity, like the rest of the state, but also requires restaurants, nail salons and other businesses to take customers by reservation. The city has capped the number of people allowed in houses of worship and movie theaters at fewer than 100.\n\nRestaurants can resume dine-in service at 25% capacity as well. Edwards said additional reopening could occur June 5 under a second phase.\n\nThe governor said phase one will likely be in effect for 21 days, into June 5, if the state does not see increases in cases.\n\nMaine\n\nMaine will reopen the economy in rural part of the state sooner than its population centers, with many businesses reopening in May, the state's governor said May 8.\n\nThe reopening plan applies to 12 counties in the state. It leaves out Cumberland, York, Penobscot and Androscoggin counties, which are home to the state's biggest cities and more than half its population.\n\nGov. Janet Mills reopened retail stores in the more rural counties May 11, with increased health and safety precautions in place. Restaurants in rural counties also opened on May 18.\n\nThe state is in the midst of a gradual reopening of its economy. Lodging and restaurants will open for Maine residents on June 1 and for out-of-state visitors on July 1. Mills has required visitors from other states to quarantine for two weeks.\n\nMaryland\n\nGov. Larry Hogan said the state is ready to begin cautiously entering stage one of recovery. A stay-at-home order was lifted May 15 at 5 p.m. and was replaced with a safer-at-home public health advisory.\n\nFormerly closed retailers can begin reopening at no more than 50% capacity, with strong safety precautions in place like masks and social distancing. These businesses are encouraged to use curbside pickup and delivery moving forward.\n\nManufacturing operations can also resume as long as they protect the health of their employees.\n\nSome personal services like barber shops and hair salons can start reopening at 50% capacity by appointment only. Pet groomers, animal adoption shelters, car washes and art galleries are among the other businesses that will be able to open their doors again.\n\nReligious service will be allowed to resume, but outdoor services are strongly encouraged. The governor said indoor services are permitted at 50% capacity or less.\n\nPreviously, Hogan reopened state beaches and announced that outdoor activities like golfing, camping, fishing and boating can start up again.\n\nHogan has said Maryland schools will remain closed for the rest of the academic year.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nGov. Charlie Baker on May 18 outlined a phased-in approach to gradually restart the Massachusetts economy.\n\nIn the first phase on May 18, manufacturing and construction were allowed to reopen provided they follow guidance and standards meant to protect against the spread of the virus. Houses of worship were also allowed to resume services if they can also follow social distancing guidance. Outdoor services are encouraged.\n\nOn May 25, lab and office spaces can reopen as well as some personal services such as hair salons, pet grooming and car wash locations. Retail business will be allowed to do remote fulfillment and curbside pick-up. On June 1, some office space can reopen in Boston.\n\nAlso as part of the first phase of reopening, hospitals and community health centers will be allowed to provide high-priority preventative care, pediatric care and treatment for high risk patients and conditions.\n\nSome recreation will also be allowed to reopen on May 25 as part of phase one as long as they adhere to social distancing guidance. That includes parks, drive-in theaters, some athletic fields and courts, most fishing, hunting, and boating, outdoor gardens, zoos, and reserves.\n\nStarting May 6, everyone in the state was ordered to wear masks or facial coverings while in public under an executive order signed by Baker.\n\nMichigan\n\nGov. Gretchen Whitmer announced that retail businesses in much of northern Michigan, including restaurants and bars, can reopen starting May 22.\n\nThe bars and restaurants had to limit their capacity to 50%. Groups will be required to stay 6 feet apart and servers will have to wear face coverings.\n\nOffice work also will be able resume if work cannot be done remotely.\n\nMichigan manufacturing resumed May 11, with the auto plants restarting one week later, on May 18, Gov. Whitmer said. Michigan's stay-at-home order has been extended through May 28.\n\nWhitmer said Michigan is in phase three – flattening – of six phases of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent restart. The phases are uncontrolled growth, persistent spread, flattening, improving, containing and post-pandemic, the governor said.\n\nThough case numbers are improving, \"we are still safer at home,\" Whitmer said. \"While we can re-engage in more things, we've got to be smart about it.\"\n\nEssential reasons to leave home include shopping for groceries or drugs, getting health care, getting exercise, or walking a pet.\n\nConstruction, real estate and more outdoor work resumed May 7.\n\nWhitmer on April 30 ordered theaters, restaurants, bars, casinos, gyms and other places of accommodation to remain shuttered until May 28; they remain limited to carry-out and delivery orders only.\n\nMinnesota\n\nGov. Tim Walz announced May 13 the easing of restrictions that became effective May 18 in the form of a \"Stay Safe MN\" executive order. It replaces the existing statewide stay-at-home directive that was set to expire.\n\nUnder the new order, gatherings with family and friends in groups of 10 or fewer will be allowed, provided social distancing is observed. Masks are encouraged. Retail stores and malls will be allowed to reopen but must do so at 50% capacity and must have plans to keep workers and customers safe. Religious gatherings can resume with a 10-person limit.\n\nRestaurants, bars, gyms, barber shops and theaters will remain closed but, if guidelines are met, could open as early as June 1.\n\nDoctors, dentists and veterinarians started providing elective surgeries again on May 11 but were required to create a plan to keep patients and health care workers safe.\n\nWalz signed an order May 5 to allow hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and clinics to resume many delayed procedures. Leaders of those facilities will have to develop criteria for determining which procedures should proceed and provide a safety plan.\n\nAn April 30 executive order from Walz had extended Minnesota's stay-at-home order to May 17.\n\nMany retail businesses had reopened May 4, but only for curbside and delivery services.\n\nAnother executive order previously closed schools in Minnesota through the end of the school year.\n\nMississippi\n\nOn May 19, Gov. Tate Reeves allowed churches to resume in-person services, with some restrictions. While he had never ordered Mississippi churches to close, he had encouraged them to, WREG-TV said.\n\nGov. Reeves allowed salons, barbershops and gyms to resume operations on May 11. He also extended his \"Safer At Home\" order, which allows for some restrictions to be lifted, for another two weeks.\n\nReeves ordered heightened restrictions for seven Mississippi counties that have been hit especially hard by the coronavirus, he announced May 12. The rules include health screenings for employees and face covering requirements.\n\nMeanwhile, landlords will be able to evict tenants again starting June 1, Reeves announced May 13.\n\nReeves previously allowed restaurants and parks to reopen May 7. Among other changes: up to 20 people will be allowed gather for outdoor activities, but gatherings are still limited to 10 people or less for indoor activities.\n\nReeves on April 24 issued an executive order for Mississippians that he calls \"Safer-at-Home,\" which allowed most retail stores to open with certain guidelines, but kept other businesses closed.\n\nIt allowed clothing, gift and other retail locations to open, but owners and managers must take precautions such as sending home sick employees, wearing masks in common areas, using proper sanitation procedures, providing hand sanitizer for customers and limiting the number of customers at any given time.\n\nReeves said the businesses that won't be allowed to open are ones that generally involve close, interpersonal contact, such as movie theaters, museums, casinos, entertainment venues and gyms.\n\nMissouri\n\nMuch of Missouri reopened May 4 under relatively lenient statewide orders, but local governments can impose stricter rules if they want.\n\nThe state's stay-at-home order expired May 3.\n\nRestaurants and most nonessential businesses began operating in St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis May 18, but residents were urged to keep following safety guidelines to slow the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nKansas City began phasing in its reopening on May 6, but with very strict rules on social distancing and crowd sizes.\n\nStatewide through May 31, people must stay 6 feet away from non-family members in public unless they’re doing a job that makes that impossible; schools remain closed; retail businesses must limit the number of customers and restaurants can reopen dine-in services if they employ social distancing measures.\n\nOn April 27, Gov. Mike Parson announced the first phase of the \"Show Me Strong Recovery\" plan.\n\nMontana\n\nGov. Steve Bullock announced that on June 1, Montana will enter into phase two of the states's reopening plan, NBC Montana said. He said that restaurants, bars, breweries, distilleries and casinos can run at 75% of capacity. Gyms, indoor fitness classes, pools and hot tubs can operate at 75% of capacity. Bowling alleys can operate at decreased capacity with social distancing guidelines, according to NBC Montana.\n\nSome Montana schools reopened May 7. Gov. Steve Bullock also announced gyms, theaters and some museums could reopen in the middle of May with reduced capacity, social distancing and sanitizing requirements.\n\nThe May 15 reopening date for health clubs, theaters and museums gave the businesses and public health officials time to prepare and ensure guidance is being followed.\n\nSome retailers reopened on April 27 and bars and restaurants were permitted to open with decreased capacity on May 3.\n\nNebraska\n\nGov. Pete Ricketts loosened restrictions May 4 in most of the state, allowing salons, tattoo parlors and dine-in restaurants to reopen with limited capacity. Restaurant employees must wear masks. Day cares will be allowed up to 15 children per room. The loosened restrictions were expanded to 10 more counties May 11.\n\nNebraska is one of the handful of states without a formal stay-at-home order, although many of the restrictions Ricketts imposed are similar.\n\nNevada\n\nGov. Steve Sisolak said May 7 that restaurants, retail stores, barbershops, hair salons and some brewpubs can resume limited operations on May 9, a full week ahead of the schedule laid out in Nevada’s coronavirus recovery plan.\n\nRestaurants and retail outlets set to reopen this weekend can only use half of their available seating capacity, and will be barred from providing self-serve stations such as salad and beverage bars.\n\nBarber shops and salons without privacy partitions will have to maintain a six-foot separation between customers. Pot shops will be subject to similar social distancing standards, as will open-air malls, car dealerships and drive-in movie theaters.\n\nEmployees at each of those operations will be required to wear face masks, which are also “strongly encouraged” for customers.\n\nCasinos, bars, nightclubs, gyms and most high-capacity sports facilities will remain closed during phase one of the state’s reopening plan. Gatherings of more than 10 people are still prohibited.\n\nSisolak said each of the state’s counties can stick to stricter virus-prevention protocols if they so choose, but will not be allowed to reopen faster than the rest of the state.\n\nSisolak has said Nevada schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nRestaurants, which had been limited to takeout and delivery, were allowed to offer outdoor dining starting May 18. This is provided they have enough seating for social distancing.\n\nOn May 1, Gov. Chris Sununu extended the state's stay-at-home order to May 31 while allowing the restricted reopening of restaurants, hair salons and other businesses throughout the month.\n\nHair salons, barbershops, retail stores and drive-in movie theaters reopened May 11 with different requirements for the various industries. Retail stores, for example, have been limited to 50 percent capacity, and hair salons will not be allowed to offer services beyond basic haircuts and root touch-ups.\n\nDentists resumed some routine work starting May 11 as well.\n\nHospitals, which had largely been restricted to treating COVID-19 patients and emergencies, started performing time-sensitive procedures such as CT scans and knee and hip replacements for chronic pain May 4.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nNew Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order May 19 allowing in-person sales at car, motorcycle and boat dealerships, along with bicycle shops, on May 20, WPVI said.\n\nNew Jersey allowed retail stores to reopen for curbside pickup service only and nonessential construction to resume on May 18.\n\nGov. Murphy said mall interiors will remain closed, but stores inside malls can open for items that can be delivered to customers waiting in cars outside.\n\nMurphy's new executive order requires businesses deemed nonessential to remain closed to customers. In-store operations must remain limited to employees responsible for curbside pickup operations, financial transactions should be handled in advance when feasible and customers should remain in their cars.\n\nMurphy reopened all state parks in early May, said golf courses could reopen and gave counties and municipalities the option to open their parks. He has also slowly eased some restrictions on businesses, such as allowing pet groomers to reopen in late April.\n\nAsked why retail stores are not being allowed to open fully, Murphy said New Jersey is \"still in stay-at-home mode.\"\n\nMurphy on May 7 extended New Jersey's public health emergency for another 30 days but did not say when stay-at-home order restrictions may change.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nGov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced April 30 that the state would begin to ease business restrictions, acknowledging that the coronavirus has brought about an \"economic crisis.\"\n\nMany nonessential retailers, pet groomers, state parks and golf courses resumed operations May 1 in a limited way under a new, modified state public health order. The new order is in effect through May 15.\n\nNew Mexico's \"slight reopening\" began May 16, but everyone is required to wear a face mask in public spaces and the stay-at-home order remains in effect, KVIA-TV said.\n\nGrisham announced May 5 that employees of essential businesses operating in New Mexico will be required to wear face coverings.\n\nHere's what's not opening: movie theaters, casinos, barbershops and hair salons, gyms, indoor malls, camping centers and state park visitor centers, and offices or workplaces.\n\nRestaurants and bars can only operate as curbside or delivery. Gatherings of five people or more are still prohibited.\n\nNew York\n\nGov. Andrew Cuomo said on May 18 that \"New York State is ready and willing to partner with major sports teams that are interested in playing games safely, without fans.\"\n\nParts of New York were allowed to reopen May 15, Cuomo said.\n\nThe Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley and North Country met the required seven metrics to enter Phase 1 of the state's plan to reopen. The metrics include a 14-day decline of hospitalizations, a 14-day decline of hospitalized deaths, new hospitalizations to drop to under two per 100,000 residents and a share of total hospital beds available of at least 30%, among others.\n\nCuomo also announced that New York reopened statewide certain low-risk businesses and recreational activities on May 15, including landscaping and gardening, outdoor low-risk recreational activities like tennis and drive-in movie theaters.\n\nReligious gatherings limited to 10 people were allowed to resume May 21, the New York Times said.\n\nNew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said May 11 that closures of nonessential businesses are likely to extend in the city through May.\n\n“June is when we’re potentially going to be able to make some real changes if we can continue our progress,” de Blasio said.\n\nNew York has extended some executive orders but still hasn't decided on how long it would extend its stay-at-home order, Cuomo's office said.\n\nNew York’s schools and colleges will remain shut through the end of the academic year, Cuomo said.\n\nThe state updated its guidance for golf courses, opening the door for public and private courses to open. Golfers will have to walk the course and carry their own bags without a motorized cart, according to Dani Lever,Cuomo's communications director.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nStarting on May 8, North Carolina began lifting certain restrictions as the state transitions to Phase 1 of a three-phase plan.\n\nGov. Roy Cooper previously said Phase 1 is expected to last two to three weeks, or until at least May 22. On that date, restaurants, personal care businesses and pools reopened, the New York Times said.\n\nIf data trends look promising, the state would move into Phase 2, which includes the lifting of the stay-at-home order and a limited reopening of other businesses and churches with reduced capacity.\n\nUnder Phase 1, people will be allowed to leave their homes for commercial activity and to go to any business that is open – though the governor hasn’t elaborated about which businesses that includes when pressed by journalists in statewide briefings.\n\nThe order removes the distinction between essential and nonessential businesses. Retail businesses are allowed to open at 50% capacity and will be required to see that customers are at least 6 feet apart, the release says. Businesses also will be required to screen workers for COVID-19 symptoms, perform frequent cleanings and provide hand sanitizer when available.\n\nBut many businesses will remain closed. Restaurants may not open for seated customers and may operate only in the capacity of takeout, drive-thru and delivery. Bars, gyms and personal care businesses, such as barber shops and hair salons, also will remain closed. Likewise, entertainment venues will stay closed.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nGov. Doug Burgum unveiled guidelines April 28 for reopening certain businesses.\n\nMost businesses reopened May 1. Burgum eased restrictions that included limiting bars and restaurants to half capacity, requiring barbers and cosmetologists to wear masks and prohibiting some high-intensity fitness classes. Burgum said movie theaters could also reopen if they do such things as limit seating and stagger start times.\n\nWhile most businesses may reopen with precautions, other large-scale venues and K-12 schools are closed until further notice, Burgum said.\n\nOhio\n\nGov. Mike DeWine announced that hair salons, barbershops and other personal care businesses will reopen on May 15. Restaurants and bars opened outdoor patios and spaces on May 15 and indoor seating resumed on May 21.\n\nMassage parlors, tattoo parlors and piercing businesses reopened on May 15, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said May 12.\n\nHere's a look at various state restriction changes for May:\n\nMay 1: Hospital, medical, dental and veterinary services that don't require an overnight hospital stay.\n\nHospital, medical, dental and veterinary services that don't require an overnight hospital stay. May 2: Retail businesses that have been closed can open for curbside pickup, delivery and appointment-only shopping limited to 10 customers at a time.\n\nRetail businesses that have been closed can open for curbside pickup, delivery and appointment-only shopping limited to 10 customers at a time. May 4: Construction, distribution, manufacturing, offices\n\nConstruction, distribution, manufacturing, offices May 12: Consumer, retail and service businesses\n\nConsumer, retail and service businesses May 15: Hair salons, barbershops, day spas, nail salons, tanning salons, outside restaurants and patios opened.\n\nHair salons, barbershops, day spas, nail salons, tanning salons, outside restaurants and patios opened. May 21: Restaurant dine-in locations opened, as did campgrounds\n\nRestaurant dine-in locations opened, as did campgrounds May 22: Horse racing (without spectators)\n\nHorse racing (without spectators) May 26: Public and club sports; adult and youth sports leagues; gyms and fitness centers\n\nOklahoma\n\nFuneral homes, churches, nurseries, bars and nightclubs are among the businesses that are now open under phase two of Oklahoma's Open Up and Recover Safely plan, KOCO News 5 said. Organized sports and weddings also are allowed to resume.\n\nState health officials had given strict directives for social distancing and disinfection, allowing restaurants to open dining rooms May 15. Movie theaters, churches and concert halls, gyms, salons and other businesses have all reopened.\n\nThunderbird Casinos in Norman and Shawnee did a soft opening May 12 to allow patrons a chance to gamble on select slot machines.\n\nBars are still closed, as are city playgrounds. Social gatherings of 10 or more people are still forbidden.\n\nGov. Kevin Stitt's three-phase plancalled \"Open Up and Recover Safely\" allowed personal care businesses to open April 24 by appointment only.\n\nOregon\n\nOn May 18, a judge said that Gov. Kate Brown's emergency coronavirus restrictions violate state law and are “null and void,” CNN said. The state immediately filed an appeal with the Oregon Supreme Court.\n\nRural counties with few cases that meet a series of health and safety prerequisites can apply to enter phase one of a three-part plan to reopen Oregon, Brown announced May 7.\n\nIn the first phase, under certain restrictions, restaurants can offer sit-down service, personal care businesses — such as gyms and salons — can open and gatherings of up to 25 people can occur.\n\nThe governor's office began accepting applications from counties starting May 8 with many opening on May 15. On that day, 31 of the state's 36 counties began to ease stay-home restrictions and enter into Phase 1 of the governor's reopening plan, according to KGW-TV.\n\nOregon reopened a small number of outdoor destinations on May 6, beginning a gradual effort to relax limits imposed on recreation. Eight state parks and boat ramps reopened at that time, with more places to come the following week, officials said.\n\nSki resorts will also be able to resume activities under a forthcoming executive order from Brown.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nGov. Tom Wolf said May 8 that 13 more counties will move to the yellow phase of reopening the following week. Also on May 8: Two dozen previously announced counties located in rural northern Pennsylvania made that transition.\n\nThe 13 new counties are in the western part of the state, including much of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.\n\nStay-at-home orders will be lifted in \"yellow\" counties and retail shops can start to reopen, though other restrictions will remain in place as counties move from \"red\" to \"yellow\" in a three-phase reopening plan.\n\nWolf also allowed golfers to hit the course and boaters to hit the water starting May 1.\n\nGolf courses, marinas, guided fishing trips and privately owned campgrounds will be able to open, but campgrounds in state parks remained closed through May 14. Social distancing and masking guidelines will be required just as for other essential businesses.\n\nWolf also announced that he reopened construction in the state beginning on May 1, moved up from May 8.\n\nAfter state liquor stores were closed in March, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is now allowing select stores to offer curbside delivery.\n\nPreviously, Wolf signed a bill to allow online notary services so online auto sales can resume.\n\nPuerto Rico\n\nOn May 11, Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced allowed construction and manufacturing to resume, provided that strict measures are followed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nAmong the sectors included are private construction and maintenance and repair work done to bolster the infrastructure in anticipation of hurricane season.\n\nThat follows comments made by Manuel Laboy, the secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, that other businesses like barber shops and hair salons would be able to open May 25 as long as confirmed new cases continue to decline.\n\nA medical task force appointed by Vázquez Garced submitted recommendations on April 25, suggesting that Puerto Rico abide by strict social distancing and hygienic measures for 18 to 24 months, absent of a vaccine or proven treatment for the virus.\n\nThe task force recommends a gradual reopening in four stages, broken down by the infection rate per industry. In the first tier are construction, mining, computing, agriculture and manufacturing. Rather than provide specific target dates for the stages, it recommended enacting each by monitoring the rate of transmission on the island.\n\nOn May 1, Vázquez Garced extended a lockdown order through May 25. It allows residents to leave their homes only from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. for essential activities. After 7 p.m., a daily curfew goes into effect until the following morning. The latest extension allows residents to walk, jog, run, ride bicycles and exercise, while observing social distancing measures from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.\n\nRhode Island\n\nGov. Gina Raimondo lifted a statewide stay-at-home order effective May 9.\n\nRetail shops deemed nonessential and some parks can reopen. The state's limit of five people or less for social gatherings remains in effect, however.\n\nRaimondo announced May 12 that the state will allow restaurants to offer limited outdoor dining starting May 18 under regulations from the governor’s office.\n\nRaimondo on April 22 announced plans to roll out a staged reopening of parks and beaches in the coming weeks, citing encouraging virus statistics.\n\n“It is my hope that we will be able to enjoy our parks and beaches in some form or fashion in the month of May,” she said.\n\nThe next phase of reopening, however, will wait until June, the governor said Friday.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nOn May 11, Gov. Henry McMaster allowed dining inside South Carolina restaurants to resume.\n\nAnd close-contact businesses including gyms, barber shops, hair salons and pools reopened on May 18.\n\nRestaurants are limited to 50% capacity. State officials also issued a host of guidelines detailing how tables and equipment must be sanitized.\n\nMcMaster also removed all remaining coronavirus-related restrictions on South Carolina boaters, including a prohibition against anchoring in waterways except for fishing.\n\nThe announcement came four days after outdoor dining was allowed to resume at restaurants in the state. A mandatory stay-home order also was lifted Monday in South Carolina.\n\nMcMaster announced a plan April 21 called \"Accelerate South Carolina\" to \"stomp on the gas\" and reopen certain sectors of the economy.\n\nClothing, department, furniture, jewelry and sporting goods stores, as well as florists and flea markets can reopen but will be forced to operate at reduced capacity. The closure on beaches will be lifted, though it will be up to local officials to decide on the reopening of specific beaches.\n\nThe order still encourages social distancing directives to be followed. Barber shops, beauty salons, bingo halls, gyms and nightclubs must remain closed for now.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nGov. Kristi Noem unveiled in late April a \"Back to Normal Plan\" for businesses and residents for the next phase of the coronavirus response.\n\nThe plan lays out actions for residents, employers, schools and health care providers once four criteria categories are met, including a downward trajectory of documented coronavirus cases for 14 days in an area with sustained community spread.\n\nNoem had not issued a stay-at-home order but had placed some statewide restrictions.\n\nTennessee\n\nGuidance issued by Gov. Bill Lee's office May 1 says house of worship should exercise caution, encouraging their community members to wear face coverings and remain six feet away from others. The guidance urges faith communities to \"conduct as many activities as possible remotely.\"\n\nThe state reopened salons and barbershops May 6, the latest in a string of restrictions to be loosened in the state.\n\nDetails of business restrictions in the order, which also continued the state of emergency, apply to all but six counties in the state. Those counties, which are home to the state's larger urban areas, are following the guidance of their respective health departments which are operated locally.\n\nElvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis will reopen the week of May 18 after closing March 20. Tour capacity will be reduced to 25% and temperature checks will be given to guests.\n\nNashville city officials transitioned to the first phase of reopening the city on May 11, allowing restaurants and retail stores to open at half capacity, despite a recent increase in new coronavirus cases.\n\nPreviously, Lee allowed for restaurants to reopen on April 27, many retailers on April 29 and gyms on May 1, each of which came with rules on limited capacity and suggested guidelines.\n\nUnder Tennessee’s plan, businesses in six counties – Davidson, Shelby, Knox, Hamilton, Madison and Sullivan – will not open until local officials sign off on their own reopening proposals.\n\nOn April 28, Lee issued an executive order extending the closure of bars and close-contact businesses through the end of May.\n\nTexas\n\nGov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced his next wave of reopenings designed to restart the Texas economy during the coronavirus pandemic, saying child care facilities can reopen immediately, bars can open May 22 with limited capacity and sporting events can return without fans at the end of the month, the Texas Tribune said. Abbott also said he would permit restaurants to operate at 50% capacity starting May 22, up from 25% that’s allowed now.\n\nHair and nail salons reopened May 8 with restrictions on capacity and distances and gyms got back to business on May 18, Gov. Abbott said.\n\nBars, meanwhile, will remain shuttered pending more information on the best ways to keep staff and customers safe amid the fast-spreading pandemic, Abbott said.\n\nEvery restaurant and retailer across the state was allowed to open doors to customers May 1, although more widely in some cities than others and still under social distancing requirements.\n\nOutdoor sports such as golf and tennis can resume, as long as four people or fewer are participating in the event and social distancing is followed.\n\nAbbott announced executive orders April 17 that mandated all schools, public and private, to remain closed for the rest of the school year.\n\nAbbott, seeking to end a political firestorm, announced May 7 that officials will be prohibited from jailing Texans for violating any of his coronavirus-related executive orders.\n\nUtah\n\nGov. Gary Herbert said most of the state moved to \"yellow,\" or low-risk, May 16.\n\nA yellow designation means there can be social gatherings of up to 50 people, team sports are allowed and swimming pools are opened. Additionally, travel is opened up throughout the state — though Washington County has seen significant visitor numbers in recent weeks at the state parks.\n\nUtah moved May 1 from the \"red\" to \"orange\" phase of Herbert's proposal to gradually scale back restrictions.\n\nEvery household also has a chance to order face masks from the government. The program, which he dubbed \"A Mask for every Utahn,\" was unveiled as Herbert announced an official step back from the state's most stringent stay-at-home orders.\n\nVermont\n\nGov. Phil Scott made moves to relax numerous restrictions in early May.\n\nVermont's retail stores began to reopen on May 18. The stores will have to abide by certain conditions to reopen, including requiring all employees to wear masks and limiting the number of people in the store at a time. Big box stores will also be allowed to begin selling non-essential items again.\n\nChild care programs and summer camps will be allowed to open this summer — as long as they follow strict health guidelines, Scott said May 8. Regulated day care facilities that adopt those guidelines would be able to open June 1.\n\nGatherings of 10 people or fewer were allowed with precautions and golf courses and some other forms of outdoor recreation reopened May 7, Scott announced May 6.\n\nSome elective health care procedures will be able to resume as the spread of the new coronavirus in the state continues to slow, Scott announced May 4.\n\nScott on May 1 also announced additional steps to ease restrictions under the state's \"Stay Home, Stay Safe\" order.\n\nManufacturing, construction and distribution companies reopened May 4, with a maximum of 10 employees. The following week, on May 11, those same sectors re-opened at full operations with as few employees as necessary.\n\nIn order to return to work, Vermont employers and employees must undergo mandatory health and safety training developed by the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Agency.\n\nVirginia\n\nOn May 12, Gov. Ralph Northam signed an executive order that allows much of the state to enter Phase One of his \"Forward Virginia\" plan and reopen on May 15.\n\nThe new order also allowed certain Northern Virginia localities to delay Phase One until midnight on May 28 in order to meet health metrics. Northern Virginia, whose counties are close to Washington, D.C., has suffered a higher infection rate than the rest of the state.\n\nNortham detailed measures in Phase one:\n\nNon-essential retail — In phase one, non-essential retail stores will be allowed to operate at 50% capacity. Northam said this is a slight increase from the current 10 person limit.\n\n— In phase one, non-essential retail stores will be allowed to operate at 50% capacity. Northam said this is a slight increase from the current 10 person limit. Restaurants and breweries — Restaurants, breweries and beverage services will still be limited to take out and delivery. If a restaurant or brewery already has a permit for outdoor seating they will be allowed to operate service in the outdoor area at 50% capacity.\n\n— Restaurants, breweries and beverage services will still be limited to take out and delivery. If a restaurant or brewery already has a permit for outdoor seating they will be allowed to operate service in the outdoor area at 50% capacity. Entertainment and amusement — These businesses will remain closed in phase one.\n\n— These businesses will remain closed in phase one. Fitness and exercise — Fitness and exercise establishments will remain closed but will be allowed to hold outdoor classes with some limitations.\n\n— Fitness and exercise establishments will remain closed but will be allowed to hold outdoor classes with some limitations. Beaches — Beaches will still be restricted to fishing and exercise. Northam said the state is setting high bar to ease restrictions at beaches.\n\nNortham expects Phase One to last a minimum of two weeks, but it could last longer.\n\nNortham allowed elective surgeries and dental procedures to resume May 1. Veterinarians will also be allowed to see non-emergency pets, Northam said.\n\nWashington\n\nNon-essential medical procedures and services can resume May 18, CNN reported.\n\nOn May 11, Gov. Jay Inslee outlined metrics that counties must reach before they are allowed to enter Phase 2 of his \"Safe Start\" plan. Counties with fewer than 75,000 residents that have not had a new coronavirus case over a three-week span can apply for a variance to enter Phase 2 before other parts of the state.\n\nOnce approved, counties may enter Phase 2 effective immediately. It allows restaurants to resume operations at limited capacity. Restaurants will not be required to get customers’ contact information as initially planned, Inslee's office said in a May 15 release.\n\nThe Democratic governor's office in a news release Friday said that instead, businesses are asked to keep a list of those who voluntarily provide contact information.\n\nInslee said on May 8 curbside retail sales in Washington could begin almost immediately for businesses with reopening plans approved by health officials. Multiple rural counties will also be able to relax some stay-at-home restrictions early as the state move through the reopening process.\n\nInslee announced May 1 that the state's coronavirus stay-at-home order would be extended through at least May 31 and said there will be a four-stage phase for lifting of restrictions, starting with allowing retail curbside pickup, automobile sales and car washes by mid-May.\n\nThere will be a minimum of three weeks between each phase, though he said some counties with lower numbers of cases and deaths may be able to open parts of their economy sooner if approved by the Department of Health.\n\nFishing, hunting and golfing resumed on May 5, at which time people could also return to state parks and other state lands for day trips.\n\nWashington, D.C.\n\nOn May 13, Mayor Muriel Bowser extended the District's stay-at-home order through June 8.\n\nSix stores, including four bookstores, were allowed to reopen May 18.\n\nBowser announced on April 23 the formation of a task force, the Reopen D.C. Advisory Group, that will issue recommendations in May on the timeline to ease restrictions. To accelerate the process, Bowser said the city would look to hire several hundred contact tracers.\n\nBowser said the District will be \"deliberate and strategic\" in its plans.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nWest Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on May 13 widened the most aggressive phase of his coronavirus reopening strategy to allow tanning salons to open just before Memorial Day weekend.\n\nOn May 18, fitness centers, gymnasiums and recreation centers were able to resume operations in West Virginia, with limitations.\n\nJustice announced that more businesses would reopen, including restaurants with indoor seating on May 21.\n\nLarge specialty retail stores can open back up on that date. That doesn't include indoor malls, but he said mall anchor stores with exterior entrances can resume operations.\n\nBar areas at restaurants must remain closed and those businesses are limited to 50% seating capacity. Patrons will not be allowed to congregate in waiting areas and there will be no buffet-style service or self-serve salad bars. Drinks are recommended to be served in cans or bottles, according to the guidelines.\n\nOn May 11 physical therapy centers and drive-in movie theaters were allowed to reopen.\n\nJustice has so far let hospitals resume elective procedures and allowed the reopening of small businesses, outdoor dining restaurants and barber shops.\n\nWisconsin\n\nWisconsin Supreme Court on May 13 struck down Gov. Tony Evers' order shutting down daily life, marking the first time a statewide order of its kind has been knocked down by a court of last resort.\n\nThe ruling, for now, immediately throws out the administration's tool to control the disease for which there is no vaccine and comes at a time when Evers has already begun lifting some restrictions as the spread of the virus slows down for now.\n\nOn May 11, Evers said all stand-alone or strip-mall based retail stores are able to offer in-person shopping, as long as customers are limited to five at a time and social distancing practices are maintained. The new order is \"focused on small retailers,\" Evers said.\n\nEssential retail businesses like grocery and hardware stores were opened with reduced capacity.\n\nAnd on May 1, 34 state parks and forests could open under special conditions. The openings come with attendance limits and reduced daily hours, while facilities like public restrooms, shelters and playgrounds will remain closed.\n\nOutdoor recreational vehicle rentals like those that deal with boats, golf carts, kayaks and ATVs could also open April 29, as could automatic or self-service car washes.\n\nWyoming\n\nWyoming will again allow people to dine in at restaurants, meet in bars and gather in larger numbers, Gov. Mark Gordon said May 13.\n\nBar and restaurant tables will need to seat no more than 6 people at a time and be spaced at least 6 feet apart. Staff must wear face coverings and be screened for symptoms of COVID-19 under new state public health orders that took effect May 15.\n\nAs many as 25 people — up from 10 currently — will be allowed to gather, enabling movie theaters and other performance venues to reopen with limited numbers of customers.\n\nOn May 15, a strip club in Cheyenne became one of the first in the country to reopen.\n\nYellowstone and Grand Teton national parks also reopened on May 18.\n\nWyoming's famed Devils Tower National Monument partially reopened May 22 after an almost two-month closure.\n\nPreviously, Wyoming eased some of its coronavirus restrictions May 1, with barbershops, gyms, nail salons and child care centers among the businesses that were allowed limited re-openings, Gordon said.\n\nGordon also said residents were allowed to camp at state parks as of May 15.\n\nContributing: Savannah Behrmann, Grace Hauck, USA TODAY; Natalie Allison, Nashville Tennessean; Stacey Barchenger, Bergen Record; Teresa Boeckel, York Daily Record; Lisa Kaczke, Sioux Falls Argus Leader; Laura Peters, Staunton News Leader; Dustin Racioppi, Bergen Record; Sady Swanson, Fort Collins Coloradoan; The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/04/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2020/06/23/tattoos-masks-telemedicine-yellowstone-news-around-states/111998506/", "title": "Tattoos, masks, telemedicine, Yellowstone: News from around our ...", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery:People can pick up free masks from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at one of 11 sites across Montgomery, the city announced. Each person can get up to two masks. Mayor Steven Reed issued an executive order that goes into effect Friday requiring people in public to wear facial coverings, except in specific situations like when visiting a restaurant or bar, or when there’s room for social distancing. Those who violate the order are subject to a $25 fine. Pickup locations include: Therapeutic Recreation Center at 604 Augusta St.; Sheridan Heights Community Center at 3501 Faro Drive; Hayneville Road Community Center at 3315 Hayneville Road; Regency Park Community Center at 5995 Christy Lane; Goodwyn Community Center at 205 Perry Hill Road; Chisholm Community Center at 545 E Vandiver Blvd.; Willie Cook Community Center at 6055 Woodley Circle; Hunter Community Center at 20 Judge C. Price St.; Old Selma Road Community Center at 3200 Old Selma Road; McIntyre Community Center at 1240 Hugh St.; and the E.D. Nixon Community Center at 1000 Edgar D Nixon Ave. For more information about the giveaway, contact Fredrick Thomas with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department at at (334) 625-4743 or fthomas@montgomeryal.gov. The city said each member of the Montgomery City Council also has “a limited number” of masks that they can give out. You can find their contact information at montgomeryal.gov.\n\nAlaska\n\nKetchikan: A person who didn’t follow quarantine procedures after arriving in Alaska has created the possibility of broad community spread of the novel coronavirus after going to social gatherings and public places in Ketchikan while awaiting results of a COVID-19 test that turned out positive, officials said. The person arrived in Ketchikan on June 13 and underwent testing for COVID-19. The state said anyone tested on arrival is to quarantine until they receive a negative test result. Under the state rules, one is not to leave a quarantine location except for medical emergencies or necessary medical care. This person instead attended social gatherings and went to public places June 13-15, events attended by many young people, families and residents, officials said. Officials did not say if the person was a resident or a visitor. The person’s positive test was received Tuesday, and the person is now in isolation ad checked on daily by public health nurses. “I know many of you are angry, hurt, disappointed, and even scared about the impact this may have in our community. I am too, but we are prepared for this,” Ketchikan Emergency Manager Abner Hoage said in video to the community Wednesday night. He said there is testing and personal protection equipment available. The Ketchikan Police Department is investigating the individual’s actions for possible charges, and public health nurses are tracing contacts the individual had. City officials are advising anyone who attended gatherings in Ketchikan where social distancing wasn’t followed or if someone who recently traveled was in attendance to consider self-quarantining for 14 days and to get tested if symptoms like a cough, fever or difficulty breathing develop.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix:Cases of an inflammatory illness that’s associated with COVID-19 and affects children and young adults have been identified in Arizona. Officials with Phoenix-based Banner Health confirmed they have seen a few Arizona cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. MIS-C illness is rare, said Dr. David Moromisato, chief medical officer for Banner Desert and Cardon Children’s medical centers in Mesa. Still, it’s important for parents, children and their loved ones to know the signs, because when it does occur, MIS-C can be extremely serious and is potentially fatal, said Moromisato, a pediatric ICU physician. The illness mostly tends to affect young children and teens, although the age range of patients is from about 2 to young adulthood, early evidence is showing. Different body parts can become inflamed with MIS-C, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs. Researchers have said that children who get the MIS-C illness might never have been sick with COVID-19, although the majority appear to have been infected with it at some point, and about 25% have active COVID-19 infection. The MIS-C could be a postinfection inflammatory response. Although children appear to be good at fighting off COVID-19 illness, some of them might be having severe immune responses to the virus that makes them ill. If a child has a fever, red eyes, cracked lips, and they are having vomiting and diarrhea, parents should seek medical attention, Moromisato said. The earlier the intervention for MIS-C, the better, he said. “Even though we feel that children are not affected (by COVID-19), I think that it’s still important for us to be appropriately socially distancing, not just adults and the elderly, but children,” he said.\n\nArkansas\n\nPine Bluff:Whole Nêdz Inc. and ACCESS Inc. will give away COVID-19 supplies to caregivers and other essential workers from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at Saracen Landing. ACCESS, Inc. will also be giving away 100 bags to youth in the community, according to a news release. This event will be drive-through only entering Saracen Landing from Pullen Street to adhere to guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Whole Nêdz is a nonprofit designed to educate the community on situations that can lead to grief and loss. ACCESS is a teen pregnancy prevention agency which has served youth since 1978, according to the release. This event is funded by contributions of the Pine Bluff Community Foundation and local churches. For more information, call Angela Roby at Whole Nêdz at (870) 267-5822 or Annie Jasper at ACCESS t (870) 535-1302..\n\nCalifornia\n\nPalm Springs:Riverside County has been placed on the California Department of Public Health’s “targeted engagement list” – effectively a watch list – because the number of new coronavirus cases over the previous two weeks had spiked, the positive-test rate was up in the past week and the increase in hospitalizations over the past three days exceeded acceptable state guidelines. “We continuously pore over the data and go over potential driving factors with the state,” said Brooke Federico, a Riverside County spokeswoman. “However, everyone must continue to do their part by wearing a face covering, keeping six feet of distance from others and frequently washing their hands to slow the spread of the disease.” Local officials knew this could be coming. The county had been struggling to maintain its numbers since early June, reporting a total of 12,778 cumulative cases on Friday, a 25% increase from 10 days prior. Riverside County has two weeks from the day it was placed on the list – June 17 – to show progress in controlling the transmission of the coronavirus or the state will recommend that the county health department reinstate some stricter stay-at-home rules and business closures. If there is still no progress after that, the state can step in and take its own actions within the county. Riverside County already narrowly avoided being placed on the list in early June because of a concerning increase in hospitalizations two days in a row. However, the county was not placed on the list because that number fell back to an acceptable level on the third day. A county does not get placed on the watch list unless it misses a metric three days in a row. That same week, Riverside County allowed partial Stage 3 reopening, which gave the green light for gyms and fitness centers to restart operations on June 12. Nail salons and tattoo parlors got the go-ahead on June 19 – two days after the county was placed on the watch list.\n\nColorado\n\nFort Collins:Bars in Colorado can now reopen after a relaxation of restrictions meant to stave off the novel coronavirus went into effect Thursday. Bar occupancy is now limited to 25% or 50 people, whichever is lower, according to the a public health order from Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Outdoor bar service limits can also resume with approval from local officials. Previously, taprooms and wineries could open if they offered food from a licensed retail food establishment on-site and followed the state’s restaurant guidelines for proper table spacing, mask usage and sanitation procedures. The new order also allows restaurants to open at 50% capacity or 50 people, whichever is lower, as long as tables are 6 feet apart. Rules already in effect in Larimer County allowed restaurants to open at 30% capacity or up to 60% capacity if the additional seating is in an outdoor space. Extra-large sites, defined as 7,200 square feet or more, can accommodate more people, up to 100, depending on the results of an occupancy calculator for indoor events. Find the full guidelines for bars and restaurants at https://covid19.colorado.gov/safer-at-home/restaurants-food-services.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford:The Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters program has given free smartphones to 100 children, part of a new virtual mentoring model the organization implemented at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Using a Virtual Mentoring Toolkit, children and their “Bigs” can undertake joint activities and virtual tours, explore science, math and reading, play games and stay in close touch. “For many of them, a smartphone is their only way of really connecting with their mentors,” said Andy Fleischmann, president and CEO of Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters. “In this period of uncertainty and disconnection, keeping the vulnerable kids in our program in contact with their Big Brothers and Sisters – as well as other nurturing people in their lives – is tremendously important.” AT&T donated the new devices, along with two months of free service. Officials hope children will also be able to use them for distance learning during the school year. Between Nutmeg’s three programs (Community-Based, Site-Based and Foster Grandparent Program), it serves about 1,300 children. Brian Kelly, of Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters, said that officials have about 600 matches statewide.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington:Delaware Park opened its 83rd season of racing on June 17, long delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, and the thoroughbreds galloping around the Stanton oval were a welcome sight. Wagering could be done outside at betting windows or computer terminals, or inside the clubhouse. A total of $2,978,879 was wagered on Delaware Park races that day. When Delaware Park opened two years ago, also on a Wednesday, the handle was $2,087,072. “A lot of people have dealt with change the last three months,” said jockey Trevor McCarthy, “and everybody’s just kind of happy to be back and we’ll do whatever it takes to be back.” The pandemic led to the cancellation of the spring high school sports season. College athletics were halted for good in mid-March. Other First State spring staples, such as Wilmington Blue Rocks minor-league baseball and the NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway, have also been absent.Some youth sports were able to kick off last week, including the Delaware Baseball Group college and high school leagues. But the 10-race card on June 17, which featured the $100,000 Obeah Stakes for fillies and mares 3 years old and up, was a sign of sports normalcy.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington:The District officially moves to Phase 2 of reopening on Monday after seeing 13 days of a sustained decline in coronavirus cases, WUSA-TV reported. Starting Tuesday, residents will be able to enter the DMV to conduct driver’s licenses services, vehicle registrations and knowledge tests by appointment only. All documents that expired on or after March 1 are still valid until mid-September, so there is no need to rush to the DMV, Mayor Muriel Bowser said. To set up an appointment, click here. All playgrounds across the District will also reopen effective Monday. According to the latest data, the District has now been on a long-term downward trend since May 21. The District has also expanded its testing in neighborhoods and has begun offering free walk-up testing at firehouses from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. D.C. Fire and EMS Chief Gregory Dean said the testing outside the firehouses has been going smoothly. The city has 200 contact tracers and wants an additional 100 by June 30, Bowser said.\n\nFlorida\n\nSt. Petersburg: More than 100,000 people in Florida have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, state health officials reported Monday, as public health officials reissued advisories urging social distancing and mask wearing. Some businesses have begun reevaluating their decisions to reopen amid the spike in cases reported by the state health department on its website. More than 3,100 people in Florida have died from COVID-19. Over the weekend, Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the Health Department to reissue advisories urging Floridians to consider wearing masks to help keep the virus from spreading and to refrain from attending gatherings of more than 50 people. Despite the rise in new infections, the governor has not signaled any intention of retreating from reopening the state. Three months of business closures have left hundreds of thousands of people out of work and disrupted the day-to-day lives of Floridians.\n\nGeorgia\n\nSavannah:Houses of worship should remain closed for services at this time, according to recommendations from the Savannah Faith Task Force. The task force was formed earlier this year by Mayor Van Johnson as part of efforts to include faith leaders in the fight against the spread of COVID-19. Representatives from the task force joined with Johnson last week to release their latest recommendations. Johnson said the task force had three virtual meetings with more thnan 100 local faith leaders attending. “It’s been a difficult time for many of us and a trying time for most of us, but the faith community has come together in ways that I’ve never seen before,” Rabbi Robert Haas of Congregation Mickve Israel said. Following those meetings, which included input from Coastal Health Director Dr. Lawton Davis, the task force is recommending houses of worship remain closed for services until a vaccine is found or there is a “drastic plummet” in the number of cases. If congregations wish to open against the recommendations, the Savannah Faith Task Force said it hopes they recommended protocals by the task force, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Mayor Johnson Virtual Clergy Discussions. “We talked a good bit about if you open you have to take everyone’s temperature, make sure everyone has masks, the bathrooms are cleaned after every use, make sure there is plenty of hand sanitizer and ensure there is no singing, because if you sing you have to be 30 feet apart,” Haas said. “You have to ensure people are spaced, and if someone starts coughing in the middle of a service, what are you going to do?”\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: A coalition of Hawaii nonprofit organizations and social service agencies has urged state lawmakers to enact widespread protections for renters in anticipation of a wave of evictions because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The group of more than 50 organizations said it expects evictions to occur after the $600 weekly federal supplement increase to state unemployment payments expires at the end of July, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Sunday. The coalition that includes the Office of Hawaiian Affairs urged the state Legislature to address the predicted rental crisis when lawmakers convene beginning Monday. The organizations called for policies to minimize the threat of mass evictions across the islands – including the extension of a state prohibition on evictions for months after the pandemic ends, a landlord subsidy program, and a tax credit or deduction for landlords based on reductions in rent. The coalition also recommended instituting a mandatory mediation process to settle landlord and tenant disputes and expunging eviction records if the actions were based in part on back rent or late fees accrued during the pandemic. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that close to 20% of Hawaii’s households have been unable to make housing payments or have little or no confidence they can make upcoming rent or mortgage payments.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: Idaho is experiencing a sharp increase in confirmed coronavirus cases, with 544 new cases reported in a five-day span. That brings the state’s total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to more than 4,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University total. Gov. Brad Little ordered a statewide stay-at-home order in late March, and those restrictions have been gradually lifted over the last several weeks. The state is in the fourth and final stage of Little’s reopening plan, with gatherings of more than 50 people allowed. However, the numbers of people becoming infected have climbed as more businesses reopened and more people resumed normal activity levels. One outbreak in the Boise area was tied to young people going to downtown bars as they reopened. Health districts in the Twin Falls region and in eastern Idaho have all seen a recent increase in COVID-19 cases in people under the age of 50, Boise State Public Radio reported. Little has repeatedly said that he would consider renewing some restrictions if cases spike in order to prevent Idaho’s health care system from becoming overwhelmed. But last week he suggested any such decisions could be made on a regional, rather than statewide, basis.\n\nIllinois\n\nWaukegan: You can’t use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse not to get married anymore – at least not in Lake County. The 19th Judicial Circuit Court suspended marriages and civil unions in March to protect the health of the public but it was scheduled to start officiating weddings and civil unions – virtually – on Monday. The only requirement for the general public is that at least one member of the couple getting married be a Lake County resident. All active-duty members of the military are also eligible. To have a judge officiate at a virtual wedding, couples must call the county clerk’s office to set up an appointment to apply for a marriage license and then visit the clerk of the local circuit court to pay $10 in cash on the day the license is issued. Couples can go to the Remote Court Hearings section of the 19th Judicial Circuit website for wedding instructions. Even though the wedding is virtual, both members of the couple are required to be somewhere in Lake County during the ceremony.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: Indiana doctors have been providing remote care to patients since clinics have closed and government mandated orders have kept people at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The health system is starting to look much different as facilities shift to telemedicine, which allows doctors to meet with patients through video conferencing software, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported. Some doctors said it can speed up diagnosis and treatment. IU Health, the state’s largest hospital system, said its doctors have conducted about 80,000 telemedicine visits this year, a 10,000% increase since the pandemic hit the state in March. Other health care facilities have also seen increases in telemedicine. Ascension St. Vincent said it had 109,000 appointments in April and May, up from about 1,000 in March. Community Health Network said it has conducted nearly 90% of its patient visits by video or phone during the shutdown. Dr. William Bennett, who has an office at Riley Hospital for Children, said nearly three-quarters of his patient visits are now conducted by telemedicine.\n\nIowa\n\nIowa City:Amid uncertainty of whether college football games will be played this fall, and how many fans would be allowed to attend, the University of Iowa said Monday it will pause ticket sales at the end of the month. Only fans who have renewed their season ticket orders and paid per-seat contributions by June 30 will be included in any potential Kinnick Stadium seating plans, the university said. By halting ticket orders, the university can take some time to figure out how seating will look at Kinnick before the scheduled Sept. 5 season opener against Northern Iowa. As a result, new sales of the digital season pass, mini-plans and single-games ticket sales will be put on hold. Football tickets typically generate about $23 million a year for the university, roughly 20% of its athletic department budget. If the 2020 season is disrupted, the university said it will provide future credit or ticket refunds.\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: Embattled Kansas Labor Secretary Delia Garcia resigned Monday amid escalating problems with the state’s unemployment insurance caseload and a record number of jobless claims. Gov. Laura Kelly announced she had accepted Garcia’s resignation and appointed the governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff Ryan Wright to serve in an acting role until a permanent candidate is nominated. The governor said she would take action to address the volume of claims for unemployment insurance, including bringing in specialists to determine how to improve response times for unemployment insurance and implementing new ways to manage the caseload and mitigate backlogs and errors. On June 10, duplicate payments totaling $7 million were made to more than 4,500 claimants of pandemic unemployment assistance and compensation programs. Without consulting the governor, the Labor Department on Thursday began reversing those duplicate payments, a process known as clawback, that caused some bank accounts to be overdrawn. The state Labor Department is working to identify and reimburse people whose accounts were overdrawn. Some Republican lawmakers last month called for Garcia’s ouster, saying she had mismanaged the agency so badly that thousands of people were denied prompt payment of unemployment benefits. But the governor steadfastly defended Garcia, noting the state unexpectedly went from record low to record high unemployment rates when the economy shut down to slow spread of the novel coronavirus. The state’s 40-year-old computer system was unable to keep up with the claims.\n\nKentucky\n\nLouisville:The city will benefit from an Accelerator for America grant to help people who have taken financial blows during the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Greg Fischer’s office said. The $50,000 grant will add to the assistance provided through the One Louisville COVID-19 Response Fund, which provides financial relief to eligible people. “One of the many inspiring actions we’ve witnessed during the pandemic is the support and compassion for neighbors in need,” Fischer said in a statement. “This grant from Accelerator for America will provide an additional boost to get much needed support into the hands of residents seeking rental, utility or food assistance.” Louisville is one of 10 communities to receive the grant. The others are Atlanta; Connecticut; Rhode Island; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dayton, Ohio; Birmingham, Alabama; Oklahoma City; Salt Lake City; and Austin, Texas. Accelerator for America was founded in 2017, according to its website, and “finds and develops solutions to economic insecurity and shares them with cities to create national change from the ground up.”\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: State health regulators have tied at least 100 cases of the new coronavirus to bars near Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and report a new cluster of the illness in the Orleans Parish area. The state Department of Public Health said Friday that bars in an area near the campus called Tigerland are believed to be a major contributor to the outbreak. Anyone who visited bars in that area recently should consider themselves exposed and should self-quarantine for 14 days. People should monitor for symptoms including fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea and diarrhea, the health department said. At least three bars – JL’s Place, Reggie’s and Fred’s – have employees who have tested positive for COVID-19, the businesses’ owners told WAFB-TV. Louisiana Department of Health spokeswoman Mindy Faciane confirmed an outbreak investigation is underway involving JL’s Place and Reggie’s Bar. Meanwhile, the owner of Fred’s confirms two of his employees have tested positive for the virus. He said each is recovering at home. In New Orleans, health officials are investigating a new cluster of COVID-19 that is likely linked to a high school graduation party. Health care professionals said they have seen an increase in positive cases at New Orleans mobile testing sites, indicating a possible increase in community spread. Statewide, numbers are rising too. As of Saturday, the state reported 49,385 cases of the disease with almost 3,000 deaths.\n\nMaine\n\nHoulton: Four ambulance crew members and at least two others in the Houlton area tested positive for the novel coronavirus after having contact with a person who exhibited no symptoms, the Maine Center for Disease Control said. Two separate ambulance crews transported the patient first to a hospital in Houlton and then to a hospital in Bangor, the Maine CDC said. The patient tested positive during a routine screening before undergoing surgery at Northern Lights Eastern Maine Medical Center. All four Houlton Ambulance Service crew members tested positive for the virus, as did two others who were close in contact with the crew members or the patient, the Maine CDC said Sunday. In Fort Fairfield, about 50 miles away, the police chief announced Sunday that five members of the town’s fire department and one police officer might have been exposed to the virus during a training exercise It’s unknown if it was related to the Houlton case.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: More than 200 Maryland companies and nonprofits have supported their communities’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday. Companies have helped in ways from sewing face masks, manufacturing personal protective equipment and delivering meals to front-line workers. The businesses include technology firms, local boutiques, restaurants, hotels and biotechnology companies. At least 35 breweries, distilleries, wineries and vineyards have produced hand sanitizer or donated to COVID-19 relief funds, the governor’s office said. More than 20 biotechnology and health care companies are contributing to the global effort to develop tests, vaccines, and treatments.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: Restaurants were allowed to start offering indoor dining again, and close-contact businesses including nail salons, tattoo parlors and personal trainers could reopen Monday under the latest phase of Massachusetts’s coronavirus pandemic economic recovery plan. In addition, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was cranking up service again, allowing more people to return to their offices, which are limited to 50% capacity under Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening plan. Restaurants opening their indoor dining areas must space tables at least 6 feet apart, but bars, unattended buffets and self-serve drink stations will remain closed for now. Parties are limited to a maximum of six people. Workers are required to wear face coverings and must wash or sanitize their hands between table visits. Employees of close-contact businesses as well as their customers are also required to wear masks, and frequently touched surfaces must be cleaned regularly. Personal trainers can see clients by appointment only, and only one person at a time, or two if they are from the same household. After boosting subway and bus service Sunday, the MBTA also increased commuter rail and ferry service Monday. Face coverings will be required on buses, trains and ferries.\n\nMichigan\n\nAnn Arbor:The fall term at the University of Michigan will open Aug. 31 with a mix of remote learning and in-person classes at the Ann Arbor campus, the school said Monday in its latest response to the coronavirus pandemic. Residence halls will be open, but there will be an emphasis on boxed meals and fewer people in dining rooms. The pandemic has been “substantially contained” in Michigan and other parts of the U.S., although the potential for new infections will continue until a vaccine or drug regimen is developed, said university President Mark Schlissel, who is also a medical doctor. Large classes will be held online, small classes will meet in-person and other classes will be a mix of both. “Some students will choose or need to take all their classes remotely, and we’ll provide a robust set of fully remote classes that will enable most students to make that choice,” Schlissel said. There will be no in-person classes after Thanksgiving. Instruction and final exams from Nov. 30 to Dec. 18 will be conducted remotely. The winter term will start on Jan. 19.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Cloud:Four more Minnesotans died of COVID-19, according to the Monday report from the Department of Health. That is the lowest daily total since April 13, when the daily count was zero and the total death count was 70.The state reported 308 new cases Monday, including three in Stearns County, one in Sherburne and one in Benton County. That makes 2,137 cases in Stearns, 276 in Sherburne and 202 in Benton. There re no new deaths from COVID-19 reported in those three counties. The number of people who tested positive for the novel coronavirus reached 33,227 in the state on Monday, and 1,384 people have died, according to the MDH. And 29,065 coronavirus patients no longer need isolation. As of Monday 156 COVID-19 patients in the state were in intensive care and 176 others were hospitalized.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson:Ashlee Smith, chief executive officer of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation, said the conservation organization will not hold its traditional Mississippi Wildlife Extravaganza because of COVID-19 response guidelines requiring events at convention centers to be limited to 25% of capacity with seating requirements. The event was scheduled for July 24-26. “These guidelines, coupled with the events of the 2019 boycott, have led us to the difficult decision that we need to take a ‘timeout’ from our traditional extravaganza format,” Smith said. “We do plan to host some historic components of the extravaganza live in an outside setting, if the CDC guidelines on COVID allow.” The cause of the boycott was the organization’s one-time position against the Yazoo Backwater Pumps, which were a part of a federal plan to alleviate flooding in the south Delta. But it drew severe backlash from the public following months of flooding in the Delta that displaced families, killed wildlife, destroyed homes and prevented farming in 2019. Attendance at the 2019 event dropped significantly. The federation has since stated it will support the pumps if new data shows wetlands won’t be harmed by them.\n\nMissouri\n\nO’Fallon: A rural area of Missouri’s far southwestern corner is seeing a big spike in coronavirus cases, driving a record increase in cases in the state. Missouri reported 389 new cases on Saturday, but that was topped by the 413 new cases reported Sunday – the highest one-day total since the pandemic began. More than half of those new cases came from one county. The McDonald County Health Department announced 235 new cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, bringing its total to 473. Although the county has just 23,000 residents, only six counties and the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City have confirmed more cases in Missouri. McDonald County Health Department Director Paige Behm said the big increase is the result, in part, of testing at two poultry plants, one operated by Tyson Foods in Noel and the other operated by Simmons Foods in Southwest City. But Behm said the cases extend beyond workers at the plants. “It’s people from all over the community,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s all Tyson or all Simmons.” Behm said the big increase is “very concerning, but I think it’s important that we’ve done a lot of testing to identify, isolate and contact trace so we can kind of see what’s going on in the community. But it’s more widespread than we realized.” Missouri’s health director, Randall Williams, said last week that all 1,400 workers at the Tyson plant were being testing. The state has not released the results of those tests. An email message left with a Simmons spokesman was not immediately returned. McDonald County sits at the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Although the number of positive tests has risen dramatically, few people are requiring hospitalization. Mercy Hospital Joplin, the largest hospital in the region, has just seven patients with COVID-19, spokesman Jordan Larimore said.\n\nMontana\n\nBozeman: Tourist spending in and around Yellowstone National Park supported about 7,000 jobs in 2019, according to a National Park Service report released last week. The roughly 4 million people who visited the world’s first national park in 2019 spent $507 million dollars in towns within 60 miles of the park. That doesn’t include Bozeman, which is about 80 miles from Yellowstone’s border, but does include gateway cities West Yellowstone and Gardiner. “The positive economic impacts of Yellowstone are essential to the economies of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho,” said Cam Sholly, Yellowstone superintendent, in the release. “It is important that we continue working with our state and local partners to balance the many benefits of tourism with our continued efforts to protect the world-class resources within the park.” Yellowstone was closed on March 24 for seven weeks this spring to curb the spread of COVID-19. Its Wyoming entrances opened in mid-May and Montana entrances opened June 1. The closure at the beginning of the summer season hurt gateway businesses, but traffic at the park has been steady since its reopening.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: Nebraska confirmed another 103 coronavirus cases Sunday but no new deaths, according to state health officials. The new cases brings the total known number to 17,810 in the state since the pandemic began. Officials have confirmed 244 virus-related deaths.\n\nNevada\n\nReno:The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles said it temporarily suspended driving tests because of concerns over spreading the novel coronavirus. The announcement that all noncommercial skills tests are suspended came after an examiner at the West Flamingo office in Las Vegas tested positive for the virus. The examiner did not report for work on Wednesday after feeling ill and subsequently tested positive for the virus, the DMV said. On June 15 and June 16, the DMV said, the examiner conducted tests while wearing personal protective equipment that included a face shield, mask, gloves and gown. “We’re taking this brief pause to reevaluate our protocols. Even though our examiners have been wearing personal protective equipment, the driver and the examiner sit in close proximity during a test. We must continue to put the safety of the public and our employees first,” DMV Director Julie Butler said. Driving tests were expected to resume Monday with the added precaution that drivers will also be required to wear a mask. Before the suspension, masks were recommended for drivers but not required, the DMV said. Appointment services were also expected to resume Monday at DMV offices in Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City and Henderson.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: The state capital is seeing more use of fireworks by private residents than typical, as the coronavirus pandemic has canceled dozens of planned celebrations. New Hampshire had more than 100 fireworks shows last year and about a third that many are scheduled this year, the Concord Monitor reported. Most of those have happened already. The city of Concord is seeing more complaints about fireworks use this year, Police Chief Brad Osgood said. Purchasing fireworks is relatively easy in New Hampshire. Osgood said exercising safety is important.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: Salons, barber shops, and massage and tattoo parlors in New Jersey reopened Monday from their COVID-19 pause. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy also announced on Monday that Atlantic City’s casinos would be cleared to reopen on July 2 at 25% capacity. The governor also said that indoor dining would resume the same day, also at 25% capacity. Those are the latest businesses authorized to reopen since the outbreak hit the state in early March. Murphy’s executive order requires that masks be worn inside these businesses and for service to be by appointment only. Murphy has moved the state into Stage 2 of three. He has not said when the third stage would begin.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nAlbuquerque: New Mexico’s largest airport has enlisted a robot to help with cleaning in the age of the coronavirus pandemic. KOAT-TV reported that Albuquerque International Sunport is employing an autonomous robot to sanitize spaces in the airport. Airport officials said the robot, dubbed Breezy One, will be employed every night. The device came from Build with Robotics and Fetch Robotics. Fetch Robotics officials said it decontaminates spaces of mover than 100,000 square feet in under two hours. The robot uses a disinfectant developed at Sandia National Labs.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany:New York could team with New Jersey and Connecticut to require travelers from states with high COVID-19 transmission rates to isolate upon their arrival, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday. Cuomo last week threatened to impose a mandatory quarantine order on travelers from Florida, which is seeing thousands of newly confirmed coronavirus cases each day as New York continues to see declines in hospitalizations and deaths. The Democratic governor offered more detail Monday, saying he has been in discussion with his neighboring states about issuing travel guidance that would mandate a quarantine when someone arrives from any state with a high COVID-19 transmission rate – not just Florida. \"I would consider states with the highest transmission rate, that if somebody comes from that state to New York, then there’s a period of quarantine where they quarantine themselves to make sure they’re not spreading,\" Cuomo said Monday on CNN. Cuomo's comments come three months after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis imposed a similar order on travelers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, mandating they quarantine for 14 days upon their arrival in Florida.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nMarshall:The Madison County Health Department has scheduled another free drive-thru testing event open to all, regardless of their home county or whether they show symptoms, for Wednesday on Blannahassett Island in Marshall from 3 p.m. 5 p.m. Although County Health Director Tammy Cody anticipated the Marshall event would be the county’s busiest yet, she said health department staff would be ready. “We’ve streamlined consent forms and figured out little things after each testing event to have things move smoothly,” she said.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: Field hospitals set up in North Dakota in preparation for a spike in coronavirus cases have been disassembled. Hundreds of cots and medical supplies were put in place at the University of Mary Fieldhouse in Bismarck and at the Fargodome early this spring in case regular hospitals weren’t able to handle all the coronavirus cases. About two dozen people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in North Dakota, well below the state’s hospital bed capacity. The Bismarck Tribune reported state officials said the cots are in storage and could be reassembled in as little as 48 hours, if needed. State health officials on Monday confirmed 25 new cases of the coronavirus, including seven in Sioux County and five in Cass County. A total of 284 cases are active, down 17 from the previous day. No new deaths were reported.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: The state continued Monday to defend its right to impose normal signature requirements on ballot issue campaigns amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, Republican Attorney General Dave Yost’s attorneys argued that a lower court judge who had temporarily relaxed the rules effectively “rewrote Ohio’s Constitution and Revised Code.” The state also argued that changing signature-gathering rules now would lead to “last-minute confusion” and the possible wrongful passage of issues this fall. U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. set up the more flexible rules in a May 19 decision. They would have allowed campaigns promoting minimum wage, voting rights and marijuana issues to collect signatures electronically. Sargus had also extended the deadline for submitting signatures by about a month, to July 31. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked those less restrictive rules from kicking in. Justices have been asked to decide whether failing to accommodate ballot campaigns during the time of COVID-19 violates their constitutional right to access Ohio’s ballot. A decision by the justices will no longer help what was the most high-profile of Ohio’s fall ballot campaigns. Ohioans for Safe and Secure Elections, which advanced election-law changes aiming to make voting easier, suspended its campaign last week as its protracted fight to proceed with the effort neared the June 30 filing deadline. Other parties to the case are Ohioans for Raising the Wage, which seeks a statewide vote to raise the state minimum wage from $8.70 to $13 over five years, and backers of placing marijuana decriminalization measures on more than a dozen town and village ballots across the state.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: A day after President Donald Trump held a campaign rally at an indoor arena in the city of Tulsa, the Oklahoma State Department of Health urged anyone who has recently attended a large-scale event to be tested for the novel coronavirus. The department did not specify any event in its news release sent late Sunday. Nearly 6,200 people attended Trump’s rally at Tulsa’s BOK Center on Saturday night. The campaign did not require attendees to wear face masks to guard against the spread of the virus. And just hours before the rally began, the campaign announced that six staffers had tested positive. The state health department recommends that people take a test before and after attending such events and encourages participants to wear face masks and practice social distancing. The Trump campaign handed out masks to attendees as they arrived, but the majority did not wear one, including the president.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem:Marion County moved into Phase 2 of reopening on Friday; but on Monday, it had its highest number of new coronavirus cases since the pandemic hit in March. The county reported 51 new cases on Monday, setting a record for highest number of new cases and topping the previous high of 37 on May 9. According to Marion County data, the 51 cases came from the 540 tests results returned Sunday, a positive test rate of 9%. The county has had 1,352 total cases and 35 deaths, including one new death announced Monday. A 90-year-old woman in Marion County tested positive on June 18 and died later. Her exact date of death has not yet been made available. The state continued to report high numbers of new cases in the past few days as more counties across the state reopened, with 206 on Friday, 178 on Saturday and 190 on Sunday. Marion County Commissioner Kevin Cameron said a message he received indicated that many of the positive tests were linked to a long-term care facility and the former NORPAC facility on Madrona Ave. in Salem. That facility, which is now owned by Lineage Logistics, was the source of an outbreak between June 5 and June 8 when 11 people tested positive for the virus, according to the Oregon Health Authority. And the message he received indicated more positive test results are anticipated in the coming days.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nChester: Delaware County residents 18 years old or over can get a free coronavirus test outside of City Hall from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Those who have health insurance are asked to bring their insurance card. People seeking a test are asked to wear a mask and can drive through or walk up to the testing site.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: State Rep. Camille Vella-Wilkinson, D-Warwick, has introduced legislation that would make Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings essential and allow them to be held in person during the coronavirus pandemic and other declared emergencies. “The services provided by Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are not only essential, they are necessary for the public health,” Vella-Wilkinson said in a statement Monday. “During the pandemic, AA meetings were designated as a social gathering rather than an essential service, while liquor stores were considered essential and permitted to remain open.” Vella-Wilkinson noted that many people are court-ordered to attend AA meetings. “To consider this service as nonessential when the results can be devastating is not only absurd, it’s reckless,” she said. The bill would also mandate that adequate measures be made to provide the services safely.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: An organizer of protests against racial injustice in South Carolina is urging people who participated in recent events to get tested for the new coronavirus. The call from Lawrence Nathaniel of the group I Can’t Breathe SC comes after several group leaders and attendees tested positive, South Carolina news outlets reported. Nathaniel posted a Facebook video Saturday about the danger of COVID-19 to those protesting in the state. Nathaniel said four of his group’s leaders, three photographers and six protesters recently tested positive for the virus. He said testing is vital in light of the state’s recent surge in coronavirus cases. Nathaniel said his group will cancel protests until they’re able to work out a safe way of assembling. Other protesters should be careful about joining protests until they’re sure they’re not spreading the virus, he said. Events canceled include a Sunday art project on Main Street in Columbia called Chalk the Streets, The State reported. Nathaniel said 12 of the artists scheduled to work on specific portions of the project backed out last Sunday morning, including two who contacted him at 2 a.m. to inform him they tested positive for COVID-19. Nathaniel told The Post and Courier Gov. Henry McMaster should “do everything in order to keep the citizens here safe.” For him, the Post and Courier reported, that means a return to a statewide lockdown.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: Gov. Kristi Noem said she will be sending $200 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to city and county governments, but warned the economic impact of the pandemic could last for years. The Republican governor visited the state’s largest city, Sioux Falls, to explain that cities and counties will be able to access the funds based on their population. That means Sioux Falls city leaders can get up to $41.5 million reimbursed for what they spend on addressing the coronavirus. The state has received $1.25 billion from the federal government as part of a relief package for the pandemic, part of which the governor is still hoping can be used to make up losses in tax revenue from the economic downturn. Noem said she was concerned businesses and tax revenue could be hurt in the long-term by the pandemic, especially after federal relief sent to businesses and individuals dries up. “We’re going to start to see the real impact of this virus in the coming days, and we could feel it for up to one to two years,” Noem said. She has said that the state budget that will end on June 30 looks to be in good shape, but that a special legislative session might be called in August to reshape the state’s budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. The governor will be touring the state this week, visiting some of the larger cities to dole out the funds. Her visits come amid what Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken called an “appetite, at least in Sioux Falls, for us to get the cash registers ringing again.”\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: The city entered another phase of reopening Monday amid a rise in the trend of new COVID-19 cases, but officials said the city will stay in the phase for at least a month. The move comes as Tennessee collectively has seen its new cases of COVID-19 trend upward. The state on Friday reported its biggest single-day increase in positive cases since the pandemic began in March. Nashville’s third phase notably allows event spaces and small music venues to operate at half-capacity, or up to 250 attendees, while bars can open at half-capacity. The remaining closed metro parks and facilities, including playgrounds and basketball courts, can reopen, and camps can operate at full capacity with social distancing. Schools can also open with restrictions. In moving forward, Mayor John Cooper cited Nashville’s testing capacity, contract tracing levels and adequate hospital beds. The phases originally were meant to last two weeks each, though the second phase lasted a month.\n\nTexas\n\nAustin:Although calling the rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations “unacceptable,” Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said he has no plans to shut down the state again. “We must find ways to return to our daily routines as well as finding ways to coexist with COVID-19,” Abbott said in a news conference. “Closing down Texas again will always be the last option.” His remarks come a day after Texas set its 10th consecutive record for COVID-19 hospitalizations, with state health officials reporting 3,409 patients in Texas hospitals Sunday. The percentage of tests that come back positive has also continued to increase. The state’s seven-day rolling average rate of positive cases reached 8.8% over the weekend. The rolling rate is calculated by taking a week’s worth of new COVID-19 cases and dividing it by the total tests performed in those seven days. Public health experts said that ideally that number should stay below 6%. “To state the obvious, COVID-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas,” Abbott said, adding the state can do a number of things to slow down increases in certain parts of the state. “It must be corralled.” It was a change in tone for Abbott, who up until his Monday news conference, had insisted that much of the state’s COVID-19 case increases came from batches of additional reporting in certain areas. Although noting that hospitalizations have more than doubled since Memorial Day, Abbott still insisted that Texas hospitals can continue to manage the current rise in cases. “If we were to experience another doubling of those numbers over the next month, that would mean we are in an urgent situation,” which would require new restrictions for the state, Abbott said.\n\nUtah\n\nSt. George:A letter from Washington County School District Superintendent Larry Bergeson is causing some local parents to consider whether they would rather send their children to school in the fall wearing masks or keep them home for online instruction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends wearing face cloth coverings in public settings to help slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. Additionally, state epidemiologist Angela Dunn said at a recent media event that in situations like buses, masks are beneficial. Dunn said it will be up to local education agencies whether wearing a mask will be mandated. \"Wearing masks is a simple safety measure than can protect our neighbors,\" said parent Brandon Bonewell, who's planning on sending his children to school if masks are required. \"We all know that kids aren't great at covering their coughs or keeping their fingers out of their noses. A mask will automatically cover that cough and block that finger. ... It's a small inconvenience that may save a few lives.\" St. George resident Rebecca Bushnell said she \"absolutely (does) not support children going back to school wearing masks. ... Watching people wear masks has been a bit of a joke with them either wearing them inappropriately or (constantly) adjusting, which causes cross contamination.\" If masks are required to return to school, her children will be learning online, she said.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: The Legislature hopes to give final approval this week to a state budget for the first quarter of the fiscal year that begins July 1. Lawmakers are also wrapping up legislation to allocate about $1 billion in federal money designed to help the state respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson said Monday. The plan is for lawmakers to return in August when they will have more information about state revenue and potential federal assistance to pass a budget for the rest of the fiscal year that runs through June 30, 2021, she said Monday. “There is no way we could pass a straight-faced budget right now,” said Johnson, a Democrat. “We just don’t have enough information.” The pandemic prompted the federal government to delay this year’s tax deadline until next month, which means Vermont won’t have a clear revenue picture until after taxes are filed. Johnson said they hoped that by August there will be more information about about what, if any, additional federal assistance might be available to help states make up losses caused by the pandemic. Lawmakers in the House and Senate are wrapping up legislation to allocate almost $1 billion of the $1.25 billion Vermont has received from the federal CARES Act, which is helping states respond to the pandemic. Under the terms of the CARES Act, states must spend the money by the end of the year on coronavirus-related projects that will have immediate benefit. It is separate from the regular state budget. Republican Gov. Phil Scott has criticized the Legislature for not moving faster to disperse the CARES Act funds.\n\nVirginia\n\nManassas: Federal workers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be going door to door in two northern Virginia cities to conduct a survey of needs related to the coronavirus pandemic. Manassas and Manassas Park have large Hispanic populations and on a per-capita basis have been some of the hardest-hit jurisdictions in the country with COVID-19 cases. CDC workers were expected to start going door-to-door Monday in the area with a 30-question survey conducted in Spanish. The city of Manassas said the survey will collect information designed to help local health officials understand what resources are needed in the community. The survey is voluntary and will not collect information that can be used to identify individuals.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: A Seattle hospital said four staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19 work in or near the facility’s operating rooms. A spokesperson for Virginia Mason Medical Center confirmed the positive tests occurred within the last week, The Seattle Times reported Sunday. After three employees tested positive for the virus, surveillance testing of more than 650 other staff members discovered one additional employee had developed COVID-19. Media-relations Manager Gale Robinette said in a statement that each staff member who tested positive has been treated and will remain at home for at least two weeks in accordance with guidelines issued by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. “We have not identified any risk of exposure to patients, as these team members were always wearing appropriate personal protective equipment while in their presence,” Robinette said. Robinette did not respond to questions concerning the number of patients those staff members came in contact with or whether the patients would be notified and tested.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: A coronavirus outbreak linked to a church in southern West Virginia has grown to at least 41 cases, officials said Monday. The caseload connected to the Graystone Baptist Church in Lewisburg increased after several tests came back positive over the weekend, Greenbrier County health officials said in a statement. The state has seen multiple outbreaks this month connected to church services and tourism travel to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Health officials are urging residents to wear face masks and follow safety precautions. Preston County has reported at least 26 cases stemming from trips to Myrtle Beach. Cabell and Kanawha counties have also reported spikes after residents traveled to the popular beach getaway. Republican Gov. Jim Justice has framed reopening as a process of managing risk and said the state can react to virus flare-ups as they emerge. He has lifted most virus restrictions. Sporting events with spectators resumed Monday and fairs can begin again on July 1, under the governor’s reopening plan.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: Reopening guidelines for Wisconsin schools released Monday make clear that big changes are in store if and when in-person classes resume. That includes teachers, staff and students wearing masks, classes with no more than 10 students at a time and schedules where buildings are open as few as two days a week, with the bulk of instruction continuing online only. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s 87-page guidance document, dubbed “Education Forward,” is not a mandate for Wisconsin’s 421 public school districts, 26 independent charter schools and 792 private schools. But it does provide a framework for schools to use as they plan for what instruction, both in the classroom and online, will look like in the fall amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “The next school year will be likely be different from the learning environment students and teachers have grown accustomed to,” state Superintendent Carolyn Stanford Taylor said in a statement. Flexibility will be key given that a vaccine for COVID-19 likely won’t be in broad circulation for 12 to 18 months, the recommendations said. The education department stressed that the guidance, the first comprehensive set of recommendations for reopening in the fall, will be ever-evolving as more is known. When schools reopen, it is likely that students and staff will be screened for symptoms; social distancing will be in effect in all settings; and there will be isolation and the timely removal of students and staff who are displaying symptoms, the guidelines said.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: Two people in Uinta County are in intensive care after contracting COVID-19 amid a coronavirus outbreak that continues to grow, the Casper Star-Tribune reported. The southwest Wyoming county recorded 17 new cases over the weekend, all but one of which came from the Evanston area, according to an announcement from Uinta County Public Health. That brings the county's total to 118. Three people have been hospitalized, two of which are still being treated. Both of those patients – one is over 60, the other is younger – are in intensive care.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2020/05/21/summer-camp-operation-haircut-thanking-meatpackers-news-around-states/111835398/", "title": "Summer camp, Operation Haircut: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: State Health Officer Scott Harris said Alabama’s coronavirus numbers are “not as good as we could hope for” as outbreaks continue. Harris said the trend in coronavirus numbers “depends which part of the state you are looking at.” Butler, Mobile, Marshall and Franklin counties are among the counties experiencing outbreaks, he said. Montgomery and Mobile are among the counties with large hospitalization numbers, he said. Harris urged people to continue to take precautions. “The whole country is moving toward opening up. Generally speaking, the health numbers by themselves warn us that we’ve got to be extremely careful,” Harris said. “If you are a senior, or if you have chronic health problems, it doesn’t matter whether the businesses are open again; you need to protect yourself. The danger has not gone away,” he said.\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: Gov. Mike Dunleavy will lift most restrictions put into place because of the coronavirus as of Friday. “It’s time to get Alaska back on its feet,” he said Tuesday. “Friday, we’re open for business across the state of Alaska.” Low case numbers and death totals in the huge but sparsely populated state led Dunleavy, a first-term Republican facing a recall effort, to his decision. Alaska has confirmed 399 COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths. All businesses, including bars and gyms, will be allowed to reopen without restrictions or capacity limits, as will churches, libraries and museums. Recreational and sports activities will also be allowed to resume. “It will all be open just like it was prior to the virus,” he said. There will be some guidelines in place: Alaskans will be advised to still practice social distancing, clean touch screens before use, stay home if sick and wear a face covering in public if near other people. And some communities may have different plans for reopening.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: The state is slowly reopening, but hospitals continue to see severely ill COVID-19 patients, and providers are bracing for another surge. Not only are health leaders preparing for a continuation of COVID-19 in Arizona and a possible surge of illness in the fall and winter, but they are also preparing for 2021, too. Unless a vaccine is ready, more COVID-19 illnesses could show up next spring. “My concern is that people might think that because the state is opening, that the virus has gone away. The virus is still here,” said Dr. Marjorie Bessel, the chief clinical officer for Banner Health, the state’s largest health system. “We have more than 400 people hospitalized right now in our system who are either COVID positive or under suspicion. We have 100 people on ventilators in that same category. ... The threat of the pandemic will not substantially go away for some time.”\n\nArkansas\n\nGreers Ferry: A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Tuesday confirmed the coronavirus was spread in a rural central Arkansas church in March when disregarding restrictions on large group gatherings. Among 92 attendees at Greers Ferry First Assembly of God during March 6-11, 35 (38%) developed laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, and three people died, the CDC report says. The highest attack rates were in persons ages 19-64 years (59%) and greater than 65 years (50%). An additional 26 cases linked to the church occurred in the community, including one death. Church member William Barton, 90, was among the first COVID-19 deaths in Arkansas, KARK in Little Rock reports. The Associated Press reported April 1 that the church had been accused of disregarding restrictions on large group gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nCalifornia\n\nTwentynine Palms: Joshua Tree National Park is slowly reopening after a lengthy closure to slow spread of the coronavirus. The park announced this week that it is using a phased approach. Park entrances, roads, parking lots, trails, individual campsites and most restrooms are open. Visitor centers and group campsites remain closed, and all campsite reservations made through the recreation.gov website are canceled. The park says all campsites are first-come, first-served until Sept. 4, and campers must pay as normal at each campground. All programs remain canceled. Recent years have seen a big increase in the popularity of Joshua Tree, which straddles the Mojave and Colorado deserts 140 miles east of Los Angeles. Spring and fall are the best times to visit. The rapidly approaching summer will bring scorching heat, intense sunlight and the need to drink at least a gallon of water a day.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: A judge on Monday ordered a mental health evaluation for a man who prosecutors said was heading to a protest against COVID-19 lockdown restrictions when FBI agents found pipe bombs in his home. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty ruled Bradley Bunn, a 53-year-old Army veteran, poses a danger to the community and ordered him to remain in custody while he awaits an evaluation. A defense attorney can renew a request for Bunn to be freed after the evaluation, the magistrate said. FBI agents searched Bunn’s Loveland, Colorado, home May 1 and allegedly found four pipe bombs. Bunn told investigators that he would “fight to the death” anyone who tried to disarm him, had started to “gear up” for a coming war and would be willing to “take out a few” officers to “wake everyone up,” a federal prosecutor said during a court hearing.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: Restaurants were allowed to begin offering service in outdoor dining areas Wednesday as part of the first phase of a statewide reopening, including in hard-hit Fairfield County on the New York state line. Gov. Ned Lamont and some eatery owners have said they will be wary of customers visiting from nearby sections of New York, where restaurants among other businesses remain closed. While infection rates have been declining, the southwestern part of the state was affected by an outbreak in the greater New York City area worse than any other in the country. Fairfield County has had 122 deaths associated with COVID-19 per every 100,000 residents, compared with 119 fatalities per 100,000 in Manhattan, according to state figures. Still, Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo said most people are looking forward to getting back at least a little sense of normalcy.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: Democratic Gov. John Carney on Tuesday announced a further loosening of his coronavirus restrictions on businesses, but Republican lawmakers are claiming Carney is moving too slowly and has abused his authority. Carney said retail establishments may start operating by appointment only Wednesday morning, and restaurants and bars can begin applying Friday to expand outdoor-seating capacity when those businesses reopen next month. Carney had previously announced that retailers and restaurants would be allowed to resume indoor operations at 30% of stated fire capacity starting June 1. Restrictions on swimming and sunbathing at beaches are scheduled to be lifted effective Friday evening, but Carney is facing increasing pressure to move faster. A group of 15 GOP lawmakers sent a letter to Carney, saying they “urge you in the strongest possible terms to give people and business owners back their freedom.”\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: A pilot program through the D.C. government is offering a helping hand to nonessential businesses that have been closed since March 24, WUSA-TV reports. With the district’s stay-at-home order extended through at least June 8, many local businesses are trying desperately to stay afloat. The Educational and Academic Retail Shops Pilot will grant waivers to certain nonessential businesses, such as bookstores, allowing for curbside and front-door pickup on orders placed in advance online or by phone. Those granted waivers through the EARS Pilot must agree to share certain data with the government to help them gain knowledge of how to safely reopen when businesses when stay-at-home orders are lifted. As of May 19, 14 businesses had been granted a COVID-19 EARS Waiver. The businesses include florists, bookstores, toy stores, and arts and crafts shops.\n\nFlorida\n\nIslamorada: Banners featuring scores of yearbook photos are hanging next to the Florida Keys Overseas Highway to honor graduating seniors who will miss out on traditional ceremonies because of the coronavirus pandemic. Several residents in Islamorada knew COVID-19 would affect celebrations for the 177 graduating seniors at Coral Shores High School in the Upper Keys. Local businessman Mike Forster helped finance the project to transform yearbook portraits into banners, and Florida Keys Electric Cooperative crews hung them from power line poles in Islamorada. Bridget Dougherty, 18, who is planning to attend the University of South Florida, said she and her fellow graduates were surprised by the banners. “It’s reassuring that people are aware of what we are going through,” Dougherty said. “It’s connected those who have graduated with those who are graduating now.”\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Elections officials in the state’s most populous county agreed Tuesday to open polls earlier and expand voting sites, but not before the elections chief received input on risks to poll workers and voters from the coronavirus. People lined up outside some polling sites in Fulton County before they opened Monday, the first day of early voting for the June 9 primaries, said the county’s elections director, Rick Barron. Some voters endured long waits. The county includes most of Atlanta. “There is a lot of political pressure that we are receiving, and I understand that we don’t want lines,” Barron said at an emergency meeting of the county’s Board of Registration & Elections Tuesday. “But at the same time, I’m concerned with the welfare of our poll workers and the voters that show up.” Barron cited a report about coronavirus infections in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that could be connected to in-person voting there April 7.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: The state’s public schools are expected to offer in-person and online course options this summer, education officials said. Hawaii Department of Education Superintendent Christina Kishimoto said in-person instruction will be available to students who struggled with distance learning resulting from coronavirus restrictions, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. There are also expected to be distance learning courses for other students, with 18 mostly middle and high schools already committed. Plans are still being made in response to communication with parents, Kishimoto said. “There are parents who are taking full advantage of the online tele-learning approach because it fits the readiness of the students,” Kishimoto said, “but there are also a whole group of students where tele-learning is not appropriate to their needs.”\n\nIdaho\n\nMeridian: The Ada County emergency dispatch center received more than 300 phone calls after video of an anti-vaccine activist’s arrest at a playground gained popularity on social media last month, records said. After reviewing public records, the Idaho Statesman reported that some of the calls were supportive of the Meridian Police Department, while others were critical and threatening. Sara Walton Brady, 40, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing after she and several other people took their children to Julius Kleiner Park on April 21 to play on playground equipment closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Brady has since apologized to the police department. Videos of the arrest were shared widely on social media. Some organizations including the Idaho Freedom Foundation and 3% of Idaho encouraged people to call the Meridian Police Department to voice their thoughts about the arrest, authorities said.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: All parts of the state are on track to see coronavirus-related restrictions loosened and more businesses reopen before the end of the month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday, while also warning that residents must remain diligent about stopping the spread of COVID-19. Illinois recorded 1,545 new cases of COVID-19, including 146 additional deaths. That brings the state’s total cases to 98,030, with 4,379 deaths, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported. IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said the numbers are evidence that Pritzker’s stay-at-home order and other measures such as wearing masks and frequent hand washing are working, but “hear me clearly: The virus is still out there.” The next phase of Pritzker’s “Restore Illinois” plan, which could begin May 29, will allow more businesses, such as hair salons and some manufacturing, to reopen. Critics say Pritzker’s plan is too strict and is devastating the economy.\n\nIndiana\n\nPorter: The Indiana Dunes National Park will reopen part of a local beach in time for Memorial Day weekend, but beachgoers will be monitored to make sure they adhere to coronavirus pandemic safeguards, a park official said Tuesday. The national park temporarily closed its portion of Porter Beach on Lake Michigan on May 6, citing “unsafe health conditions” created by overcrowding, unsafe sanitation practices and a lack of social distancing. Park spokesman Bruce Rowe said Tuesday that the park would reopen its stretch of Porter Beach, beach parking lots and restroom facilities Saturday, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports. The beach will be closed again, however, “to protect public health” if visitors are found to be disregarding pandemic precautions, Rowe said. “We are urging our visitors to stay safe by practicing social distancing on the beaches to protect their health and that of other visitors,” he said.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: Movie theaters, museums, zoos and wedding reception venues will reopen Friday, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wednesday as she expressed confidence the state can respond if there’s an outbreak. Also reopening in time for Memorial Day activities are state campground restrooms, showers and cabins. Camping will be allowed for tents and all campers, but playgrounds, shelters and visitor centers remain closed. Reynolds said bars can reopen next week at 50% capacity. She also said that it’s time for summer school-sponsored activities such as softball and baseball to resume as of June 1 and that she will provide more details Thursday about schools. Reynolds said the state’s testing capability allows officials to track and respond to any outbreaks that may occur. She said she believes new cases and death reports are stabilizing, although the state continues to typically see about 200 to 300 new positive cases a day and a dozen deaths.\n\nKansas\n\nMission: Lawmakers appear divided on the importance of wearing masks as they prepare to convene for the final day of the session, generating concerns that the gathering could fuel a coronavirus outbreak in the Legislature and further complicate efforts to reopen. Gov. Laura Kelly, meanwhile, announced Tuesday that Kansas is ready to move on to the next phase of reopening Friday, instead of June 1. The maximum size of mass gatherings will increase from 10 to 15 people, and state-owned casinos can reopen, along with theaters, museums, bowling alleys and other indoor leisure places. Sports tournaments and practices also can resume. The final day of the legislative session is scheduled for Thursday. Republican Rep. Don Hineman, a farmer from Dighton, said some lawmakers have attended open-up rallies at which social distancing and other safety protocols to prevent the spread of the coronavirus weren’t followed, and those lawmakers could also be the ones least likely to wear masks in the Legislature because in some circles doing so has “become a political issue.”\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday announced 20 more deaths related to the coronavirus outbreak, the state’s largest single-day total since the global pandemic began. The higher death count was based in part on the timing of some reports, the governor said at his daily briefing. But he called it a “tough day” even as the state reaches more milestones this week in gradually reopening its virus-battered economy. Nonessential retail businesses were allowed to reopen Wednesday. Social distancing guidelines include limiting the number of customers to 33% of a shop’s maximum allowed occupancy. Meanwhile, Beshear announced that museums, outdoor attractions, libraries, aquariums and distilleries will be able to reopen starting June 8. On Friday, restaurants can reopen dining rooms at 33% capacity. Restaurants also can offer outdoor seating while meeting spacing guidelines. That same day, people can resuming gathering in groups of 10 or fewer.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: A lawmaker shelved his effort to cut state unemployment aid during the coronavirus outbreak Wednesday after learning the proposal would keep the state from receiving the boosted benefits offered by the federal government. Republican Rep. Gerald “Beau” Beaullieu, from New Iberia, was trying to keep unemployment aid for Louisiana residents who are out of work from exceeding the money they earned in their previous jobs. Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Dejoie told the House labor committee the proposal would run afoul of federal virus aid requirements. She said it would make Louisiana’s 450,000 unemployed workers ineligible to receive the $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit available through July. “We’d be the only state in the nation” refusing the federal aid for those out of work, Dejoie said.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: A decline in tax revenues in April and other economic indicators point to a pandemic-inspired recession that will be “one for the record books,” the state finance commissioner wrote. State tax collections were off by nearly 50% last month, mostly because of the delayed deadline from April 15 to July 15 for income tax filings, Administrative and Financial Services Commissioner Kirsten Figueroa wrote in a monthly email to the governor and lawmakers. The delay in individual and corporate income tax revenue translated to $264 million less than projected in those categories. Even accounting for that, “it’s becoming apparent that the swift and deep COVID-19 related recession will be one for the record books,” Figueroa wrote. “Recovery is expected to be slow.”\n\nMaryland\n\nSilver Spring: A jail in a COVID-19 hot spot is detaining more than 100 prisoners who have been authorized or ordered by a court to be released, according to civil rights attorneys who sued over jail conditions during the pandemic. The Prince George’s County Jail is holding at least 113 prisoners who have been authorized for release by a state court but haven’t been cleared for release by the county’s pretrial services department, plaintiffs’ lawyers said in a court filing Monday. The county draws a distinction between court-authorized and court-ordered releases. Its lawyers say nobody has been detained in violation of a court order. However, plaintiffs’ attorneys say four additional prisoners were ordered released by a court but remained detained Monday. Another prisoner was ordered released in January but wasn’t released until May 11, the lawyers said. “It’s baffling that they don’t seem to see orders as orders,” Civil Rights Corps senior attorney Katie Chamblee-Ryan said Tuesday.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: Two Muslim groups have collected 40,000 face masks they plan to distribute to first responders, police officers, nursing home staff, medical workers and others on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. The Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center said in a statement Wednesday that the initiative is taking place in the holy month of Ramadan, during which Muslims are encouraged to perform acts of charity. The project, led by a group of local Muslim physicians, obtained the masks through a fundraising effort. “As Muslims, we’re humbled to be able to live out our faith by serving our neighbors,” Wael Alkhairo, executive director of the Islamic Center, said in a statement. “We’re called to both pray and take action when we witness a need, and during the holy month of Ramadan in particular, it’s our duty to do everything in our power to ensure the safety of those around us.”\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: Police ticketed three people for cutting hair during a protest outside the Capitol, where about a dozen barbers and hair stylists defied stay-at-home orders to give free haircuts Wednesday. About 350 people were attending the demonstration organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition to protest the orders imposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Three barbers were cited for disorderly conduct – engaging in an illegal occupation or business – after being warned by state police. The cases were referred to the state attorney general. The penalty is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $500 fine or both. Angela Rigas, of Caledonia in western Michigan, said she was ticketed after refusing three times to stop cutting hair. “We’re all here for the same reason today – to show the governor that our rights do not come from her and that we need to open Michigan. People need to get back to work,” she said.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: Hospitals continue to discharge patients infected with COVID-19 to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities where the majority of coronavirus deaths have occurred. Some lawmakers, families of residents and others are voicing their opposition to the transfers, saying they are endangering the health of the uninfected who live in the facilities, including those that have had large and deadly outbreaks of the disease. They are calling for more scrutiny from state officials over the transfers, including tougher standards on which facilities should be allowed to accept infected patients, the Star Tribune reports. The Minnesota Department of Health turned to nursing homes to relieve hospitals that were at risk of being overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. Even nursing homes with large and deadly clusters of coronavirus cases have been allowed to admit COVID-19 patients from hospitals.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday issued guidelines for churches and other places of worship to reopen for in-person services during the coronavirus pandemic, with an emphasis on keeping spaces clean and maintaining distance between people. The Republican governor never shut down in-person worship, saying he does not think the government has the power to do so. But he has strongly encouraged people to worship in their homes through online services or other methods. Among the suggestions: Have multiple services rather than a single service so people will have a chance to spread out in a sanctuary; encourage people to wear masks that cover the mouth and nose, even during worship; discourage hugging and handshakes; minimize sharing of food and drinks; replace choirs with solo singers. “I know that pastors want to protect their flock,” Reeves said. He said he and his family will continue to worship remotely, from the Governor’s Mansion.\n\nMissouri\n\nO’Fallon: St. Louis-area kids and families bored at home during the coronavirus shutdown will start to see new options open up next month, when the St. Louis Zoo, summer camps and swimming pools all are expected to reopen. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page announced Wednesday that summer camps will likely be able to open starting June 1. County officials are still working on guidelines. A news release from the county said officials are hoping to allow pools to open in early June. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Zoo announced it will reopen June 13, though with enhanced measures that seek to limit the spread of COVID-19. The zoo will limit attendance and require timed reservations, a news release said. It will begin accepting reservations June 8 by phone or through its website. Across the state, the Kansas City Zoo opened Saturday. Summer camps also began earlier this month in Kansas City.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: The state will further ease coronavirus restrictions in two weeks by lifting a 14-day quarantine for out-of-state visitors, allowing groups of up to 50 people to gather, and allowing more people inside restaurants, bars and gyms, Gov. Steve Bullock said Tuesday. “Montana has been an example for the rest of the nation in our response to this global pandemic,” Bullock said. “I have no doubt that we can continue to be that example, but only if Montanans, businesses and visitors alike continue to take seriously the responsibility we all have in protecting others.” The Democratic governor said the state has the lowest rate of COVID-19 and hospitalizations per capita in the nation. Starting June 1, gyms, indoor group fitness classes, pools and hot tubs can operate at 75% capacity under strict physical distancing and sanitation guidelines. Concert halls, bowling alleys and other places of assembly may operate with reduced capacity.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: The coronavirus has hurt a vast majority of the state’s businesses, and about 1 in 6 of them are worried it will force them to close their doors permanently, according to a report released Tuesday. The report from the Nebraska Business Development Center at the University of Nebraska Omaha highlights the sweeping damage caused by the virus and the steps taken to keep it from spreading, including business closures and social distancing measures. The report said 87% of Nebraska businesses have been hurt by the pandemic. The hardest-hit industries have been the arts, entertainment and recreation; health care and social assistance; educational services; and food services. The results came from the first of two planned surveys that state officials will use to help them decide what they can do to help companies recover. The initial survey of nearly 8,000 Nebraska businesses was conducted April 15-24, and the second is scheduled for June.\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: Testing for the new coronavirus is due to start Thursday for the first of tens of thousands of Las Vegas casino employees being tapped for job callbacks before resorts reopen, according to a cooperative plan announced Tuesday by several casino companies and local tourism, hospital and union officials. State gambling regulators have not given the go-ahead or a date for the lifting of Gov. Steve Sisolak’s mid-March order closing all gambling establishments in Nevada to prevent groups from gathering and spreading coronavirus. But some resorts are aiming for June 1 reopening, and officials said testing will start with scheduled appointments for notified employees at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Employees will not be charged a fee. The goal is to collect up to 4,000 test samples for the COVID-19 illness per day, officials said. Results are expected within 48 hours.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: Children should be allowed to return to camps and athletic programs under strict safety measures this summer, according to a task force on reopening the state’s economy. The recommendations sent to public health officials and Gov. Chris Sununu on Tuesday lay out proposed rules for day camps, residential camps and outdoor team sports. The group also approved proposals for museums and acupuncture as well as indoor restaurant dining and the catering of larger events such as weddings. On day camps, task force members said they took into consideration that parents will need care for children as they return to work. The rules call for keeping campers outside as much as possible and separating them into groups that would move about “as a self-contained bubble.” Similarly, campers and staff at overnight camps would be separated into “cohort groups” with limited interaction with other groups.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: Residents who qualify for food stamps can start using them for online grocery shopping next week. State officials announced Wednesday that Amazon will be available for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program enrollees starting Wednesday, May 27, and on the following day they can use Walmart, ShopRite and Fresh Grocer locations that offer online shopping. About 700,000 New Jerseyans are enrolled in NJ-SNAP. The program’s participants will be able to use their EBT card to buy eligible groceries, but federal rules prohibit SNAP funds from being used to pay for delivery fees. SNAP users can register to buy groceries on Amazon at Amazon.com/SNAP.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday defended her response to the coronavirus pandemic against calls by Republican lawmakers who want her to remove enforced business restrictions. In a letter, Lujan Grisham responded to 13 state senators who want the governor to provide only safety guidelines. The first-term Democratic governor said demands for an immediate, full-scale reopening of the economy are reckless, ignore effective health precautions, and will only serve to inflame misinformed public opinion and risk further illness and likely death. Lujan Grisham recently eased an emergency health order, allowing many businesses to reopen their doors to customers at a fraction of full capacity to avoid crowding and transmission of COVID-19. Tougher restrictions remain in place for dine-in restaurant service, gyms and hair salons, while face covering are required for everyone in public places with exceptions for outdoor exercise and eating. Lujan Grisham said she has outlined a plan to move even those high-risk businesses back into operation in the near future based on progress in limiting transmission of the coronavirus.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: The city will offer free coronavirus tests at its 169 nursing homes and will provide staff to replace nursing home employees who test positive for the virus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. The announcement comes after some 3,000 residents of nursing homes in the city have died of COVID-19, including those confirmed whose diagnoses were by lab tests and those for whom COVID-19 was the presumed cause based on symptoms. De Blasio noted the state is in charge of regulating nursing homes but said the city would start a “two-week blitz” to provide up to 3,000 tests a day to residents and employees at the facilities. He said the city already has sent 240 fill-in staff members to replace nursing home employees who tested positive for the virus and must stay home for two weeks. The city will fulfill additional staffing requests by the end of next week, he said.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: Gov. Roy Cooper is letting restaurants, barbershops and salons welcome patrons inside starting this holiday weekend, saying in announcing the loosened rules Wednesday that state COVID-19 trends remain largely stable. But bars, gyms and indoor entertainment venues will remain closed five more weeks. The Democratic governor announced a new executive order launching the second phase of easing business and assembly restrictions after nonessential businesses and dine-in restaurant service were initially shuttered in March. The original closures were meant to curb the spreading coronavirus but had also put hundreds of thousands of people out of work. Two weeks ago, Cooper allowed more businesses to open, provided they limit entry largely to 50% of their fire code capacity. Cooper said Wednesday he now feels comfortable about the virus data to lift the stay-at-home order and extend partial openings starting Friday afternoon for dine-in eating at restaurants and for personal care services such as barbers. Pools also can reopen with reduced numbers of swimmers.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: The state will use $750,000 of federal coronavirus aid to livestream legislative committee hearings at the Capitol ahead of next year’s legislative session to help ensure remote participation amid the COVID-19 outbreak. “We have to do it to be prepared,” said John Bjornson, director of the Legislative Council, the Legislature’s nonpartisan research arm. The Legislative Procedure and Arrangements Committee on Monday voted to fund the project. It includes enhancing web conferencing among lawmakers and upgrading livestream technology in the House and Senate chambers using funds from the $1.25 billion given to the state as part of the federal stimulus package approved in March. Bjornson said all the work should now be done by fall.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: A federal judge has ruled that the state must allow groups pursuing voting law changes, a minimum wage increase and marijuana decriminalization more time and flexibility to qualify for ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus Jr.’s ruling Tuesday ordered the state to allow campaigns until July 31 to gather required signatures and to allow them to be collected electronically. He stopped short of reducing the number of signatures required, as some courts elsewhere have allowed amid a spate of COVID-19-related signature-gathering challenges. Sargus said he might have agreed, under ordinary conditions, with the arguments of Gov. Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Frank LaRose, both Republicans, that Ohio’s signature requirements are an appropriate qualifier for ballot access. “These times, however, are not ordinary,” he wrote.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: The Oklahoma Democratic Party and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have sued to overturn the state’s absentee voting rules in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, state party Chair Alicia Andrews said Wednesday. Requirements that include notarized ballots and photo identification create barriers to voters, Andrews said in a statement. “Oklahomans deserve to make their voices heard safely without further barriers to the voting process as we continue to deal with a worldwide pandemic,” Andrews said. “The additional barriers to the mail-in voting process do nothing more than further suppress the votes of marginalized groups and put citizens in harm’s way under the false claims of reducing voter fraud.” The lawsuit against the state Election Board and Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax comes after a bill signed into law earlier this month imposed the restrictions on absentee ballots.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: The state faces an 11% drop in revenue from the previous biennium as the coronavirus pandemic triggered a shutdown order and a consequent drop in tax payments, state economists reported Wednesday. General Fund and other major revenues have been reduced relative to the March forecast by $2.7 billion in the current biennium and $4.4 billion in the 2021-23 budget period, state economist Josh Lehner said. He said the current recession is the deepest on record in Oregon with data going back to 1939 but is expected to be shorter in duration than the Great Recession. “The economy should return to health by mid-decade,” Lehner said. Gov. Kate Brown said that “we have tough choices ahead.” “We will need to tighten our belts. I am working with legislative leaders to preserve critical state services, find efficiencies and prepare for potential budget cuts,” the Democratic governor said.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: Real estate sales and related activity can resume across the state if guidelines designed to limit infection are followed, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday. The governor’s new guidance says people in the real estate industry can get back to work as long as they all wear masks or other facial coverings and use separate vehicles to drive to visit properties. Business that is conducted in person must be scheduled ahead of time and limited to no more than the real estate worker and two people inside a property at a time. Property showings will have to be scheduled at least 30 minutes apart, and food will be prohibited during in-person real estate business activities. Parts of transactions that can be performed electronically or otherwise remotely should be done that way, Wolf said.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: With two state-run beaches about to reopen in time for Memorial Day, some communities are making plans to open municipally run beaches that were closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Newport is planning to open Easton’s Beach on or around June 4, City Manager Joseph Nicholson told the City Council during its weekly COVID-19 update Tuesday, according to The Newport Daily News. Under that plan, parking capacity during June will be capped at 33%, and no bathrooms or showers will be available at first. The Middletown Town Council this week voted to reopen Third Beach as of Saturday, but with limitations, including that only town residents will initially be allowed. Gov. Gina Raimondo announced this week that East Matunuck Beach in South Kingstown and Scarborough Beach in Narragansett will be open with free but limited parking starting Monday.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: A group of government, health, tourism, religious and social leaders that Gov. Henry McMaster created to help the state grapple with the coronavirus pandemic is winding down its work. Accelerate SC met Tuesday with members listening to reports from its committees. They spoke about increased COVID-19 testing, rules that restaurants and barbers must follow to reopen, and obstacles local governments are facing as revenues dip and money is spent to fight the pandemic. They got a first look at how South Carolina might spend the $1.9 billion in federal help from the pandemic. A committee suggested $100 million to expand broadband internet access, which became a big problem after schools closed and businesses asked people to work from home. About 10% of the state’s 5 million people have no broadband access at all, and 1 in 4 has internet speeds slower than what is considered minimally acceptable, according to the Federal Communications Commission.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: Employees at a Smithfield pork processing plant where a coronavirus outbreak infected more than 800 people were greeted at work Wednesday with thank you signs, cheers and waves from about a dozen area residents. “They’re putting their health at risk just like the hospital workers are to continue on with this work, so I hope they feel appreciated,” said Becky Olson, a Sioux Falls resident who held a sign outside Smithfield’s entrance. The plant has instructed many workers to return to work this week as it looks to scale up operations by the end of the month. Masked employees streamed into the factory entrance as trucks carrying pigs rumbled past. Dave Tesphay, an employee who was reporting to work Wednesday, said that with the pandemic, “it was really scary at first.” Tesphay said the plant’s closure and safety measures gave him confidence to return. The people who showed up to cheer him on made him feel the community cared, he said.\n\nTennessee\n\nGatlinburg: Second lady Karen Pence visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park to talk about the mental health benefits of spending time outdoors Tuesday as officials announced the second phase of a plan to reopen all park trails. “National parks offer many mental health benefits, and more than ever before, we must ensure that we are taking care of ourselves and each other,” Pence said. The Smokies reopened May 9 with some popular trails blocked off to visitors after closing in late March. All park trails will now reopen Saturday, while campgrounds and visitor centers will remain closed. Pence said it’s possible for people to visit the park and still practice social distancing. But some are reluctant about that idea during the virus outbreak. “Karen Pence’s visit to Great Smoky Mountains National Park downplays the risks of visiting a crowded park,” said David Lamfrom, southeast regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “When people learn that the vice president’s wife visited the park, they may believe it is safe for them to visit over the long weekend. It’s not.”\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: After months of home schooling and lost sports seasons, millions of children in the state may get a taste of a somewhat normal summer after all – if their parents go for it. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said this week that child care facilities can reopen immediately and set the stage for a return to summer camp, youth sports leagues and even summer school. All come with guidelines on just how to do it amid the coronavirus pandemic, including sanitation practices and limits on how many children can be in one place. They also require parents to keep their distance from one another while celebrating a goal, home run or dunk. Whitt Melton, co-owner of Legendary Black Belt Academy in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, said the business has been open to offer child care for essential workers but will now expand and open its planned summer camp. He said he hopes to boost enrollment from the current seven children to a maximum of 30 a day but doesn’t expect the ramp-up to happen right away.\n\nUtah\n\nKaysville: A watchdog group has asked Mayor Katie Witt to resign over her support of a concert planned for late May that could attract hundreds of people. Witt expressed her support for the May 30 concert featuring country artist Collin Raye in a statement last week asking residents to come “be a pioneer and patriot with us.” The progressive Alliance for a Better Utah group argued that the concert could put residents’ health and lives at risk. Organizers expect up to 800 people to attend. “Mayor Witt should resign for moving forward with this dangerous political stunt,” Better Utah executive director Chase Thomas said, referencing her current Republican run for Congress. “Mayor Witt is sacrificing public health in her community to further her own political ambitions. Mayor Witt’s flagrant disregard for public health is a disqualifier for public service.” Witt said she has a responsibility to give people back individual freedoms she said they lost during the pandemic.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: Gov. Phil Scott on Wednesday announced a $400 million economic recovery proposal funded by the federal economic rescue law known as the CARES Act to help employers and small businesses struggling amid the coronavirus-related shutdown. The first phase is $310 million in grants and loans to help businesses survive, he said. It will go to those most affected, including funds to help stabilize rental housing and assist renters, technical help for business owners, and an in-state marketing campaign to boost local buying and exploring Vermont, he said. The second phase will be a $90 million investment to help the economy survive and come out better equipped to thrive in the future, he said. The Legislature must approve the proposal. “I think the scale of it is probably appropriate,” Senate President Tim Ashe said Tuesday. “Our downtown villages are defined by restaurants, small retail, small locally owned stores.”\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: The state Supreme Court has rejected an injunction request from a gym owner who is challenging the executive order that has closed his business. Merrill Hall, who owns a chain of Gold’s Gym franchises and other gyms, sued the governor in Culpeper County Circuit Court. His lawyer, Republican state Sen. Bill Stanley, said Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, exceeded his authority by ordering fitness centers and other businesses closed to combat the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday the state’s high court rejected the request for an injunction. Hall can still go forward with his lawsuit, but the governor’s order will remain in place while the issue is litigated. Late last month, a judge in Culpeper also rejected the request for an injunction, saying state law gives the governor broad authority to issue executive orders during a public health emergency.\n\nWashington\n\nOlympia: Ten additional counties can apply to move to the second stage of the state’s economic reopening plan, based on new guidelines announced Tuesday by Gov. Jay Inslee that allow larger counties with fewer new coronavirus cases to open some of their businesses sooner. Previously, of the state’s 39 counties, only those with a population of less than 75,000 and no new cases of COVID-19 in the past three weeks, among other stipulations, could apply for a quicker reopening. The counties identified Tuesday – Spokane, Adams, Mason, Thurston, Lewis, Clark, Clallam, Kitsap, Island and San Juan – are those with fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period. Their application to the state must include a local public health officer’s recommendation, a letter from hospitals confirming bed capacity, and a county commission vote. The counties also have to submit testing data and information on resources available for contact tracing investigations.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: There are now at least four coronavirus cases at a state prison after the lockup reported its first infection earlier this week, officials said Wednesday. Corrections Commissioner Betsy Jividen said two staffers and two inmates at the Huttonsville Correctional Center in Randolph County have the virus. Widespread testing of employees and inmates is underway, she said. Officials on Monday said a Huttonsville prison guard tested positive and on the following day reported that a 62-year-old inmate tested positive, though the governor’s general counsel said the two cases are not linked. Jividen said the two inmates who tested positive have been quarantined with fevers. About 40 prisoners housed around those inmates and more than 200 employees have since been tested. Separately, at least five inmates have tested positive at FCI Gilmer, a federal prison in Glenville, after the federal Bureau of Prisons transferred 124 inmates to the lockup.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: State residents who lost income due to the coronavirus pandemic can get help paying their rent, and farmers will be eligible for direct cash payments, under new programs Gov. Tony Evers announced Wednesday. The $50 million aid to farmers program, $25 million rental assistance program, and another $15 million for food banks and those fighting hunger are all paid for under the federal coronavirus relief bill. Evers said the state agriculture department was working with stakeholders “to ensure a fair, accessible distribution system for these aid payments” to farmers. He said the money would start to be distributed as early as June. Money available under the rent assistance program can be used to help pay for rent and security deposits. To qualify, an applicant must be a Wisconsin resident with a household income at or below 80% of the county medium income.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: A surge in local cases of the coronavirus blamed on people not following social distancing recommendations or wearing face masks in public has prompted the cancellation of a Memorial Day car show. Yellowstone Garage in Casper previously received verbal approval for a variance to the state health order banning gatherings of more than 25 people. By Monday, however, the situation had changed. Nine new virus cases in Natrona County led State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist to oppose the variance, Casper-Natrona County Health Department spokesperson Hailey Bloom told the Casper Star-Tribune. The outdoor car show could have drawn thousands of people. The new virus cases brought to 13 the number of local infections confirmed in the previous week – after three weeks without any new cases in the area. “This is not an appropriate time to have a large event,” Bloom said, citing comments by Harrist.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/05/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2020/05/29/disney-world-seaworld-petrified-forest-wisconsin-state-fair-news-around-states/111877708/", "title": "Disney World, SeaWorld, petrified forest, Wisconsin state fair: News ...", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nDecatur: A high school student who attended a graduation ceremony last week has tested positive for the new coronavirus, a school district announced Wednesday. The student was awaiting test results when they attended Austin High School’s ceremony May 21 in Decatur, school officials said. A member of the student’s family had previously tested positive, Al.com quoted Decatur City Schools Deputy Superintendent Dwight Satterfield as saying. The district had 16 nurses checking students’ temperatures and asking them whether any family members tested positive or had symptoms, but the student and their family did not disclose that information, he added. Graduates were kept 6 feet apart and families were also asked to keep 6 feet between other groups, according to the district. Satterfield said that despite the guidelines, some students still gathered and hugged each other, though he defended the district’s decision to host the ceremony. “I will put what we did at graduation against anyone,” Satterfield said. “There will be people second guessing whether we should have had graduation or not. So be it, that will be a conversation for another day.” Some Alabama schools began hosting in-person graduation ceremonies after the state eliminated rules limiting crowds to 10 people or fewer. Gatherings of any size were allowed starting in mid-May as long as people from different households stayed at least 6 feet apart. Other schools nationwide have canceled or postponed traditional graduation ceremonies to slow the spread of the virus.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: Prosecutors have accused an Alaska man of violating a federal judge’s order and breaking his quarantine after securing early release from prison amid the coronavirus pandemic. A complaint alleging criminal contempt of court has been filed against Duane Byron Fields. Cindy Franklin, an attorney for Fields, said Wednesday her client is being made a scapegoat after a series of miscommunications. She said Fields was tested for COVID-19 before his release from a federal prison in California that had been hit hard by the virus. The test came back positive the day before he was allowed to travel to Alaska but no one told Fields the result, she said. The system infected him and potentially exposed others and “when they found out up here about those results, their reaction was to attempt to make some kind of scapegoat out of Mr. Fields,” Franklin said. “It’s appalling.” Chloe Martin, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney in Anchorage, said the office to its knowledge “has not charged contempt by criminal complaint before now. It’s an unusual approach, but given the gravity of Fields’ alleged conduct and the need to protect the public, the U.S. Attorney’s Office felt it was important to move forward with a criminal complaint.” Messages were left for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which runs the California facility, Federal Correctional Institution Terminal Island. The bureau told the Anchorage Daily News, which first reported the story, that it is investigating. Fields, who was serving time in a drug-related case and has battled cancer, was granted compassionate release earlier this month by Senior U.S. District Judge James K. Singleton Jr. Singleton’s order said the court “may fashion an appropriate sanction” should Fields fail to follow quarantine or social distancing measures or any other condition of release. Alaska requires people arriving in the state to self-quarantine for 14 days to help guard against the virus’ spread. People are to leave their quarantine location only for medical emergencies or care.\n\nArizona\n\nHolbrook: Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona is reopening some of its facilities and areas that have been closed to the public since March 24 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Park officials said that a phased approach to increase recreational access and other services will have the park road, all trails and wilderness areas reopen Friday, with entry fees collected by credit card. The Painted Desert Visitor Center, the Rainbow Forest Museum, Rainbow Forest Lodge and the Painted Desert Dinner and Gift Shop will reopen in future phases, officials said. Meanwhile, a project to repair and replace three bridges and sections of the park road continues with completion of the project’s second phase scheduled for late June.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: A group seeking a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in Arkansas has stopped collecting signatures because of the coronavirus pandemic but will refocus its efforts for 2022, a spokeswoman said. Arkansas True Grass wanted an amendment to legalize marijuana use and expunge prior drug convictions on the Nov. 3 ballot. But the pandemic has led to the cancellation of events, making it all but impossible to collect the nearly 90,000 signatures required by the July 3 deadline, according to Briana Boling, the group’s spokeswoman. The group mailed 350 petition forms to canvassers when the outbreak began, but only four were returned, Boling told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Arkansas True Grass has already started collecting signatures for 2022, she said. Meanwhile, Arkansans for Cannabis Reform continued to gather signatures in pursuit of qualifying in the November election, said group director Melissa Fults. The group has collected more than 20,000 signatures, she said. Fults’ group spent more than $20,000 to hire a canvassing company to assist with signature collection, reports filed with the state Ethics Commission showed. Meanwhile, True Grass reported spending less than $5,000 over the course of two years. A federal judge ruled Monday that Arkansas’ laws requiring petitions be signed in-person were unconstitutional, allowing groups to gather electronic signatures. Voters approved legalizing medical marijuana in 2016.\n\nCalifornia\n\nLos Angeles: The sprawling Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced measured steps toward reopening churches and resuming celebration of daily Mass for early next month. Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a letter to 288 parishes that they must submit reopening plans under guidelines that include sanitary measures and attendance limits to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Once a parish plan has been approved a parish can open its church for private personal prayer and begin daily Mass as early as June 3. The earliest Sunday Masses would be on June 7. “During Mass, Communion will be offered only in the form of bread and in the hand, and with priests sanitizing their hands before and after distributing Communion,” an archdiocese statement said. Among other measures, choirs will be replaced by a cantor and accompanist and people should be dismissed after Mass by groups of pews. “As we enter this new moment, it is important to remember that the coronavirus is still out there, it is still contagious, and it is still dangerous,” Gomez said. On Monday, the state released a framework to permit counties to allow in-person worship services. The archdiocese is the nation’s largest, with an estimated 4.3 million Catholics in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: Skiing is back in Colorado after a more than two-month closure caused by the new coronavirus, but only a few have been lucky enough to score reservations at the only reopened resort in the state. Arapahoe Basin near the Continental Divide west of Denver opened Wednesday with restrictions and at limited capacity, allowing only 600 skiers and snowboarders on the mountain. Alan Henceroth, the resort’s chief operating officer, told The Denver Post about 4,000 people tried to make online reservations Monday night “and it just crushed the system.” The resort replaced it with a random drawing. Arapahoe Basin, which along with other resorts was forced to close in mid-March, usually attracts 1,000 to 2,000 skiers and riders on weekdays in May and more than 3,000 on weekend days. “We had to reduce numbers because a lot of people want to go skiing,” Henceroth told The Post. “We couldn’t have a crushing, busy day. That just wouldn’t work.” Skiers and snowboarders wearing face coverings lined up 6 feet apart and were spaced out on the lifts Wednesday. Restaurants at the resort remain closed, and the “beach,” a row of parking closest to the lifts, wasn’t holding any of its typical raucous spring parties. Tailgating also is barred in all the parking lots. All but 30 of the daily reservations were set aside for season pass-holders. The resort, which tops out at 13,050 feet above sea level, usually stays open until early June and sometimes into early July, depending on the snowpack. It joined Oregon’s Timberline Lodge and Ski Area and Mt. Bachelor in reopening. The Oregon resorts opened in mid-May after Gov. Kate Brown signed an executive order allowing skiing and snowboarding to resume.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford is planning to reopen its parishes to the public for weekday Masses only beginning June 8, with rules for wearing masks and social distancing to guard against the new coronavirus, church officials said Wednesday. The archdiocese released its guidelines for reopening its more than 120 parishes in Hartford, New Haven and Litchfield counties. Church officials said a date for resuming Sunday services has not been determined. Churches will continue to livestream and post videos of Sunday services. Parishioners will be required to wear masks, with exceptions for young children and those with a legitimate health reason. People also must stay at least 6 feet apart, and services will be limited to 50 people according to Gov. Ned Lamont’s orders. There also will be no passing of offering baskets. Older adults, those with medical conditions and those caring for sick or housebound people are urged not to attend the weekday services. “Coordinated and thoughtful planning is imperative for a church to reopen; otherwise it should not do so,” the new guidelines said. “A pastor must be able to ensure that the parish is prepared to meet the pandemic requirements for public worship.” Lamont said Tuesday he plans to reevaluate his order concerning houses of worship in the next week or so.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington:The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will reopen campgrounds at Delaware state parks on Monday. This is in response to Gov. John Carney’s removal of the emergency ban on short-term rental units. All state park campsites, cabins, cottages and yurts were closed from March 24 through May 31 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the department said. The department said it issued refunds for reservations through May 31 and the cancellation policy will remain in effect through June 15. All cabins and cottages will be sanitized by a professional cleaning service between rentals and some amenities will remain closed until further notice, the department said. The department said campers also must wear masks and maintain social distancing. Camping will be available after June 1 at the following state parks: Cape Henlopen, Delaware Seashore, Indian River Marina, Killens Pond, Lums Pond and Trap Pond.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington:The Youth Baseball Academy, the community outreach arm of the Washington Nationals, has traded bats and gloves for food and essential needs and is making a big difference in Wards 7 and 8 during the coronavirus pandemic by handing out free meals, WUSA-TV reported. “We began to serve meals our selves at the academy and we began distribution of them back in March,” Youth Baseball Academy executive director Jenn Cartland said. The pandemic threw the entire city a curveball, but the pain is worse for the less fortunate areas. Wards 7 and 8 already suffer from a lack of healthy food options. Food shortages during the pandemic made it worse. “The first thing we wanted to do was make sure children had access to fresh healthy meals,” Cartland said. This month, they received a large donation of supermarket goods from Safeway and Ward 7 Councilman Vincent Gray. Now, the staff gives out care packages to the community filled with food, water, even toilet paper.\n\nFlorida\n\nOrlando: SeaWorld and Walt Disney World will reopen in in June and July after months of inactivity because of the coronavirus pandemic, under plans approved Wednesday by a city task force. The proposals will now be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for final approval. The plan calls for SeaWorld to open to the public on June 11. Disney plans a tiered reopening, with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom opening on July 11, followed by Epcot and Hollywood Studios on July 15. Last week, Universal Orlando presented its plan to reopen on June 5. That plan also has been approved by the Orlando task force, which sent its recommendation to the governor. In a statement, Diseny said attendance will be managed through a new system that requires advance reservations for park entry. Disney World plans a smaller, soft openings befpre July 11, but no specifics were provided. SeaWorld is planning an employee appreciation event on June 10 before opening to the public the next day, said Interim CEO Marc Swanson. Both parks said they will require guests and employees to wear face coverings and social distancing will be enforced throughout their properties. Guests and employees also will undergo temperature checks before entering the parks. Disney employees will be required to conduct temperature checks before heading to work, McPhee said. They will also undergo temperature checks at the park, he added. Fever is one of the virus symptoms. Fireworks shows, character meet-and-greets and parades will be suspended to meet social distancing requirements, McPhee said.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp said he wants to lift more restrictions on businesses as long as people continue to heed coronavirus guidance from officials and public health experts. The Republican governor’s comments came as state data showed the number of new daily infections trending upward after weeks of decline. “We can’t keep fighting the virus from our living room,” Kemp said, according to video of his remarks posted online by WMAZ-TV. Kemp was touring a temporary medical pod set up at a hospital in Macon. Kemp said that using common sense and following health advice, including social distancing and wearing masks, will allow Georgians to get out of their homes safely and help spur the economy. He said people should patronize businesses that follow health restrictions and sanitation guidelines. A seven-day moving average of confirmed cases provided by the health department showed the number of new daily cases in Georgia declining between April 22 and May 11, then beginning to trend back upward.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: The Honolulu Liquor Commission and other agencies are investigating two businesses connected to Oahu holiday parties that allegedly violated emergency health regulations stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. The Memorial Day weekend parties at Waimea Bay Beach Park and Kaena Point State Park might also have broken liquor and permitting laws, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday. A complaint against Candy Ice LLC and No Smoke Entertainment alleged alcoholic drinks were served at the events Saturday and Sunday without permits. Authorities found about 200 people and more than 170 cars at the Kaena Point gathering Sunday night, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said. A group called Protect Waimea filed the complaint with the liquor commission, the land and natural resources department, police and other agencies. Candy Ice and No Smoke Entertainment do not have liquor licenses and therefore are outside the liquor commission’s regulatory oversight. They have not been fined but could face criminal charges, the agency said. Business registration documents for Candy Ice filed with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs listed a Schofield Barracks address for its agent, Ariana Darcy, who could not immediately be reached. Police and the Honolulu city parks division did not immediately respond to questions.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: Idaho’s unemployment rate swung from a record low to a record high in the span of a month, spurred by job losses from the coronavirus pandemic. Idaho Department of Labor officials said April’s unemployment rate reached 11.5%, a nine-point jump in the seasonally adjusted number compared to the record-low 2.5% rate in March. Nearly 103,000 Idaho residents were unemployed last month, according to the department, an 81,000 person increase. Gov. Brad Little issued a statewide stay-at-home order that closed nonessential businesses for Idaho’s 1.75 million residents on March 25 in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus. The state has since begun the process of reopening some businesses, including daycare facilities and restaurants that can offer social distancing in their dining rooms. April’s job losses were spread throughout the state, with the Lewiston, Coeur d’Alene and Pocatello regions seeing job losses between 11% and 15%. The Boise metropolitan area had a 10% job loss. The Idaho Falls area fared best with a loss of 4.3%.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: In a news release on Thursday morning, the office of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans announced that two judges in the courthouse in suburban Bridgeview tested positive for COVID-19. The release did not provide any details about the judges or their conditions. According to the release, an employee of the adult probation department also tested positive, bringing to 39 the number of county court employees who have tested positive. The release also said that another resident of the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center has also tested positive, bringing the number of residents to test positive to 15. The county’s criminal justice system has been hit hard by the pandemic, particularly the county jail, where hundreds of detainees and correctional officers have tested positive and seven detainees and two correctional officers have died. At the Chicago Police Department, 521 sworn officers and 30 civilian employees have tested positive for the virus, and three officers who tested positive have died, according to the most recent department statistics.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: Indiana is experiencing more substance use disorders and other mental health issues amid the coronavirus outbreak, the state’s human services chief said Wednesday. Indiana experienced its highest monthly dispensation of the opioid antidote naloxone in April, with 1,306 uses, Jennifer Sullivan, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration said during a state news briefing. “We’ve never seen naloxone distribution like this before,” Sullivan said. Year to date, nearly 1.5% of all emergency medical runs involve administration of naloxone, or Narcan, compared with less than 1% for the same period last year, she said.. The state announced last week it will use nearly $1 million in federal funds to pay for the distribution of naloxone to first responders, families, friends and others who are likely to be the first on the scene if someone overdoses. The money was made available by a grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Naloxone is given when a person is showing signs of opioid overdose. It blocks the toxic effects of the overdose and is often the difference between a patient living and dying.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines:Tyson Foods announced a plan to temporarily close its Storm Lake pork processing plant late Thursday, hours after the Iowa Department of Public Health confirmed the facility was the site of a coronavirus outbreak that infected more than one-fifth of its workers. Tyson's meat processing facilities in Iowa and elsewhere have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, the company has had to temporarily close plants in Waterloo, Columbus Junction and Perry, as well as in Dakota City, Nebraska; Logansport, Indiana; and Pasco, Washington, so it could installing additional worker safeguards. In late April, Tyson Chairman John Tyson warned in full-page newspaper ads that \"the food supply chain is breaking.\" In a news release Thursday, the company attributed the closure in Storm Lake in part to \"a delay in COVID-19 testing results and team member absences related to quarantine.\" It said it was ceasing slaughter and would finish processing operations \"over the next two days.\" \"Additional deep cleaning and sanitizing of the entire facility will be conducted before resuming operations later next week,\" the release said. It said Tyson had completed COVID-19 testing of employees and contractors at the plant and promised to share results \"once complete data is available, with health and government officials, team members and other stakeholders as part of our efforts to help communities where we operate better understand the coronavirus and the protective measures that can be taken to help prevent its spread.\"\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: At least eight wrongful death lawsuits have been filed against a nursing home in Kansas City, where 36 people have died from the new coronavirus. The lawsuits alleged the Riverbend Post-Acute Rehabilitation was negligent in its handling of the coronavirus outbreak and did not provide adequate staff or notify families of the outbreak, KCUR reported. Health officials said another 136 patients and staff at the home have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Attorneys representing the nursing home on Tuesday transferred all eight cases from Wyandotte County District Court to federal court in Kansas City. The attorneys invoked a federal law that provides immunity from liability for health care providers during public health emergencies. Rachel Stahle, an attorney representing four of the eight families, said she will seek to have the cases sent back to state court. Riverbend posted a statement on its website last month defending its care, saying staff took reasonable actions with the resources and information that were available at the time. Riverbend officials have declined to discuss the lawsuits.\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: After two Kentucky Republicans asked Gov. Andy Beshear to consider a new approach for Lake Cumberland State Resort Park that wouldn’t hurt the area’s tourism dollars in a “crippling” way, the governor announced on Thursday that all state parks can reopen on June 1. In a Wednesday letter from Sen. Max Wise and Rep. Jeff Hoover to Beshear and tourism secretary Mike Berry, the two wrote that Lake Cumberland, which is in South Central Kentucky near Jamestown, relies heavily on tourism revenue. “Many Kentuckians have invested significant amounts of money in developing recreational housing in the area and providing food service for the community,” the two wrote, “particularly during the peak seasons at the park.” Beshear had announced that state resort parks, recreational parks, lodges and cabins that had been closed because of the virus will open June 1 with a few exceptions. So it could be reserved for coronavirus efforts, Lake Cumberland State Resort Park wasn’t included in that plan, along with Lake Barkley, Blue Licks Battlefield and Buckhorn Lake state resort parks.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: The state’s high school athletic association is investigating 10 schools accused of allowing some sports teams to begin training before the summer start date, which was pushed back to fall in line with coronavirus restrictions. Six New Orleans-area schools, two Lafayette-area schools and two north Louisiana schools were reported to the association for practicing before June 8, The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate quoted Executive Director Eddie Bonine as saying. The association changed the summer start date from May 17 to June 8 to fall in line with Gov. John Bel Edwards’ proposed timeline for the second phase of reopening the state as it moves away from “stay-at-home” measures enacted in March, the news outlet said. The schools were turned in by other schools and parents who said they were told there would be repercussions if their child did not attend the workouts, Bonine said. Some complainants also sent pictures and videos of the alleged practice sessions. The official said the association sent investigators to the schools and drove by between nine and 12 schools in the Baton Rouge-Livingston Parish area this week, but found no activity at the sites. Bonine declined to identify which schools were being reviewed. Schools and coaches that violate the association’s guidelines could be fined $2,500, suspended or placed on probation, officials said.\n\nMaine\n\nAugusta: Another 24,500 individuals have filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week – more than double the number of claims the previous week, the Maine Department of Labor said Thursday. The large number of claims is suspicious, coming off a week in which 11,500 individuals filed claims for assistance, officials said. “We believe these higher numbers are evidence of the organized crime of unemployment impostor fraud, which many states are experiencing,” Commissioner Laura Fortman said. All told, there were a combined 37,000 claims for state unemployment and pandemic assistance for the week ending May 23, topping the previous high of 34,000 claims during the week ending April 4, officials said. To date, the department has canceled about 2,200 unemployment claims because of fraud. The department is investigating another 1,000 cases for potential fraud.\n\nMaryland\n\nBaltimore: A union chapter that represents workers at Giant Food stores is calling for the grocer to extend hazard pay and maintain coronavirus safety measures. The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday that Giant plans to cancel its 10% “recognition pay” on May 30. The pay has been in place since mid-March. Giant spokeswoman Felis Andrade said that grocery stores are no longer among the only businesses open. She added that the company is transitioning to a new normal. The company said it will offer one-time bonuses on July 1 of $400 for full-time workers and $200 for part-time workers. Two locals of United Food & Commercial Workers said Giant should extend the temporary pay increase until the pandemic ends. They argued that workers took extra risks during the pandemic and continue to do so while no vaccine is available. Jason Chorpenning, president of UFCW Local 27, said that “nothing is getting back to normal.” The union is also calling on Giant to restrict customer traffic to a maximum of 50 customers at any one time.The union estimated that more than 65 workers have died across the country and that more than 9,800 have been infected by the virus.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: The case against a Rhode Island man accused of kidnapping and killing a Boston woman has been halted because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to his defense. Louis Coleman’s public defenders requested for the case to return in 45 days during a teleconference with a federal judge Tuesday. “Since the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of our work in the case has stalled,” Jane Peachy, an attorney for Coleman, told District Court Judge M. Page Kelley. “Most importantly, our ability to visit with Mr. Coleman in the jail has been put on hold,” which “hampers our progress significantly. Coleman, who faces the death penalty, was charged with kidnapping Jassy Correia, the mother of a 2-year-old girl, from outside a Boston nightclub where she had been celebrating her 23rd birthday in February 2019. He pleaded not guilty a month later. Federal authorities alleged Coleman was captured on surveillance video carrying her body into his Providence apartment. Coleman was stopped in Delaware days after Correia’s disappearance. Her body was found in the trunk of his car by authorities. Peachy asked that the status conference in the case be continued 45 days to July 7, a request the judge approved. Coleman is charged with kidnapping resulting in death. He has been held without bail.\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: A Republican legislative leader said Wednesday that Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer “lied” and engaged in a “cover-up” by requesting the removal of a social media post about her husband’s attempt to get his boat in the water during the coronavirus pandemic, only to later acknowledge he did drop her name as a joke. The governor confirmed Tuesday that her husband, Marc Mallory, called a dock company last week before he traveled to their home in the Elk Rapids area, after she had urged people to “think long and hard” about visiting the region. Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey questioned why her staff contacted his office Friday to successfully push Republican Sen. Tom Barrett to delete his Facebook post about Mallory. The post was based on a post by the owner of NorthShore Dock, who said his staff took a call from Mallory asking if his boat could be put in the water before the Memorial Day weekend. When Mallory was told there was no chance, Tad Dowker wrote, Mallory replied, ‘I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?’” according to The Detroit News. NorthShore Dock subsequently said on Facebook that Mallory was respectful and understood why the company could not quickly get his boat in the water. “The governor lied. Not only did she lie, but she directed her staff to lie on her behalf in order to cover up her own lies,” Shirkey said in statements from the Senate floor. He said Whitmer’s staff was “emphatic that the story was false and that it should be removed.” Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said Shirkey’s comment were “incorrect and unfair, and frankly, he owes the governor an apology. She has been completely honest about the situation and she never directed her staff to mislead anyone or to contact his office.”\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order Wednesday that formally implements the next phase of his “Stay Safe MN” plan, which will allow restaurants and bars to offer outdoor dining and salons and barber shops to reopen starting next Monday. Those businesses must observe capacity limits and follow other safety restrictions. There’s still no target date for allowing restaurants and bars to serve guests indoors. Walz acknowledged at a news conference that the terms of his order aren’t substantially different from the “cautious, strategic turn of the dial” he announced for these businesses last week. The governor took note of the grim milestone of the U.S. passing 100,000 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday. He said the peak in Minnesota is “still a ways off” and that how well Minnesotans comply with health guidelines – including social distancing, wearing masks and staying home when sick – will have an impact. Many restaurant owners have complained that allowing outdoor-only dining doesn’t give them enough relief from the shutdown that Walz imposed starting March 17, with exceptions for takeout and delivery service. The governor acknowledged the continuing economic pain, but said long dinners with friends in smaller spaces pose one of the higher risks for spreading the virus.\n\nMississippi\n\nVicksburg: A second company has announced its plans to resume cruises on the Mississippi River. American Cruise Lines announced this week that it plans to resume cruises in late June. The 190-passenger American Harmony is scheduled to depart from Memphis, Tennessee, on June 28, and sail to New Orleans, a company spokeswoman said. American Cruise Lines said it would voluntarily sail at 75% capacity. The announcement comes after the American Queen Steamboat Co. revealed that the American Queen would also will resume cruises in late June. That vessel is scheduled to dock in Vicksburg on June 24.\n\nMissouri\n\nKansas City: The University of Missouri-Kansas City has announced it will begin bringing back faculty, staff and students to its two campuses in Kansas City starting next week following its shutdown during the coronavirus outbreak. The university said Thursday in a news release that the campuses will open in three phases. The first phase will begin Monday, when a small group of employees engaged in critical operations will be brought back through July 5. The second phase will bring back senior administration and departmental leaders from July 6 through Aug. 2. The final phase would bring back all remaining faculty, staff and students from Aug. 3-24, except for those with individual medical exemptions. Although the university plans to return to in-person classes in August, it will monitor the public health situation closely and follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local guidelines, the release said. “The time has come for us to prepare in earnest to return to campus,” Chancellor Mauli Agrawal said. “We will do so carefully and flexibly, because the health and safety of our community is our highest priority.”\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: Applications for temporary unemployment assistance declined for the seventh straight week last week while Montana reported four more positive COVID-19 cases from more than 1,100 tests run. The state received 3,617 new unemployment applications last week, a decrease of 1.2% from the 3,660 claims that were filed the previous week, the U.S. Employment and Training Administration said Thursday. The applications were an increase of 364% compared to the number of applications submitted in the same week last year. Since March 14, the state has processed 105,494 claims for unemployment, which represents 23.1% of the total workforce in Montana that is eligible for the unemployment insurance program. The numbers don’t include the self-employed and gig workers who were eligible for federal unemployment payments under the coronavirus relief act. As of May 16, 48,919 people in Montana were receiving unemployment benefits, which represents 10.7% of all eligible employees in the state. The unemployment rate was 10.5% a week earlier.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: Nebraska will use its $1.1 billion share of federal coronavirus money to help small businesses, local governments, nonprofits and other groups hard-hit by the pandemic, Gov. Pete Ricketts said Wednesday. Ricketts provided a first glimpse of the state’s plan, which focuses heavily on small businesses and unemployment insurance for laid-off workers. Nebraska will receive $1.25 billion under the federal CARES Act, the emergency law passed to help Americans with the pandemic. Of that amount, Omaha’s Douglas County will get $166 million for its own virus-related expenses, reducing the state government’s cut to about $1.1 billion. Ricketts said he intends to hire outside auditors to track the huge influx of money and ensure that it doesn’t get misspent. The law prohibits states from using its share on nonvirus expenses or to replace lost tax revenue. Ricketts said he plans to set aside $330 million for small businesses, defined as having five to 49 employees, and small livestock producers. Business and producers can each apply for up to $12,000 in state grant money. Ricketts said many of those companies didn’t have the connections or resources to seek previous rounds of federal aid before the application deadlines passed.\n\nNevada\n\nReno: The Washoe County Health District plans to offer drive-thru testing next week for people with no COVID-19 symptoms. Testing will be available mornings on a first-come, first-served basis Monday through June 6 at the Reno Livestock Events Center. Health District chief Kevin Dick said about 900 tests a day can be taken using nasal swabs. He acknowledged that testing can produce false negatives, but said it should provide information about how widespread the coronavirus is in the Reno-Sparks area.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: The attorney general’s office will not take action against a New Hampshire racetrack that violated the state’s order prohibiting large gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic. Riverside Speedway in Groveton held races with spectators on Saturday despite being warned by police, the attorney general’s office said. After being told the state was prepared to take legal action, Riverside owner Michael Humphrey announced Wednesday the season has been postponed until further notice. Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said Thursday that no further action was necessary. “The objective of the Governor’s Orders is to protect the public health. Mr. Humphrey’s decision advances that important objective,” he said.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nPoint Pleasant Beach: Another Jersey Shore town is planning to reopen its boardwalk. Point Pleasant Beach said it plans to make the move Friday and will also start lifting parking restrictions. But the rides, amusements and games along the boardwalk will remain closed, and restaurants will be open for takeout only. Officials last month limited much of the town’s parking to residents. But private and public lots will be allowed to reopen Friday, and remaining restrictions will be lifted June 5.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: New Mexico’s state court system plans in mid-June to resume starting jury trials that had been suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. The suspension to be lifted under an order issued Thursday by the state Supreme Court’s chief justice has been in place since March. The order said the 21 judicial districts can resume starting jury trials beginning June 15 through July 15 but that districts must first submit plans to maintain physical distancing of people in courtrooms and jury selection rooms and use of protective barriers in courthouses. Chief Justice Judith Nakamura’s order said courts will rigorously follow practices developed by public health authorities and that courthouses will be reopened “in a safe and gradual manner that is based on the local circumstances and available resources in each judicial district.” New Mexico’s courts have already required that people entering court buildings wear a protective face covering and have limited the number of people in locations within courthouses.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: The state Senate and Assembly on Wednesday voted to extend the deadline for residents who were sexually abused as children to file legal claims, citing the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The original deadline for those making claims under the Child Victims Act was Aug. 14th; the legislation would extend it a year, to the same date in 2021. The 2019 act lifted statute of limitations even for allegations that were decades old, for a filing period of one year. But with the shutdown and disruption caused by the virus, advocates and survivors had been pressing for an extension. The legislation now goes to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who earlier this month had extended the deadline by five months, to January. A spokesman said it would be reviewed. The state Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 60-0, and the Assembly by a vote of 135-9.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: Legislators are wading into Gov. Roy Cooper’s business reopening decisions, as the state Senate voted Thursday to let bars serve customers again despite his recent executive order keeping them closed because of COVID-19. With support from members of both parties, the legislation approved overwhelmingly that would essentially overturn Cooper’s decision on bars, which the Democratic governor said was based on data and science. Republicans and some business owners have questioned his orders, calling them uneven and devastating to the state economy. Currently, bars must be shuttered through late June, but Cooper allowed restaurants last week to reopen partially their indoor dining areas. But senators said all of these businesses needed a stronger economic lifeline to avoid permanent closure and rehire workers they had to lay off when restrictions began in mid-March. More than 956,000 individuals have filed unemployment claims since then and the state’s unemployment rate soared above 12% last month. The measure still would have to be approved by the House before it goes to Cooper, who has veto power. The margin of the Senate vote suggests that Cooper would have work to do to prevent an override. Gyms and adult entertainment businesses have sued Cooper, seeking to ease portions of his executive orders keeping them closed. A federal judge this month blocked enforcement of a previous ordering prevented indoor church services of more than 10 people.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: Another person has died from COVID-19 in North Dakota, bringing the total number of deaths to 57, state health officials said Thursday. The state Health Department said the victim was a Cass County man in his 80s with underlying health conditions. The Department of Health said another 42 people have tested positive for the new coronavirus since Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 2,481. Cass County, which remains the epicenter of the state’s coronavirus outbreak, had 36 additional cases. The county, which contains Fargo, has had a total of 1,632 cases. Health officials said 65,773 people statewide so far have tested negative for the virus. Thirty-five people are hospitalized with the virus, down five from Wednesday.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: Outdoor visits will be allowed at assisted living facilities as well as facilities for people with developmental disabilities, beginning June 8. Social distancing and other safety restrictions will apply. Gov. Mike DeWine said the limited visitation will be watched closely as his administration considers when to reopen nursing homes to visitors. He said officials are balancing safety against damage done by prolonged periods without seeing family. The latest data showed outbreaks in nursing homes are continuing to pop up in some counties while the deaths have leveled off in others. Ottawa County reported a week ago just one death since the pandemic began and this week added nine more. Monroe County also had a recent rise in deaths, bringing its total to 12. The number of nursing home deaths in Franklin County has tripled during the past three weeks, rising to 150 – the most in the state.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: Four Oklahoma tribes are being awarded a total of nearly $1.2 million to fight the new coronavirus. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration on Thursday announced the awards. They include $300,000 to both the Cherokee Nation and the Cheyenne and Arapho Tribes, more than $299,000 to the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma and more than $295,000 to the Chickasaw Nation. The funding can be used by the tribes to acquire personal protective equipment; pay for overtime and hazardous duties; building infrastructure; increase testing and the isolation of suspected COVID-19 patients; purchase mobile clinics or vehicles for transporting COVID-19 patients; and provide educational resources to help slow the spread of the virus.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: Multnomah County said it hopes to begin reopening in about two weeks, but a mysterious coronavirus outbreak could hinder those plans. The Oregon Health Authority said it is working with county health authorities to investigate “an increase in COVID-19 cases tied to an outbreak at specific locations of a business that operates in the Tri-county region and the Willamette Valley.” Pressed for specifics and for the name of the involved business, the health authority said it is keeping that company’s identity secret – but did not say why, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. “At this time, there is no indication that the outbreak at these locations poses any significant risk to surrounding communities,” the health authority said. Multnomah County had an unusual 41-case spike in new coronavirus cases Wednesday. It’s not clear whether those new cases are connected to the workplace outbreak the health authority cited. The county said Wednesday that it hopes to reopen June 12.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: Professional sports can resume in Pennsylvania where the governor’s stay-at-home order to stem the spread of the coronavirus is no longer in force, but without spectators, Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration said. Those teams and competitors will be allowed to practice or play in counties where Wolf’s “yellow” or “green” designation applies in his stoplight-colored three-phase reopening plan. To resume, a team or a league must develop a coronavirus safety plan that has been approved by the state Department of Health and it must include testing or screening and monitoring of all “on-venue” players and personnel, the administration said. Fans or spectators cannot be permitted inside or outside the sporting venue property, the administration said. Major League Baseball, the NHL and the NBA have been on hiatus since mid-March and the NFL has been holding its organized team activities “virtually,” though the reopening means players could potentially participate in person when mandatory minicamps are held next month.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority does not plan to immediately resume express bus service to state beaches this summer because of the coronavirus pandemic, an agency spokeswoman said Thursday.RIPTA usually offers summer express service on weekends and holidays from Providence, Central Falls, Woonsocket and other cities to South County state beaches. All state beaches closed because of the pandemic are scheduled to reopen Monday, but with limited parking and other restrictions. There are no plans to resume beach service immediately and it might not resume this summer, RIPTA told The Providence Journal. “We are in close contact with the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Management, and we plan to reinstate that additional service as soon as it is safe to do so,” agency spokeswoman Barbara Polichetti said.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: The committee assigned by Gov. Henry McMaster to plan to reopen the state after the initial spread of the coronavirus and figure out how to spend $1.9 billion in federal money is preparing to give its final report. The Accelerate SC committee meets Thursday afternoon in its traditional social distancing format with all seats at least 6 feet apart, microphones sanitized after every speaker and hand sanitizer and masks at every place. As the reopening committee winds down its work, South Carolina’s response is far from over. Many members worry the economy could continue to struggle because consumers feel the risk to their health is too great to return to tourist attractions or restaurants or they are saving because of the economic crisis. McMaster formed the Accelerate SC committee five weeks ago. It has provided recommendations on how to get restaurants, barber shops and other businesses reopened. It is looking at the best ways schools can teach students in the fall. And it worked on the best way to get protective equipment to people now and stockpile it for a future pandemic.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls:When the city announced it was keeping its public pools closed for the year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials with the Sioux Falls Swim Team scrambled to find other accommodations to keep its 200 swimmers in the water this summer. Unlike Sioux Falls, Brandon or Dell Rapids, the city of Lennox has opted to open swimming facilities and has agreed to allow the Sioux Falls swimmers to use them outside of regular operating hours for practice purposes. The way practices are conducted won't be the same as prepandemic. Kyle Margheim, a coach with the swim team, said some changes will have to be made. Usually, there would be 60 swimmers in the water at once, but continued social distancing will probably drop that number to 12 or 13. Use of locker rooms will be suspended for the time being.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: A judge expects to rule June 4 on whether to order a temporary injunction to let all voters cast ballots by mail in the August primary because of the coronavirus pandemic. Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle set the deadline during a video conference hearing Thursday that she rescheduled for June 3. The lawsuit argues universal vote by mail eliminates risk of catching COVID-19 at the polls or unknowingly spreading it. State officials said they “cannot feasibly implement” a quick shift to let all voters cast their ballots by mail in the 2020 elections. Lyle will weigh whether to order the temporary injunction of more than a dozen excuses to qualify to vote absentee in Tennessee in the August primary. Those range from being sick to being 60 or older. The hearing will include discussion on two similar state court lawsuits that seek vote by mail for all in the August and November elections: One filed by Memphis-based voting rights group #UpTheVote901 and several voters, and another led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Campaign Legal Center have also sued in federal court seeking absentee voting for all voters this year.\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: Joe Biden will close out Texas Democrats’ virtual convention next month that was moved online over fears of the new coronavirus. The announcement Thursday rounds out an unusual slate of big names that Texas Democrats have rounded up for their state convention. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will also speak at the weeklong event via video. Democrats are redoubling efforts in Texas this year after gaining ground in the nation’s largest red state in 2018. A major target for them is the Texas House, where Democrats need to flip just nine seats to reclaim a majority for the first time in nearly 20 years. The Texas Democratic Party convention begins Monday. Biden is also speaking via video at other state Democratic conventions. Since abruptly canceling a March 10 rally in Cleveland at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has waged much of his campaign from his home in Delaware.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: More people have now applied for unemployment in Utah during the coronavirus pandemic than the previous three years combined, though the number of new claims are decreasing as the state economy reopens, officials said Thursday. Nearly 5,500 more people applied for unemployment last week, a 12% drop from the week before. Since business shutdowns aimed at halting the spread of the virus began in mid-March, the state has processed nearly 165,000 claims, or about about 11% of the eligible workforce. “We have now received the same amount of claims in the last ten weeks that were filed over the previous three years,” said Kevin Burt, Unemployment Insurance Division director for the Utah Department of Workforce Services, in a statement. Still, there are other signals workers are getting back on the job. Almost 10,000 people ended their unemployment claim on May 16, an increase from the week before, officials said.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: The Vermont Department of Corrections said Thursday it has completed testing of inmates and staff at the Rutland prison for the virus that causes COVID-19 and no cases were detected. The department announced the results of the tests of 117 inmates and 87 staff members of the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility.Vermont now has completed testing of all inmates and staff at four of the state’s six correctional facilities. Additional tests are planned. Earlier in the course of the pandemic, 45 inmates from the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans tested positive for the virus. Most of the infected inmates were moved to a special surge site set up at the St. Johnsbury corrections complex until they recovered and could be moved back to St. Albans. Those inmates are now considered to be “in recovery″ after two negative tests for the COVID-19 virus.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: Warnings have been issued to more than 100 businesses in Virginia about price gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s attorney general said. Attorney General Mark Herring has sent at least 114 warning letters in light of complaints on products which include toilet paper, hand sanitizer and paper towels, among other things, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Herring said at the end of March, the first month of Virginia’s state of emergency, that his office had sent 42 letters to businesses in response to price gouging complaints. Spokeswoman Charlotte Gomer said that as of Tuesday, Herring’s office had received more than 500 price gouging complaints from across Virginia. Gomer said Virginia’s Post-Disaster Anti-Price Gouging Act, which prohibits businesses from charging “unconscionable prices” for “necessary goods and services” during a crisis, also requires that the complaints be kept confidential, meaning the attorney general’s office is not publicly identifying the businesses it has warned.\n\nWashington\n\nVancouver: The CEO of a fruit processor connected to 85 coronavirus cases said his company could have done more to protect employees. Firestone Pacific Foods CEO Josh Hinerfeld said Wednesday the company began implementing new safety policies and educating employees about the disease in March, but that it struggled to implement and enforce physical distancing measures on the production line and in a break room, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. “We could have done better,” Hinerfeld said. “Through this process, we learned that we didn’t do enough. I sure hope through our experience, which obviously has been very painful for many, that others will learn from it.” Firestone suspended production and closed its office May 18 because of the outbreak. Washington state health officials have also suspended Clark County’s application to move to phase two of its reopening. Hinerfeld said that the company implemented daily health screenings for employees starting March 20 and required employees to wear masks on April 29. But, he said, some employees were still working in close proximity on the production line and it was difficult to enforce mask rule when employees went on break. The company set up a canopy outside in May to give workers more space during breaks. Hinerfeld said the company would work in collaboration with the county to determine when it could reopen, but was hopeful that the facility could resume operations as early as this week.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: Gov. Jim Justice said he wants widespread coronavirus testing at all of the state’s correctional facilities as cases continue to rise inside a rural prison. At least 102 inmates and eight staffers at the Huttonsville Correctional Center in Randolph County have tested positive for the virus, according to state records. About 360 tests are still pending. Justice, a Republican, did not give a timeline on when testing at all of the state’s lockups would begin, but he said it should happen as quickly as possible. Corrections department data show few inmates have been tested outside of the Huttonsville facility. The Huttonsville Correctional Center had the state’s first inmate coronavirus case, after a 62-year-old prisoner tested positive last week. Justice said he ordered testing throughout the facility after screenings had been limited to the area where the initial cases were located. Betsy Jividen, corrections department commissioner, said jails and prisons have been following federal safety guidelines. She said cases will likely continue to rise as courts resume normal hearings and more people enter the criminal justice system.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison:For the first time since 1945 and just the sixth time in 169 years, the Wisconsin State Fair has been canceled. The venerable event held every August outside of Milwaukee was called off Thursday because of the coronavirus pandemic, the latest in a long line of cancellations of major events in Wisconsin and nationwide. The cancellation marks only the second time the fair was called off for a reason other than a war. The announcement was expected as fairs in other states, including neighboring Minnesota, have also been called off. Wisconsin organizers said that even though they had hoped to somehow pull off the event in the face of the pandemic, it just couldn’t be safely done. The fair board gave chairman John Yingling the power on Tuesday to decide whether to proceed with the event. There is no state prohibition on large gatherings, after the Wisconsin Supreme Court invalidated Gov. Tony Evers’ “safer at home” order two weeks ago, but the safety challenges of putting on an event that draws more than a million people over 11 days was too much to overcome, Yingling said. The decision to cancel has Evers’ support, the fair said in announcing the decision. Tickets purchased for the fair this year will be valid for the 2021 fair, assuming that happens as scheduled. Refunds will also be offered through the end of June. The state fair began in Janesville in 1851 and since 1892 it has been staged in West Allis. The last time it was canceled was the last year of World War II. It was also not staged three years during the Civil War and in 1893, when the World’s Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago.\n\nWyoming\n\nYellowstone National Park: The northern half of Yellowstone National Park remains closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Memorial Day weekend traffic in the park's southern half was similar to last year. Yellowstone has been open since May 18 through its two Wyoming entrances. Yellowstone's other three gates in Montana remain closed to park tourists and will open no sooner than Monday. A snowstorm forced the Wyoming entrances to close Saturday. After that, park officials said Memorial Day weekend traffic for those gates was similar to last year. Almost 4,700 vehicles entered through the two Wyoming gates last Sunday and Monday. Last year, about 4,800 vehicles entered through the Wyoming gates on Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend. More than two-thirds of visitors typically enter the park through the Montana gates.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/05/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2020/08/21/hollywood-home-water-shutoff-saliva-tests-sturgis-worries-news-around-states/113411612/", "title": "50 States", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: Auburn University said a number of students are quarantined after four COVID-19 cases were reported in a campus residence hall and a fraternity house, a university spokesman said Wednesday. “Auburn is aware of multiple students who have tested positive for COVID-19 in a campus residence hall and a fraternity house. The university has taken immediate action to quarantine the impacted students and is going above and beyond all guidance from public health officials,” spokesman Preston Sparks wrote in an email to the Associated Press. Sparks in a follow-up email said it involved four COVID-19 cases. The school did not name the fraternity or dorm. The university said that 32 students and eight employees tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Sparks said the students will remain quarantined until each has received medical clearance. The students will complete coursework remotely while quarantined. Auburn has about 30,000 students on its main campus. The university is requiring face coverings, both indoors and outdoors on campus, and has taken other steps to try to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: The University of Alaska Anchorage will drop its men’s hockey program and three other sports next year because of significant reductions in state funding, the university said Wednesday. The school also will cut men’s and women’s skiing and women’s gymnastics. The moves will save about $2.5 million a year, chancellor Cathy Sandeen said. “This comes at a difficult time as they are already facing much uncertainty surrounding this year’s season due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sandeen said. The Seawolves will go from sponsoring 13 sports to nine. The hockey team began play in 1979. The ski program dates to 1970, and the Seawolves have had nine skiers win national championships. About 55 athletes, seven coaches and two athletic department staff members are impacted. Travel to the Lower 48 states for competitions exacerbated the athletic department’s financial woes. Recent budget issues made the situation untenable.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: Arizona’s downward trend of coronavirus cases means parts of the state could meet all three metrics the state’s health and education departments set for at least a partial reopening of schools by Labor Day, according to a former state health director. And bars and nightclubs in at least some counties could meet the parameters for reopening shortly after that, according to Will Humble, who now leads the Arizona Public Health Association. But caution is the word of the day, according to Humble and Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of the ASU Biodesign Institute, which has been tracking the virus in Arizona. “Arizona continues on what I would consider a positive trend, a good trend for us,” LaBaer said Wednesday at his weekly media briefing. Humble credited local government officials for requiring masks and gives the Republican governor credit for closing bars. The third element in the case drop, he believes, is some level of so-called “herd immunity” that came from lots of people being infected.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: Arkansas is seeking $300 in additional weekly federal unemployment benefits, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday as the state reported 729 new confirmed coronavirus cases. Hutchinson said the state is submitting its application to the federal government for the unemployment extension. He said state lawmakers are also reviewing the request. Arkansas is the latest state to seek the extended benefits under an executive order issued by President Donald Trump this month. Congress approved payments of $600 a week at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, but those benefits expired Aug. 1 and Congress has been unable to agree on an extension. Hutchinson opted against seeking $400 in weekly benefits, which would have required the state to pay a quarter of the cost. Hutchinson has said that would cost $265 million and would require tapping into coronavirus relief money the state has received that’s already been allocated for other programs.\n\nCalifornia\n\nLos Angeles: Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday that he authorized shutting off utility services at a home in the Hollywood Hills that has been the site of raucous parties despite a ban on large gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic. “Despite several warnings, this house has turned into a nightclub in the hills, hosting large gatherings in flagrant violation of our public health orders,” Garcetti said. “The city has now disconnected utilities at this home to stop these parties that endanger our community.” The city did not identify the home’s address or the owner. Garcetti announced earlier this month that he would ask the city’s Department of Water and Power to shut off service to houses and businesses hosting parties. With bars closed in town, large house parties can become “superspreaders” of COVID-19, Garcetti said. The announcement came days after an Aug. 3 party at a mansion where hundreds of people gathered without masks or social distancing. The party ended in a shooting that killed a woman and wounded two other people.\n\nColorado\n\nPueblo:With the looming start of the 2020 Colorado State Fair, Pueblo County’s COVID-19 testing site will be temporarily relocated. The Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment said the site will move while the expo is in session, and an announcement about where the new site will be will be made soon. The site will be moved from Monday through Sept. 9, according to the health department. Testing will remain from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The testing site is expected to move back to the fairgrounds once the state fair has ended. The site opened in April and 8,652 tests have been conducted there. There have been a total of 14,369 COVID-19 tests completed in Pueblo County to date. The fair runs from Aug. 28-31.\n\nConnecticut\n\nStorrs: University of Connecticut officials have evicted several students from on-campus housing after learning of a crowded dormitory room party with no mask-wearing or social distancing, which violated the school’s coronavirus rules. School officials notified the campus community of the disciplinary actions and investigations in a letter Tuesday night. Students began returning to campus Aug. 14, all were tested for the virus and all were supposed to limit their contact with others during their first 14 days back on campus. Video of the party was posted on social media. “Students were not wearing masks, closely assembled, and endangering not only their own health and well-being, but that of others at a time when UConn is working to protect our community and resume classes in the context of a deadly global pandemic,” said the letter sent by Eleanor Daugherty, associate vice president and dean of students, and Pamela Schipani, executive director of residential life. Temporary disciplinary action was taken against an undisclosed number of students and they were removed from student housing pending a school investigation, they said. Many colleges have changed course and moved all undergraduate classes online as schools struggle to contain outbreaks and students continue to gather in large groups without masks or social distancing. UConn officials, however, said there is no outbreak at the Storrs campus and the students’ actions were not representative of the entire student body, most of which has been following the coronavirus protocols. About 5,000 students are on campus.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington:Delaware and New Castle County are giving out $100million in grants for small businesses and nonprofits in the state. The program known as DE Relief Grants, which was announced on Wednesday afternoon, will provide grants ranging from $30,000 to $100,000 to 3,000 small businesses and nonprofits, according to a news release from Gov. John Carney's office. Organizations can use the money to buy equipment such as PPE, air purifiers or plexiglass to make the workplace safer during the COVID-19 pandemic; refinance debt incurred because of COVID-19, including the state's HELP loans; advertise efforts undertaken as a result of COVID-19; and fix expenses accrued during COVID-19. The size of the grant will depend on the organization's 2019 revenue. The Division of Small Business is administering the program and will start accepting applications in early September at business.delaware.gov/relief.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington:As of Wednesday, 600 people have died from COVID-19 in the District of Columbia, WUSA-TV reported. The District reported 29 new cases of the coronavirus – its lowest daily number of cases since July 4. D.C. health has now reported successfully contact tracing more than 90% of new coronavirus cases for 60 consecutive days.\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee:With more than 28% of Florida voters casting ballots, Tuesday’s pandemic-shaded elections drew the largest state primary turnout in 18 years – setting the stage for what could be another record in November. The primary can prove a tough sell to voters, but almost 3.9 million cast ballots in the primary – almost 1 million more than during 2016 presidential year. The turnout also was the largest in a presidential year Florida primary since 1992, when 35% of voters cast ballots. About 1.1 million people voted at the polls on Tuesday.Much of the primary turnout increase was powered by the 2.3 million vote-by-mail ballots submitted, which represented about 59% of all votes cast.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp defended his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in fiery remarks Wednesday after a report from the White House coronavirus task force said Georgia led the nation last week in new cases per capita. The White House report, dated Sunday, recommends several steps to curb the virus that Kemp has declined to take, including closing bars and issuing mask mandates in counties with 50 or more active cases. Kemp was among the first governors to ease earlier restrictions this spring, and although infections declined for weeks afterward, they began to rise in June and peaked in late July. First reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the report said “Georgia’s small gains are fragile and statewide progress will require continued, expanded, and stronger mitigation efforts, including in all open schools.” Kemp insisted Wednesday that other markers he’s watching paint a different picture. The report from the White House coronavirus task force says that last week Georgia had 216 new cases per 100,000 residents, compared to the national average of 112 new cases per 100,000 residents. State health officials say more than 243,000 people in Georgia have contracted the virus and at least 4,849 people have died from COVID-19.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: The Hawaii attorney general’s office denies threatening a Republican state House of Representatives candidate with arrest for violating a traveler quarantine mandated to protect the islands from the spread of the coronavirus. Lori Ford was in California visiting family when Hawaii’s 14-day quarantine on arriving travelers went into effect in March. She returned in May to file candidacy papers and then returned to California. Agents from the Hawaii attorney general’s office contacted her and told her she would be arrested for violating the quarantine, Ford and her attorney Bilal Essayli said. Because of that threat, she remains in California. “Our office has communicated with Ms. Ford’s attorney, and we informed him that if Ms. Ford were charged, we would contact him so he could assist her in receiving the Complaint and a penal summons to appear in court,” Krishna Jayaram, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said in a statement. “These communications did not contemplate or threaten Ms. Ford with arrest should she return to Hawaii.” Ford said she didn’t attempt to seek an exemption to the quarantine so that she could file her candidacy papers. Essayli said she was required to appear in person at the elections office by June 2. However, Nedielyn Bueno of the state Office of Elections said Wednesday a candidate is not required to file candidacy papers in person. “Candidates may have a representative deliver or submit the required documents by mail,” she said. Authorities have routinely arrested tourists and returning residents for violating the quarantine.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: Gov. Brad Little on Wednesday called the part-time Legislature back into a special session because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Republican governor in a news release said the special session will start Monday. He said lawmakers will consider election law changes as well as establishing temporary civil liability standards related to the pandemic. Lawmakers meeting in special working groups comprised of senators and representatives from both parties have been calling for a special session to address those two issues. Election officials have testified before those lawmakers that polling places for the November election could be limited because of a lack of volunteers afraid of getting the virus and some facilities declining to be polling places. That has led to suggestions of polling centers with expanded voting times as well as using National Guard soldiers at polling places. Election officials have also sought changes in the absentee ballot system to make vote counting more efficient due to possibly much larger numbers of absentee ballots. Another group of lawmakers said that a liability shield law is needed to protect government, schools and private businesses from frivolous lawsuits. Lawmakers said that if someone gets the virus at a school or workplace, they could file a lawsuit. But others said such a liability shield would remove responsibility from businesses, schools and government.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: Gov. J.B. Pritzker touted a University of Illinois saliva test on Wednesday as a potential “game changer” in the fight against COVID-19. The test, which involves spitting into a test tube, can offer results in hours and is expected to cost about $10. The university has performed more than 50,000 tests since making it available at no cost to faculty, staff and students last month. University officials said Wednesday that the test had become the latest to receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The university expects to test up to 20,000 students at a day when the fall semester begins next week and students will be required to be tested twice a week. Pritzker said there are possibilities for the tests to be used statewide, particularly for K-12 schools. “If ongoing research continues to yield positive results, this has potentially game-changing implications for our statewide testing complex as well as for testing on a national level,” Pritzker said. “The potential here is enormous.”\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: State officials are working to develop a public website that will track the number of coronavirus cases among students, teacher and other employees at Indiana’s K-12 schools. Dr. Kristina Box, the state health commissioner, said her goal was to have the website available by mid- to late September and that the information would broken down by individual school. The public tracking system is being developed as school districts across the state have struggled with reopening decisions. Gov. Eric Holcomb and state health officials have declined to set benchmarks for the circumstances when schools should close their doors to students. Several of the state’s largest school districts have started the academic year with only online classes. Some opened with in-person classes only to backtrack after facing coronavirus cases.\n\nIowa\n\nCoralville: An increase in coronavirus cases prompted Iowa prison officials on Wednesday to stop admitting inmates from county jails to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville. The Department of Corrections said 59 inmates tested positive in the last week out of nearly 800 tests conducted at the center. When officials believe the virus is no longer spreading in the facility, it will end the suspension. Staff implemented enhanced quarantine and testing measures after an inmate tested positive for the coronavirus last week. Inmates typically are temporarily assigned to the center before being sent to another prison in Iowa’s system. The Coralville center usually admits about 65 inmates a week from jails.\n\nKansas\n\nLawrence: University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod is seeking permission to obtain a $20 million, short-term line of credit in case the coronavirus pandemic significantly modifies the 2020 football and basketball seasons. The Lawrence Journal-World reported that Girod said in an email calling an emergency meeting of the governing board that oversees Kansas Athletics that the line of credit is just to provide “emergency liquidity.” Girod said the credit would also allow Kansas athletics to continue its operations in such a scenario without having to ask the university for financial assistance. The university is facing a budgeting shortfall of at least $120 million on its own during the current fiscal year. The meeting will take place through a group email, with the results of each board member’s vote made public. Votes must be submitted by 5 p.m. Friday. Girod, as chairman of the board, also requested that members give University of Kansas Athletic Director Jeff Long permission to refinance nearly $30 million in outstanding bond debt. If board members allow Long to undertake the financial restructuring, both the refinanced bond debt and emergency line of credit will be up for a final discussion and vote at the board’s September meeting.\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has ruled that the state cannot force religious schools to close as long as they are following health recommendations put in place to protect against the coronavirus. Cameron wrote in the Wednesday opinion that a forced closure of religious schools by Gov. Andy Beshear would violate the U.S. Constitution and state law, news outlets reported. When asked about the opinion, Beshear said Wednesday that “nobody is trying to close any school that is complying with guidelines and preventing outbreaks.” “I don’t know where that came from,” the Courier-Journal quoted him as saying. Republican state Sen. Wil Schroder requested the opinion, according to the ruling. Cameron said in a statement that religious schools were protected by the Constitution, even during the pandemic. “Religiously affiliated schools are an important extension of faith for many Kentucky families, and the state cannot prevent them from operating so long as necessary health precautions are observed,” according to the statement. The opinion comes after Beshear recommended Kentucky schools begin the year with online learning until Sept. 28 to give more time to bring a recent surge in virus cases under control. The Archdiocese of Louisville and other religious schools, as well as some public districts, have decided to move ahead with or have already begun reopening for in-person classes, the newspaper said. Others have said they plan to start virtually.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: As college students return to campus, Gov. John Bel Edwards is urging them to take precautions against the coronavirus, worried the schools could undercut recent progress the state has made in fighting the pandemic. Louisiana continued Wednesday to have one of the nation’s highest per capita virus infection rates in recent weeks. But the average number of new confirmed cases per day has fallen by more than 50% over the past 14 days, to about 1,000. The number of people hospitalized with the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus also has significantly declined. But elementary and secondary schools started opening this month, and move-in days began last week at Louisiana’s universities, raising fears of a new spike in COVID-19 just as the state is making strides to contain its second surge of the disease. “This is going to be a lot more movement, a lot more activity and people coming into contact with one another than we have seen on our campuses since March … so we have to be especially vigilant right now,” Edwards said. Louisiana’s universities are planning to hold classes through a mix of in-person and online learning, with a wary eye toward the experiences in other states. Edwards is asking college students to wear masks as the state requires, maintain social distancing and to “think twice about going” to a party or event if it will be packed with people not following those rules.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: The largest school district in Maine has approved a plan for the upcoming school year that will mix in-person learning with remote instruction. The Portland Board of Public Education unanimously approved the proposal on Wednesday. The school year will begin on Sept. 14. The proposal calls for elementary students to return to school full-time on Oct. 13. The possibility of more in-person learning for middle-schoolers is scheduled to be reassessed after the first trimester, school officials said. The plan also calls for students in grades 10 through 12 to take courses remotely four days a week and receive in-person instruction in a learning center one day a week. District officials said they hope to “maximize in-person learning time for students in grades 10-12 starting in October.” The district has more than 6,700 students.\n\nMaryland\n\nTowson: Multiple Maryland inmates have filed federal lawsuits alleging a leak spilled sewage into cells for days and that rules meant to protect against the coronavirus are being repeatedly ignored in state facilities. Baltimore County inmates Keith Wiggins and Reginald Dorsey said in separate complaints filed last week in U.S. District Court that they were forced to sit in dirty jails without running water for at least four days in April, The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday, citing the lawsuits.The men said staff members were slow in responding, and when they did, they shut off the water in the cells and kept inmates locked inside. The allegations join those that were contained in several other federal complaints recently filed against the Baltimore County Detention Center. Inmates are seeking damages and asking the court to address what they said are chronic health and safety issues, as well as repeated violations of coronavirus guidelines. Another inmate, Renardo Whitehead, alleged in a separate federal lawsuit that he asked for a coronavirus test several times and was denied. He added that staff has ignored social distancing orders, allowing groups of nearly 20 people to congregate. Other inmates accused prison officials of failing to provide proper access to protective equipment and overlooking mask mandates. The Director of the Baltimore County Department of Corrections contended the department has been following safety measures.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston:Ten people who work at a Massachusetts courthouse have tested positive for the coronavirus, and the building will remain closed until further notice, according to a court official. In addition to the 10 employees at New Bedford District Court who tested positive, 25 have tested negative for the disease and additional test results are pending, trial court spokeswoman Jennifer Donahue told The Standard-Times. The facility closed for cleaning and disinfecting last week after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. Donahue said in an email Wednesday that court officials do not yet have a reopening date for the public. “The Trial Court is analyzing the protocol in response to this situation and working with the Department of Public Health,” she said, “There are still virtual hearings going on, and in-person matters for New Bedford are currently taking place in Fall River.”\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that her administration is assessing the risk of reopening Michigan businesses that have been closed for five months under her orders to curb the spread of the coronavirus, saying she will have more to say next week. Movie theaters, gyms and indoor pools are among the places that remain barred from operating in much of the state amid the pandemic. The Democratic governor told reporters her office is working with the state health department to “drill down” into businesses that are closed, “where we can do another assessment on risk mitigation and determine if we might consider making some improvements in the policy.” Whitmer said other states have taken “bad” steps that “we don’t want to do,” but there are “perhaps some things that they have done and been successful.” She has come under criticism from the owners of theaters and fitness clubs – which are now open with capacity restrictions in many other states – for letting Detroit casinos reopen at 15% capacity about two weeks ago while keeping their businesses shut except in northern counties. Other closed operations including amusement parks, arcades, bingo halls, bowling alleys, indoor climbing centers, indoor dance areas, skating rinks, trampoline parks, water parks and other similar recreational or entertainment facilities.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: Minnesota’s unemployment rate fell to 7.7% in July from 8.6% a month earlier, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development said Thursday, but cautioned that job growth is slowing as the coronavirus pandemic persists. The agency said Minnesota added 32,500 payroll jobs in July on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the U.S. added 1.8 million jobs in July. The U.S. unemployment rate was 10.2% for July, down from 11.1% in June. “We’re moving in the right direction, but job growth is slowing, a sign that this recovery will likely take some time,” DEED Commissioner Steve Grove said in a statement. Minnesota’s unemployment rate was 2.9% before the pandemic struck, according to the department’s revised figures. Some groups of Minnesotans have been more affected more than than others during the pandemic. Based on six-month moving averages, the agency said, unemployment for Black Minnesotans was 15.3% in July, up 9 percentage points from 6.3% one year ago. For Hispanic Minnesotans, unemployment was 8.6% in July, double the rate from July 2019. White Minnesotans had a jobless rate of 6.3% in July, up from 3.1% one year ago. Seasonally adjusted job gains in July were led by the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 17,200, or 9.8%.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: Outbreaks of the new coronavirus have been found at two of Mississippi’s eight public universities within the first days of students returning to campuses, the state health officer said Wednesday. Dr. Thomas Dobbs said cases at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and Mississippi University for Women in Columbus appear to have originated off-campus. The University of Mississippi said in a memo Wednesday that 13 student-athletes and one employee had tested positive for COVID-19. The memo said 11 of the athletes are on the same team, but it did not name the sport. “These individuals were tested earlier this week as part of a mass screening for student-athletes returning to campus and were instructed to quarantine until test results were received,” the memo said. Mississippi University for Women said on its website Wednesday that seven students had reported testing positive for the virus since Friday, and each had been on campus within a week before the diagnosis. Dobbs said some of the Mississippi University for Women cases can be traced to the Cotton District in Starkville, an area with restaurants and bars that are popular with students from MUW and Mississippi State University.\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Louis: A businessman who went to prison in June after pleading guilty in a pay-to-play scandal that brought down a top St. Louis County elected official has asked to be released because he has the coronavirus. John Rallo, 55, asked a federal judge to allow him to serve some of his 17-month prison sentence under home confinement with family in Salt Lake City because of health concerns, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Rallo pleaded guilty last summer to three bribery counts as part of a scheme involving former Democratic St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, who pleaded guilty in May 2019 to corruption charges for providing political favors in exchange for campaign donations. Stenger is serving a sentence of nearly four years in prison. Rallo was sentenced in early March but his date to report to prison was pushed to late June because of the pandemic. In an Aug. 11 letter to U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber, Rallo wrote that his cellmate, Taiwan Davis, died after contracting COVID-19. Rallo’s attorney, Curtis Poore, told the newspaper that Rallo tested positive for the virus on Aug. 2, and that he has been very ill and is still having difficulty breathing. He said Rallo has a compromised immune system because he has thyroid cancer and a blood disorder. “No one deserves to be put in harms way and exposed to COVID-19 as I have been for the last several weeks,” Rallo wrote in his handwritten letter to the judge.\n\nMontana\n\nBillings: Visitation to Yellowstone National Park has increased substantially despite the coronavirus pandemic, park officials said. Visitation rates were higher in July than they were in the same month last year. This comes after the park’s overall visits had been down 49% from last year through the end of June. The park’s visitation rates were down 32% in June compared to the same month last year. The park hosted 955,645 people in July, up about 2% from July 2019. The influx of visitors occurred despite the fact that campsites and hotels inside Yellowstone have drastically reduced their capacity. Just over 1,000 campsites have been used inside Yellowstone this summer, compared with more than 57,000 last year. Park-operated campgrounds have seen 198,500 people this year compared with 380,900 last year. Concession lodging was down 84% from last year, with 72,700 this year and 465,000 in 2019. Backcountry camping in the national park was down by half. Visitors have used surrounding national forest campgrounds or lodging in bordering gateway communities for shelter instead, The Billings Gazette reported. Grand Teton National Park just to the south of Yellowstone also experienced a 3% increase in July visitors. “We are seeing visitors from all 50 states,” said Wendy Swenson, marketing director for the West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce, who added that most visitors are from Idaho, California and Utah. Yellowstone was closed in full from March to May as a result of the pandemic. Its two Wyoming entrances reopened its doors on May 18. The park’s three Montana entrances followed suit on June 1.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: Thirty-five confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Omaha-area schools in the early weeks of the school year, Douglas County health director Adi Pour said. Seventeen students and 18 school staff members have tested positive as of Tuesday night, Pour said Wednesday. Another 152 students, staff and faculty who had close contact with those who are ill were in quarantine, The Omaha World-Herald reported. Pour told the Douglas County Board of Health she was surprised more cases haven’t been confirmed but attributed that in part to the Omaha Public Schools teaching only remote classes for the first quarter. Positive cases have been confirmed at the Millard, Gretna and Ralston school districts in recent days, she said. County health department employees and experts from the Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska Medical Center are working with schools to respond to the coronavirus.\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: A veteran Las Vegas police lieutenant who died from complications of COVID-19 was remembered Wednesday for his police career and for leading a program supporting families of officers injured or killed in the line of duty. Departmental honors for Lt. Erik Lloyd included a vehicle procession on area freeways and the Las Vegas Strip, and a memorial at a church in suburban Henderson. Lloyd, 53, died July 29 at a hospital in Las Vegas in what Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo classified as the line of duty. Lloyd was a police officer for nearly 30 years and was president of the Injured Officers Police Fund for 16 years. He and his wife, Minddie Lloyd, coordinated support for wounded officers and their families. They recently organized a fundraiser for Officer Shay Mikalonis, who is being treated for paralysis after he was shot June 1 during a protest on the Las Vegas Strip. Lloyd was a married father of two with five grandchildren. He was originally from Downey, California, and became a patrol officer in Las Vegas in September 1990. He became a narcotics detective and served in roles in internal affairs, counter-terrorism and use-of-force investigations.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: Communities can require that voters and poll workers wear face coverings on Election Day to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to state officials. Attorney General Gordon MacDonald and Secretary of State Bill Gardner released a 10-page document Wednesday with guidance for the Sept. 8 primary and Nov. 3 general election. They said they agreed with town moderators that decisions about mask requirements should be made locally given the wide variation in the size of polling places, expected volume of voters and other factors. Communities that require face coverings for voters must, however, provide alternatives for those who can’t or won’t comply, the officials said. Although the officials said they believe towns likewise have the right to require poll workers to wear masks, they also highlighted the “risk of a legal challenge” and urged local officials to consult their attorneys. They noted that some voters might feel uncomfortable encountering unmasked poll workers, and that it might be hard to attract sufficient workers without a mandate. The guidance also clarifies issues around absentee voting, which has been temporarily expanded to allow the coronavirus pandemic as a reason for voting absentee. Municipalities can set up drop boxes to collect absentee ballots from those who don’t mail their ballots – both before Election Day and on Election Day – but the boxes must be staffed by election workers.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: The agency that oversees high school sports in New Jersey has decided that indoor fall sports will be delayed until early next year, but outdoor sports will start their seasons in about a month. The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Sports Advisory Task Force released its “Return to Sports Plan” on Thursday. It features condensed schedules and will keep most contests local. The plan also prohibits out-of-state competition except for “exceptional circumstances” and states postseason play will be limited and local, with no statewide championships. Under the plan, outdoor fall sports – football, cross country, field hockey, girls tennis and soccer – will begin practice on Sept. 14. The girls tennis season will start two weeks later, while cross country, field hockey and soccer will begin competition on Oct. 1. Opening day for football will be Oct. 2. The indoor fall sports – gymnastics and girls volleyball – will be moved to a new, special season that will begin with practices on Feb. 16. They will start their seasons on March 3. The task force noted that if circumstances force the outdoor fall sports to be postponed, their seasons will also be played during this “special season” time frame. Winter sports teams will be allowed to start practicing on Dec. 3, with competition commencing on Dec. 21.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nAlbuquerque: The Albuquerque Public Schools Board voted to extend online instruction through the end of the first semester. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had said classes would take place remotely until at least Sept. 7. The public schools board conducted a survey sent out to all 59,000 parents that said 56.3% of the nearly 14,000 who responded said they were “very uncomfortable” with their children returning to school in person. About 61% of parents who responded said that sending their children back to school in person was an “unnecessary risk.” That same survey found about 29% of the responding parents are thinking about transferring their children to a school that is teaching in-person and just over 34% are thinking about switching their children to home schooling. About 10% have transferred their children’s schools, and just below 12% have switched their children to home schooling. Three public schools in the jurisdiction have had positive cases of the coronavirus. East San Jose Elementary has seen two cases and Hawthorne Elementary and Hayes Middle School have had one each. All three schools are closed.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: Gov. Andrew Cuomo dismissed concerns that his state’s coronavirus death toll in nursing homes could be a significant undercount, saying it makes sense to include only those residents who died on the home’s property. Unlike the federal government and every other state with major outbreaks, only New York explicitly said that it counts just residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there. “If you die in the nursing home, it’s a nursing home death. If you die in the hospital, it’s called a hospital death,” the Democratic governor said Wednesday during an interview on Albany public radio station WAMC. “It doesn’t say where were you before.” Cuomo said if New York were to count a death as a nursing home death and a hospital death, that could lead to a “double count.” “And if I’m a nursing home operator, I say: ‘Don’t say that person died in my nursing home, because they didn’t,’ ” Cuomo said. “‘They died in the hospital. And if the hospital did a better job, they wouldn’t have died. So why do I get the blame for the death when it didn’t happen in my nursing home?’ So it depends on how you want to argue it.” Some New York lawmakers have accused Cuomo’s administration of refusing to divulge the complete count to make it appear that his state is doing better than others on the nursing home crisis and make a tragic situation less dire.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: Certain touch-screen ballot-marking machines will remain in use in North Carolina this fall, a judge ruled in a case in which voters questioned the equipment’s accuracy and health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state NAACP joined the four voters who demanded in April that the ExpressVote machines – already used in roughly 20 of the state’s 100 counties since last year– be barred from future elections. They wanted hand-marked paper ballots used instead. But Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt rejected their request, saying no tabulation errors have been reported since the machines were first used last fall. There’s also no evidence their use will increase the likelihood of the virus’s spread, especially with cleaning guidelines issued by the State Board of Elections, Holt wrote. The names of the voters’ choices are printed on the ballot by the ExpressVote machine. They correspond with bar code data that’s also printed on the same ballot and tallied by a separate counting machine.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: Gerald VandeWalle, North Dakota’s longest-serving Supreme Court justice, is expected to be released from a hospital this week, where he has been recovering from COVID-19. VandeWalle, who has been on the court for 42 years, has been hospitalized at Sanford Health in Bismarck since Aug. 3. The 87-year-old justice said the virus has been much more debilitating than a typical cold or flu. VandeWalle told the Bismarck Tribune that he lost a lot of his strength while being confined to his room. He said he has been keeping up with his work on the court, reading emails and printed briefs and drafting opinions. But VandeWalle said he hasn’t been able to communicate as well with his law clerks and four fellow justices. VandeWalle said he isn’t sure how he contracted COVID-19. He had been working from the state Capitol amid the pandemic and has worn a mask and gloves while shopping.\n\nOhio\n\nMiddletown:A 9-year-old girl who fought brain inflammation, COVID-19 and body paralysis for nearly three months died Wednesday, according to the family's online fundraiser. Dorielis Reyes-Paula, a fourth-grade student, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on May 10 after her mother Doranny Escolastico noticed her walking strangely and dragging one foot. Doctors found brain inflammation during an MRI scan. She was sent home with medication and returned to the hospital on July 19 after suffering from severe headaches and having an epileptic seizure. She also lost her ability to walk. Dorielis continued to get sicker while doctors at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital tried to figure out what was causing the brain inflammation, speech impairment and paralysis. During her stay at the hospital, she endured several biopsies, MRIs, blood tests, and treatments. At one point, the doctors tested her blood to see if cancer was causing the illness. Escolastico said her oxygen levels constantly fluctuated. Escolastico, a single mother of four, started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help cover bills and purchase household items for her other children. To date, the account has raised more than $19,000. The goal was $15,000.\n\nOklahoma\n\nStillwater: Mayor Will Joyce has signed an emergency proclamation limiting the number of people in bars and requiring people to be seated in order to be served after videos emerged last weekend of packed bars in the city that’s home to Oklahoma State University. The proclamation signed Wednesday closed dance floors and requires tables to be 6 feet apart and all customers to wear masks except while eating or drinking. All employees – including musicians and disc jockeys – must also wear masks. Bars are limited to 50% of maximum capacity or the maximum number of customers possible under the distancing guidelines, whichever is fewer people. The order took effect immediately and is set to expire Nov. 30. Meanwhile, one of the headliners at a three-day music festival in Stillwater called “Weedstock” canceled his appearance after testing positive for the coronavirus. Musician Parker McCollum said on Twitter that he had no symptoms. Stillwater’s mayor has expressed concern about the event, which was set to start Thursday, but he said the venue, Tumbleweed, is outside the city limits. A Tumbleweed official did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment and a recorded message said the venue follows U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that include masking, social distancing and personal hygiene.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: Democratic and Republican lawmakers lawmakers said county governments should directly receive tens of millions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief funds rather than having the state government funnel them to communities. The Legislature has debated how to spend $1.4 billion in COVID-19 money for months, but last week more than half of Oregon’s lawmakers signed a bipartisan letter – addressed to Gov. Kate Brown, Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, and House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland – requesting a $200 million payout that they said had been promised to local governments. “By keeping a disproportionate amount of the funds, the state has created inadequate resource distribution with significant statewide inequities in the amount of aid provided to local governments to help their communities respond to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the letter, signed by 47 of 90 lawmakers, read. The bipartisan letter specified that according to United States Federal Treasury guidelines, 45% of the funds must be given to local government – about $625 million.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: Republican-sponsored legislation that would give Pennsylvania school districts the final say over whether to hold sports and other activities during the pandemic cleared a House committee Thursday, a day before the governing body for interscholastic sports was to decide the fate of the fall season. With dozens of parents, students and coaches staging a “Let Our Kids Play in PA” rally on the steps of the Capitol in Harrisburg, the House Education Committee passed a bill that would give “exclusive authority” to public and private schools to make decisions on sports, and require them to develop safety protocols. Majority Republicans in the Legislature introduced the legislation after Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf issued a “strong recommendation” that all youth athletics be canceled until 2021 to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Wolf and his administration have repeatedly said the decision on whether to hold fall sports rests with the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and individual school boards. Some districts and leagues have canceled fall sports, saying the risk of spreading the virus is too great, and others plan to play if they get the PIAA’s blessing. Several Pennsylvania high schools have already reported virus cases among athletes, prompting temporary shutdowns of sports programs. The bill passed the committee largely along party lines, though it attracted the support of two Democrats. The PIAA had been making plans to start the season as scheduled when the Wolf administration recommended Aug. 6 that scholastic and recreational youth sports be put off until January.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Rhode Island’s slow recovery from the economic shutdown prompted by the coronavirus continued last month as the state’s unemployment rate dropped to 11.2% and the economy added nearly 14,000 jobs, the state Department of Labor and Training said Thursday. The July unemployment rate was down 1.4 percentage points from the revised June rate of 12.6%. The rate in July 2019 was 3.6%. The national unemployment rate was 10.2% in July, down from 11.1% the previous month. With the addition of 13,800 jobs in July, the state has recovered more than half of the 98,100 jobs lost in March and April when the economic shutdown meant to control the spread of the virus took effect, the department said. The accommodation and food services sector accounted for about 4,000 of the jobs added July as full service and limited-service restaurants steadily continued to add employment to their payrolls, the department said. The health care and social assistance sector, which includes dentist’s offices, added about 1,600 jobs in the month.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: The University of South Carolina is joining a handful of universities nationwide to implement saliva tests for COVID-19, as part of its plan to reopen for classes this week. The tests will be free for students, faculty and staff on the school’s Columbia campus, the university said in a news release Tuesday. The tests, which require a spit sample, are an alternative to nasal swab tests and typically deliver results within 24 hours. The implementation of the tests comes amid the university’s attempt to hold classes, which are set to begin Thursday, in person. Other higher education institutions in the state, including Clemson University and the College of Charleston, are delaying the start of in-person teaching because of the pandemic. The University of South Carolina is now the only school in the state to receive state certification for the saliva tests, and one of a handful of universities nationwide approved for the tests. The school said West Columbia-based Nephron Pharmaceuticals donated 50,000 sample tubes and a robot for processing samples.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: State health officials warned Thursday that a number of people who attended the 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally this month, including some who came from out of state, have come down with COVID-19. Department of Health officials did not give an exact number of attendees who tested positive, but they said it was below 25. The rally, which ended Sunday, brought hundreds of thousands of people from far and wide to the city in the western part of the state. Even before it kicked off, some locals and officials expressed concern that COVID-19 could spread rapidly at the rally and that it would be hard to track attendees who got infected before heading home. The state’s health department has received reports from other states that people who traveled from the rally have tested positive, state epidemiologist Josh Clayton said. Contact tracers have been able to work with most people to determine who they were around and might have infected. But the health department has issued public warnings for two bars in the region because they were not able to track all of the people at the bars who may have been exposed to the coronavirus. Sturgis is planning to conduct mass testing of its residents next week to stem a possible outbreak of infections from the rally.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: State authorities cannot pursue perjury charges against voters who seek mail ballots by concluding on their own that they, or someone in their care, have a health condition that increases their risk for COVID-19, an attorney for the state said in court Thursday. The comment by Deputy Attorney General Janet Kleinfelter came during questioning by Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle as the state and the groups that sued over absentee ballot access continued to argue about transparency in the state’s vote-by-mail eligibility parameters. Earlier this month, Tennessee’s Supreme Court sided with the state by overturning a vote-by-mail option ordered by Lyle for all eligible voters. Afterward, the state removed mentions of COVID-19 from the absentee ballot application. The plaintiffs argued the form doesn’t follow the Supreme Court’s order, which requires instructions for people with underlying health conditions to vote by mail. The state counters that underlying conditions are mentioned on its website and it has sent out news releases to publicize the change, which requires voters to check existing boxes on the form for either illness or caretaking. The state did change its form in another way. A new section on the absentee application offers a reward of up to $1,000 for reporting voter fraud that leads to a conviction. Additionally, the absentee application continues to requires voters to attest to the information they provide under the penalty of perjury.\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: Texas on Thursday joined the growing list of states that will pursue President Donald Trump’s plan to offer a stripped-down boost in unemployment benefits to millions of Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Texas will apply for federal grants allowing the state to increase unemployment checks by $300. An Associated Press survey found that as of Thursday, at least 25 states have said they intend to pursue the money while two states, Mississippi and South Dakota, have said they won’t. Abbott previously was noncommittal about whether Texas would accept the money while expressing optimism that Trump and Congress would reach a deal on a broader new coronavirus relief plan. People out of work had been receiving an extra federally funded $600 a week, but the boost expired at the end of July. The president signed an executive order on Aug. 8 to extend the added weekly benefit, but cut it to $300 or $400 a week, depending on which plan governors choose. “The Lost Wage Assistance program will provide crucial financial support to Texans who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Abbott said in a statement.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: Utah overhauled crisis guidelines Thursday that could have put people with disabilities at the back of the line if hospitals become overwhelmed during the coronavirus pandemic, adopting a new plan that federal officials said should serve as a national model for removing bias from life-or-death decisions. The changes settle a complaint from disability advocates and set a new standard for other states in removing bias from making potentially agonizing decisions, said Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “When the going gets tough you don’t throw the most vulnerable overboard,” he said. Utah was one of several states facing complaints over state guidelines meant to help doctors and nurses making life-or-death decisions about who gets care if faced with a nightmare scenario like a shortage of ventilators. Advocates said the criteria devalued older people and those with disabilities, putting their lives at risk in worst-case scenarios. Complaints have also been filed in places like Kansas, Washington state and Oklahoma. Five states have settled so far.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: Federal coronavirus relief funding is now available to Vermont farmers, sugar makers, meat processors and agricultural food and forest products businesses to help cover losses and costs related to the pandemic. A total of $8.5 million in grants is available and will be distributed to applicants on a first-come, first-served basis. The deadline to apply for the Agriculture and Working Lands Assistance Application is Oct. 1. “Farmers have not stopped working since the pandemic and are providing us with food but many of their markets were disrupted, creating economic hardship,” said Gov. Phil Scott in a written statement. “These grants are intended to alleviate losses and added expenses due to the impacts of COVID.” Applicants are advised to complete a W-9 form and collect records of losses and costs since March 1 that are related to the public health emergency. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture will hold webinars on the application process, with the first one happening at noon Friday.\n\nVirginia\n\nHopewell: A prison staff union representative said nearly a third of inmates at a federal correction facility in Virginia have tested positive for the coronavirus. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Wednesday that the outbreak is at the Federal Correctional Institution Petersburg complex. It includes a work camp, as well as a low- and medium-security prisons in Prince George County. Michael A. Castelle Sr., a union representative for the facility’s prison staff, shared an email with the newspaper from a prison official that said that 60 of 187 inmates are currently positive for the virus. The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on specifics. Emery Nelson, a bureau spokesperson, told the newspaper that all of its institutions “have areas set aside for quarantine and isolation. Inmates are treated at the institution unless medical staff determine they require hospitalization.” Nelson added that all inmates are managed per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. The Bureau of Prisons has reported that 1,378 federal inmates and 592 staff have currently tested positive for the virus across the country.\n\nWashington\n\nSpokane: Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday updated his coronavirus proclamation so that it requires agricultural employers to test their workforce broadly when health officials identify an outbreak that passes certain thresholds. Since the governor first issued his proclamation on May 28, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Washington has increased from 21,138 to 67,721, an average of more than 500 new cases per day. Many of the new cases are appearing at farms and food-packing facilities, where employees often work, travel, and live together in close contact. “From the data, we know that people of color have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic, and while we have much work to do to address that, this is one step in the right direction,” Inslee said. In addition, Washington Secretary of Health John Wiesman ordered Gebbers Farms, located in Okanogan County, to test all its employees in coming weeks. Gebbers Farms has suffered a significant outbreak of COVID-19, including the deaths of three employees. “We call upon all agricultural employers to join us in proactively safeguarding against workplace outbreaks,” Inslee said. “When employers are unable to do so on their own, local health jurisdictions and state Department of Health will be ready to intervene.”\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: A child has a rare, serious immune system condition associated with the coronavirus, health officials said Thursday. The Department of Health and Human Resources said the child was the first in the state to be diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 570 children in the U.S. have contracted the condition and 10 have died. “This development is an unfortunate reminder that COVID-19 does not just affect the elderly,” Dr. Ayne Amjad, the state’s health officer, said in a news release. “We must continue to be diligent in our efforts to protect each other by social distancing, wearing masks in public and following all recommendations of local, state and federal health experts.” Forty other states had reported similar cases from mid-February to mid-July. The CDC said a study found many of the patients with the condition had severe complications, including inflammation of the heart, shock and kidney damage. Nearly two-thirds of the cases overall were admitted to intensive care units, and the average ICU stay was five days.\n\nWisconsin\n\nGreen Bay:Fifty-seven people have tested positive for the coronavirus at the Green Bay Correctional Institution, according to state officials. All of the prisoners who have tested positive are being isolated and anyone who was exposed is being quarantined, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections said. All inmates and staff at the prison are in the process of being tested for COVID-19 with the help of the National Guard. “As we’ve all learned about COVID-19, due to asymptomatic cases, mass testing is the only way for us to identify all persons in our care infected and isolate them from the uninfected,” DOC Secretary Kevin Carr said in a statement. Three staff members are among the 57 positive cases, the State Journal reported. Corrections officials completed a mass testing of inmates and staff at each of its 37 prison facilities at the end of July and just nine people tested positive. Green Bay prison staff have been required to wear masks, except while eating or drinking or while alone in an office, DOC said. Inmates are required to wear masks in common spaces. The only other major outbreak DOC has reported in a Wisconsin prison was at the Waupun Correctional Institution in May and early June, when there were 228 positive COVID-19 cases. among prisoners. All since recovered from the virus.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: The total number of coronavirus cases in Wyoming grew by 67 on Wednesday, with the number of confirmed cases rising by 59, the Casper Star-Tribune reported, according to the Wyoming Department of Health’s daily update. The newly confirmed cases come from Albany, Campbell, Carbon (eight), Converse, Crook (two), Fremont (14), Goshen, Laramie (six), Natrona (two), Park (four), Sheridan (nine), Sublette, Sweetwater (six), Teton, Uinta and Washakie (two) counties. The 59 confirmed cases are tied for the fourth-most announced in a single day in Wyoming, and the 67 total cases are the third-most.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/08/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_17", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/08/25/covid-vaccine-young-kids-when-available-safety-what-to-know/5572187001/", "title": "COVID-19 vaccines for children under 12: When are they coming?", "text": "Eight months after adult Americans began receiving COVID-19 vaccines, children under 12 are still not eligible for the shots.\n\nThat's left a lot of parents worried their children might get sick – and might get others around them sick, as well.\n\nChildren can catch COVID-19 and pass it on to others. Luckily, they are less likely than adults to become seriously ill. Roughly 4.5 million American children have become infected with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.\n\nThat number has risen lately, however, with children making up a higher proportion of the seriously ill. Many adults are protected by vaccines and the highly contagious delta variant now accounts for most of the infections in the U.S. Across the country. About 180,000 children have been infected in the past week, the American Academy of Pediatrics says.\n\nWe pose and answer several common questions about young children and COVID-19 vaccines:\n\nWhat age group can currently get COVID-19 vaccines?\n\nAdults and children 12 and up are eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, now called Comirnaty.\n\nOnly adults are eligible to receive the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines because their studies in children have not yet been completed.\n\nWhy aren't COVID-19 vaccines available yet for kids under 12?\n\nTraditionally, drugs are studied first in adults and then move to adolescents, then children, then younger children, as they are proven safe and effective in each group.\n\nWith COVID-19 vaccines, large clinical trials in adults (and in the case of Pfizer-BioNTech, older teens) took place in the second half of last year and studies in teens and then younger children began earlier this year.\n\nRead more:Pfizer's vaccine is FDA-approved for adults, but it's still a 'no-no' to vaccinate kids under 12\n\nMore colleges are requiring the COVID-19 vaccine. Some are starting to kick out unvaccinated students.\n\nWhat's the status of clinical trials on younger children?\n\nAll three companies are studying their vaccines in children, first in adolescents, then 5- to 11-year-olds, then 2- to 5-year-olds followed by infants, 6 months and up. Younger babies are believed to have some protection from their vaccinated mothers. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that pregnant people get vaccinated to protect themselves because they are at higher risk for a serious COVID-19 infection, and their unborn child would receive some protection.\n\nBecause the vaccines were already proven safe and effective in tens of thousands of adults, the studies in children have been allowed to be smaller – on the order of 3,000-4,000, instead of 30,000-40,000.\n\nChildren are less likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19 than older adults, with risks generally declining with age. So regulators want to make sure that vaccines are safe enough to justify use in each age group.\n\nAdvisory panels to the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration decided that the benefits outweigh the risks of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for adolescents age 12 to 15.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech has said its study in children ages 5 to 11 should be completed early this fall, and in younger children early next year.\n\nModerna began its trials several months after Pfizer-BioNTech, so it is likely to complete its trials some time later, though it has not released a detailed timetable.\n\nIn May, the company showed its vaccine was safe and extremely effective in adolescents. Out of 3,700 12- to 17-year-old volunteers, no one who was fully vaccinated with the active vaccine developed the virus, the study found.\n\nJ&J hasn't yet started its studies in minors, though it is in active discussions with the FDA to begin four trials with a minimum of 4,500 children. The first trial, in adolescents 12 to 17, is expected to begin this fall with the others to follow.\n\nWhen will the COVID-19 vaccine be available for kids under 12?\n\nThe FDA requires longer-term follow-up data on children than adults, \"to make sure that the safety is adequate,\" according to Dr. Peter Marks, who heads the FDA division tasked with reviewing vaccines.\n\nThe FDA has not given a sense of how long it would take to review the research, but previous emergency use authorization requests have taken as long as eight weeks, suggesting that vaccines are unlikely to be available to grade schoolers until very late this year or early next.\n\nTwo- to 5-year-olds should be able to get shots by the end of winter or early spring 2022.\n\nIs the vaccine dosage the same for children as adults?\n\nThe dose is the same for 12- to 15-year-olds as for adults, but dosage for younger children is likely to be lower. That's one of the things being worked out in the trials.\n\nIn early trials, Pfizer-BioNTech said 112 children received doses of 10, 20, or 30 micrograms, with an option for 3 micrograms in the youngest children.\n\nCurrently, they are testing 10 micrograms in 5- to 11-year-olds and 3 micrograms in children under 5. Adults and adolescents get 30 micrograms.\n\nIs the COVID-19 vaccine safe for kids?\n\nIn adolescents, the vaccines seem to be as safe as they are in adults, though teens may be more likely to suffer side effects like post-vaccine pain, fatigue and fevers.\n\nThe risk of heart inflammation, called myocarditis, also appears to be higher in younger people, particularly males, after vaccination.\n\n'Keep your guard up': CDC studies show waning COVID vaccine efficacy as delta variant sweeps US\n\nWhy shouldn't parents try to vaccinate their younger children now?\n\nLegally, now that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has received full FDA approval, doctors can prescribe it to anyone, including young children.\n\nBut the FDA and leading pediatricians warned this week that it's a terrible idea to give shots designed for adults to children under 12.\n\nThe dose is likely to be more than they need, causing unnecessary side effects, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has urged the FDA to expedite the process of authorizing shots for younger children.\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/22/covid-vaccine-kids-coming-soon-biden/8052527002/", "title": "COVID vaccine for kids coming in weeks, Biden says. Pfizer says fall.", "text": "President Joe Biden is optimistic that vaccines for children under 12 years old could be available as early as August.\n\nBiden made the statement during a town hall Wednesday in Cincinnati hosted by CNN. After speaking with scientists, Biden said, he wasn't promised a specific date, but he did have an expectation.\n\n\"My expectation talking to the group of scientists we put together, over 20 of them, plus others in the field, is that sometime maybe in the beginning of the school year, at the end of August, beginning of September, October, they'll get a final approval,\" he said.\n\nThat's an unlikely timeline. Trials began in March for the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for younger children. The results of the trials are expected in the fall, not within weeks.\n\nDr. Alejandra Gurtman, vice president of the Vaccine Clinical Research and Development at Pfizer, said an emergency use authorization was planned for the 5-to-11 age group in September or October during a presentation at a Johns Hopkins-University of Washington symposium on June 30. She said the 2- to 5-year-old group would follow soon after.\n\nChildren under 12 are still ineligible to receive the vaccine in the U.S., and Biden said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention probably will recommend that children who are not vaccinated wear masks in school.\n\n'It's limbo':Parents stuck between two COVID-19 worlds as young kids remain unvaccinated\n\n\"It's going to get a little bit tight in terms of, well, are Mom or Dad being honest that Johnny did or did not get vaccinated? That's going to raise questions,\" Biden said. \"It's a matter of community responsibility.\"\n\nOn July 9, the CDC recommended that fully vaccinated children did not need to wear masks at school.\n\n\"Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority,\" a press release from the CDC said.\n\nOn Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics had a different opinion and recommended that all children older than 2, regardless of their vaccinations, should wear a mask.\n\nCoronavirus cases have nearly tripled in the U.S. over the past two weeks. The delta variant of the virus, scientists say, is more contagious. A lambda variant was recently identified at a Houston-area hospital, but health experts said it doesn't appear as contagious.\n\n“I know there’s great interest in lambda, but I think people really need to be focused on delta,” said Dr. S. Wesley Long, Houston Methodist’s medical director of diagnostic biology. “Most importantly, regardless of the variant, our best defense against all these variants is vaccination.”\n\nOur World Data reports that 49.3 % of Americans are fully vaccinated. During the town hall, Biden urged people to get the vaccine.\n\n“We have a pandemic for those who haven’t gotten the vaccination – it’s that basic, that simple,” Biden said.\n\nFauci to Sen. Paul:'You do not know what you are talking about'\n\n'Hard choice doesn't amount to coercion':Judge sides with Indiana University in student challenge to COVID-19 vaccine mandate\n\nContributing: Ryan Miller\n\nFollow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/11/02/covid-vaccine-kids-children-approved/6233927001/", "title": "CDC recommends Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for kids 5-11, shots ...", "text": "Children ages 5 to 11 are now eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off Tuesday night on an expert panel's recommendation.\n\nChildren in this age group could begin getting shots as soon as this week, as health providers can start vaccinating them \"as soon as possible,\" the CDC said in a release.\n\nLast week the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine for children 5 to 11, and the CDC's recommendation now clears the vaccine for those ages.\n\nPresident Joe Biden called the news \"a turning point in our battle against COVID-19,\" in a written statement Tuesday night.\n\nPresidential adviser Jeffrey Zients said Monday that the Biden administration ordered enough vaccine to cover all 28 million American children in the age group. The administration’s distribution program will be “running at full strength” the week of Nov. 8, he said.\n\nThough the vaccines carry some risk for children, their benefits are greater, concluded the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, made up of vaccine and immune system experts from universities and medical schools across the country.\n\n\"We know millions of parents are eager to get their children vaccinated and with this decision, we now have recommended that about 28 million children receive a COVID-19 vaccine,\" a Tuesday release quotes CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. \"As a mom, I encourage parents with questions to talk to their pediatrician, school nurse or local pharmacist to learn more about the vaccine and the importance of getting their children vaccinated.\"\n\nVaccines will be available at 100 children's hospitals, temporary clinics in the community and at schools, as well as pharmacies and pediatricians' offices. Shots will be free, at one-third the dose of the adult vaccine and will be delivered in two shots at least three weeks apart.\n\nA number of professional groups added their support Tuesday for childhood vaccination, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society.\n\nIn several small trials, Pfizer-BioNTech, which makes the vaccine, saw no serious side effects connected with the shots.\n\nIt is likely, committee members acknowledged, that some potentially dangerous side effects will become apparent once the shots are delivered to millions of children, just as rare side effects not seen in clinical trials of adults turned up with widespread vaccinations.\n\n\"We need to acknowledge the unknown,\" said Dr. Matthew Daley, a committee member and senior investigator at the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado in Aurora.\n\nDaley said he was more concerned about the risk of waiting to vaccinate kids. \"If we wait, we miss the chance to prevent many cases of COVID-19 in this age group, and that includes some very severe cases.\"\n\nData from the CDC suggests that vaccinations can prevent 600,000 infections in the age group by March, including a number of hospitalizations and a few deaths.\n\nFully vaccinating 1 million children in the age group would prevent about 57,000 cases of COVID-19 and about 200 hospitalizations, the CDC said.\n\n“The data that was presented really speaks volumes in terms of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine,” said Dr. Pablo Sánchez, a professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.\n\n“Children are dying, and we can reduce hospitalization and death with this safe and effective vaccine that will benefit the community,” said Dr. Oliver Brooks, chief medical officer for the Watts HealthCare Corporation in Los Angeles.\n\nParents who have concerns about the shots should speak with their pediatrician, CDC and committee members said.\n\nKid shots Q and A: Everything to know about COVID-19 vaccine and children\n\nThe potential vaccine side effect of biggest concern is a swelling of the heart muscle, known as myocarditis, which has been seen particularly among young men who received vaccine.\n\nOut of every one million 16- and 17-year-old boys vaccinated, 69 have developed the condition, compared with two out of every million men in their 40s, government statistics show. None has died, and most cases appear to be mild without long-term consequences.\n\nMatthew Oster, a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, said he expects the side effect will be even rarer in children.\n\nBefore COVID-19, myocarditis was most common among adolescents and young men probably because of their relatively high levels of the hormone testosterone, Oster told the committee. Children younger than 12 typically have low levels.\n\nInfection with COVID-19 can cause myocarditis that appears to be more serious than swelling seen with vaccination, he said.\n\nMany children who receive the shots will, like adults and teens, feel side effects in the first 48 hours or so. The most common side effects in the trials were fatigue, headaches, joint pain, pain at the injection site and vomiting, nausea or diarrhea.\n\nThe CDC monitors vaccine recipients, including children, for serious vaccine reactions through several different systems. One involves self-reporting of symptoms, another is reported mainly by doctors and two others collect data from hospitals, the CDC's Dr. Tom Shimabukuro told the committee.\n\nThe Food and Drug Administration has a separate vaccine surveillance system, as does the Department of Defense, which first identified myocarditis as a risk among service members.\n\nRush is on: With vaccine orders placed, doctors, pharmacies prepare for a flood of young children\n\nLast week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized vaccines for use in this age group after a signoff by an independent group of vaccine experts who determined that the benefits outweighed the risks.\n\nOf the three vaccines available to adults in the USA, only Pfizer-BioNTech has completed studies in minors. Moderna said Sunday that the FDA asked for more information about its shots in adolescents, which probably will defer its authorization until January.\n\nJohnson & Johnson is further behind in its trials in adolescents and children.\n\nTypically, companies test vaccines in adults, then move down in age as the shots are proved safe. Pfizer-BioNTech continues to study even younger children, down to 6 months of age.\n\nThough fully approved for use in adults and older teens, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized only for emergency use in children and younger adolescents. The collaborating companies will probably request full authorization for these age groups next year, once they have longer-term data and more details on manufacturing.\n\nVaccines are somewhat more controversial in children than adolescents and adults, because children are less likely to suffer severe COVID-19 infections.\n\nStill, 94 American children ages 5-11 have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began – the eighth leading cause of death in this age group – and about 8,300 have been hospitalized.\n\nAlthough at lower rates than adults, children ages 5 to 11 can suffer from lingering symptoms of COVID-19 infections, so-called long COVID – including months-long fatigue, pain, headaches, insomnia and trouble concentrating.\n\nAll children, regardless of age, can catch and pass on COVID-19, one study confirmed.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is clearly effective in children 5-11, preventing more than 90% of infections, according to a company-run study in about 2,500 children.\n\nQuestions remain about the effectiveness and safety of the shots because of the relatively small number of children who have received them so far – fewer than 3,500 across three company-run studies. It is not clear how long this protection against COVID-19 will last or whether booster shots will be needed.\n\nData from the CDC suggests that nine children would have needed to be vaccinated to protect one of them from contracting COVID-19 in September during the peak of the last wave, and about 26 today when rates are lower. About 2,200 kids would have needed protection six weeks ago to prevent one hospitalization and about 8,200 more recently.\n\nChildren who are immunocompromised or have health issues such as obesity and metabolic disease are at higher risk for serious COVID-19 infections. Two-thirds of children hospitalized for COVID-19 had preexisting health conditions, while one-third were previously healthy according to the CDC.\n\nThe CDC's recommendation for vaccination includes all children, regardless of their underlying medical conditions.\n\nChildhood vaccinations will help families in which parents are fighting cancer, said Dr. Gwen Nichols, chief medical officer of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Vaccination will allow \"children to interact with more freedom, including with their parents and grandparents,\" she said. \"This is particularly important for immunosuppressed patients, including those with blood cancers who have been in an impossible situation with their younger children returning to school in-person.”\n\nChildren of color have been hospitalized at three times the rate of white children, data shows.\n\nAbout 38% of American children have been infected with COVID-19, according to data presented to the committee.\n\nChildren who have already had COVID-19 will get some protection against severe disease but should still get vaccinated, according to the recommendation, because the shots provide more consistent protection than infection.\n\nAn FDA analysis of infections presented to a different advisory committee last week found that the benefits of vaccination generally outweigh risks among children. If COVID-19 cases are extremely low – less than 10% of the rates seen in mid-September – the benefits of vaccination are less clear, the report concluded.\n\nVaccines take about five weeks to come to full effectiveness, two weeks after the second shot, so parents will not have time to provide vaccine protection in the face of a sudden outbreak or a fast-spreading new variant.\n\nCOVID-19 has already caused substantially more misery than other childhood diseases, CDC data showed. COVID-19 led to at least three times more hospitalizations and deaths than hepatitis A, meningococcal disease, varicella, rubella and rotavirus did before vaccines were introduced against those diseases.\n\nDr. Katherine Poehling, a professor of pediatrics at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said that information helped convince her to strongly support COVID-19 vaccines for elementary school children.\n\n\"We can now make these COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths vaccine preventable,\" she said.\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/health/covid-vaccine-kids-under-5-timeline/index.html", "title": "Covid-19 vaccine for children under 5 could come as early as June ...", "text": "(CNN) Covid-19 vaccines could be authorized for the United States' youngest children as early as June, according to the US Food and Drug Administration's latest meeting schedule .\n\nThe agency announced Friday it is reserving dates in June for its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) to meet to discuss updates to vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech's emergency use authorizations that would include making younger ages eligible for Covid-19 vaccination.\n\nTentative meeting dates for VRBPAC are June 8, 21 and 22.\n\nFollowing the advisory committee's deliberations, FDA officials could consider authorizing vaccines for younger children — with that decision also hinging on the agency's reviews of the vaccine data.\n\n\"As we continue to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there are a number of anticipated submissions and scientific questions that will benefit from discussion with our advisory committee members,\" Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in Friday's announcement\n\n\"We are providing a tentative schedule for discussion of these submissions, as these meetings will cover a number of topics that are of great interest to the general public,\" Marks said. \"The agency is committed to a thorough and transparent process that considers the input of our independent advisors and provides insight into our review of the COVID-19 vaccines. We intend to move quickly with any authorizations that are appropriate once our work is completed.\"\n\nIt has been more than a year since adults first became eligible to receive Covid-19 vaccines in the United States, and currently, children 5 and older are eligible to get vaccinated. But no Covid-19 vaccines have been authorized yet for children younger than 5 in the US -- about 18 million people -- and, even though FDA advisers plan to meet in June, an exact timeline for potential authorization is still not clear.\n\nModerna officials have said the FDA is expected to move fast, and a Pfizer official suggested its vaccine for younger children could be available in June, if it's authorized.\n\nWhy is it taking so long to get vaccines for children under 5?\n\nThe timeline for making Covid-19 vaccines available for children under 5 hit somewhat of a delay earlier this year when a VRBPAC meeting to discuss the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in February was postponed so that additional data on vaccines for this age group could be reviewed.\n\nAt the time, the FDA was waiting for Pfizer and BioNTech to submit data from an ongoing trial on a three-dose regimen in these younger children before moving forward with consideration of an emergency use authorization, allowing the FDA to review all data available on the efficacy of each regimen option: two doses or three doses.\n\nIf the original meeting had occurred in February, the committee would not have seen all available data to have an informed discussion. The latest clinical trial data from Pfizer/BioNTech suggests that in this age group, two doses seemed to work well against the Delta coronavirus variant but not against the Omicron variant.\n\nAs for Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, the company announced Thursday that it is seeking emergency use authorization from the FDA for children 6 months through 5 years of age.\n\nJust recently, in late March, Moderna announced results of a clinical trial that included 2,500 children ages 6 months through 24 months and 4,200 children ages 2 through 5. The company said that two 25-microgram doses of its vaccine led to a similar immune response in young children as two 100-microgram doses for adults ages 18 to 25. And it said this should predict protection from Covid-19 and severe Covid-19 down to 6 months of age.\n\nWhile Moderna has shared some data on two doses of Covid-19 vaccine for younger children, Pfizer and BioNTech's data on three doses for younger children is not yet available.\n\nThe FDA is weighing whether to consider emergency use authorization for both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for young children at the same time, rather than considering them separately, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, said last week.\n\n\"Two products that are similar but not identical, particularly with regard to the dose, and what the FDA wants to do is to get it so that we don't confuse people to say 'this is the dose. This is the dose regimen for children within that age group of 6 months to 5 years,' \" Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Kasie Hunt.\n\nThe Pfizer vaccine was made to protect against the original strain of the coronavirus, and the initial series of two 3-milligram doses tested in kids under 5 wasn't powerful enough to keep them safe from the more infectious Omicron variant.\n\n\"It didn't meet the criteria for efficacy,\" Fauci said. \"There was never a safety issue, but it didn't meet the criteria, which then had them go back and do a study with a third dose as a part of the primary regimen.\"\n\nPfizer CEO Albert Bourla said publicly that the company's goal is to have its Covid-19 vaccine available for young children by summer.\n\nHow long would it be for my child to get the vaccine after authorization?\n\nIf the FDA authorizes the shots, vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next will vote on whether the vaccine should be recommended for young children. The CDC director will then need to sign off on a vaccine recommendation before shots can be administered.\n\nThat process could happen as quickly as within just a few days.\n\nHow many kids 5 and older have already received a Covid-19 vaccine?\n\nThe youngest group eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the US, children ages 5 to 11, is also the least vaccinated one, according to the latest CDC data\n\nJust over a third of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated.\n\nBut vaccination rates are twice as high among adolescents, and overall, about 43% of currently eligible children ages 5 to 17 are fully vaccinated -- about 23 million in all.\n\nOverall, as of Friday, about 66% of the US population is fully vaccinated, including 76% of adults and 90% of seniors. Among adolescents ages 12 to 17, the vaccination rate is 69%.\n\nWhat's the risk to kids under 5 if they get Covid-19?\n\nEven though children are far less likely than adults to be hospitalized or to die from Covid-19, it is not a benign disease in young ages, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).\n\nThe number of new Covid-19 cases among children in the US grew nearly 12% last week from the week before, the AAP announced Monday , but they made up a smaller share of all new cases than they did the week before.\n\nAbout 37,073 kids tested positive for Covid-19 during the week ending April 21, the second consecutive week of increasing child cases after months of declines.\n\nHowever, this was 16.3% of all new Covid-19 cases in the US last week, 10 percentage points less than the week before.\n\nOverall, during the Omicron surge, more children were sent to the hospital than in earlier waves. Among states that report hospitalization information by age, kids were 1.2% to 4.6% of the total cumulative hospitalizations, a number that has remained consistent for the past four weeks and has stayed relatively steady throughout the pandemic.\n\nAmong states that reported mortality data, kids were up to 0.27% of all Covid-19 deaths, a number that has also remained steady.\n\nFor now, how can I protect my child until the Covid-19 vaccine is available?\n\nWhile parents are waiting to vaccinate their little ones, there is something they can do to protect the children.\n\nAll adults who interact with the children should be vaccinated, the experts say, and ideally boosted. Adults are also advised to use masks around unvaccinated children, even as many mandates have fallen away.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nDr. Doran Fink, who oversees the FDA's clinical and toxicological review of investigational and US-licensed vaccines, said in a meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices this month that he understood parents' concerns. He also promised that the FDA would work \"diligently\" to verify any data submitted.\n\n\"We know that many parents and caregivers and health care providers are anxious to have Covid vaccines available for this age group,\" Fink said. \"I do want to reassure the committee and the public that we understand this concern, and we want to have available safe and effective vaccines for all age groups who will benefit from them.\"", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/04/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/11/01/covid-vaccine-children-kids-approval/8564341002/", "title": "Everything to know about COVID-19 vaccine and children: Where to ...", "text": "An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday voted to recommend Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11, and CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has signed off on the committee's recommendations.\n\nNow vaccines will be available to eligible children across the country, and some locations have already begun offering shots.\n\nAt a news conference Wednesday, Walensky assured parents the science behind the decision to recommend the vaccine for younger kids is sound, and said the shots will protect them and others from getting sick.\n\n“In clinical trials, vaccination was found to be nearly 91% effective in preventing COVID-19 among children ages 5 to 11. In clinical trials, vaccine side effects were mild, self-limiting,” she said. \"The most common side effect was a sore arm.\"\n\nAlthough younger children are now able to get vaccinated, many parents still have questions. Here's everything health experts want them to know about the vaccine.\n\nDo kids need a COVID-19 vaccine? Is the COVID-19 vaccine safe for kids?\n\nThe American Academy of Pediatrics on Tuesday issued a release supporting the CDC advisory committee's decision.\n\n\"Vaccinating children will protect children’s health and allow them to fully engage in all of the activities that are so important to their health and development,\" the release says.\n\n\"The AAP recommends COVID-19 vaccination for all children and adolescents 5 years of age and older who do not have contraindications using a vaccine authorized for use for their age.\"\n\nMany health experts are going on the record recommending children ages 5 to 11 get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as soon as it becomes available.\n\n“As pediatricians, our sole purpose is to take care of children and protect them,” said Dr. Stan Spinner, vice president and chief medical officer at Texas Children’s Pediatrics and Texas Children’s Urgent Care. “We feel very comfortable (with this vaccine). If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be recommending it.”\n\nMore:Parents were confused about kids and COVID. The American Academy of Pediatrics stepped in.\n\nHundreds of children ages 5 to 11 have been hospitalized with COVID-19, and 94 have died this year, the FDA has reported. It was the eighth-leading cause of death in the age group over the past year, after accidents, cancer, malformations, murder, heart disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, and flu or pneumonia.\n\nChildren appear to be just as likely as adolescents and adults to catch COVID-19 and pass it on, health experts say. Though they seem to be less likely to become seriously ill, health experts urge parents not to take that chance.\n\n“A third of our pediatric patients admitted to the hospital ended up in the ICU with COVID,” Spinner said. “So it’s not a benign disease for anybody. ... Kids need the vaccine.”\n\nWhy should my kid get a COVID-19 vaccine?\n\nEven with a mild infection, children are still at risk for developing a dangerous immune overreaction called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. COVID-19 has led to more than 5,000 cases of the condition; the average age is 9.\n\nChildren are less likely to have long-term symptoms of COVID-19 than adults, experts say, but they still can suffer from so-called long-haul COVID.\n\nRecent data shows children are as likely to get infected by the delta coronavirus variant as adults, and about 50% of infections in children are asymptomatic, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser and the nation’s top infectious disease expert.\n\nFauci told reporters that vaccinating millions of children ages 5 to 11 will also stifle community transmission and nudge the country closer to herd immunity.\n\n“If we can get the overwhelming majority of those 28 million children vaccinated, that would play a major role in diminishing the spread of infection in the community,” Fauci said.\n\nIf the pandemic is contained, health experts say, children will have more freedom to enjoy a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy, like going back to school with minimal restrictions and safely attending family events.\n\n“The last point for why to vaccinate children now is to really allow kids the freedom to be kids,” said Dr. Emmanuel Walter Jr., professor of pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine and chief medical officer of the Duke Human Institute.\n\nMore:Scientists examine the unique immune systems of kids as more get COVID-19\n\nWhere to get the COVID-19 vaccine for kids — Are pharmacies accepting appointments?\n\nPediatricians and primary care doctors, children's hospitals, pharmacies and clinics at schools are among the places where kids can get the vaccine.\n\nThe Biden administration said it has purchased enough vaccine to cover the 28 million American children in the 5 to 11 age group, and about 15 million doses will be available within the first week.\n\nThose locations include more than 25,000 pediatricians’ offices and primary care sites, more than 100 children’s hospitals and health systems, tens of thousands of pharmacies, and hundreds of schools and community-based clinics. Administration officials say they are working with states and localities to enroll more sites.\n\nCVS and Walgreens, the two largest pharmacy chains in the country, are accepting appointments for COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 through 11.\n\nDid America’s schools open safely?We crunched the latest data on COVID and kids.\n\nHowever, some sites are waiting until they have vials of vaccine before opening their appointment books.\n\nBy the end of the week, the government website Vaccines.gov will list places where kids can get vaccinated in their neighborhood, Zients said at a news conference Wednesday.\n\nAt that point, parents and guardians can go to the website, type in their ZIP code, click a box specifying they're looking for the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric COVID-19 vaccine and get a list of clinics, physicians and pharmacies that have it available. The list is expected to expand over time as more sites open appointments.\n\nWhen will the COVID-19 vaccine be available for kids?\n\nSome locations around the country have already begun administering first doses to kids, and hundreds more sites are expected to open in the coming days as the national push to vaccinate about elementary school children ramps up.\n\nPresidential advisor Jeffrey Zients said Monday the Biden administration's distribution program will be \"running at full strength\" to cover all 28 million American children in the age group the week of Nov. 8.\n\nOn Tuesday, President Joe Biden repeated the date in a statement, saying \"the program will ramp up over the coming days, and fully up and running during the week of November 8.\"\n\nHas the FDA approved the COVID vaccine for children?\n\nOn Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine for children 5 to 11.\n\nHowever, this does not mean the vaccine is \"approved\" for kids.\n\nEmergency use authorization allows Pfizer-BioNTech to provide safety and effectiveness data after tracking trial participants for an average of two months instead of the usual six months.\n\nIn the middle of a pandemic, it was more important to get vaccines to people faster, the FDA said, and vaccine side effects generally occur within the first four to six weeks after a shot.\n\nThe only age group that has official approval from the FDA is people 16 and older. Teenagers and children ages 12 to 15 have also been authorized to get the vaccine under emergency use.\n\nAn FDA official explains:Why don't COVID-19 vaccines have full authorization?\n\nWhere do children's vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson stand?\n\nModerna released its own study Monday finding that its COVID-19 vaccine at half the original adult dose is safe and effective in children 6 to 11. The company has not yet asked for authorization to provide its vaccine to this age group.\n\nA Johnson & Johnson spokesperson told USA TODAY the company has started the first phase 3 study in adolescents ages 12 to 17 years and anticipates results for dose and regimen in the coming months.\n\nWhat's the vaccine schedule and dose information for kids?\n\nThe vaccine would be given to children ages 5 to 11 in two shots, administered three weeks apart, at one-third of the dose given to adults and adolescents.\n\nThe adult dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 30 micrograms; the companies propose a 10-microgram dose in children ages 5 to 11.\n\nThe only difference in the children's Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the addition of one chemical called tri-sucrose. Tri-sucrose already is used in several other vaccines and makes the vaccine easier to dilute and remain stable in a refrigerator for up to 10 weeks, a Pfizer executive said.\n\nWhat were the results of Pfizer’s vaccine study?\n\nThe FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee met last Tuesday to hear information on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from company officials as well as government experts who had reviewed the data.\n\nPfizer presented the results of several studies it has done among about 5,000 5- to 11-year-olds, which showed the vaccine was found to be safe with no severe vaccine-related side effects or dangerous allergic reactions.\n\nIn a subset of the children, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was found to be more than 90% protective against contracting symptomatic COVID-19. Of the 19 children in the study found to be infected with the coronavirus, only three received the active vaccine, compared with 16 who received a placebo.\n\nIn one of the studies, of about half the children, more than 11% had obesity and nearly 8% had asthma. Both groups appeared just as well protected from the vaccine as children without those conditions.\n\n\"Those are the people who are at the highest risk of getting infected,\" Spinner said. \"When we look at the children who have gotten sick, most of them had underlying conditions. Those are the ones that should be the first in line to get vaccinated.\"\n\nPhase 3 clinical data presented last year showed the vaccine was 95% effective in adults. But new research that has not yet been peer-reviewed suggests efficacy may be closer to 84% after six months.\n\nMore on underlying conditions:CDC adds mental health disorders to list of conditions linked to higher risk of severe COVID-19. Here's why.\n\nWhat are the vaccine side effects for kids?\n\nThe trials showed children experienced the same types of mostly minor side effects seen in adolescents and young adults.\n\nMany of those ages 5 to 11 had sore arms, fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, chills and low-grade fevers that lasted a day or two.\n\nOne of the reasons researchers decreased the normal vaccine dose from 30 to 10 micrograms in children is to reduce the severity of side effects, said Jason Gallagher, clinical professor at Temple University’s School of Pharmacy and a clinical pharmacy specialist in infectious diseases at Temple University Hospital.\n\n“A lot of the side effects that people complain about after getting the vaccine is related to the immune response,” he said. “Pfizer went back to the drawing board on dosing and found out that a lower dose (in children) is effective and safe than the dose we’ve been giving to teenagers and adults.”\n\nWhat can I give my child if they don't feel well after getting vaccinated?\n\nHealth experts say parents can give their children over-the-counter medicine like acetaminophen, aspirin or ibuprofen to relieve any mild to moderate side effects after vaccination.\n\nBut the CDC does not recommend taking those medications before getting vaccinated in anticipation of side effects, because they might affect how well the vaccine works.\n\nWalter also suggests preparing your child before vaccination to expect these mild side effects.\n\n“Parents can have that discussion with their child that they may get a fever, they may feel a little achy or not feel as good the next day following vaccination and that’s to be expected,” he said.\n\nCould schools require children to be vaccinated?\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is available to children ages 12 to 18, and vaccine mandates for school vary by state.\n\nThe board of the Los Angeles Unified School District – which oversees the second-largest public school system in the country – voted to require students age 12 and up to be fully vaccinated. Those who take part in sports and other extracurricular activities should have taken both shots by the end of October and all other students by Dec. 19.\n\nNew York City’s school system, the nation’s largest, has required vaccinations only for 20,000 student-athletes in certain sports considered at high risk of spreading the virus.\n\nMore:California becomes first state to announce plans to mandate COVID-19 vaccine for schoolchildren\n\nWhile some districts mull over COVID-19 vaccine mandates, some states have banned schools from requiring vaccines.\n\nHealth experts say it’s too soon to say if schools will mandate COVID-19 shots after authorization or approval, but vaccines in schools have helped eradicate some diseases in the U.S. like smallpox and polio.\n\n“It’s to prevent disease in children themselves and prevent outbreaks in communities,\" said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. \"And those school requirements have been longstanding for many decades and they’ve led to very successful control of vaccine-preventable diseases.\"\n\nWill vaccinated children still need to wear masks?\n\nUntil a vaccine is available to children, public health experts, including the FDA's Peter Marks, have said that the best thing parents can do to protect their children – besides getting vaccinated themselves – is to encourage children to wear masks while indoors in public.\n\nCDC guidance recommending fully vaccinated people to wear masks inside could remain in place even after children 5 to 11 can get their shots, health experts say.\n\n“We’ve seen so much COVID-19 circulating in our communities, it will be critical to get the amount of transmission down before it’s likely the CDC might relax those guidelines,” said Dr. Evan Anderson, a physician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.\n\nHe reminds parents that children may not have the full intended protection against COVID-19 until two weeks after their second dose and encourages them to continue following CDC and local school guidance regarding masks.\n\nWhen will children under 5 years old be vaccinated?\n\nThe companies are also studying their vaccine in children ages 2 to 5, and 6 months to age 2, but those trials are not yet complete. Younger children are being tested on a 3-microgram dose.\n\nPfizer has reported it may have data by the end of the year. Before the vaccine becomes available to younger children and infants, the company will have to submit the data for FDA and CDC review.\n\nThe timing \"is going to depend on what the data show,” O'Leary said. “I think that people’s best guess is early 2022, but there’s a lot of uncertainty around that guess.”\n\nContributing: Karen Weintraub, Elizabeth Weise and Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY. Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/06/13/fda-advisors-consider-recommending-covid-19-vaccines-young-children/7571523001/", "title": "COVID vaccine for kids: FDA panel likely to recommend Pfizer ...", "text": "An FDA expert advisory panel meets this week and will likely recommend two COVID vaccines for the youngest children.\n\nThe vaccines under review are Moderna's for ages 6 months to 17 years and Pfizer-BioNTech's for children ages 6 months to 5 years.\n\nIf the vaccines are authorized this week, they would become available as soon as June 21, the Biden administration has said.\n\nA federal advisory panel is likely this week to recommend two COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest children, as well as a second option for older kids whose access has been limited to Pfizer-BioNTech shots.\n\nAccording to detailed information made public Friday and Sunday, Food and Drug Administration staff reviewed safety and effectiveness data for the Moderna vaccine for people ages 6 months to 17 years and for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years.\n\nThe review was positive, raising no new safety issues or concerns about trial data, most of which had been released by the companies.\n\nAn FDA expert advisory panel will hold all-day meetings Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the data, but the staff review suggests that there will be no major surprises and that the panel will recommend authorization of both vaccines.\n\nIf that happens and the FDA commissioner signs off on the shots, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will follow the same process, and a different expert advisory panel will do a review Friday and Saturday. The CDC director would have to endorse the vaccines before the companies would be allowed to provide them.\n\nThe Biden administration said that if the vaccines are authorized this week, they would become available as soon as June 21 (a day after the federal Juneteenth holiday) at pharmacies, pediatricians' offices, libraries, children's museums, health centers and other outlets.\n\nThe federal government pre-purchased vaccine doses, which will be provided at no cost to families.\n\nThose ‘free’ COVID-19 tests? Labs rake in millions in tax dollars, study says\n\nAdvocates are eager for vaccines to finally be extended to young children, the only major group of Americans left unprotected by vaccines.\n\n\"This moment is bittersweet,\" said Fatima Khan, co-founder of Protect Their Future, a grassroots group of physicians, parents and activists. \"We're grateful to access a safe vaccine but also troubled by how long it took. … We must learn from this experience and fix root bureaucratic issues that caused the delays so that our children are never left behind again.\"\n\nThe only vaccine available for children has been Pfizer-BioNTech's, authorized for those 5 and up. Traditionally, drugs and vaccines are studied first in adults, then in adolescents and progressively younger children, moving down in age as safety and effectiveness are proved in older groups.\n\nBabies younger than 6 months are not expected to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, vaccination during pregnancy, which has been safe, passes on protection that lasts for about the first six months of life.\n\nCompanies determined the most effective doses of COVID-19 vaccines for each eligible age group, while minimizing side effects.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech offers adults and adolescents a two-dose initial vaccine series, with 30 micrograms of active ingredients in each shot. Children ages 5-11 receive 10 micrograms of the vaccine, and the youngest children would get a 3-microgram dose.\n\nPfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, found that two doses were not adequately protective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus, so they asked the FDA and CDC to authorize a three-dose series for children ages 6 months through 4 years old. Older children are authorized to receive a booster dose to protect against the latest variants.\n\nAdults get two 100-microgram doses of the Moderna vaccine, which is based on the same mRNA technology as Pfizer-BioNTech's, for their initial series. The company proposed the same dosage for teens, two 50-microgram shots for younger children and two 25-microgram doses for the youngest children.\n\nModerna tested its vaccine in two doses only, and it appears less effective in the youngest children.\n\nOn Tuesday, the FDA advisory panel, called the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, will review data on Moderna's vaccine for children 6 to 17.\n\nOn Wednesday, the panel will decide whether to recommend Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccines for children as young as 6 months.\n\nVaccine side effects, dosage for children and what studies have found\n\nVaccine side effects in the youngest age groups were similar to those in older children, including short-term fever and redness at the injection site, studies showed.\n\nNeither vaccine trial in young children found any cases of allergic reactions to the shots or myocarditis, the swelling of the heart muscle occasionally seen among adolescent boys and young men after vaccination.\n\nIn the Pfizer-BioNTech trial, three shots – the third given at least eight weeks after the second – protected more than 75% of children ages 6 months to 2 years and 82% of those ages 2 to 5, and there was no significant increase in side effects. The trial included about 4,500 children in five countries; twice as many participants got the active vaccine than got a placebo.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech trial had been designed to wait for results until 21 children in either the placebo or active vaccine group contracted COVID-19. Although cases have risen in recent weeks, only 10 had tested positive for the coronavirus this month, so technically, the effectiveness results are considered preliminary.\n\nIn Moderna's trial of 6,700 children ages 6 months to under 6, company researchers found that two 25-microgram doses led the children to develop levels of virus-fighting antibodies comparable to young adults who received two full-strength shots.\n\nIn the study, which took place during the omicron wave, researchers found the vaccine was 51% effective among children 6 months to under 2 and 37% effective among children 2 to under 6.\n\nAmong older children, a 50-microgram dose appeared to be safe and effective, according to company data and the FDA analysis.\n\nModerna filed a year ago for authorization of its vaccine in adolescents, but the FDA held the application, awaiting more information on the risks of myocarditis after vaccination. The committee will review more recent data and decide whether the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks of myocarditis in that age group.\n\nTeens and young adults, particularly males, appear to be at the highest risk for this side effect, though it is generally milder than the myocarditis caused by infection with COVID-19.\n\n5 million doses of each vaccine available by June 21\n\nThe FDA advisory panel is likely to make a recommendation at the end of each day's meeting: Tuesday on Moderna's vaccine for children ages 6-17 and Wednesday on both vaccines for young children.\n\nAdministration officials said last week they started accepting state and local orders for the shots and expect to have 5 million doses each of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for young children available on June 21 and millions more soon thereafter.\n\n\"If the FDA and the CDC recommend these vaccines, this would mark an important moment in the pandemic,\" Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said at a news conference last week. \"It would mean that for the first time, essentially every American – from our oldest to our youngest – would be eligible for the protection that vaccines provide.\"\n\nContributing: Adrianna Rodriguez\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/06/15/fda-panel-recommends-covid-vaccines-kids-young-6-months-old/7628194001/", "title": "FDA authorizes COVID vaccines for kids as young as 6 months old", "text": "America's youngest children could soon have access to two COVID-19 vaccines.\n\nAn expert panel on Wednesday unanimously found Moderna's vaccine safe for children 6 months to 6 years old, providing protection against COVID-19. The committee voted to support a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 6 months to 5 years.\n\nFriday, the Food and Drug Administration's commissioner gave emergency authorization to both vaccines, and an advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began two days of hearings on how the shots should be used. If they sign off and then the head of the CDC, vaccines will be available for young children as soon as Tuesday.\n\nAlthough young children have largely been spared the worst of COVID-19, they can become seriously ill, and more than 200 have died from infections, according to data presented by the FDA.\n\nHalf of the young children hospitalized with COVID-19 did not have any preexisting conditions before they fell ill, the FDA said.\n\nBecause risks from COVID-19 infection in young children are relatively low, the risk of side effects from the vaccines must also be low to justify their use.\n\nCommittee members said they want to give parents the option to vaccinate their youngest children.\n\n\"We've got to be transparent about the real risks of COVID-19 for children. Tens of millions of children in this age group have been infected and have done just fine,\" said Dr. James Hildreth Sr., CEO of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. \"For those parents who choose to do so, especially those parents of kids that have underlying conditions, this is a choice they should have, and I'm pleased that they'll have it.\"\n\nDr. Jay Portnoy, an allergist at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, said he hopes the committee's decision will help parents who have lived in fear of their child catching COVID-19. \"This will certainly alleviate a lot of their concerns,\" said Portnoy, the patient representative on the committee. \"I think it was the right vote.\"\n\nEvery other age group of Americans has long had access to the vaccines, except babies younger than 6 months old, who can get protection from the parent's vaccination during pregnancy.\n\nThe committee voted almost 18 months ago to approve vaccines for adults, first from Pfizer, then from Moderna.\n\n\"Essentially all of the American population can now choose to get vaccine,\" said Arnold Monto, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who chaired each of the meetings.\n\nThe committee voted 21-0 that Moderna's vaccine met the FDA's criteria for safety and effectiveness in the youngest children and that its benefits outweigh its risks. It voted the same way to support the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nAdding a layer of confusion for parents, Moderna studied its vaccine in two doses; Pfizer-BioNTech found three doses of its vaccine were needed to provide adequate protection during a wave of infections caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.\n\nModerna recipients will probably need a third shot to receive protection against circulating variants, committee members, FDA staff and the company said, although the review covered only two doses.\n\nBecause the two vaccines were studied separately, they cannot be compared directly.\n\nCommittee members said they worry the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine won't provide much protection until after the third dose; Moderna's shot may provide more protection faster.\n\nModerna's shots are given four weeks apart, meaning a child could have some protection against infection and severe disease by midsummer. A child would have to wait until two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine three weeks apart and a third dose eight weeks later – roughly three months – to get protection.\n\nDr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said Pfizer-BioNTech may have chosen too low of a dose for young children. He said he's worried parents will think their child is protected after two doses and will take fewer precautions to prevent COVID-19.\n\nBefore either vaccine can be made available, the FDA commissioner must sign off on them, which he is likely to do almost immediately.\n\nA second expert advisory panel, this time for the CDC, is scheduled to consider the vaccines Saturday. If the CDC director approves the shots, they are set to roll out Tuesday.\n\nThe Biden administration allowed preorders of up to 10 million vaccine doses for young children, half of Moderna and half of Pfizer-BioNTech, which would be made available at pediatricians' offices, pharmacies, clinics, some libraries, children's museums and other venues.\n\nThe government pre-purchased vaccines, so parents won't have to pay for them.\n\nTuesday, parents are likely to have access to Moderna's vaccine for older children. Until now, only Pfizer-BioNTech could be provided to children, but this week, the FDA advisory committee said the benefits of Moderna's vaccine outweighed its risks. The FDA commissioner is likely to sign off on the vaccine and the CDC advisory committee to review it on Friday.\n\nVaccines available to children are the same as those for adults but in lower doses.\n\nAdults receive two 30 microgram doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine three weeks apart, followed by a booster at least five months later. Adolescents receive the same dose, children 5 to 11 receive three 10-microgram doses on the same schedule and children 6 months to 5 years would get three 3-microgram doses.\n\nAdults receive two 100-microgram doses of the Moderna vaccine a month apart, followed by a 50-microgram booster at least six months later. Adolescents would have the same dose and schedule, once shots and boosters are authorized.\n\nChildren 6 to 11 would receive two 50-microgram initial doses and a 25-microgram booster, and younger children would receive two 25-microgram doses, followed by a 10-microgram booster.\n\nCommittee members spent much of the question-and-answer period Wednesday trying to understand whether one COVID-19 vaccine is more effective in small children than the other, but they were frustrated by the lack of data.\n\nBoth vaccines appear to be safe. Short-term side effects such as fever and fatigue are fairly common, but there's been no evidence of the more serious side effects seen rarely in adults: severe allergic reactions and myocarditis, a swelling of the heart muscle.\n\nLike adults, young children generally had more side effects after a second dose, except if they had previously been infected with COVID-19, in which case they felt more effects from the first dose. Otherwise, there were no safety differences noted in children infected with COVID-19 before vaccination, and they appeared to have greater protection against the virus, based on their levels of protective antibodies.\n\nAs the studies in small children were relatively small – 5,000 who received at least one dose of the active vaccine in Moderna's trials and 3,000 in Pfizer-BioNTech's – those rare side effects or others could turn up as more children are vaccinated.\n\nAs with adults and older children, it's unclear how long COVID-19 vaccines will be protective or whether boosters will be needed.\n\nBoth companies will continue to study the effects of their vaccines in young children, including those with immunocompromising health conditions.\n\nCommittee member Dr. Archana Chatterjee, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and dean of the Chicago Medical School, said the data analyzed by the FDA convinced her that both vaccines are safe and effective.\n\n\"As a pediatrician, today is a red-letter day for me,\" Chatterjee said. \"To be able to vote for authorization of two vaccines that will protect children down to 6 months of age against this deadly virus is a very, very important thing.\"\n\nContributing: Elizabeth Weise\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/17/health/fda-vaccine-authorization-younger-kids/index.html", "title": "FDA authorizes Covid-19 vaccines for younger children | CNN", "text": "(CNN) The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines are now authorized for emergency use in young children. The US Food and Drug Administration expanded the authorizations for the vaccines Friday to include children as young as 6 months.\n\nHowever, shots can't be given until the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisers have voted on whether to recommend them -- a vote is scheduled for Saturday -- and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has signed off on that recommendation. The White House has said vaccinations for younger children may begin next week.\n\nModerna's vaccine is now authorized for use in children 6 months through 17 years and Pfizer/BioNTech's for children 6 months through 4 years. About 17 million kids under the age of 5 are now are eligible for Covid-19 vaccines.\n\n\"Many parents, caregivers and clinicians have been waiting for a vaccine for younger children and this action will help protect those down to 6 months of age. As we have seen with older age groups, we expect that the vaccines for younger children will provide protection from the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, such as hospitalization and death,\" FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf said in a news release . \"Those trusted with the care of children can have confidence in the safety and effectiveness of these COVID-19 vaccines and can be assured that the agency was thorough in its evaluation of the data.\"\n\nPreviously, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was authorized for people 5 and older and approved for 16 and up, and Moderna's vaccine was authorized only for adults.\n\nDr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, called Covid-19 vaccines for younger age groups a \"milestone.\"\n\n\"It is a bit of a milestone to bring down the age range for these vaccines as we work through this,\" Marks said Wednesday in a meeting of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.\n\nIn that meeting, the committee members voted unanimously in favor of expanding the authorizations to include children as young as 6 months.\n\n\"To be able to vote for authorization of two vaccines that will protect children down to 6 months of age against this deadly disease is a very important thing,\" said committee member Dr. Archana Chatterjee, dean of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University.\n\nShe compared the day to December 2020, when the first Covid-19 vaccines were authorized for adults and older teens.\n\n\"I'm really pleased that we've reached this kind of milestone,\" said committee member Dr. Ofer Levy, of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children's Hospital, who also likened the moment to when Covid-19 vaccines previously were authorized for other age groups.\n\n\"I recall our first vote a year ago or more on the first Pfizer authorization,\" Levy said. \"I was one of the 17 votes in favor. I remember those early discussions -- even then, should the 16- and 17-year-olds be included? At that point, that was a controversial topic that was being discussed. And here we are now, as a committee unanimously recommending authorization down to 6 months of age. So we've come a long way.\"\n\nWill the youngest children get vaccinated?\n\nMany public health experts worry that even though the Covid-19 vaccines are now authorized for younger age groups, parents of these children might not take their kids to receive the vaccinations.\n\nThere is already slow uptake of Covid-19 vaccines among children in the United States.\n\n\"Having vaccine options for the youngest children is very important; however, we have seen a relatively low uptake of Covid vaccines in children in the 5- to 12-year-old group, and so my concern is that uptake in the youngest children under 5 years old might also be lower than we would like,\" Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told CNN on Wednesday.\n\nBarouch, who is not involved in the FDA's decision, helped develop and study the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nHe said there were \"striking\" differences in how many adults are fully vaccinated compared with children and teens.\n\nChildren 5 to 11 were the most recent group to become eligible for vaccination, in November. But just 29% of these children are fully vaccinated with their two-dose primary series in the United States, according to the CDC , compared with about:\n\n60% of adolescents 12 to 17\n\n64% of adults 18 to 24\n\n67% of adults 25 to 39\n\n75% of adults 40 to 49\n\n82% of adults 50 to 64\n\n94% of adults 65 to 74\n\n88% of adults 75 and older\n\n\"We are planning and preparing for the rollout of pediatric vaccines. Of course, there's a lot of work to be done to look at uptake of this vaccine. Some of the polls and surveys that have gone out to the public have indicated an ongoing lessening of parents considering giving their children these vaccines over time,\" said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.\n\nAccording to a Kaiser Family Foundation's Vaccine Monitor survey , published in May, only 18% of parents of children under 5 said they would vaccinate their child against Covid-19 as soon as a vaccine was available.\n\n\"I think the more the pandemic is in the rearview mirror for some people -- or they believe it is -- then the less compelled they will be to do this, and so we have a big public health education campaign ahead of us,\" Freeman said. \"Also, health departments at the local level will be looking to understand the landscape of their community in terms of how many providers, pediatricians and pharmacies have actually signed up to give out the vaccine.\"\n\n'Benefits seem to clearly outweigh the risks'\n\nUnder the FDA's authorization, the Moderna vaccine can be given as a two-dose primary series, at 25 micrograms each dose, to infants and children 6 months through 5 years of age. For older children, ages 6 to 11, the doses are administered at 50 micrograms.\n\nVials of Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine for younger children being filled.\n\nThe Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine now can be given as a three-dose primary series, at 3 micrograms each dose, for use in infants and children 6 months through 4 years.\n\nThe FDA's vaccine advisers have determined that the benefits of both vaccines outweigh the risks and that the vaccines have been \"well-tolerated\" among the children who received them in clinical trials.\n\n\"The benefits seem to clearly outweigh the risks, particularly for those with young children who may be in kindergarten or in collective child care,\" committee member Oveta Fuller, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School, said of the Moderna vaccine.\n\nCommittee member Dr. Art Reingold added that even though the risk of Covid-19 hospitalization and death is lower for young children than for adults, children already get vaccinations to protect them against diseases for which their risk is low.\n\n\"If we have a vaccine whose benefits outweigh the risks, then making it available to people is a reasonable choice. I would point out that we as a country continue to give a large number of vaccines to children where the risk of the child dying or being hospitalized of those diseases are pretty close to zero,\" such as polio and measles, said Reingold, of the University of California, Berkeley.\n\nThe number of Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths in children is concerning and much higher when compared with influenza-related deaths and hospitalizations, Marks said.\n\n\"There still was, during the Omicron wave, a relatively high rate of hospitalization during this period,\" he said. \"That rate of hospitalization actually is quite troubling, and if we compare this to what we see in a terrible influenza season, it is worse.\"\n\nMarks said the number of deaths for children 4 and under during the first two years of the pandemic \"also compares quite terribly to what we've seen with influenza in the past.\"\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\n\"We are dealing with an issue where I think we have to be careful that we don't become numb to the number of pediatric deaths because of the overwhelming number of older deaths here. Every life is important,\" he said, adding that \"vaccine-preventable deaths are ones we would like to try to do something about.\"\n\nHe added that the Covid-19 vaccines are an intervention similar to the influenza vaccine, which has been broadly and routinely used and accepted to prevent deaths in all ages.", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/15/health/fda-covid-vaccine-youngest-children-vrbpac-vote/index.html", "title": "FDA advisers vote in favor of authorizing Covid-19 vaccines for ...", "text": "(CNN) Vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Wednesday in favor of expanding the emergency use authorizations for the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to include children as young as 6 months.\n\nAll 21 members of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted \"yes\" in response to the question: \"Based on the totality of scientific evidence available, do the benefits of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine when administered as a 2-dose series (25 micrograms each dose) outweigh its risks for use in infants and children 6 months through 5 years of age?\"\n\nAnd all the committee members voted yes in response to the question: \"Based on the totality of scientific evidence available, do the benefits of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine when administered as a 3-dose series (3 micrograms each dose) outweigh its risks for use in infants and children 6 months through 4 years of age?\"\n\nThe FDA, which typically follows the committee's decisions, will now decide whether to authorize the vaccines for emergency use in the youngest children.\n\nHowever, shots can't be given until the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's own vaccine advisers have voted on whether to recommend them and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has signed off on the recommendation.\n\nThe CDC's vaccine advisers are expected to vote Saturday. The White House has said shots could begin as early as next week.\n\nChildren younger than 5 are the only age group not currently eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19. About 17 million kids will become eligible for Covid-19 vaccines once they're authorized for this age group.\n\n\"To be able to vote for authorization of two vaccines that will protect children down to 6 months of age against this deadly disease is a very important thing,\" said committee member Dr. Archana Chatterjee, dean of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University.\n\nShe compared the day to December 2020, when the first Covid-19 vaccines were authorized for adults and older teens.\n\n'Benefits seem to clearly outweigh the risks'\n\n\"The benefits seem to clearly outweigh the risks, particularly for those with young children who may be in kindergarten or in collective child care,\" committee member Oveta Fuller, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School, said of the Moderna vaccine.\n\nCommittee member Dr. Art Reingold added that even though the risk of Covid-19 hospitalization and death is lower for young children than for adults, children already get vaccinations to protect them against diseases for which their risk is low.\n\n\"If we have a vaccine with benefits that outweigh the risks, then making it available to people is a reasonable choice,\" said Reingold, of the University of California, Berkeley.\n\n\"I would point out that we as a country continue to give a large number of vaccines to children where the risk of the child dying or being hospitalized of those diseases are pretty close to zero,\" he said, such as polio and measles.\n\nThe number of Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths in children is concerning and much higher when compared with influenza-related deaths and hospitalizations, FDA official Dr. Peter Marks said at Wednesday's meeting.\n\n\"There still was, during the Omicron wave, a relatively high rate of hospitalization during this period,\" said Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. \"That rate of hospitalization actually is quite troubling, and if we compare this to what we see in a terrible influenza season, it is worse.\"\n\nMarks said the number of deaths for children 4 and under during the first two years of the pandemic \"also compares quite terribly to what we've seen with influenza in the past.\"\n\n\"We are dealing with an issue where I think we have to be careful that we don't become numb to the number of pediatric deaths because of the overwhelming number of older deaths here. Every life is important,\" he said, adding that \"vaccine-preventable deaths are ones we would like to try to do something about.\"\n\nMarks said the Covid-19 vaccines are an intervention similar to the influenza vaccine, which has been broadly and routinely used and accepted to prevent deaths.\n\nModerna vaccine 'well-tolerated' in youngest children\n\nThe Moderna vaccine is already authorized for adults. In a meeting Tuesday, the FDA's advisers voted unanimously in favor of expanding the emergency use authorization to include older children and teens, ages 6 to 17, saying it would also offer more benefits than risks.\n\nModerna's Covid-19 vaccine, when given as a 25-microgram dose, is \"well-tolerated\" in children ages 6 months to 5, said Dr. Rituparna Das, Moderna's vice president of Covid-19 vaccines clinical development, during Wednesday's meeting as she described the safety profile of the vaccine among this age group and adverse reactions.\n\n\"Pain was the most common event,\" Das said. \"Young children's events included fever, headache, fatigue, myalgia, arthralgia, nausea, vomiting and chills. For infants and toddlers, events included fever, irritability, crying, sleepiness and loss of appetite.\"\n\nThese reactions were more common after the second dose of vaccine and resolved within two or three days, Das said, adding that fever was an important assessment of the vaccine's safety for this age group.\n\nFever after any dose of vaccine happened in about a quarter of the children, but more often after the second dose, and one incident of febrile seizure was considered to be related to vaccination, Das told the committee members. The child who had the seizure remained in the vaccine study and got a second dose of vaccine with no serious events.\n\nNo deaths or cases of myocarditis or pericarditis were reported among vaccine recipients, Das said.\n\n\"In summary, mRNA-1273 was well tolerated,\" she said, using the technical name of Moderna's vaccine. \"Local and systemic reactions were seen less frequently in these youngest groups.\"\n\nConcern over number of doses\n\nVRBPAC member Dr. Paul Offit said in Wednesday's meeting that children who get the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will have to complete a three-dose series to get sufficient protection.\n\n\" 'Do the benefits outweigh the risks' is something I can support, but I do have some concerns about this vaccine,\" said Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania.\n\nCommittee member Dr. Jeannette Lee of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences also mentioned concern that some children might not complete all three doses and that uptake of the vaccine will be slow.\n\n\"Three doses will certainly benefit. I have a lot of concern that many of these kids will not get a third dose,\" she said. \"My concern is that you have to get the three doses to really get what you need.\"\n\nData from a phase 2/3 trial of the Pfizer vaccine included 1,678 children who had received a third dose during the period when the Omicron coronavirus variant dominated. The vaccine appeared to be safe and had a strong immune response. The data has not been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal.\n\nAntibody levels tested one month after the third dose showed that the vaccine produced a similar immune response as two doses in 16- to 25-year-olds, the companies said.\n\nIn FDA briefing documents, it was noted that among young children who had received the vaccine in trials, there were no cases of anaphylaxis, myocarditis or pericarditis, and the most common adverse reactions among children 6 months to 23 months were irritability, drowsiness, decreased appetite and tenderness at the injection site. For children 2 to 4 years old, the most common adverse reactions were fatigue and pain and redness at the injection site.\n\nWill these children get vaccinated?\n\nThere is already slow uptake of Covid-19 vaccines among children in the United States.\n\n\"Having vaccine options for the youngest children is very important; however, we have seen a relatively low uptake of Covid vaccines in children in the 5- to 12-year-old group, and so my concern is that uptake in the youngest children under 5 years old might also be lower than we would like,\" Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told CNN on Wednesday.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nBarouch, who is not a member of the FDA advisory committee, helped develop and study the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nHe said there were \"striking\" differences in how many adults are fully vaccinated compared with children and teens.\n\nChildren 5 to 11 were the most recent group to become eligible for vaccination, in November. But just 29% of these children are fully vaccinated with their two-dose primary series in the United States, according to the CDC , compared with about:", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/06/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/13/health/covid-vaccine-young-kids-fda-meeting/index.html", "title": "FDA advisers to weigh expanding Covid-19 vaccines to younger kids", "text": "(CNN) Several months after older children became eligible to get vaccinated against Covid-19, the United States might be just days away from offering vaccines to those younger than 5.\n\nThe US Food and Drug Administration's independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is set to meet Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss amending the emergency use authorization (EUA) of Moderna's and Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccines to include younger ages.\n\nChildren under 5 -- about 18 million people -- are the only US age group that isn't eligible to get a Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nThe Moderna vaccine is authorized for use in adults, but on Tuesday, the advisers will discuss including children 6 through 17; on Wednesday, they will consider expanding the authorization to infants and children ages 6 months through 5.\n\nThe Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is approved for people 16 and older, and it's authorized for use in children as young as 5. At Wednesday's meeting, advisers will discuss amending the EUA to include child-size doses of the vaccine for infants and children ages 6 months through 4.\n\nAccording to FDA briefing documents posted Sunday, an agency review found that data supports the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, given as a three-dose series, in preventing the disease in children 6 months through 4 years old. According to another document , a FDA review found that Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine is also safe and effective in younger kids.\n\nIn their meetings Tuesday and Wednesday, VRBPAC members will vote on whether the benefits of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines outweigh risks for younger children.\n\nWhat's next after vaccine advisers meet\n\nAfter the FDA vaccine advisers vote, the agency will consider their decision and weigh whether it should authorize the vaccines.\n\nHowever, shots can't be given until the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisers have voted on whether to recommend them and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has signed off on the recommendation.\n\nThe White House has said vaccines for the youngest children could start next week.\n\nThe rollout of vaccines for this group could mirror that for older children, as pediatricians' offices will play a significant role in helping get shots into arms.\n\nSome in-pharmacy clinics also are preparing to administer more vaccines.\n\n\"We plan to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to children 18 months through four years of age at our national network of 1,100 MinuteClinic locations once the FDA and CDC have provided guidance and inventory is received,\" CVS spokesperson Matt Blanchette said in an emailed statement Monday.\n\n\"Our MinuteClinic clinicians comprised of board-certified Family Nurse Practitioners, Physician Associates, and Nurses, have significant experience providing vaccinations to a younger population as well as private exam rooms, which will make the process easier for kids, parents, and guardians,\" the statement says.\n\nChildren under 5 typically have lower Covid-19 case rates than other age groups. But in the first week of June, hospitalization rates among these kids were slightly higher than among adults under the age of 50 and four times higher than those of other children.\n\nAt least 481 US children under the age of 5 have died of Covid-19, according to the CDC\n\nPfizer's data\n\nPeople 5 and older are already eligible for Pfizer/BioNTech's two-dose Covid-19 vaccine and a booster dose -- but in Wednesday's meeting, VRBPAC members will discuss whether to add younger children to the emergency use authorization.\n\nAccording to a briefing document, Pfizer's three-dose Covid-19 vaccine for children younger than 5 appears to be safe and generated an immune response in trials that's comparable to the response in older people.\n\nOne trial included more than 4,500 children ages 6 to 23 months and 2 to 4 years. Some got three 3-microgram shots, with the second shot coming three weeks after the first and the third shot given at least eight weeks after the second. The rest got a placebo.\n\nThe FDA briefing document says the Pfizer vaccine for this age group induced responses comparable to what has been seen in 16- to 25-year-olds. There weren't enough Covid-19 cases to establish vaccine efficacy in the study, but the FDA noted that this vaccine is known to be less protective against the Omicron variant.\n\nA preliminary analysis put vaccine efficacy for children younger than 5 at 80.4%, with three Covid-19 cases in the vaccine group and seven in the placebo group. All the cases happened while the Omicron variant was dominant in the United States.\n\n\"Given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and likelihood of continued SARS-CoV-2 transmission during the ensuing months, deployment of the vaccine for use among children 6 months through 4 years of age will likely have a beneficial effect on COVID-19 associated morbidity and mortality in this age group,\" the FDA said in its analysis.\n\nThere were no cases of anaphylaxis. There were also no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis -- inflammation of the heart muscle and inflammation of tissue surrounding the heart -- reported among more than 3,000 vaccine recipients in the trial, but it wasn't a large enough group to rule out the risk.\n\nThe most common adverse reactions among children 6 to 23 months were irritability, drowsiness, lack of appetite and tenderness at the injection site. For children 2 to 4 years old, the most common adverse reactions were pain or redness at the injection site and fatigue.\n\nIt's not clear how long the vaccine will be effective; the agency noted that the evaluation period was limited and that protection is known to wane over time in older ages. The agency also said it's \"likely that a booster dose will be needed in addition to the three-dose primary series to increase robustness, breadth, and duration of protection.\"\n\nModerna's data\n\nThe immune response and safety profile of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine also appear to be favorable for the youngest children, according to the FDA briefing documents.\n\nVRBPAC members will discuss Moderna's vaccine on Tuesday and Wednesday, evaluating whether it should be authorized for younger ages.\n\nIn trials evaluating more than 6,000 children 6 months to under 6 years old, Moderna scientists found that two 25-microgram doses of vaccine, given 28 days apart, yielded a similar immune response as the two-dose vaccine series does in adults 18 to 25.\n\nFor children and teens ages 6 to 17, Moderna found that two doses of its vaccine provided a similar immune response as two doses in adults.\n\nThe vaccine was also found to be safe in all age groups, with adverse reactions described as \"mostly mild to moderate in severity, generally of short duration,\" and happening more frequently after the second dose than the first, according to the document. Injection site pain was the most commonly reported adverse reaction. As for serious adverse events, the document described them as infrequent and didn't raise any concerns. No deaths were reported.\n\nAlthough there were no known cases of myocarditis or pericarditis associated with the vaccine, it is acknowledged as one of the known risks and has been reported mostly in males ages 18 to 24.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nThe FDA did not require the vaccine makers to submit vaccine efficacy data for emergency use authorization for young children, but Moderna's vaccine has been estimated to be 93.3% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 among teens ages 12 to 17 when the original coronavirus and the Alpha variant were dominant.\n\nThe vaccine was estimated to be 76.8% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 for children ages 6 to 11 when the Delta variant was predominant. However, the FDA also noted that for children in that age group, the \"vaccine efficacy could not be reliably determined due to the small number of COVID-19 cases accrued during the study.\"\n\nThe vaccine was tested during a time when the Omicron variant was dominant. It was estimated to be 36.8% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 for children ages 2 to 5 and 50.6% protective for children 6 months to 23 months.\n\nVaccine efficacy estimates \"were generally consistent\" with what has been seen in adults, according to the FDA briefing document.", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/06/13"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_18", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2022/06/22/southwest-pilots-picket-dallas/7700705001/", "title": "Southwest Airlines pilots protest lack of progress on new contract", "text": "David Koenig\n\nAssociated Press\n\nThere's a shortage of pilots at many airlines, and pilot unions are demanding higher pay in contract negotiations.\n\nOn Tuesday, hundreds of uniformed Southwest Airlines pilots picketed at the Dallas airport to protest the lack of progress on a new contract.\n\nThe picketing is taking place as airline unions seek sizable wage increases.\n\nDALLAS – Hundreds of uniformed Southwest Airlines pilots stood in perfect lines in the scorching Texas sun at Dallas Love Field on Tuesday, holding signs that blamed Southwest management for delays and cancellations that have upset passengers.\n\nEvery once in a while, a motorist would honk or yell encouragement. Most passengers made a beeline for the security checkpoint inside the terminal.\n\nThe protest, which the union said drew up to 1,300 pilots, was the latest example of airline workers trying to put pressure on companies by taking their demands for higher pay directly to the flying public.\n\nFederal law makes it nearly impossible for airline unions to conduct legal strikes. Contract negotiations tend to drag out – often for years. Southwest's flight attendants have been working under an old contract since 2018.\n\nAAA predicts:Record number of people expected to take road trips for Fourth of July weekend\n\nWhat's going on?:'Travel Armageddon' as flight delays, cancellations pile up\n\nThat slow pace causes unions to look for creative ways to put pressure on management. Sometimes they vote to authorize a strike – Alaska Airlines pilots did that last month – even though there is little chance that they will walk off the job.\n\nLast week, the Air Line Pilots Association, or ALPA, posted an open letter to Delta Air Lines customers, saying its members empathized with travelers whose flights were delayed or canceled, and blaming Delta management. The union said Delta has scheduled more flights than it has pilots to fly, and pilots were working record overtime hours.\n\nEarlier this month, American Airlines pilots picketed near the New York Stock Exchange, and before that, at major airports. Some held signs such as, \"Frustrated with AA? So are we.\"\n\nAirline unions are hoping to take advantage of the strong demand for travel this summer to win increases in wages and benefits.\n\nUnited Airlines reached an agreement with ALPA last month. Terms have not been disclosed, but they likely included higher pay – United's CEO called it an industry-leading proposal. The deal still needs to be ratified by pilots.\n\nTwo regional subsidiaries of American will give pilots a wage premium of 50% through August 2024 in addition to longer-term increase. So-called regional carriers, which operate American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express flights, are being hit hardest by a shortage of pilots.\n\nOn Tuesday at Love Field, which is next to Southwest headquarters, pilots in crisp white short-sleeved shirts with epaulets on their shoulders stood at attention, holding signs that read \"Southwest's operation: From first to worse,\" and \"Our passengers and pilots deserve better.\"\n\nCasey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, the union for the airline's 9,000 pilots, said work has turned into a \"flightmare\" for pilots because of over-scheduling.\n\nStory continues below.\n\n\"It's a struggle every day out there. Our fatigue rates reflect that,\" he said. In the first five months of this year, Southwest pilots reported feeling fatigued at more than triple the rate of a year ago, according to figures from the union, which says this raises safety concerns.\n\nSouthwest said in a brief statement that it respects the right of employees to express their opinions, \"and we do not anticipate any disruption in service as a result of this single demonstration.\" The airline declined to comment on the union's concerns.\n\nNeither the union nor the company would discuss wages or other bargaining topics.\n\nDallas-based Southwest has been hiring pilots since last year to replace those who took buyouts that the airline offered in 2020, when the pandemic caused air travel to plummet. The union says pilots are not being fairly compensated for handling extra flights, and that Southwest uses outdated crew-scheduling technology that makes it hard for the airline to recover from even minor hiccups.\n\nSouthwest, the nation's fourth-biggest airline, suffered through high cancellation rates last summer and again in early October, when weather-related cancellations in Florida cascaded into a dayslong, nationwide meltdown. It has performed better more recently, including over the Memorial Day weekend.\n\nIt is hard if not impossible to know whether picketing at airports helps unions at the bargaining table.\n\nPilots enjoy particular respect from travelers, and when they picket in full uniform, \"they create a powerful image\" that travelers remember, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst with Atmosphere Research Group.\n\nHarteveldt said pilots currently have leverage in negotiations because of a pilot shortage and widespread flight delays and cancellations.\n\n\"But timing is everything in these negotiations,\" he said. \"If the economy has a significant slowdown and airlines see business fall off and scale back their flying, then the leverage pilots have today may be gone.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/06/22/gas-tax-holiday-proposal-southwest-airlines-pilots-protest-afghanistan-earthquake-its-wednesdays-new/7700606001/", "title": "Gas tax holiday plan, Roe v. Wade, Southwest Airlines pilots protest ...", "text": "President Joe Biden proposed a tax holiday on fuel, but not everybody in Congress is ready to hit the gas. An earthquake rocked Afghanistan, leaving 1,000 dead and scores more injured. And we're looking at the maze of state abortion laws that would be triggered should Roe v. Wade be overturned.\n\n👋 It's Laura Davis. It's Wednesday. I'm standing on one leg. Here's everything you need to know.\n\nBut first, how long can you stand on one leg? 🤷‍♀️ You're twice as likely to die in the next decade if you're currently unable to balance on one foot for 10 seconds, according to a new study. Read more, if you dare.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your local forecast here.\n\nCongress not quite ready to green-light Biden's gas tax holiday\n\nAs gas prices soar above $5 a gallon in many states, President Biden on Wednesday called on Congress to temporarily halt the federal tax on gas and asked states, which have their own taxes, to take similar action. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats were skeptical and remained noncommittal, signaling Biden's proposal could be doomed out of the gate. The pause, which Biden envisions lasting through September, would require congressional approval. The White House billed the holiday as a way to provide some \"breathing room\" as it works to bring costs down over the long term. Read more about Biden's plan.\n\n⛽️ News you can use: What are gas taxes and what do they pay for?\n\nIf Roe v. Wade is overturned, a maze of state abortion laws await\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court is poised to force women seeking abortions to navigate a labyrinth of laws and restrictions ranging from near-outright bans in more than a dozen states to provisions in a few states not only guaranteeing access to abortion, but funding to pay for them. If a decision is made to eliminate federal abortion rights, within a year, as many as 75,000 women won’t make it to a provider, according to one estimate, and would be forced to give birth instead. That would just be the start of the fallout from a ruling with implications that stretch far beyond reproductive health care, to encompass suppression of female participation in the workforce and the amplification of racial and economic inequities. Keep reading.\n\nWhat everyone's talking about\n\nThe Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.\n\nAt least 1,000 killed in Afghanistan earthquake\n\nAn earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 1,000 people, injuring 1,500 more and destroying homes and other buildings in the rugged, mountainous region. Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada told the state-run Bakhtar News Agency the death toll from the magnitude 5.9 temblor was likely to rise. Hundreds of homes and other buildings were destroyed, he said. The quake struck at 1:24 a.m. local time, when many were sleeping, and was felt more than 300 miles by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. \"People are digging grave after grave,\" said Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of the Information and Culture Department in Paktika. Read more + see a map of the earthquake.\n\n📸 Gallery: Evacuations, destruction seen after Afghanistan earthquake.\n\nPilots picket as airline unions leverage summer travel woes\n\nHundreds of uniformed Southwest Airlines pilots stood in perfect lines in the scorching Texas sun at Dallas Love Field on Tuesday, holding signs that blamed Southwest management for delays and cancellations that have upset passengers. The protest, which the union said drew up to 1,300 pilots, was the latest example of airline workers trying to put pressure on companies by taking their demands for higher pay directly to the flying public. Keep reading to learn more about the pilots' plight.\n\nFlight delays, cancellations keep piling up. What's going on?\n\nkeep piling up. What's going on? Record number of people expected to take road trips for Fourth of July weekend.\n\nReal quick\n\nWill NFL owner Daniel Snyder be subpoenaed?\n\nIt's looking like it. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday as part of an investigation into the alleged toxic workplace environment within the Washington Commanders organization. At the center of the investigation is team owner Daniel Snyder, who has been accused of inappropriate workplace conduct. Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., announced her intent to subpoena Snyder to appear before the committee for a deposition next week. Snyder, through his attorney, declined to testify, indicating that he was out of the country because of a \"longstanding Commanders-related business conflict.\" Here are the key moments from Wednesday's hearing.\n\nDetails emerge of sexual assault allegation against Commanders owner.\n\nof sexual assault allegation against Commanders owner. Members of Congress ask NFL for documents, information from Washington football probe.\n\nA break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/04/08/31-largest-worker-strikes-in-american-history/111460504/", "title": "Labor strikes: These are the 31 biggest worker strikes in US history", "text": "Thomas C. Frohlich and John Harrington\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic’s devastating effect on the world’s economies has shined a harsh light on the value of labor – it is the most vulnerable commodity in our economic system. In the countless examples of workers' struggles in U.S. history, this power has been leveraged – with varying degrees of success – to negotiate and improve labor conditions across all manner of workplaces.\n\nMany elements of gainful employment Americans may take for granted, such as health benefits, a living wage, and the 40-hour work week, were won by organized labor. Here are the best jobs in America.\n\nEven though a wave of strikes hit the U.S. as recently as 2018, union membership has declined for decades. This pattern can be seen in our ranking of strikes by cumulative work stoppage days, with the nation’s largest worker actions tending to have occurred earlier than the less massive strikes. For a geographical perspective on union strength, here are the states with the strongest and weakest unions.\n\n24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as well as media and archive reports on historic work stoppages to determine the largest worker strikes in American history.\n\n'Social distancing' is a scammer's dream:Here's how to not be a victim\n\nStruggling to pay the bills:Restaurants, other small businesses find a friend in banks\n\n31. Detroit Newspapers Strike\n\n• Duration: July 13, 1995 to Feb. 19, 1997\n\n• No. of strikers: 2,500\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,012,500\n\nUnions representing journalists, printers, truck drivers, maintenance workers, and other laborers went on strike over management's attempt to create a merit-based raise system and limit overtime. The newspapers hired replacement workers, and the union called off the strike.\n\n30. Boeing Machinists Strike of 2008\n\n• Duration: Sept. 6, 2008 to Nov. 1, 2008\n\n• No. of strikers: 27,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,053,000\n\nThe International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers ended an eight-week strike in November 2008 with an agreement that the union said protected factory jobs, prevented some outsourcing of posts at Boeing, and retained health care benefits. Boeing management said the accord gave the company more labor flexibility.\n\n29. Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Corp. Strike\n\n• Duration: Oct. 1, 1996 to Aug. 12, 1997\n\n• No. of strikers: 4,800\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,142,400\n\nA 10-month strike involving steel workers at eight plants in three states ended in August 1997. The union said the agreement boosted pension benefits for the company's steel workers and provided for early retirements. The accord allowed Wheeling to reduce workforce by 20%. The company closed in 2012.\n\n28. Trucking Strike of 1994\n\n• Duration: April 6, 1994 to April 29, 1994\n\n• No. of strikers: 71,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,180,500\n\nThe 23-day strike, the nation's longest trucker strike, ended on April 29, 1994. The agreement limited companies' ability to hire part-time workers, paving the way for more items to be shipped by rail instead of by truck.\n\n27. Northwest Airlines Strike\n\n• Duration: Aug. 20, 2005 to Nov. 6, 2006\n\n• No. of strikers: 3,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,183,800\n\nThe mechanics' strike against Northwest Airlines proved to be a disaster for the striking workers and their union. Northwest replaced all of the strikers, and some of the strikers and laid-off workers crossed the picket line. The strike also failed because none of the other unions supported the picket lines.\n\n26. UAW Strike of 1996\n\n• Duration: March 8, 1996 to March 22, 1996\n\n• No. of strikers: 136,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,260,000\n\nThe United Auto Workers strike ended on March 22, 1996, when union leaders agreed to allow General Motors to outsource parts operations in exchange for the company's promise to retain and add jobs at two plants.\n\n25. The U.S. Postal Strike of 1970\n\n• Duration: March 18, 1970 to March 25, 1970\n\n• No. of strikers: 210,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,260,000\n\nMore than 200,000 employees in 30 cities participated in the U.S. Postal Strike of 1970. Comprising a significant share of the nation's 750,000 postal workers, activists halted mail service in New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia, triggering President Richard Nixon to declare a national emergency. Despite the military's efforts to quell the strikes, a deal was eventually struck resulting in higher pay and better labor conditions under the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970.\n\n24. General Motors Strike\n\n• Duration: Sept. 16, 2019 to Oct. 25, 2019\n\n• No. of strikers: 46,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,334,000\n\nThe work stoppage by the United Auto Workers in the fall of 2019, the longest against General Motors in 49 years, cost GM about $4 billion, according to the automaker. Under terms of the four-year accord, pay for older workers will increase 6% each year. Hourly workers were to receive an $11,000 signing bonus. The union also thwarted a company demand for workers to pay a greater share of health-care expenses.\n\n23. Kaiser Aluminum Corp. Strike\n\n• Duration: Oct. 1, 1998 to Sept. 18, 2000\n\n• No. of strikers: 3,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,479,000\n\nAfter several round of negotiations, aluminum workers rejected Kaiser's proposal and went on strike on Sep 30, 1998. The union cited, among other issues, the company's failure to repay losses incurred during compensation cut agreements made in the 1980s that were made to stave off bankruptcy. After nearly two years of numerous failed negotiations and snags, a deal was finally agreed upon on Oct 1, 2000.\n\n22. Boeing Strike of 1995\n\n• Duration: Oct. 6, 1995 to Dec. 14, 1995\n\n• No. of strikers: 33,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,551,000\n\nMachinists and assembly line workers in 1995 won significant wage increases as a result of a strike that lasted over a month. Additionally, while Boeing would continue to increase its practice of contracting jobs overseas, the deal included the concession that any worker affected by subcontracting would be entitled to retraining for work elsewhere at the company.\n\n21. Charter Communications Inc. Strike\n\n• Duration: March 28, 2017 to ongoing\n\n• No. of strikers: 1,800\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,578,600\n\nCharter Communications workers started striking in March 2017 to fight changes to their retirement and health care benefits made after Charter acquired Time Warner and rebranded as Spectrum in 2016. Before the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S., the strike was the longest ongoing strike in the United States.\n\nUse Zoom?:These 5 safety tips can keep the 'Zoombombing' hackers away\n\nVideo games:On coronavirus lockdown, gamers seek solace and community\n\n20. 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike\n\n• Duration: May 9, 1934 to July 17, 1934\n\n• No. of strikers: 35,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 1,750,000\n\nStarting with 12,000 dock workers in the spring of 1934, the West Coast Waterfront Strike included at its peak 35,000 laborers across various marine industries and lasted for 83 days. Though not included in the tally for this particular strike, Teamsters and other unions showing solidarity with the longshoremen brought the total workers on strike during this time to 130,000. The strikers achieved their goals through arbitration in October 1934 after ending the strike in July.\n\n19. United Parcel Service Strike of 1997\n\n• Duration: Aug. 4, 1997 to Aug. 21, 1997\n\n• No. of strikers: 180,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 2,032,500\n\nUPS workers represented by the Teamsters went on strike against the delivery services company over pay and benefits. The Teamsters agreed to a five-year contract after originally asking for a shorter-term deal. UPS agreed to create 10,000 full-time jobs from part-time posts, an increase from its original offer of only 1,000. The workers' $8 an hour base pay was boosted by 50 cents an hour, and the average driver's pay was lifted by $3.10 an hour over the life of the contract. UPS wanted to change the pension plan, but that plan remained in place, a victory for the union.\n\n18. Bituminous Coal Operators Association Strike\n\n• Duration: May 10, 1993 to Dec. 14, 1993\n\n• No. of strikers: 16,800\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 2,203,000\n\nThe United Mine Workers of America agreed in December 1993 to end a strike that affected miners in five states by extending the contract that had lapsed the previous February. The dispute was over companies with union workers creating nonunion subsidiaries and transferring work to them. That issue was deferred.\n\n17. 1913 Paterson Silk Strike\n\n• Duration: Feb. 25, 1913 to July 28, 1913\n\n• No. of strikers: 23,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 2,530,000\n\nWorkers at silk mills in the New Jersey city that was one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution went on strike over an increase in loom assignments to four from two that would have reduced the workforce. As the strike dragged on, sometimes turning violent, some strikers returned to work, while others who continued to strike were replaced. The strike succeeded in forcing the companies to delay the proposed workplace change.\n\n16. The New York City Tugboat Strike of 1988\n\n• Duration: Feb. 16, 1988 to Dec. 20, 1993\n\n• No. of strikers: 1,600\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 2,895,200\n\nTugboat operators, whose ranks had been on the decline for many years, staged a failed strike that led to lower wages for many members of their union, The International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots.\n\n15. General Motors Strike\n\n• Duration: June 5, 1998 to July 29, 1998\n\n• No. of strikers: 152,200\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 3,313,000\n\nA bitter strike at General Motors in 1998 ended after the automaker said it would not shutter factories where the workers were on strike and agreed to invest $180 million in new equipment at one of the facilities. The United Auto Workers agreed to work-rule changes that would increase production.\n\n14. Caterpillar Strike\n\n• Duration: June 20, 1994 to Dec. 3, 1995\n\n• No. of strikers: 14,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 4,063,000\n\nUnion members at Caterpillar, the world's largest heavy equipment manufacturer, returned to work in December 1995 after a failed long strike. Workers had gone on strike in June 1994, protesting unfair labor practices. They had been working without a contract since 1991. The new contract placed limits on job security and overtime pay, and gave Caterpillar leeway to lay off workers more frequently.\n\n13. Passaic Textile Strike\n\n• Duration: Jan. 25, 1926 to March 1, 1927\n\n• No. of strikers: 15,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 4,215,000\n\nThe Passaic Textile Strike of 1926 involved more than 15,000 wool and silk workers in the Passaic, New Jersey, region. Workers reacted to a 10% pay cut and were galvanized later by police violence against demonstrators. Union demands included, among other items, time-and-a-half pay for overtime, a 40-hour workweek, sanitary working conditions, and no discrimination against union members.\n\nThe strike failed. Of the nine mills affected, even the few that settled disputes with workers broke their deals, firing many of the workers and rehiring them at lower wages.\n\n12. The 1934 Textile Worker Strike\n\n• Duration: Sept. 3, 1934 to Sept. 23, 1934\n\n• No. of strikers: 400,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 5,600,000\n\nTextile workers went on strike to protest a cut in pay as their workweeks were being reduced. The strike idled the textile industry in North Carolina. The workers, however, lacked the means to continue the struggle. Their cause was also undermined by a glut of textile inventory. In September, President Franklin Roosevelt personally intervened to ask the workers to return to the mills and they did so.\n\n11. Southern California Supermarket Strike\n\n• Duration: Oct. 12, 2003 to Feb. 29, 2004\n\n• No. of strikers: 67,300\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 5,718,100\n\nWorkers represented by United Food and Commercial Workers went on strike against supermarket company Von's because management wanted to change the health benefits of workers, which under the expiring contract were paid by the company. Soon afterward, supermarket companies Ralphs and Albertson's, whose contracts with their unions were also terminating, locked out employees. After a nearly five-month strike, management succeeded in getting workers to pay more for their health care benefits.\n\n10. The 1946 Union of Electrical, Radio and Machinist Workers' Strike\n\n• Duration: Jan. 15, 1946 to March 14, 1946\n\n• No. of strikers: 174,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 7,308,000\n\nAccruing 7.3 million days of work stoppage at a time when unions had considerably more power than they do today, the 1946 strike by electrical workers is the 10th largest in U.S. history. Starting in mid-January, after months of negotiations for higher wages, about 174,000 employees of several large electrical manufacturing companies went on strike. The strike was part of several massive organized labor campaigns conducted in 1946.\n\nThe wave of strikes at the time led to President Harry Truman's Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, also known as the Taft-Hartley Act, which restricted the power of labor unions and is still in force today.\n\n9. The Great Southwest Railroad Strike\n\n• Duration: March 1, 1886 to May 4, 1886\n\n• No. of strikers: 200,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 9,400,000\n\nAs railroads were rapidly expanding throughout the American West in the late 19th century, railroad workers went on strike in what is known as The Great Southwest Railroad Strike. Workers began protesting the grueling work hours and brutal conditions. The strike against the Union Pacific Railroad and the Missouri Pacific Railroad began after a railroad employee was fired for attending a union meeting in Texas. The job action spread to four other states and turned violent. The railroads hired replacement workers, and the strike faltered when other unions failed to support the strikers.\n\n8. Pullman Strike\n\n• Duration: May 11, 1894 to July 20, 1894\n\n• No. of strikers: 260,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 13,260,000\n\nDue in part to the fallout from the economic recession between September 1893 and May 1894, railroad car manufacturer Pullman Palace Car Company cut pay by about 25% for workers without reducing living expenses in the company town near Chicago, where they lived. When workers presented the problem to company president George M. Pullman – the possibility of starvation added to already poor living conditions, low wages, and a 16-hours workday – they were fired.\n\nBy mid-summer, hundreds of thousands of workers were on strike. A federal court-issued injunction and the military were needed to suppress the workers. President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a national holiday during the strike.\n\n7. Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902\n\n• Duration: May 12, 1902 to Oct. 23, 1902\n\n• No. of strikers: 147,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 15,141,000\n\nThe Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 pitted coal miners in Pennsylvania who wanted higher pay and shorter work hours against coal mine companies that claimed their operations were not that profitable. The strike led to the formation of a commission that arbitrated an agreement that included pay increases and reduced work hours. It marked the first time the federal government intervened as a neutral party and not on the side of employers. The job action also boosted the labor movement.\n\n6. American Association of Advertising Agencies Strike\n\n• Duration: May 1, 2000 to Oct. 30, 2000\n\n• No. of strikers: 135,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 17,280,000\n\nActors belonging to the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists ended their strike in October of 2000. The union defeated an attempt by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers to discontinue residuals paid to actors for television commercials.\n\n5. United Auto Workers Strike of 1945\n\n• Duration: Nov. 21, 1945 to March 13, 1946\n\n• No. of strikers: 225,500\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 17,363,500\n\nAfter abiding by a no-strike vow during WWII and deferring wage increase demands, organized labor asked for higher pay once the war ended, and the automobile sector was no exception. The United Auto Workers requested a 30% wage hike in November of 1945. GM countered with a 10% increase. Negotiations reached an impasse, and the laborer began work stoppage. The job action ended when GM said it would give workers a 17.5% pay hike, paid vacation, and overtime pay.\n\n4. The Railroad Shop Workers Strike\n\n• Duration: July 1, 1922 to Sept. 1, 1922\n\n• No. of strikers: 400,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 18,000,000\n\nIn response to a 12% wage cut, about 400,000 railroad workers went on strike on July 1, 1922. While nearly the largest strike in U.S. history, the workers were ruthlessly broken by various violent measures, including the hiring of 16,000 gunmen, National Guard deployment, and targeted hits by private detectives.\n\nThe unrest demonstrated in the Railroad Shop Strike led to the passage of the Railway Labor Act, which provided the right for workers to organize and join unions.\n\n3. The Steel Strike of 1919\n\n• Duration: Sept. 22, 1919 to Jan. 8, 1920\n\n• No. of strikers: 350,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 26,600,000\n\nDisagreements between labor and management in the steel industry had been mediated by the War Labor Board during World War I. After the war ended, however, workers claimed companies refused to recognize unions. Postwar inflation was also eroding incomes. Steel workers went on strike in September 1919, but the job action was hampered by bad organization as well as ethnic and racial tensions within the steel union. Also, management exploited the public's fears of Bolshevism. Strikers crossed picket lines, and the strike ended unsuccessfully for the unionized steel workers.\n\n2. The Steel Strike of 1959\n\n• Duration: July 15, 1959 to Nov. 1, 1959\n\n• No. of strikers: 500,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 38,000,000\n\nIn mid-July 1959, around 500,000 steel workers walked off the job in defiance of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's pleas to continue bargaining. The strikers' goal was to amend a clause in their union contract to give management more control over the number of workers assigned to a task, as well as the power to introduce new work rules or machinery that would affect how many employees or hours were needed.\n\nThe union ended up victorious, although the strike is considered to have led to increases in foreign steel imports – a trade pattern that would ultimately hurt American steel workers.\n\n1. United Mine Workers of America Strike of 1946\n\n• Duration: April 1, 1946 to Dec. 7, 1946\n\n• No. of strikers: 400,000\n\n• Cumulative days off the job: 70,400,000\n\nThe United Mine Workers of America, under the leadership of legendary union boss John L. Lewis, went on strike in April 1946, seeking a health plan for workers and retirees. As the strike dragged on, President Harry Truman stepped in and placed the mines under the control of the federal government. Eventually, the government forged an agreement with the union that returned control of the mines to companies and provided for raises in pay and improvements in mine safety, as well as establishing a framework for creating a retirement fund.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/04/08"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_19", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220624_20", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/people/957165/the-most-expensive-divorces-in-the-world", "title": "The most expensive divorces in the world | The Week UK", "text": "Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and actress Jerry Hall are reportedly divorcing after six years of marriage.\n\nPeople close to Murdoch, 91, were said to be “surprised” to hear of his split with Hall, 65. In the early years of their marriage, aides and friends of the family believed Murdoch was “happily devoting more time to his new wife” to leave room for his children to “assert themselves” at the top of his media empire, reported The New York Times.\n\nMurdoch’s News Corporation empire controls major outlets such as Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, as well as The Times and The Sun.\n\nAt the time of their marriage in 2016, the billionaire announced he would stop posting on Twitter, calling himself “the luckiest AND happiest man in the world”.\n\nNow the pair are to go their separate ways in what will be the fourth – and likely extremely costly – divorce for the media mogul. The Week looks at some of the most expensive divorces in recent history.\n\nSteve and Elaine Wynn The co-founders of US hotel and casino giant Wynn Resorts, the pair divorced, for a second time, in 2010. Elaine received 11 million shares in Wynn Resorts as part of the divorce settlement, worth an estimated $795m, according to Forbes. Steve also sold some $114m in stock that year, with “some, if not all” going to Elaine as part of their divorce deal. Elaine went on to sue Wynn Resorts in 2012 in order to sell part of her 9% stake in the company before being kicked off the board three years later “amid an ugly proxy battle”. But after her ex-husband stepped down as chairman and CEO in 2018 amid sexual harassment allegations, which he denies, he sold all his shares leaving Elaine as the company’s largest individual shareholder.\n\nBernie and Slavica Ecclestone Finalised in 2009, the split between the then Formula One commercial boss and fashion model Slavica Radić was an “amicable divorce”, if an “unusual one”. Bernie’s ex-wife was seemingly tied into paying him back some $100m a year, “reflecting the fact that many of his assets were actually held in trust in her name to avoid Britain’s steep inheritance taxes”, claimed Investopedia. Radić received an estimated £730m in the divorce settlement.\n\nRupert and Anna Murdoch After 32 years of marriage and three children together, Murdoch and his first wife Anna divorced in 1999. Anna reportedly received some $1.7bn in the divorce settlement, although this number has been disputed by some commentators. Murdoch married his second wife, Wendi Deng, just 17 days after the divorce was finalised. Their marriage ended 14 years later in 2013, with their assets split in undisclosed amounts under “one prenuptial and two postnuptial agreements”, said The New York Times.\n\nFrench-born American art dealer and racehorse owner Alec Wildenstein and his wife Jocelyn divorced in 1999. The split became tabloid fodder after Jocelyn walked in on her husband and a 19-year-old Russian model in a bedroom in the pair’s New York home – resulting in her now ex-husband threatening her with a gun, according to Vanity Fair. The high-profile divorce proceedings resulted in Jocelyn being awarded $2.3bn and $100m for each of the next 13 years, said People, for a total of $3.6bn. But despite the multibillion-dollar payout, it appears Jocelyn’s fortune had “all gone” just 19 years after the settlement, with the socialite filing for bankruptcy in 2018, reported the Daily Mail.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2022/06/24"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_21", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/06/22/polio-virus-detected-london/7698122001/", "title": "Polio is back: Virus detected in London sewage samples, health ...", "text": "British health officials are urging the public to ensure polio vaccines are up to date after the virus was discovered during routine London sewage testing.\n\nThe last case of polio in the United Kingdom was detected in 1984, making the current outbreak the first transmission in more than 40 years.\n\nThe UK Health and Security Agency on Wednesday reported the virus was detected in sewage from North and East London in February and April, suggesting there had been spread between individuals.\n\nSo far no cases have been found, the health agency announced in a statement.\n\nThe U.K. was declared polio-free in 2003, health officials wrote in the news release.\n\nOfficials also said the risk of infection from the disease, which causes paralysis in children in under 1% of cases, was also low because of high vaccination rates.\n\nBut the agency is recommending anyone who missed being vaccinated against the virus do so.\n\n\"Most of the UK population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk,\" UK Health and Security Agency Consultant Epidemiologist Vanessa Saliba said in a statement.\n\nJane Clegg, chief nurse for the National Health Service in London said most people in the city are fully protected against polio and won’t need to take further action but the National Health Service in the city will begin contacting parents of children under five who are not immunized.\n\nPolio fact check: No, the CDC didn't warn of a polio-like disease outbreak coming in 2021\n\nCOVID-19 update:FDA panel recommends Moderna COVID vaccine as second option for kids 6 and older\n\nShort for poliomyelitis, polio is a disabling and life-threatening disease spread from person to person mainly through contamination by feces, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no cure, only a vaccination.\n\nIn the early 1950s, the CDC reports, before polio vaccines were available, polio outbreaks caused more than 15,000 cases of paralysis each year.\n\nThe United States has been polio-free since 1979, the CDC reports.\n\nNatalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/uk/poliovirus-london-sewage-samples-intl-gbr/index.html", "title": "Poliovirus identified in London sewage, says UK health agency - CNN", "text": "London (CNN) UK health officials are urging people who may not be up to date on their polio shots to get vaccinated after poliovirus was found during routine surveillance of London sewage samples.\n\nInvestigations are underway after several closely related viruses were found in sewage samples from the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works taken between February and May, said the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in a statement on Wednesday.\n\n\"It is normal for 1 to 3 'vaccine-like' polioviruses to be detected each year in UK sewage samples but these have always been one-off findings that were not detected again,\" the UKHSA said.\n\n\"These previous detections occurred when an individual vaccinated overseas with the live oral polio vaccine returned or travelled to the UK and briefly 'shed' traces of the vaccine-like poliovirus in their faeces,\" it added.\n\nThe recent samples raised alarm as the virus \"continued to evolve and is now classified as a 'vaccine-derived' poliovirus type 2 (VDPV 2), which on rare occasions can cause serious illness, such as paralysis in people who are not fully vaccinated,\" the UKHSA said.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Zahid Mahmood"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/science-health/957157/polio-alert-why-a-national-incident-has-been-declared", "title": "Polio alert: why a national incident has been declared | The Week UK", "text": "A national incident has been declared as polio is spreading in the UK for the first time in nearly 40 years.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said that waste from sewage treatment works in Beckton, east London tested positive for the polio virus in February, with further positive samples detected since.\n\nAnalysis of UK sewage normally shows up a few polioviruses each year, but the London samples detected since February “raised the alarm” because they are “related to one another and contained mutations that suggested the virus was evolving as it spreads from person to person”, reported The Guardian.\n\nThe outbreak is believed to have been triggered by someone returning to the UK after having been vaccinated with a live virus abroad, which then mutated into a type of polio “more like wild polio”, said The Telegraph.\n\nBritain was declared polio-free in 2003, and the “last wild case” of polio was detected in 1984, so this new outbreak is the “first new transmission event since the 1980s”, added the paper.\n\nWhat is the risk to the public?\n\nOfficials believe that the spread is probably between “two closely linked individuals”, most likely “extended family members” who are now shedding the polio virus strain in their faeces, reported Sky News.\n\nUrgent investigations will now try to establish the extent of any community transmission and identify where it might be happening.\n\nHowever, health experts at the UKHSA have said that this type of vaccine-derived poliovirus is “rare” and the overall risk to the public is “extremely low”.\n\nSo far the virus has only been detected in sewage samples and no cases of the disease or related symptoms, such as paralysis, have been reported. Public health officials are urging people to make sure they and their families are up to date with their polio vaccinations to reduce the risk of harm.\n\n“Vaccine-derived poliovirus has the potential to spread, particularly in communities where vaccine uptake is lower,” Dr Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, told the broadcaster.\n\n“On rare occasions it can cause paralysis in people who are not fully vaccinated so if you or your child are not up to date with your polio vaccinations it’s important you contact your GP to catch up or, if unsure, check your red book.”", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/07/fact-check-coronavirus-found-march-2019-wastewater-sample/5350878002/", "title": "Fact check: Coronavirus found in March 2019 wastewater sample", "text": "The claim: Traces of coronavirus were found in samples of wastewater collected before pandemic\n\nAs scientists rush to understand and fight against the novel coronavirus, a new claim suggests it may have been around a year before the pandemic started.\n\n\"This week, researchers at the University of Barcelona have published new findings that suggest the virus that causes COVID-19 has been found in sewage samples from March of 2019,\" a June 28 Facebook post states.\n\nThe original article published by Truth Theory, a UK-based website, emphasized the likelihood of this finding by suggesting \"people who caught the illness could have been misdiagnosed with the flu\" as a bad flu season was a legitimate health concern prior to the pandemic.\n\nUSA TODAY is awaiting comment from the author of the original article.\n\nMore:Fact check: Doctors study whether COVID-19 could trigger diabetes\n\nCoronavirus likely in wastewater\n\nThe University of Barcelona, as cited by the Truth Theory article, did indeed find evidence of the novel coronavirus in wastewater. The study, which comes after many others using wastewater to monitor potential coronavirus outbreaks, tested samples collected months to a year before March 2020. The first positive sample was obtained on Jan. 15, 2020, 41 days before the first official case was declared in Spain on Feb. 25. Other archival samples collected up to March 2019 returned negative; a March 12, 2019, sample returned positive for the novel coronavirus.\n\n“The levels of SARS-CoV-2 were low but were positive,” research leader Albert Bosch was quoted as saying by the university.\n\nThe scientific caveats\n\nSpain is not alone in this newest finding: studies out of Italy and Brazil have also suggested coronavirus may have been circulating earlier than thought. But there is reason to be cautious.\n\nFact check:Could your December cough actually have been coronavirus? Experts say more research is needed\n\nWhile a positive result could entail a true positive – that novel coronavirus was actually detected – it could also mean contamination of the test sample (which can happen in labs regularly handling positive specimens) or a false positive.\n\n\"When it’s just one result, you always want more data, more studies, more samples to confirm it and rule out a laboratory error or a methodological problem,\" said Dr. Joan Ramon Villalbi of the Spanish Society for Public Health and Sanitary Administration in an interview with Reuters.\n\nIt is also important to note that this finding runs contrary to epidemiological data.\n\n\"The authors don’t cite reports of a spike in the number of respiratory disease cases in the local population following the date of the sampling,\" Dr. Clare Crossan, a lecturer in virology at Glasgow Caledonian University, writes in an article for The Conversation.\n\n\"Also, we know SARS-CoV-2 to be highly transmissible, at least in its current form. If this result is a true positive, it suggests the virus was present in the population at a high enough incidence to be detected in an 800ml sample of sewage, but then not present at a high enough incidence to be detected for nine months, when no control measures were in place,\" Crossan further adds.\n\nThe University of Barcelona study, as well as those out of Italy and Brazil, is in preprint and awaiting peer review.\n\nOur ruling: More information needed\n\nThe claim that novel coronavirus was discovered in wastewater samples predating the pandemic needs more information before it can be fully rated, based on our research. It is true that a sample yielded a positive result in testing for coronavirus. However, a positive finding can result from a variety of scenarios, including contamination from a positive sample or a false positive. Additionally, these findings have not yet been peer-reviewed and no definitive conclusion should be made until more studies are done.\n\nOur fact-check sources:\n\nThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.\n\nOur fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/12/health/cases-rise-ba-2/index.html", "title": "Covid-19 cases trend up again in the US, driven by the growth of BA ...", "text": "(CNN) Covid-19 case numbers have begun to edge up in the United States, and nearly all of them are caused by the Omicron subvariant BA.2.\n\nAccording to the latest estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BA.2 caused 86% of new Covid-19 cases nationwide last week.\n\nIn some ways, this feels like a familiar place. Cases are going up again. At least one major city is reinstating its mask mandate. Broadway shows have canceled some performances.\n\nBut there continue to be reasons for optimism.\n\nDespite BA.2's near-complete takeover from two other circulating Omicron subvariants, BA.1 and BA 1.1, US hospitalizations are at record low levels, and they continue to drop. Deaths also continue to fall.\n\nEven though those numbers tend to lag behind case counts, the US hasn't seen a steep increase in infections. Whether that's likely to happen is still an open question.\n\nEven Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, doesn't know what BA.2 will do. As a nation, transmission has to get down to a level that's \"low enough that it doesn't disrupt our population or the economy, our daily economic, workplace and social lives, which means it has to be low enough that it isn't a serious threat to the health of the nation,\" he says. He doesn't know if we're out of the woods.\n\n\"We are certainly seeing the beginning of a surge of new infections,\" Fauci said. \"It depends on how high we go up in the surge, and it depends on whether the surge is associated with an increase in severe disease.\n\n\"I can't say where we are right now, because we're transitioning,\" he said.\n\nCases rising regionally\n\nAcross the nation, Covid-19 cases have ticked up 24% from where they were two weeks ago, and the US is now averaging about 38,000 cases a day. This is a jump from last week, probably because Florida recently reported a two-week backlog. Even so, it's one of the lowest daily rates since July.\n\nState by state, however, the picture is more mixed. Cases are rising in 25 states, falling in 16 and holding steady in nine others.\n\nCases are rising fastest in the Northeast, the region of the US that has the most BA.2 transmission.\n\nOn Monday, Philadelphia became the first major US city to announce a return to indoor mask requirements . Cases have climbed 50% there over the past 10 days, pushing the city over the threshold that triggers the mask mandates.\n\n\"I suspect that this wave will be smaller than the one we saw in January,\" Dr. Cheryl Bettigole, Philadelphia's public health commissioner, said Monday.\n\n\"But if we wait to find out and to put our masks back on, we'll have lost our chance to stop the wave.\"\n\nSeveral universities, including Johns Hopkins, American, George Washington and Georgetown, have also reinstated indoor masking.\n\nNew York City had been reconsidering its mask requirements for preschoolers, but with cases rising in the city, Mayor Eric Adams recently said masks would be continue to be required for the youngest children, who had higher rates of hospitalizations during Omicron than in previous waves.\n\nBeyond case counts, which may be a less reliable pandemic metric because testing numbers have dropped, coronavirus levels in wastewater are telling a largely reassuring story.\n\nWastewater monitoring is considered a reliable warning of what's on the way. US numbers are trending up slightly but are still at one of the lowest levels seen since July, according to Biobot Analytics, a company that analyzes wastewater samples from across the country.\n\nDifferent countries, different stories\n\nThe situation with BA.2 here appears to be a departure from the one seen in the UK and Europe.\n\nAccording to the variant-tracking website Covariants.org, the Netherlands was near the peak of its BA.2 wave when the subvariant reached 83% of infections there in the second week of March. Switzerland was also close to its BA.2 peak when the subvariant reached 80% of infections in mid-March. After falling for weeks, cases in the UK had doubled from a low point on February 25 and would soon reach the height of the BA.2 wave when the subvariant was causing 88% of cases there between March 7 and March 21.\n\nThe BA.2 experience in the US looks a lot more like what happened in South Africa. In the second and third weeks of February, when BA.2 was responsible for about 88% of transmission there, cases made a slight bump up but then continued to fall over the month of March.\n\n\"I've been cautiously optimistic about BA.2 because of the trends that it's not been as exponential a rise in cases, like we saw when Omicron first emerged,\" said Pavitra Roychoudhury, who studies the spread of infectious diseases at the University of Washington's School of Medicine.\n\nShe said the tidal wave of Omicron that hit the US over the winter has left a lot of immunity in its wake. We're also more vaccinated and boosted as a country than we've ever been -- though health officials say we could do a lot better on boosters.\n\nSome are heeding that warning. The pace of vaccination has roughly doubled over the past two weeks as more people seek out second boosters.\n\nAn average of about 502,000 vaccine doses have been administered each day over the past week, according to CDC data. That's up from about 219,000 doses a day on March 29, when the CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration authorized a second booster shot for people 50 and older, though the CDC isn't specifically counting second boosters.\n\n\"That might be explaining our somewhat more optimistic outlook compared to places like the UK, where there was a significant surge and it was associated with BA.2,\" Roychoudhury said.\n\nBA.2 in the UK\n\nOverall during the pandemic, health officials have pointed to the UK as a harbinger of things to come in the US, but that kind of extrapolation may be getting harder to do as the populations develop different types and degrees of immunity.\n\nAfter a wave of cases caused by Omicron's BA.1 subvariant that peaked in January and then fell, the UK saw a second increase in cases and hospitalizations with BA.2. That wave peaked in late March, and since then, cases have been on a steep decline.\n\nAdam Kucharski, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who tracks infectious disease outbreaks, believes that the BA.2 wave in the UK was at least partly due to the timing of its booster campaign.\n\nThe UK began offering booster shots, or third vaccine doses, in mid-September, just a few days before the US did. But more people got them: In the UK, 68% of people over the age of 12 who are eligible for a booster dose have gotten one; in the US, that number is just 45%, according to the CDC.\n\nMany people in the UK who got a booster in September or October still had high antibody protection when Omicron arrived.\n\nAntibodies are the first line of defense in an infection. They act quickly to contain the spread of a virus through the body. Antibodies are highest in the first few months after vaccination and decline over time. But even after they've dropped off, the body retains its immune memory to vaccines and can gear up quickly to make more if it's infected.\n\nOmicron was identified in late November, when many in the UK were still within the window of highest protection from their booster doses.\n\n\"I think we were fortunate that the boosters, in the short term at least, provided quite a lot of protection,\" Kucharski said.\n\nPeople who'd had recent boosters had such good immunity that if even if they got infected with BA.1, they might not have known it because their symptoms were so mild. It was likely that they weren't contributing to transmission, Kucharski thinks, so boosters did a good job of holding down Omicron's rampant spread through the UK over the winter.\n\nFast-forward three months, however, and many people who'd gotten boosters as recommended were six months past their shots. Studies show that antibody levels decline four or five months after the third dose, so their protection against infection was probably much lower just as BA.2 arrived on the scene.\n\nAnd now, Kucharski says, with BA.2, even the boosted group began getting \"mild, mild symptoms or enough to detect that and test positive\" and be counted as a case.\n\nAs immunity waned, BA.2 crept in\n\nWhether the US will see a fresh wave of cases from BA.2 will depend a lot on two things, Kucharski said: the current level of immunity in the population and our behavior.\n\nAbout half of those who are eligible for a booster dose in the US have had one, and millions more were infected by Omicron, giving an estimated nearly 95% of Americans some degree of protection against the coronavirus, according to the CDC.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nBut for those who have lost their immunity over time because protection from their original two-dose vaccinations have waned or because they were infected a year or more ago with an older variant, the virus might find a way to spread.\n\n\"I think if BA.2 can find susceptibility, that will translate into growth in cases,\" Kucharski said.\n\nBut he stresses that a lot will depend on what Americans do right now.\n\n\"I think the question is what happens in the meantime, if actually booster campaigns and other things line up, then that might offset [the subvariant]. But I think based on what we're seeing a lot of countries in Europe, if there's susceptibility, either because people haven't had a booster or they had it a while ago, then that can translate into growing epidemic,\" he said.", "authors": ["Brenda Goodman"], "publish_date": "2022/04/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/01/20/covid-cases-vaccines-mandates-biden/6586520001/", "title": "COVID vaccine won't prevent getting pregnant, but catching the virus ...", "text": "Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 won't affect a couple's chances of getting pregnant, but contracting the coronavirus could impair male fertility.\n\nThose are the main conclusions of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, refuting a common myth about the vaccine and sending a warning to men who avoid it.\n\nResearchers at Boston University studied more than 2,000 couples and found no differences in their chances of conception if either partner was vaccinated compared to unvaccinated couples. But the couples' chances of conceiving decreased slightly if the male partner had contracted the virus 60 days or less before the other partner's menstrual cycle, an indication of diminished male fertility.\n\nOne possible reason for that, researchers theorized, is the likelihood coronavirus infection would cause a fever, which has been known to reduce sperm count.\n\nAmong the males in the study who tested positive more than 60 days before the cycle, conception rates were the same as males who had not been infected. But couples in which the male was infected within that 60-day window were 18% less likely to conceive in that cycle.\n\n“The findings provide reassurance that vaccination for couples seeking pregnancy does not appear to impair fertility,” said Diana Bianchi, M.D., director of NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which funded the study. “They also provide information for physicians who counsel patients hoping to conceive.”\n\nMisinformation about the impact of COVID vaccines on pregnancy and fertility has been so prevalent that some doctors have proactively dispelled the myth with their patients of reproductive age.\n\nIn September 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urgently exhorted those who were pregnant or planning to conceive to get vaccinated , after the pandemic's highest number of COVID deaths among pregnant people was recorded the month before.\n\n\"In addition to the risks of severe illness and death for pregnant and recently pregnant people,'' the CDC wrote, \"there is an increased risk for adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, including preterm birth and admission of their neonate(s) to an intensive care unit.''\n\nAlso in the news:\n\n►U.S. Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Raul Grijalva of Arizona said Thursday they have tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time. Massie, a Republican opposed to mask and vaccine mandates, said he's not vaccinated. Grijalva, a Democrat, said he's vaccinated and boosted. Both reported mild symptoms.\n\n►Czech folk singer Hana Horká, 57, has died just days after announcing on Facebook that she deliberately contracted COVID to avoid vaccination and was recovering from the disease.\n\n►All New Jersey health care workers will need to be fully vaccinated and receive booster shots or face termination under an order signed by Gov. Phil Murphy.\n\n►New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said National Guard members and state employees will volunteer as substitute teachers and child care workers to help fill staffing voids created by the pandemic.\n\n►The U.N.-backed organization Medicines Patent Pool announced Thursday that it has signed agreements with more than two dozen generic drug makers to produce versions of Merck’s COVID-19 pill to supply 105 developing countries..\n\n📈Today's numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 69 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 859,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 339 million cases and over 5.57 million deaths. More than 209 million Americans – 63% – are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\n📘What we're reading: Now that the U.S. government has launched its free coronavirus test delivery website, how useful will these COVID-19 tests be for travelers who need a negative test to fly to their destination? Read more.\n\nKeep refreshing this page for the latest news. Want more? Sign up for USA TODAY's free Coronavirus Watch newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox and join our Facebook group.\n\nLondon-bound flight returns to Miami when passenger refuses to wear mask\n\nA passenger's refusal to wear a face mask onboard, which is required by federal law, forced an American Airlines flight bound for London to return to Miami this week.\n\nThe flight took off at approximately 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday and landed back at Miami International Airport approximately 90 minutes later, according to flight trackers. AA spokesperson Curtis Blessing confirmed to USA TODAY that the flight returned to Miami “due to a disruptive customer refusing to comply with the federal mask requirement.”\n\nBlessing also confirmed that local law enforcement met the aircraft after it returned to the airport. A Miami-Dade Police Department spokesperson told USA TODAY a woman in her 40s was escorted off the plane for refusing to wear a mask. Police have not arrested the woman, and the department spokesperson said American Airlines will handle incident administratively.\n\n-- Marina Pitofsky\n\nAustria to require all adults to be vaccinated – a first in Europe\n\nAustria is about to become the first European country to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all adults.\n\nThe Austrian parliament voted Thursday to implement the mandate for residents 18 and older starting Feb. 1. Fines could rise up to 3,600 euros ($4,000) for repeat violators. Some exemptions for medical reasons and previous infections would be allowed.\n\n“This is how we can manage to escape the cycle of opening and closing, of lockdowns,” Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein said. “That is why this law is so urgently needed right now.”\n\nAbout 72% of Austria's population of 8.9 million is fully vaccinated.\n\nIndiana considers approving ivermectin for COVID-19 despite FDA warnings\n\nAn Indiana lawmaker wants to block the state's health care providers from discouraging use of the anti-parasite medicine ivermectin to treat COVID-19, a controversial treatment that has been rejected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.\n\nThe legislation authored by Republican Rep. Curt Nisly would allow an Indiana doctor or advanced practice registered nurse to write a standing order for ivermectin – and ban pharmacists from discouraging using of the drug to treat coronavirus.\n\nThe FDA says ivermectin should never be used to treat or prevent COVID-19, and that incorrect use has required some patients to seek medical treatment. \"Currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19,\" the FDA says on its website.\n\nDr. Elizabeth Struble, president of the Indiana State Medical Association, said in an emailed statement that she found the proposed legislation concerning.\n\n“A health care provider prescribing an unproven therapy can be dangerous for the health of Hoosiers,” Struble said. \"What’s even more dangerous is legislating the creation of a very broad, standing-order mechanism so pharmacists can freely dispense an unproven therapy.”\n\n– Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star\n\nIs there COVID in the air? This device can tell us\n\nIt's not available for everyone yet, but Yale University researchers have developed an easy-to-use, clip-on device that can detect low levels of the coronavirus in the air around people, according to research published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters. Experts in Yale's School of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Public Health designed the Fresh Air Clip, a 3D-printed air sampler measuring about 1 inch in diameter that collects samples of air on a film inside the badge-shaped device. Read more here.\n\nResearchers are using the Fresh Air Clips in additional studies at health care facilities in Connecticut and hope to make them available to the public in the future.\n\n– Mike Snider\n\nHundreds of docs press FDA to approve vaccine for kids under 5\n\nAbout 250 physicians sent a letter Thursday to the FDA demanding children under 5 get “urgent access” to COVID-19 vaccines . The letter argues the science supports immediate vaccine access and “procedural red tape” is preventing that. Pfizer announced early tests showed the 3-microgram doses given to 2- to 5-year-olds didn’t produce as much immune protection as did shots given to other age groups. The company hopes an additional dose of vaccine will provide the desired effectiveness, but that means waiting several more weeks for results.\n\nBased on previous actions by the FDA, the COVID vaccine may be available for children 2 to 4 around May, said Dr. Robert Frenck, director of the Vaccine Research Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Children 6 to 24 months may have to wait until late summer or fall, he said.\n\nOn Wednesday, presidential medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said he hopes the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine for kids under 5 will be authorized \"within the next month or so.''\n\n– Adrianna Rodriguez\n\nTwo years later, concerns over pandemic grow\n\nAmericans' pandemic fears rose with the infection rate in January, prompting most Americans to avoid large crowds even as masking and vaccine rates remain mostly stagnant, a new survey indicates. A Gallup poll of 1,569 U.S. adults, conducted online Jan. 3-14, found a steep rise in the percentage of Americans who said the pandemic is \"getting worse,\" as compared to fall 2021 data. Americans' optimism had increased when vaccines started rolling out, but now over half of respondents said they think the pandemic is getting worse.\n\n\"Worry has jumped ... and is now the highest it has been since last winter, before COVID-19 vaccines were readily available to the general public,\" a summary of poll results says.\n\n– Claire Thornton, USA TODAY\n\nOmicron spike may be near peak in California\n\nCalifornia, where an omicron-driven spike in COVID-19 cases occurred later than in cities such as Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C., may reach peak case numbers and see case rates begin to fall this week, according to a forecast from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The model predicted a peak in cases from the state for Jan. 19, with an estimation of almost 130,000 cases a day.\n\nEarlier this week, USA TODAY talked to Marlene Wolfe, an assistant professor of environmental health at Emory University in Atlanta and part of the Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network, a team of scientists that evaluates sewage treatment plants to gain information about COVID-19 rates in California communities. Wolfe said then that testing in about a dozen California cities, the largest of which are Sacramento and San Jose, shows a few cities with possible downward trends but nothing concrete.\n\nOther cities are on the rise, and it will take more time or data to determine where peaks have occurred, Wolfe said.\n\nTesting firm fraudulently reported negative test results, complaint says\n\nThe Minnesota Attorney General's Office filed a consumer-protection lawsuit Wednesday against a nationwide chain of coronavirus testing sites for \"deceptive and fraudulent practices.\" The suit alleges the Illinois-based Center for COVID Control and its primary lab, Doctors Clinical Lab, collected samples from Minnesotans for coronavirus testing but either failed to deliver results or delivered false or inaccurate results, according to the complaint reviewed by USA TODAY.\n\nThe company and its lab \"provide inaccurate and deceptive test result information to Minnesota consumers and have fraudulently reported negative test results to consumers that never completed COVID-19 tests,\" according to the complaint. Some test results listed \"the wrong test type and false dates and times for when samples were collected from consumers,\" the complaint said.\n\nThe company, which is under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General's Office and the Oregon Department of Justice, is operated by Illinois residents Akbar Syed and Aleya Siyaj, the complaint says. In recent months, the couple has purchased a number of luxury vehicles and a $1.36 million mansion.\n\n– Grace Hauck, USA TODAY\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/04/asia/hong-kong-covid-omicron-quarantine-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Hong Kong Covid-19: This is what happens when you test positive ...", "text": "Hong Kong (CNN) Darryl Chan tested positive for Covid-19 when he landed in Hong Kong last month. More than two weeks later -- and despite never showing any symptoms -- he remains isolated in a hospital bed with no sign of being allowed to leave.\n\n\"I think the worst part is not knowing when I'll be able to get out,\" he said. \"You're almost feeling you are back at school, with controlled wake-up and bedtime, (and) not being able to control what you can eat.\"\n\nAnalysis: What Hannity's unveiled texts reveal about him and how Trump viewed his advice\n\nHong Kong, along with mainland China, is one of the few places in the world still pursuing a zero-Covid policy . The city's priority is reopening borders with the mainland, not the rest of the world, Hong Kong authorities have said.\n\nThat means most non-residents are banned from entering, while almost all overseas arrivals must undergo 21 days of quarantine -- even if they are fully vaccinated.\n\nHong Kong deems travelers from the United Kingdom as a high-risk for the Omicron variant , subject to its most stringent quarantine and testing measures -- which include spending the first four days at a government camp.\n\nOn December 19, Chan flew to Hong Kong from London to start a new job.\n\nChan said he was fully vaccinated with a booster shot and had tested negative for Covid-19 several times before his flight. He was mentally prepared for quarantine, but not for what happened next, he said.\n\nOn arrival in Hong Kong, Chan took a mandatory Covid-19 test and waited hours at the airport. His result was determined \"preliminary positive,\" meaning he was required to take another test. He was then moved to a cordoned-off area with a makeshift bed.\n\n\"It was definitely a bit of a shell shock,\" Chan said. \"Having done so many tests in the week leading up to my flight, and all of them came back negative ... I didn't ever think that I'll actually test positive on arrival.\"\n\nSome 13 hours after his plane landed, Chan was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital for further testing. He was later confirmed to have the Omicron variant, though he remained asymptomatic.\n\n\"(I had) that feeling of dread, where you sort of go, 'Oh, God, what's going to happen now?'\" he said. \"I definitely felt quite trapped ... you can't just say, 'I'm going to get back on a flight and go somewhere else.' You really are just trapped there, so that was quite a scary feeling.\"\n\nIt's not just travelers who face indefinite hospitalization when they test positive for Covid-19 in Hong Kong.\n\nIn recent days, Hong Kong has identified a number of Omicron cases in a cluster linked to aircrew -- breaking a nearly three-month streak of no locally transmitted Covid infections. Those confirmed infected have also been sent to the hospital.\n\nMeanwhile, hundreds of people including more than 20 restaurant staff deemed close contacts of the positive cases have been sent to the government camp for 21 days of isolation and extensive testing. Any positive results would mean a transfer to hospital.\n\nAnyone who attended the same premises as the positive cases at roughly the same time in recent days has also been ordered to take a test, while several residential buildings linked to the cluster have been temporarily locked down for mass testing.\n\nAs fears of local Omicron transmission grow, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday that resumption of normal travel between the city and mainland China will \"have to wait for another while.\"\n\nJust before the cluster emerged, Lam reaffirmed Hong Kong's zero-Covid stance.\n\n\"Hong Kong has been taking very stringent measures to guard against importation of cases with a view to maintaining zero local infection,\" she said in a December 28 statement. \"In the face of the fierce onslaught of Omicron, we need to be even more vigilant.\"\n\nA staff member walks through the deserted arrivals hall at Hong Kong airport on November 29, 2021.\n\nStuck in the hospital\n\nAccording to Hong Kong authorities, the minimum isolation period for anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 -- even if they are asymptomatic -- is nearly a month. They must stay in the hospital for at least 10 days and are not allowed to leave until they test negative twice in succession -- however long it takes.\n\nBut even testing negative twice doesn't mean you can go home. After that, those under confinement orders are transferred to an isolation facility for a further 14 days.\n\nUpon arriving at the hospital, Chan was placed in an isolation ward with two other travelers who tested positive, also with Omicron. He is confined to his room for 24 hours a day with no fresh air or outdoor exercise.\n\nHis day follows a routine set by the hospital. At 8 a.m., he is woken by a jingle on the public address system and an announcement reminding him to take his own vitals.\n\nA Hong Kong hospital meal for those confined after testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nHe receives meals provided by the hospital at fixed times. In the meantime, he spends his day connecting with family and friends on social media, and watching Netflix.\n\n\"I'd say probably early or mid-afternoon were the hardest time of the day,\" he said. \"In the morning, you check your emails or social media. But by the time lunch rocks around, that's when you go, 'I don't really know what I'm going to do.'\"\n\nWhile he said his doctors have been professional, they are unable to tell him when he can be discharged. \"It's all dependent on when I stop testing positive, and then they start the final countdown from that point,\" he said.\n\nDarryl Chan has no idea when he will be allowed to leave the hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 in Hong Kong.\n\nMental toll of isolation\n\nSince the start of the pandemic, Hong Kong has confirmed more than 12,600 cases and 213 deaths, according to government figures -- far fewer than many cities of comparative size elsewhere in the world.\n\nthe city has struggled with But while its zero-Covid approach has shielded residents from rising hospitalizations,the city has struggled with vaccine hesitancy -- despite free shots being available to residents over age 3. To date, fewer than 70% of Hong Kong's 7.5 million population has taken two full doses.\n\nUptake has been particularly low among the elderly, a group considered most at risk of hospitalization and death from Covid-19.\n\nInstead, Hong Kong has relied on limiting group gatherings, mandatory masks in public, tracking, tracing, testing and confining close contacts and suspected cases -- plus its tough border and quarantine measures.\n\nIn a statement on December 29, the Hong Kong government reiterated its stringent measures are here to stay -- including its own large-scale quarantine facility.\n\n\"Recently, the global epidemic situation has worsened considerably due to the Omicron variant,\" the statement said. \"The Government has to stay vigilant to prevent a fifth wave epidemic or outbreak in the community. After reviewing the situation holistically and prudently, the Government deems it necessary to reserve all rooms at the PBQC [Penny's Bay Quarantine Centre] for meeting the quarantine purpose.\"\n\nDespite the city's success in keeping Covid-19 at bay, experts say long quarantine periods often come at a cost to the mental health of those confined.\n\n\"In general, there is increased sense of isolation, anxiety, and in some severe cases, even post-traumatic stress,\" said Dr. Elisabeth Wong, a psychiatrist and clinical adviser to Hong Kong-based mental health charity, Mind HK.\n\nHowever, there are tips to maintain good mental health, she added.\n\n\"There are some tricks you can do, like making sure you schedule your day quite clearly,\" Wong said. \"So you have rest times and work times ... and, as much as you can, incorporate some kind of exercise within the day.\"\n\nPeople wearing face masks cross a street in the densely populated Mong Kok district of Hong Kong on December 22, 2021.\n\nRather than seeing quarantine as a punishment, she said, people going through the experience may also view it as an act of altruism. \"You're doing something good for the society,\" she added.\n\nBut as his indefinite isolation period grows longer, Chan said he is worried about his mental health.\n\n\"I'm trying to rationalize it, I think just going through the processes knowing that there are certain things you can and can't change ... the only thing that I can change is how I approach it and what I do with my time,\" he said.\n\n\"The best part of it, I guess, is being able to see things in a different perspective,\" he added. \"(I am) trying to turn it into something useful, something interesting to hopefully one day look back on and remember that time when I sat in a hospital room for X number of days.\"", "authors": ["Eric Cheung", "Will Ripley"], "publish_date": "2022/01/04"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/china/956703/can-china-safely-escape-zero-covid-strategy", "title": "The outlook for China's zero-Covid strategy | The Week UK", "text": "We will use the details you have shared to manage your registration. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your registration as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWould you like to receive The WeekDay newsletter ?\n\nThe WeekDay newsletter provides you with a daily digest of news and analysis.\n\nWe will use the details you have shared to manage your newsletter subscription. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your subscription as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWe will use the information you have shared for carefully considered and specific purposes, where we believe we have a legitimate case to do so, for example to send you communications about similar products and services we offer. You can find out more about our legitimate interest activity in our Privacy Policy.\n\nIf you wish to object to the use of your data in this way, please tick here.\n\n'We' includes The Week and other Future Publishing Limited brands as detailed here.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2022/05/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2020/04/01/coronavirus-arizona-updates-map-updates-new-cases/5100603002/", "title": "Coronavirus in Arizona: Updates, tips, new cases", "text": "Arizona Republic\n\nThe spread of a highly contagious coronavirus has had wide-ranging global impacts, including in the financial markets and government travel policies.\n\nAs of April 30, the COVID-19 outbreak had infected more than 3.2 million people and killed more than 228,000 people globally, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.\n\nAs a public service, The Arizona Republic is offering coverage of coronavirus health and safety free of charge on azcentral.com. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions: Ask us a new question here.\n\nLATEST NEWS: Latest case counts, closures, advisories for May\n\nDIG DEEPER: Find more graphics on COVID-19 testing in Arizona\n\nArizona coronavirus update: 7,648 confirmed cases, 320 known deaths as of Thursday\n\nApril 30: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 7,600, with 320 known deaths, according to numbers released on Thursday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 7,648, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 446 confirmed cases, or 6.2%, since Wednesday when the state reported 7,202 identified cases and 304 deaths. Sixteen new deaths were reported since Wednesday.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 3,900, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least two cases.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested. The state announced on April 23 that anyone who thinks they could be infected can now get tested.\n\nSupermarkets grapple with possible meat shortages during coronavirus\n\nApril 30: Roughly two months after coronavirus fears began to surface, altering many consumer purchasing patterns, toilet paper remains in scarce supply on the shelves of grocery stores around the Phoenix metro area.\n\nCould beef, pork and poultry items face similar shortages in the weeks and months ahead?\n\nThat prospect is looming larger amid reports of coronavirus outbreaks at meat-packing factories around the nation that have made some workers too sick to work — and prompting some giant processors like Tyson Foods to halt production at certain plants. Grocery-industry representatives aren't sounding the alarms, but anxiety has risen.\n\n“I have not heard of hoarding at this point, but I do know supplies at the grocer have been thinner than normal during this entire crisis just due to disruption in the supply chain and now wellness issues in packing plants of other states,” said Stef Smallhouse, president of the Arizona Farm Bureau.\n\nArizona coronavirus update: 7,202 confirmed cases, 304 known deaths as of Wednesday\n\nApril 29: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 7,200, with 304 known deaths, according to new numbers released on Wednesday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 7,202, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 254 confirmed cases, or 3.7%, since Tuesday when the state reported 6,948 identified cases and 293 deaths. Eleven new deaths were reported since Tuesday.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 3,700, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least two cases.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested. The state announced Thursday that anyone who thinks they could be infected can now get tested.\n\nCOVID-19 caused strokes in young people who had mild coronavirus symptoms, NYC doctors say\n\nApril 29: New York City doctors say the coronavirus is triggering a surge in strokes in younger patients, causing alarm among medical experts.\n\nOver a two-week period, Mount Sinai doctors reported five patients who suffered large vessel strokes in patients under the age of 50, according to letter they published in the New England Journal of Medicine.\n\nAll five patients tested positive for COVID-19 but had very mild to no symptoms.\n\n“That creates a big alarm,” said Dr. J Mocco, director of the Cerebrovascular Center at Mount Sinai and one of the letter’s authors. “Our spider sense goes up to say that there’s something not right here.”\n\nOut of the five patients, one died, one is still hospitalized, one was discharged from the hospital and two are in rehabilitation. The youngest patient was 33 and only one patient had a history of stroke.\n\n2nd inmate in Arizona prisons dies from coronavirus\n\nApril 28: A 79-year-old man with lung cancer became the second inmate in Arizona’s prisons to die from the coronavirus, the Associated Press reports.\n\nThe prisoner known as Sittingdown, who didn’t have a first name and also was known as Robert E. Proell, died Friday of COVID-19 and lung cancer, according to André Davis, investigations supervisor at Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office.\n\nSittingdown, who had been in prison for the last 35 years for sexual conduct with a minor, was housed at the prison in Florence. Sittingdown was taken to a hospital in Florence on April 18 and died there six days later, according to records.\n\nThe Florence prison has the most reported COVID-19 cases and accounts for 34 of the 49 confirmed cases in state prisons.\n\nMLB may start season in home stadiums in June, sources say\n\nApril 28: Maybe it’s a dream scenario. Then again, maybe it just might work.\n\nMajor League Baseball officials have become cautiously optimistic this week that the season will start in late June, and no later than July 2, playing at least 100 regular-season games, according to three executives with knowledge of the talks. They requested anonymity because the plan was still under consideration.\n\nAnd not only would baseball be played, but it would be played in their own major-league ballparks, albeit with no fans.\n\nMLB is considering a three-division, 10-team plan in which teams play only within their division – a concept gaining support among owners and executives. It would abolish the traditional American and National Leagues, and realign the divisions based on geography.\n\nThe plan, pending approval of medical experts and providing that COVID-19 testing is available to the public, would eliminate the need for players to be in isolation and allow them to still play at their home ballparks while severely reducing travel.\n\nThe US now has 1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus\n\nApril 28: The United States topped 1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus Tuesday – nearly a third of the world's cases – as health authorities here and around the globe try to understand the full scope of who is at risk and who has been infected.\n\nReaching seven figures – 1,002,498 to be exact – is the latest milestone for the U.S., which has topped 57,000 deaths during the pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins University dashboard. That's a number approaching the 58,220 Americans killed in the Vietnam War from 1955 to 1975.\n\nAnd despite warnings from national health leaders that the country could face a second wave of the virus in late 2020, states and cities are drafting or implementing plans to get people out of their homes and back into mainstream life.\n\nIt's all happened in about three months. That's when the country's first case was confirmed, and much of what we know about the virus is still subject to study and debate.\n\nArizona coronavirus update: 6,948 confirmed cases, 293 known deaths as of Tuesday\n\nApril 28: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 6,900, with 293 known deaths, according to new numbers released on Tuesday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 6,948, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 232 confirmed cases, or 3.5%, since Monday when the state reported 6,716 identified cases and 275 deaths. 18 new deaths were reported since Monday.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now approach 3,600, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least two cases.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested. The state announced Thursday that anyone who thinks they could be infected can now get tested.\n\nA North Carolina pug tested positive for coronavirus, possibly the first dog in the U.S.\n\nApril 28: After several members of a North Carolina family tested positive for the new coronavirus, they found out their pet pug tested positive, too, possibly the first dog in the United States to be diagnosed with the virus.\n\nBut owner Heather McLean, a hospital pediatrician and vice chair and associate professor at Duke University, hopes that it doesn’t spark too much concern over household pets contracting and spreading the virus.\n\nThe McLeans discovered Friday that their pug, Winston, tested positive for COVID-19. He didn’t display any severe symptoms before they found out, said McLean’s 17-year-old daughter, Sydney.\n\nTwo things did stand out to the family, though: “My dad heard him cough a lot,” she said. “He didn’t eat his breakfast one morning and it’s weird because he’s a pug, but who knows?”\n\nHeather and her husband, Sam, who works as a researcher and emergency physician at UNC-Chapel Hill, started developing mild symptoms in mid-March. She attributed her own symptoms — scratchy throat and mild headache among them — to allergies, but they worsened for a bit.\n\n'Can't imagine why': Donald Trump denies responsibility for disinfectant confusion after some states report increased calls\n\nApril 28: President Donald Trump said he takes no responsibility for a spike in cases of people misusing disinfectants after he wondered aloud last week about possibly injecting them as a treatment for coronavirus.\n\nWhen asked Monday about the increase of people in some states ingesting disinfectants Trump answered: \"I can't imagine why.\"\n\nWhen pressed about whether he takes any responsibility, Trump said, \"No, I don't.\"\n\nMaryland was one state that issued a warning against dangerous disinfectant use, with the Maryland Emergency Management Agency tweeting the agency had received \"several calls.\"\n\n\"This is a reminder that under no circumstances should any disinfectant product be administered into the body through injection, ingestion or any other route,\" the tweet said.\n\nThese are 6 new symptoms of the coronavirus the CDC added to its list\n\nApril 27: Chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and a loss of taste or smell.\n\nThose are the six new symptoms the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautioned could be signs of the coronavirus.\n\nThe additions come as health experts' understanding of the confounding disease evolves. The CDC previously listed fever, cough and shortness of breath as symptoms.\n\nPurdue works to reopen college for fall 2020\n\nApril 26: Nothing beats the campus experience at Purdue University, not even the coronavirus. That’s what officials at the Indiana university are hoping anyway, with President Mitch Daniels floating plans to reopen campus for in-person classes in the fall while saying the COVID-19 virus “poses close to zero lethal threat” to young people.\n\nPurdue was among the first wave of colleges to announce a shift from in-person classes in early March, leaving students, faculty and staff to adapt quickly to an online setting.\n\nNow, as some states move to reopen non-essential businesses and boost the economy, Purdue and Daniels are at the forefront of efforts to put students back on campus for the fall.\n\nFederal coronavirus strategy lurches as plans to help states change, then change again\n\nApril 25: The nation’s top federal disease agency had just started activating teams in nine states still relatively untouched by coronavirus when new orders came in last week from the White House coronavirus task force: shift resources to Tennessee and Nebraska, and double down in New Mexico and North Dakota.\n\nThen, three days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rolled out yet another plan to expand the more targeted approach to all 50 states, on an uncertain timeline.\n\nThe strategy whiplash, documented in meeting notes and internal slides obtained by USA TODAY, comes after weeks of states and public health experts sounding alarms about the need for federal guidance on testing issues and how to ramp up public health staffing to trace coronavirus exposures.\n\nThe recent course corrections are a sign of the chaos around federal plans to help states return to some semblance of normalcy, as a national shutdown required to slow the spread of a virus stretches into its second month.\n\nArizona coronavirus update: 6,280 confirmed cases, 273 known deaths as of Saturday\n\nApril 25: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 6,200, with 273 known deaths, according to new numbers released Saturday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 6,280, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 235 confirmed cases, or 3.9%, since Friday when the state reported 6,045 identified cases and 266 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 3,200, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least two cases.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested. The state announced Thursday that anyone who thinks they could be infected can now get tested.\n\nArizona coronavirus update: 6,045 confirmed cases, 266 known deaths as of Friday\n\nArizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 6,000, with 266 known deaths, according to new numbers released Friday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 6,045, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 276 confirmed cases, or 4.8%, since Thursday when the state reported 5,769 identified cases and 249 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 3,100, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least two cases.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested. The state announced Thursday that anyone who thinks they could be infected can now get tested.\n\nExperts say there's no medical basis for Trump's suggestion that sunlight, disinfectants may treat coronavirus\n\nApril 24: President Donald Trump touted a federal study Thursday that indicates sunlight, humidity and certain disinfectants can weaken the coronavirus – a finding that prompted the president to float the idea of treating patients with those measures.\n\nTrump's remarks prompted a firestorm of criticism from doctors and medical researchers, accusations from the White House that the president was quoted out of context and a statement from the maker of the popular disinfectant Lysol warning that \"under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body.\"\n\nAdding fuel to the controversy, the White House published a revised transcript of Trump's press conference that changed the reaction of Deborah Birx to the idea. Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, was initially quoted in the transcript as saying \"That is a treatment.\" The corrected transcript quoted her saying that, \"Not as a treatment.\"\n\nHouse passes $484 billion coronavirus stimulus for small businesses and hospitals\n\nApril 23: The House approved a nearly half-trillion-dollar emergency bill Thursday that provides more funds for struggling hospitals and will rescue a small business loan program that was quickly depleted by companies impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe measure, which passed 388-5 with one lawmaker voting present, will now head to President Donald Trump for his signature. The president has signaled he was ready to approve the bill.\n\nDemocratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined four Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie, Jody Hice, Ken Buck and Andy Biggs — in voting against the measure. Independent Rep. Justin Amash voted present.\n\nThe $484 billion measure offers more funds for the Paycheck Protection Program, which was halted last week after dispersing all of its initial $349 billion.\n\nSouthwest CEO: Airline will be 'drastically smaller' if business doesn't improve soon\n\nApril 23: Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, like his counterparts at other companies pummeled by the coronavirus crisis, has been fielding questions about the impact from anxious employees for nearly two months.\n\nThe questions, which Kelly answers in videos sent to its 60,000 workers, have taken a sobering turn at perennially profitable and always upbeat Southwest, underscoring the industry's uncertain future.\n\n\"Most of my co-workers are not processing the dark and dangerous reality,'' one employee said in an email, according to excerpts Kelly shared in this week's \"Ask Gary'' video.\n\n\"Our messages of strength have created a false sense of security. My co-workers talk about the losses at JetBlue and Delta yet somehow don't apply those numbers to Southwest.''\n\nKelly didn't get into financial specifics since Southwest won't report first quarter earnings and its second quarter outlook until April 28, but he did detail the industry's dire straits and the drastic steps Southwest will have to take if things don't improve soon.\n\nHe braced employees for the possibility of benefit and pay cuts and the first involuntary furloughs in the company's 50-year history but said the airline is doing everything it can to avoid that, raising billions of dollars in cash, slashing flights by more than half and parking hundreds of planes.\n\nCOVID-19 testing now allowed more broadly, state health department says\n\nApril 23: Anyone who thinks they could be infected with COVID-19 or who has been exposed to it can now get tested, the Arizona Department of Health Services said Thursday.\n\nPreviously, only people who were considered high-risk or those with certain symptoms, such as a fever or respiratory symptoms, could get a test.\n\nFor many weeks, people have reported not being able to get tested despite having symptoms and going to multiple health care providers. Testing capability was also impacted by supply chain issues like a lack of nasal swabs and test collection materials, and needed personal protective equipment for the workers who administer the tests.\n\nHouse is poised to vote on a nearly $500 billion coronavirus relief bill\n\nApril 23: A popular small-business loan program that closed last week when it ran out of money is about to get a cash infusion.\n\nThe House is likely to approve legislation Thursday that would pump $320 billion into the Paycheck Protection Program, which is designed to keep small businesses from shuttering and their workers from going on unemployment during the coronavirus pandemic. The Senate approved the bill Tuesday.\n\nOther programs would get money under the bill. The $484 billion legislation includes funding for hospitals that have been overwhelmed during the crisis and money for a coronavirus testing program.\n\nArizona coronavirus update: 5,769 confirmed cases, 249 known deaths as of Thursday\n\nApril 23: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 5,700, with 249 known deaths, according to new numbers released Thursday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 5,769, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 310 confirmed cases, or 5.7%, since Wednesday when the state reported 5,459 identified cases and 229 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now approach 3,000, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least two cases.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nElective surgeries in Arizona to resume May 1\n\nArizona coronavirus update: 5,459 confirmed cases, 229 known deaths as of Wednesday\n\nApril 22: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 5,400, with 229 known deaths, according to new numbers released Wednesday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 5,459, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 208 confirmed cases, or 3.96%, since Tuesday when the state reported 5,251 identified cases and 208 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 2,800, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least two cases.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nCoronavirus at meat packing plants worse than first thought\n\nApril 22: A rash of coronavirus outbreaks at dozens of meat packing plants across the nation is far more extensive than previously thought, according to an exclusive review of cases by USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.\n\nAnd it could get worse. More than 150 of America’s largest meat processing plants operate in counties where the rate of coronavirus infection is already among the nation’s highest, based on the media outlets’ analysis of slaughterhouse locations and county-level COVID-19 infection rates.\n\nThese facilities represent more than 1 in 3 of the nation’s biggest beef, pork and poultry processing plants. Rates of infection around these plants are higher than those of 75% of other U.S. counties, the analysis found.\n\nAnd while experts say the industry has thus far maintained sufficient production despite infections in at least 2,200 workers at 48 plants, there are fears that the number of cases could continue to rise and that meat packing plants will become the next disaster zones.\n\nWhite House, congressional leaders reach deal to replenish coronavirus small business loan program\n\nApril 21: The White House and congressional leaders reached a deal Tuesday to revive a stimulus program geared to keep small businesses from shuttering and their employees from going on unemployment because of the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe nearly half-trillion deal will provide more funds to the Paycheck Protection Program, which was halted last week after it ran out of money.\n\nThe $484 billion bill will inject the program, which provides loans to small businesses, with more than $310 billion. Of that, $60 billion will be set aside for community-based lenders, smaller banks and credit unions to assist smaller businesses that don't have established relationships with big banks and had a harder time accessing the funds in the first round of loans. It will also bolster the Small Business Administration's disaster loan and grant programs, which had also dried up due to the coronavirus.\n\nThe deal also includes $75 billion to help overwhelmed hospitals and $25 billion for coronavirus testing, two provisions Democrats pushed for in negotiations.\n\nFauci takes heat from protesters of stay-at-home orders, says ignoring guidelines will 'backfire'\n\nApril 21: Asked Monday while appearing on ABC's Good Morning America about protests popping up around the country against local stay-at-home measures, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned such demonstrations may \"backfire.\"\n\n“I think the message is that, clearly, this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus,” Fauci replied. “But, unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery, economically, is not gonna happen.”\n\nHe continued, “If you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re gonna set yourself back. So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening, it’s going to backfire. That’s the problem.”\n\n5,251 confirmed cases, 208 known deaths as of Tuesday\n\nApril 21: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 5,200, with 208 known deaths, according to new numbers released Tuesday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 5,251, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 187 confirmed cases, or 3.7%, since Monday when the state reported 5,064 identified cases and 187 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 2,700, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least two cases.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nProtesters rally at Arizona Capitol, calling for end of stay-at-home order\n\nApril 20: Hundreds of people gathered near the Arizona state Capitol on Monday calling for an end to Gov. Doug Ducey's stay-at-home order that closed non-essential businesses in March.\n\nThe Patriot's Day Rally — hosted by a group called Reopen Arizona — started at noon Monday at the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza near the state Capitol in Phoenix. American flags and Trump campaign paraphernalia were abundant as people streamed into the plaza before marching across the street to the state Capitol, demanding businesses reopen and employees be allowed to return to work.\n\nThe event took place a day after Operation Gridlock Arizona, where roughly 100 cars circled the plaza, people honked their horns, held up protest signs and called for businesses to reopen.\n\nNo arrests or citations were made in relation to Monday's rally, according to Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves.\n\nTrump announces suspension of immigration to 'protect jobs'\n\nApril 20: President Trump tweeted late Monday that he was temporarily suspending immigration to the U.S. The president cited the need to protect jobs in light of “the attack from the Invisible Enemy,” a reference to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” Trump tweeted.\n\nPresident Trump said he would be enacting the change in policy by signing an executive order to shut down immigration. Over the past weeks of the crisis, which has seen many states shut down, the administration has made moves to clamp down on asylum seekers and immigrants seeking entry into the country. Critics contend that Trump is using the crisis, which has killed more than 40,000 Americans and paralyzed the economy, to further his America First policies.\n\nBig banks sued over small business stimulus\n\nApril 20: Two companies in California filed a class-action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase bank alleging unfair business practices toward some small businesses that applied for coronavirus-related loans under the government's Paycheck Protection Program.\n\nIn the suit filed on Sunday, a cybersecurity firm and event planning company accused Chase Bank of prioritizing small business borrowers who were seeking larger loan amounts rather than processing the government-sponsored loan applications on a first-come, first-serve basis as advertised.\n\nThe move meant that Chase would collect larger processing fees – nearly $6 billion in total – by frontloading the queue with businesses seeking higher loans, according to the lawsuit.\n\nThe businesses seeking lower loans were deprioritized, so many didn't get the aid they were entitled to, the lawsuit filed on behalf of small businesses said.\n\nThe legal action is one in a series of lawsuits lodged by small businesses against big banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Bancorps citing unfair business practices and false advertising.\n\nThe loans were a part of a $349 billion emergency small business lending program meant to keep businesses afloat and staffers employed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nExpert: Arizona 'miles away from being prepared to reopen'\n\nApril 19: With Arizona and other states considering reopening their economies on May 1, health experts said the state isn't yet doing enough COVID-19 testing or collecting good enough data to responsibly lift stay-at-home orders.\n\nArizona has done 51,000 tests through Saturday, a fraction of the COVID-19 tests needed to judge how widespread the outbreak is in a state this size. Measured in tests per million residents, Arizona was in the bottom 10 states nationwide last week.\n\nAnd data the state provides is widely seen as inadequate. The state is missing demographic data about positive cases and deaths, its location data mixes hospitals with private residences, and the state won't provide data about cases and deaths on Indian reservations or in nursing homes.\n\n\"It just isn't going to work unless you have crystal clear data,\" said William Haseltine, an infectious disease expert and president of the global health think tank ACCESS Health International. \"If Arizona doesn't have that they are miles away from being prepared to reopen.\"\n\nBroadway star Nick Cordero has leg amputated because of COVID-19\n\nApril 19: Nick Cordero's wife said the Broadway actor made it through surgery to have his right leg amputated because of complications from coronavirus.\n\nAmanda Kloots shared Saturday night in an Instagram Story that she had just gotten \"a call from the surgeon\" following the procedure.\n\n\"He made it through the surgery, which is really big,\" Kloots said. \"They're taking him back to the room to recover and rest for the rest of the night, so hopefully he'll just kind of relax and rest.\"\n\nKloots told followers earlier Saturday that she had received some \"difficult news.\" She explained that blood thinners doctors were using to help with clotting in Cordero's leg were causing issues with his blood pressure and internal bleeding in his intestines.\n\n\"We took him off blood thinners but that again was going to cause some clotting in the right leg, so the right leg will be amputated,\" she said.\n\nArizona reaches more than 4,900 coronavirus cases, with 184 known deaths\n\nArizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, rose to 4,929, with 184 known deaths, according to new numbers released Sunday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nThat's an increase of 210 confirmed cases, or 4.4%, since Saturday when the state reported 4,719 identified cases and 177 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 2,589, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least one case.\n\nPeople are flocking to reopened Florida beaches\n\nApril 18: People came faster than a flock of seagulls chasing a french fry when Florida beaches began reopening Friday as the coronavirus pandemic raged on.\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave municipalities the go-ahead to reopen during a news conference Friday – if it can be done safely, while observing social distancing guidelines. A day earlier, President Donald Trump rolled out a three-phase approach for reopening the nation.\n\nWith the governor's green light, north Florida beaches were among the first to allow people to return since being closed down by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nJacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry announced that Duval County beaches would reopen Friday afternoon with restricted hours, and could be used only for walking, biking, hiking, fishing, running, swimming, taking care of pets and surfing. Visit Florida lists beaches by county in Florida and their status: closed, restricted or otherwise.\n\nThe beaches will be open from 6 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 8 p.m local time, Curry said in a video posted to Twitter. Gatherings of 50 or more people are prohibited.\n\nHere's where your missing stimulus check went\n\nApril 18: Americans are reaching out to tax preparers and lining up at their offices around the country to find out what happened to their stimulus checks.\n\nOne answer: The IRS sent those missing payouts to an intermediary bank account if a client got an advance on their tax return, tax professionals say.\n\nClients tipped tax preparers off to the problem when they used Get My Payment, the government’s new stimulus deposit tracking portal, and uncovered that the payments of up to $1,200 for individuals were sent to an account number they didn't recognize.\n\nAgencies that help people file for government-issued refunds are receiving an influx of calls regarding the one-time payout meant to be disbursed to 80 million Americans this week. While many people received the deposit, other payments may have gotten inadvertently sent to temporary accounts created during the tax filing process.\n\nThe IRS said it is moving to provide additional information and resolve any issues as soon as possible.\n\nArizona coronavirus update: Cases climb to more than 4,700, with 177 known deaths\n\nApril 18: Arizona reported eight more deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, a day after a widely-respected model of the disease's progression predicted that the state had passed its likely peak in hospital resources and deaths.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 4,719, with 177 known deaths, according to the most recent figures from the Arizona Department of Health Services. That's an increase of 212 confirmed cases, or 4.7%, since Friday, when the state reported 4,507 identified cases and 169 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 2,400, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least one case.\n\nA model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that shows nationwide and international projections was updated Friday and shows a significantly different path for the disease in Arizona than earlier projections.\n\nThe institute's Arizona model estimates \"peak resource\" use was on April 10 — that means hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators were at their greatest use that day. Based on projections, Arizona has enough beds to meet the continued demand. The earlier projection was April 30.\n\nThe projected peak in deaths per day was April 5, with 12 deaths that day, even though Arizona surpassed that number Friday. The earlier projection was May 2.\n\nLatinos disproportionately dying, losing jobs because of coronavirus: 'We are strong people, but something has to change'\n\nIn a city where 16% of the population is Latino, physician Alicia Fernandez is alarmed by the overwhelming number of Latino patients she is seeing at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.\n\nFernandez blames the high cost of housing in the Bay Area, which finds many impoverished Latinos crowded into small apartments. “Sometimes it’s big families, but others it’s just a group of adults trying to make ends meet,” she says. “It makes it so hard to isolate and quarantine folks.”\n\nIn Nashville, school teacher Bobbi Negròn has been paying close attention to the havoc being wreaked on the lives of her fellow Latinos. When Negròn calls to see how some of her elementary school students are faring, parents sometimes ask her to stop phoning as they don’t have any minutes left on their cell plans.\n\nIn New York, a grim tally tells the tale: Latinos make up 29% of the population but are 39% of those who have succumbed to COVID-19, the respiratory illness causes by the virus.\n\nMovie theaters would be among the first businesses to reopen after coronavirus under Trump plan\n\nApril 17: Break out the popcorn.\n\nAs the country takes the first baby steps back from the coronavirus shutdown, movie theaters could be one of the early beneficiaries.\n\nCinemas would be allowed to reopen in the first of three phases under the guidelines released Thursday by the White House.\n\nJust when theaters, along with restaurants, sports stadiums and churches, will be allowed to welcome back the public under the Trump administration plan is yet to be seen. It will be left largely up to governors to decide when their states are ready to take the first step back to what was once considered normal.\n\nPresident Donald Trump, in announcing the reopening at his daily news conference, said some are more ready than others. The plan didn't include a timetable.\n\n4,507 confirmed cases, 169 known deaths as of Friday\n\nApril 17: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 4,500, with 169 known deaths, according to new numbers released Friday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 4,507, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 273 confirmed cases, or 6.4%, since Thursday, when the state reported 4,234 identified cases and 150 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 2,400, according to state numbers. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least one case.\n\nMore detailed data, including cases by ZIP code and race/ethnicity, was first released by the state Sunday and continues to be updated.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nAs of Friday morning, the state reported death totals from these counties: 69 in Maricopa, 51 in Pima, 24 in Coconino (county officials reported 26), 11 in Navajo, five in Pinal and four in Apache.\n\nMohave County reported two deaths, and Yavapai, Yuma and La Paz reported one each, as of Thursday. Information on deaths in those counties differed on the state site early Friday, showing fewer than three deaths for each of the four counties.\n\nWhat is OSHA doing? Crisis raises questions about workplace safety agency\n\nIn South Dakota, the virus struck hundreds of workers at a single pork processing plant. In Illinois and Michigan, a half dozen grocery workers died and others fell ill. In New York, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of dozens of transit employees. Among health care workers, at least 27 have died and 9,200 have contracted the virus.\n\nAs the country contemplates returning more employees to work and reopening the economy, the key federal agency tasked with ensuring workplace safety is drawing withering criticism from advocates who say the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is falling down on the job.\n\n“OSHA has been totally absent from the response,” said David Michaels, an epidemiologist and public health professor at The George Washington University who oversaw the agency during the Obama administration from 2009 to 2017. “It is shocking and disheartening because OSHA should be out front leading the federal efforts to protect workers.”\n\nDrinking alcohol may heighten risk of getting coronavirus, WHO suggests\n\nAs the coronavirus pandemic leaves millions stuck at home, alcohol sales have risen drastically nationwide, with spirits and premixed cocktails in high demand.\n\nThe World Health Organization, however, says alcohol may put people at increased risk for the coronavirus, weakening the body's immune system and leaving drinkers at risk for other risky behaviors that could increase the likelihood of contracting coronavirus.\n\nIt does work as a disinfectant on surfaces, but too much alcohol consumption can actually make the body less capable of handling the coronavirus. A 2015 study published in the journal Alcohol Research found that excessive alcohol consumption is associated with \"adverse immune-related health effects such as susceptibility to pneumonia.”\n\n4,234 confirmed cases, 150 known deaths as of Thursday\n\nApril 16: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 4,200, with 150 known deaths, according to new numbers released Thursday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 4,234, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 272 confirmed cases, or 6.9%, since Wednesday, when the state reported 3,962 identified cases and 142 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 2,200. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least one case.\n\nMore detailed data, including cases by ZIP code and race/ethnicity, was first released by the state Sunday and continues to be updated.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nAs of Thursday morning, the state reported death totals from these counties: 64 in Maricopa, 37 in Pima, 24 in Coconino (county officials reported 26), 11 in Navajo, five in Pinal and four in Apache.\n\nCoronavirus, diabetes, obesity and other underlying conditions: Which patients are most at risk?\n\nApril 15: Though people of all ages are affected by coronavirus, many of those who develop severe complications after contracting it have preexisting medical conditions. According to a CDC report, nearly 90% of adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the US had one or more underlying diseases.\n\nThe most common were hypertension (49.7%), obesity (48.3%), chronic lung disease (34.6%), diabetes (28.3%), and cardiovascular disease (27.8%). These conditions were even more prevalent in deceased COVID-19 patients, according to data released by Louisiana, New York and New Jersey.\n\nWas your Arizona unemployment claim rejected? Hold tight — the state is re-evaluating thousands of applications\n\nApril 15: Have you applied for jobless benefits in the past several weeks and been denied? You still might get some help, according to the Arizona Department of Economic Security.\n\nThe state is re-evaluating what likely are thousands of applications from the past two months to see if they should qualify under more generous federal guidelines passed by Congress, which include an additional $600 a week in benefits on top of the $240 maximum offered by the state for some people.\n\nCongress passed, and President Trump signed, the CARES Act on March 27. It expands jobless benefits to nearly everyone put out of work, including part-time workers, contractors and the self-employed. Gov. Doug Ducey also expanded eligibility benefits by waiving the usual one-week waiting period and requirement that people getting jobless benefits continue to look for work.\n\nMany people who have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced because of the national effort to prevent spreading coronavirus, were rejected by the Arizona Department of Economic Security.\n\nMany people are denied because they don't have sufficient earnings history to qualify for state benefits.\n\nBut the changes from Congress allow people in that situation, including contractors, part-timers and the self-employed, to get paid.\n\n\"DES will review all applications that have been determined 'monetarily ineligible,' since Feb. 2 to determine eligibility for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance,\" said Brett Bezio, deputy press secretary for DES.\n\nHe could not say how many applications needed to be reviewed, but the department has seen a historic number of first-time applications in the past four weeks, with 345,800 people seeking benefits.\n\n3,962 confirmed cases, 142 known deaths as of Wednesday\n\nApril 15: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now approach 4,000, with 142 known deaths, according to new numbers released on Wednesday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 3,962, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 156 confirmed cases, or 4%, since Tuesday when the state reported 3,806 identified cases and 131 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 2,100. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least one case.\n\nMore detailed data, including cases by ZIP code and race/ethnicity, was released by the state on Sunday.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nAs of Wednesday morning, the state reported death totals from the following counties: 60 in Maricopa, 34 in Pima, 24 in Coconino, 10 in Navajo, five in Pinal and four in Apache.\n\nTrump announces 'halt' in US funding to World Health Organization\n\nPresident Donald Trump said Tuesday his administration will \"halt\" U.S. funding to the World Health Organization as it conducts a review of the global organization's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain, vet and share information in a timely and transparent fashion,\" the president said in a Rose Garden press conference.\n\nTrump has accused the organization of not moving quickly enough to sound the alarm over COVID-19 and of being too China friendly. He has attacked the agency for advising the U.S. against banning travel from China to other parts of the world amid the outbreak.\n\n\"And the World — WHO — World Health got it wrong,\" the president told reporters at the White House last week. \"I mean, they got it very wrong. In many ways, they were wrong. They also minimized the threat very strongly and — not good.\"\n\nGov. Ducey to hold press conference at 2:30 p.m.\n\nHow to track your stimulus check\n\nApril 14: Slowly but surely, taxpayers are telling their friends, and yes, posting news on social media, that they're already seeing stimulus cash arrive in their bank accounts.\n\nAnd the Internal Revenue Service is expected to give you a new online tool as soon as Wednesday to get a better clue on when you'll see your Economic Impact Payment via IRS.gov/eip. The IRS said the tool will let you go online to check the status of a payment, including the date it's scheduled to be deposited or mailed.\n\nTreasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a press briefing Monday that Treasury is ahead of schedule in getting the money out and expects that more than 80 million people will receive their stimulus money by Wednesday.\n\nThe U.S. Department of Treasury expects that a \"large majority of eligible Americans will receive Economic Impact Payments within the next two weeks.\"\n\n3,806 confirmed cases, 131 known deaths as of Tuesday\n\nApril 14: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 3,800, with 131 known deaths, according to new numbers released on Tuesday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 3,806, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 104 confirmed cases, or 2.8%, since Monday when the state reported 3,702 identified cases and 122 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 2,000. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least one case.\n\nMore detailed data, including cases by ZIP code and race/ethnicity, was released by the state on Sunday.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nPresident Trump retweets a call for Dr. Anthony Fauci's dismissal\n\nApril 13: President Donald Trump generated new questions about the fate of his anti-coronavirus policy team by retweeting a post that called for firing Anthony Fauci.\n\nTrump did not explicitly endorse the call to remove Fauci in his Sunday tweet, but in recirculating it, he defended himself against claims he did not act quickly enough to curb the spread of the virus that has killed thousands and led to a near-shutdown of the American economy.\n\nDeAnna Lorraine, a pro-Trump congressional candidate who polled less than 2% in a recent open primary challenge to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., claimed in a tweet that \"Fauci is now saying that had Trump listened to the medical experts earlier he could've saved more lives. Fauci was telling people on February 29th that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the US public at large.\"\n\nShe added: \"Time to #FireFauci...\"\n\nTrump and Fauci, the long-time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have disputed each other during the course of the epidemic.\n\n3,702 confirmed cases, 122 known deaths as of Monday\n\nApril 13: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 3,700, with 122 known deaths, according to new numbers released Monday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 3,702, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 163 confirmed cases, or 4.6%, since Sunday when the state reported 3,539 identified cases and 115 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 2,000. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least one case.\n\nMore detailed data, including cases by ZIP code and race/ethnicity, was released by the state at noon Sunday.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nAs of Monday morning, the state reported death totals from the following counties: 52 in Maricopa, 29 in Pima, 21 in Coconino, eight in Navajo, four in Pinal and four in Apache.\n\nCoronavirus by ZIP code: New data shows where cases are found across Arizona\n\nApril 12: Arizona health officials for the first time released coronavirus data by ZIP code on Sunday. The data showed hot spots of infections near Indian reservations, especially around Page, along with large numbers of cases in Scottsdale and Tucson.\n\nYet the state excluded much of the information needed to identify locations of outbreaks in the state.\n\nThe state Department of Health Services published its data as a map, showing a number of cases for each ZIP code. ZIP codes with more than 10 cases gave a specific number. Those with fewer gave ranges: \"0,\" \"1-5\" or \"6-10.\"\n\nThe team from AZ Data Central extracted the case figures from the state's map, assembling many of the data points by hand.\n\nThe state's map shows every ZIP code with more than 10 cases as red.\n\nTo give a truer view of the pandemic's impact in Arizona, AZ Data Central's map presents the number as of Sunday relative to the population of each ZIP code.\n\nAs states restrict Easter gatherings, churches and lawmakers push back\n\nApril 12: In Kansas, that battle has reached the Supreme Court. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly filed a lawsuit Thursday after a Republican-dominated legislative panel overturned her executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 attendees during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nRepublican Senate President Susan Wagle painted the executive order as an attack on Christians. \"Now, during Holy Week for Christians, she is closing our churches,\" Wagle said on Twitter. \"We are doing our part to slow the spread.\"\n\nUS now has more COVID-19 deaths than any other country\n\nApril 11: The United States has passed Italy to become the country with the most coronavirus deaths. However, as a proportion of the total population in the U.S., virus deaths remain at about one-sixth of those in hard-hit Italy or Spain.\n\nMore than 19,700 people in the U.S. have died due to complications from the coronavirus as of Saturday afternoon, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University dashboard. Friday, the U.S. saw its highest daily death count yet, at 2,108.\n\nItaly's death toll was at 19,468 and Spain, the nation with the third-most fatalities, had 16,353 reported deaths. Worldwide, the death count has surpassed 104,000.\n\nEstimates on how many people will end up dying in the U.S. have fluctuated in recent weeks as new data continues to pour in.\n\nA leading projection model from the University of Washington has forecast about 60,000 deaths in the country, far less than the 100,000 to 240,000 deaths that were projected in a White House release less than two weeks ago.\n\n3,393 confirmed cases, 108 known deaths as of Saturday\n\nApril 11: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 3,300, with 108 known deaths, according to new numbers released Saturday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 3,393, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 281 confirmed cases, or 9%, since Friday when the state reported 3,112 identified cases and 97 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 1,800. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least one case.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nAs of Saturday morning, the state reported death totals from the following counties: 47 in Maricopa, 29 in Pima, 15 in Coconino, seven in Navajo and three each in Pinal and Apache. Mohave County reported two deaths and Yavapai and La Paz reported one each, though those did not appear on the state's dashboard.\n\n100 more ventilators on their way to Arizona\n\nApril 10: Gov. Doug Ducey today said 100 additional ventilators will be sent to Arizona from the Strategic National Stockpile, at the request of Ducey and U.S. Sen. Martha McSally.\n\n\"These ventilators will add to our surge capacity and help us prepare in our tribal communities and elsewhere,\" Ducey said in a statement. \"President Trump and I spoke about this Wednesday night. I’m grateful that he was able to deliver on this request immediately.\"\n\nDucey said he had been in touch with Navajo President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer about the Navajo Nation's needs for supplies, personnel and ventilators to fight COVID-19.\n\n\"Our goal is that we will never need these ventilators and can eventually send them to other regions of the country, but this action by President Trump and Vice President Pence will help ensure Arizona is prepared for a worst-case scenario,” Ducey said.\n\nMcSally said in her statement, “This is potentially life-saving news for Arizona.”\n\nLooking for Lysol spray and Clorox wipes? Here’s when you can buy again\n\nApril 10: As the coronavirus locks down more of the country, shelf after shelf of Lysol sprays and Clorox wipes has been picked clean by shoppers preparing for the possibility that they could be quarantined for weeks or months.\n\nStore limits on disinfecting wipes and sprays haven’t slowed the fear-fueled run as households stock up on cleaning products to protect against infection. Neither have eye-popping prices online and off.\n\nIn March, sales of aerosol disinfectants jumped 343% and multipurpose cleaners 166% from a year ago, according to research firm Nielsen. And still, people are scouring the internet's vast virtual shelves and local stores for more.\n\nHow could something so basic suddenly be so hard to get?\n\nManufacturers like Clorox were not prepared for skyrocketing demand in a sleepy sector with reliably steady sales that usually only fluctuate during flu season. And, with global supply chains snarled by the coronavirus, they now can’t produce enough inventory to meet that demand, supply chain experts say.\n\nClorox 4-in-1 Disinfecting Spray and Lysol Disinfectant Spray are among the products that the Environmental Protection Agency says likely protect against the spread of the coronavirus.\n\n“Nobody ever expected this to happen, and they got caught flatfooted,” says Patrick Penfield, professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University. “They don’t have enough ingredients. They don’t have enough capacity.”\n\nDisinfectant products manufacturers say they are rushing to churn out as much as they can as quickly as they can.\n\nBy mid-May, supply chains should return to normal and by June, out-of-stock disinfectants should begin reappearing on store shelves, predicts Tom Derry, CEO of the Institute for Supply Management. But intermittent shortages could persist for months, such as in the fall when people are expected to return to work and children to school.\n\nCoronavirus antibody testing: What is it? Can it reopen US economy?\n\nApril 10: As officials begin to discuss when they can lift stay-at-home orders, companies are rushing to develop coronavirus antibody tests that could help them make those decisions without risking a second wave of infections.\n\nLeading the fight against COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday morning on CNN that antibody testing can show who has developed immunity to the coronavirus and can safely go back to work without getting reinfected.\n\n“As we get to the point of at least considering opening up the country, as it were, it’s very important to appreciate and understand how much this virus is penetrating this society,” he said.\n\nHow would antibody tests factor into decisions to lift social distancing orders, and how reliable are those tests? Here's everything you need to know about antibody testing.\n\nWorld reaches 100,000 deaths; US has 'not reached the peak'\n\nApril 10: Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said Friday that the U.S. has not \"reached the peak\" of the pandemic but that there were \"encouraging\" signs that the curves were flattening or lowering.\n\n\"This is not the time to feel that since we have made such important advances ... that we need to be pulling back at all,\" Dr. Anthony Fauci added at the Friday press briefing.\n\nMeanwhile, a leading projection of the pandemic had U.S. deaths from the virus at its peak Friday as the global death toll reached 100,000 lives. Research from the University of Washington in Seattle, which has created some of the preeminent modeling of the pandemic, indicated U.S. deaths could reach almost 2,000 on Friday but would fall in the coming days.\n\nElsewhere, travelers were being cautioned to stay home around the world to mark the traditions of Good Friday and the Easter weekend. Eagerly awaited stimulus checks should soon be hitting Americans' bank accounts. And New York now ha has more confirmed coronavirus cases than any other country in the world.\n\nThe U.S. surpassed 475,000 confirmed cases on Friday, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard. About 26,000 Americans have recovered.\n\n3,112 confirmed cases, 97 known deaths as of Friday\n\nApril 10: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 3,100, with 97 known deaths, according to new numbers released Friday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nArizona's total identified cases rose to 3,112, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 94 confirmed cases, or 3%, since Thursday when the state reported 3,018 identified cases and 89 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 1,700. All of Arizona's 15 counties have reported at least one case.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is higher than official numbers suggest because of limits on supplies and available tests, which led to the state issuing guidelines that restrict who should be tested.\n\nIceland tested 10% of its population for COVID-19. Here's what it learned\n\nApril 10: By Friday, Iceland will have achieved something no other country has: tested 10% of its population for coronavirus, a figure far higher than anywhere else in the world.\n\nNo country or scientist or doctor has all the answers about the pandemic that has swept the globe, infecting more than 1.6 million people and killing at least 95,000.\n\nBut some places, such as tiny Iceland, Europe's most sparsely populated country – pop. 364,134, broadly equivalent to the number of people in Tulsa, Oklahoma – may be better placed to deliver some types of coronavirus information, and even answers, than most, at least in the short term, according to public health experts, international government officials and others involved in responding to the outbreak.\n\nStimulus checks on the way\n\nApril 9: U.S. stocks surged higher despite mind-numbing jobless numbers while some Americans could begin receiving stimulus checks Thursday.\n\nSome of President Donald Trump's Cabinet signaled frustration with lockdowns and stay-at-home orders: Attorney General William Barr called restrictions in many states \"draconian;\" Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said parts of the economy could reopen by May.\n\nThe Dow was up more than 300 points. The Labor Department reported a staggering 6.6 million initial claims for unemployment insurance. And the saddest numbers: The U.S. death toll from the pandemic rocking the globe was nearing 15,000; there are now more than 432,000 confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.\n\nThere was a silver lining: A University of Washington health research center dropped its estimated U.S. death total from the coronavirus, placing the likely toll by August at about 60,000. Worldwide, there are more than 1.5 million confirmed cases and more than 90,000 deaths. And the nation's top health expert said he's optimistic of a turnaround.\n\nFauci lowers U.S. coronavirus death forecast to 60,000\n\nApril 9: Senior White House adviser Anthony Fauci said Thursday the death toll from the coronavirus could be closer to 60,000 Americans, assuming full social distancing, rather than the previously projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.\n\n\"The real data are telling us that it is highly likely that we're having a definite positive effect by these mitigation things that we're doing — this physical separation — so I believe we are gonna see a downturn in that,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC's Today show.\n\n“And it looks more like the 60,000 than the 100,000 to 200,000,” he said.\n\nFauci did not say which model he is using to come up with the estimate, but his comments came as a leading model from the University of Washington that experts in the White House have been using also predicted fewer Americans may die from coronavirus than previously thought.\n\nThat model now projects 60,415 people will die in the U.S. by Aug. 4, compared to previous projections that approached 100,000. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia will have fewer deaths than previously thought, under the model.\n\n3,018 confirmed cases, 89 known deaths as of Thursday\n\nApril 9: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 3,000, with 89 known deaths, according to new numbers released Thursday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nThe total identified cases in Arizona are 3,018, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 292 confirmed cases, or 11%, since Wednesday when the state reported 2,726 identified cases and 80 deaths. That's a higher daily percent increase than recent days.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now approach 1,700. All of Arizona's 15 counties have at least one recorded case.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases likely is much higher than official numbers suggest. People have reported trouble getting tested, as health professionals confront confusion over who to test and face a lack of testing supplies.\n\nAs of Thursday morning, Maricopa County recorded 39 deaths related to COVID-19. Pima County had 16 known deaths, Coconino had 15, Pinal and Mohave counties each had two deaths, and Navajo County reported one death, according to the respective county websites.\n\nAlmost all federal stockpile of personal protective equipment is depleted\n\nNinety percent of the federal personal protective equipment stockpile had been depleted as the Health and Human Services Department made its \"final shipments\" of N95 respirators, surgical and face masks, face shields, gowns and gloves, according to new documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee\n\nThe remaining 10% of the stockpile, HHS said, would be reserved for federal workers and would not be sent to the states.\n\nThe documents, which report the distribution of personal protective equipment to state and local governments as of April 6, show that only 11.7 million N95 respirator masks and 7,920 ventilators have been distributed across the nation — both amounts small fractions of the estimated amount of protective equipment needed by frontline medical workers.\n\nHHS confirmed to the Associated Press on Wednesday that the remaining equipment in the federal stockpile was in the process of being deployed.\n\nMore checks? Hazard pay? What might be in next stimulus bill\n\nApril 8: Americans have yet to receive their $1,200 stimulus checks from the federal government, but another round of cash payments could be coming their way.\n\nTalks are under way between the Trump administration and Congress on another recovery package to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. A second round of cash payments to Americans is part of the discussions.\n\n“We could very well do a second round,” President Donald Trump said at a White House news conference on Monday. “It is absolutely under serious consideration.”\n\nCongress already has approved three stimulus bills to juice the economy amid the coronavirus crisis. The largest is a $2.2 trillion economic recovery package that provides one-time payments of up to $1,200 to millions of Americans, as well as loans, grants and tax breaks for businesses reeling from the economic fallout caused by the pandemic.\n\n2,726 confirmed cases, 80 known deaths as of Wednesday\n\nApril 8: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 2,700, with 80 known deaths, according to new numbers released Wednesday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nThe total identified cases in Arizona are 2,726, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 151 confirmed cases, or 6%, since Tuesday when the state reported 2,575 identified cases and 73 deaths. This is a lower percentage increase in cases than in previous days.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now approach 1,600. All of Arizona's 15 counties have at least one recorded case.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases is likely much higher than official numbers suggest. People have reported trouble getting tested, as health professionals confront confusion over who to test and face a lack of testing supplies.\n\nAs of Wednesday morning, Maricopa County recorded 37 deaths related to COVID-19. Pima County had 15 known deaths and Coconino had 14, according to the respective county websites. Navajo County and Mohave County each reported one death, both people in their 60s with underlying health conditions.\n\nGov. Ducey to hold press conference at 2 p.m.\n\nApril 7: Gov. Doug Ducey will join Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Chris and others to provide an update on COVID-19 in Arizona and the state’s latest actions.\n\nNew data on New York coronavirus deaths: Most had these underlying illnesses\n\nApril 7: The majority of New York’s more than 4,700 deaths due to coronavirus were among men, and 86% of all deaths were among people who had underlying illnesses, such as hypertension and diabetes, new state data shows.\n\nThe statistics released late Monday offered the latest glimpse into how the rapidly spreading virus has impacted New York and made it the epicenter for COVID-19 in the nation.\n\nOf the 4,758 deaths in New York since the first on March 14, 61% were men and 39% were women, the state Department of Health reported on its new data portal.\n\nIn addition, 63% of the deaths were among those age 70 and older, while 7% of the cases were those 49 and younger.\n\nAnd 4,089 of those who died had at least one other chronic disease, the records showed:\n\nThe leading underlying illness was hypertension, which showed up in 55% of the deaths.\n\nNext was diabetes, which was diagnosed in 1,755 deaths, or about 37% of the cases.\n\nOther top illnesses found in those who died from coronavirus were hyperlipidemia; coronary artery disease; renal disease and dementia.\n\n2,575 confirmed cases, 73 known deaths as of Tuesday\n\nApril 7: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 2,500, with 73 known deaths, according to new numbers released by the Arizona Department of Health Services on Tuesday.\n\nThe total identified cases in Arizona are 2,575, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 119 confirmed cases, or 5%, since Monday when the state reported 2,456 identified cases and 65 deaths. This is a lower percentage increase in cases than in previous days.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now approach 1,500. All of Arizona's 15 counties have at least one recorded case.\n\nThe number of Arizona cases is likely much higher than official numbers suggest. People have reported trouble getting tested, as health professionals confront confusion over who to test and face a lack of testing supplies.\n\nBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved to intensive care as coronavirus symptoms worsen\n\nAPRIL 6: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit at a London hospital Monday night after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, his office said in a statement.\n\nJohnson, 55, asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab \"to deputize for him where necessary,\" according to a Downing Street statement.\n\n\"Since Sunday evening, the prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St. Thomas' Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus,\" the statement said.\n\nJohnson tested positive for the respiratory illness March 17, the first major world leader to publicly acknowledge having COVID-19. His symptoms include a high temperature and a cough. He is conscious and has not been put on a ventilator.\n\nEarlier Monday, Johnson tweeted that he had a \"comfortable night\" and was in \"good spirits\" while receiving regular briefings from his Cabinet and government advisers.\n\nJohnson's illness means that he has had to effectively step away from day-to-day governing as Britain, like much of the world, faces the worst public health crisis in a century. Britain has more than 52,000 confirmed cases and more than 5,300 deaths, and the virus could reach its peak in the country as soon as this weekend.\n\nCuomo: Deaths, hospitalizations may be leveling off in New York\n\nApril 6: The number of daily COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York state declined again and deaths may be leveling off, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday. Cuomo also said he would ask President Donald Trump for permission to use the 1,000-bed USNS Comfort for COVID-19 patients since there is little demand for beds for other illnesses. The Comfort anchored in New York's harbor with a mission to treat non-virus patients so hospitals could concentrate on COVID patients.\n\nCuomo also said demand for hospital beds and ventilators may not reach numbers previously projected if residents continue to follow social distancing and other guidelines. But he also announced an increase in the fine, to $1,000 from $500, for failing to follow the rules.\n\n\"There is a real danger in getting overconfident,\" Cuomo said at his daily news conference. \"This is an enemy that we have underestimated from day one and we have paid the price dearly.\"\n\nUS stocks race higher\n\nApril 6: U.S. stocks rose sharply Monday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were up more than 5% in early afternoon trading on signs of a slowdown in coronavirus deaths and new cases in some of the hardest-hit areas around the globe.\n\nGlobal shares also rose Monday as investors saw hopeful signs the coronavirus pandemic may be leveling off in hard-hit places such as Italy, Spain – and even New York. Benchmarks were up about 3% in Paris and Frankfurt and Tokyo jumped more than 4%.\n\n\"In the near term, we believe market performance primarily depends on how quickly economic activity can normalize following measures to contain the virus,” Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note.\n\n2,456 confirmed cases, 65 known deaths as of Monday\n\nApril 6: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 2,400, with 65 known deaths, according to new numbers released by the Arizona Department of Health Services on Monday.\n\nThe total identified cases in Arizona are 2,456, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 187 confirmed cases, or 8%, since Sunday when the state reported 2,269 identified cases and 64 deaths. This is a lower percentage increase in cases than in previous days.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 1,400. All of Arizona's 15 counties have at least one recorded case.\n\nTrump interrupts when reporter asks Fauci about hydroxychloroquine\n\nApril 5: A reporter's question about hydroxychloroquine led to a testy moment at Sunday's White House briefing.\n\nAnthony Fauci was asked his thoughts on the effectiveness of the anti-malaria drug in treating coronavirus patients, and President Donald Trump interrupted before the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases could answer.\n\n“He’s answered that question 15 times,” said Trump, who had spent much of the news conference touting the drug's potential.\n\nArizona reports 2,269 coronavirus cases and 64 known deaths\n\nApril 5: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 2,200, with 64 known deaths, according to new numbers released by the Arizona Department of Health Services on Sunday.\n\nThe total identified cases in Arizona are 2,269, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 250 confirmed cases, or 12%, since Saturday when the state reported 2,019 identified cases and 52 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 1,300. All of Arizona's 15 counties have at least one recorded case.\n\nGovernors warn of dire ventilator shortages. Trump says some are playing 'politics'\n\nApril 5: Governors' warnings of life-threatening shortages of ventilators have emerged as a flashpoint between President Donald Trump and the states as the coronavirus crisis deepens.\n\n\"Some states have more ventilators than they need,\" Trump told a news briefing Saturday. \"They don't even like to admit it. They'll admit it when everything's over but that doesn't help us very much.“\n\nGovernors in hard-hit states like New York, Michigan and Louisiana say doctors could be forced to make life or death decisions about who will get ventilators and who won't if hospitals starting running out of the machines when the peak of the crisis hits.\n\nTrump says US to deploy 1,000 military personnel to New York City\n\nApril 4: President Donald Trump said Saturday he is deploying 1,000 medical personnel to New York City to help battle the coronavirus.\n\nPersonnel to be deployed will include doctors, nurses, respiratory specialists and others, Trump announced at a White House news briefing on Saturday.\n\n“We've been doing it, but now we're doing it on a larger basis,” Trump said.\n\nTrump did not say from which branches of the services the officials will be deployed. But he said they will be sent Sunday and Monday to New York, “where they’re needed most.”\n\nIRS's antiquated technology could delay $1,200 coronavirus stimulus checks\n\nApril 4: WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is promising that millions of Americans will receive $1,200 stimulus checks in just two weeks, but some tax experts and congressional officials are warning it may take much longer.\n\nAntiquated technology and staff reductions at the Internal Revenue Service have seriously hampered the agency’s ability to process checks in such a short period and could mean delays in sending the money to anxious Americans who are counting on the cash to get them through hard times caused by the coronavirus pandemic, experts say.\n\n“There are going to be a lot of people for whom this is going to take a while, and I think it’s going to be measured in terms of months, not weeks,” said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute's Tax Policy Center.\n\n2,019 cases and 52 known deaths\n\nApril 4: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 2,000, with 52 known deaths, according to new numbers released by the Arizona Department of Health Services on Saturday.\n\nThe total identified cases in Arizona are 2,019 according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 250 confirmed cases, or 14%, since Friday when the state reported 1,769 identified cases and 41 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 1,100. All of Arizona's 15 counties have at least one recorded case.\n\nTrump: CDC recommending voluntary use of face masks for public\n\nApril 3: The Trump administration is advising people to start wearing face masks in public to stop the disease's spread, a reversal on previous guidance that urged people not to wear masks.\n\nPresident Donald Trump said at a White House news conference Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines are strictly voluntary. “You can do it – you don’t have to do it. It’s only a recommendation.”\n\nTrump repeatedly stressed it is voluntary. \"I don't think i'm going to be doing it,\" he said.\n\nTrump stressed that the CDC is not calling for Americans wear medical-grade masks. Medical protective gear must be preserved for health care officials who are on the front lines treating coronavirus patients, he said.\n\nHair and nail salons must close, Ducey says\n\nApril 3: Any Arizona hair and nail salons that haven't already shut down to slow the spread of COVID-19 will have to close by 5 p.m. Saturday, according to new guidance issued by Gov. Doug Ducey's office.\n\nThe nature of such businesses means they cannot maintain required social distancing guidelines of at least six feet between individuals, his office said.\n\nThe directive also applies to:\n\nBarbershops\n\nTanning salons\n\nSpas\n\nMassage parlors\n\nTattoo parlors\n\nBasketball courts, splash pads, playgrounds and public restrooms at public parks\n\n\"Communal pools' at hotels, condominiums, apartment complexes and parks\n\nSwap meets\n\nTrump criticizes mask maker 3M\n\nApril 3: President Donald Trump is criticizing 3M over N95 respirator masks as the company revealed demand is \"much higher\" than its ability to make them during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIn a tweet, Trump said 3M \"will have a big price to pay\" over mask production.\n\n\"We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks,\" Trump wrote. \"'P Act' all the way. Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the White House invoked the Defense Production Act to acquire more masks with N95 respirators from 3M.\n\n1,769 cases and 41 known deaths\n\nApril 3: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 1,700, with 41 known deaths, according to new numbers released by the Arizona Department of Health Services on Friday.\n\nThe total identified cases in Arizona is 1,769, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 171 confirmed cases, or 11%, since Thursday when the state reported 1,598 identified cases and 32 deaths.\n\nMaricopa County's confirmed cases now exceed 1,000. All of Arizona's 15 counties have at least one recorded case.\n\nDucey shifts tone on salons\n\nApril 2: Gov. Doug Ducey walked back his controversial decision to allow Arizona's salons to stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming his executive order outlining \"essential services\" did not include them.\n\n\"The businesses you're talking about are not covered,\" he told moderator Ted Simons during a town hall broadcast live throughout the state.\n\n\"If they're looking for cover under one of the categories, then they're going to have to be able to demonstrate that they can exercise social distancing or some other type of protective (measures).\"\n\nTarget to limit number of shoppers in stores as a new safety measure\n\nApril 2: Target announced Thursday that it is adding new measures to promote safety and social distancing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nThe Minneapolis-based retailer said in a news release that beginning Saturday, April 4, it \"will actively monitor and, when needed, meter guest traffic in its nearly 1,900 stores nationwide to promote social distancing.\"\n\nOccupancy limits will vary by store and based on a specific location's square footage \"to enhance the average space per person and reduce the possibility of congestion,\" Target said.\n\nIf a store needs to limit shoppers, there will be a \"designated waiting area outside with social distancing markers.\"\n\nArizona coronavirus update: Nearly 1,600 identified cases and 32 known deaths\n\nApril 2: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now approach 1,600, with 32 known deaths, according to new numbers released by the Arizona Department of Health Services on Thursday.\n\nThe total number of identified cases in Arizona is 1,598, according to the most recent state figures. That's an increase of 185 confirmed cases, or 13%, since Wednesday when the state reported 1,413 identified cases and 29 deaths.\n\nAll of Arizona's 15 counties have at least one recorded case.\n\nWhat if I can't pay my rent? Help for Arizona renters struggling during COVID-19 pandemic\n\nApril 2: Rent is due for most metro Phoenix renters at the first of the month, but a growing number likely is struggling to pay due to the health and economic fallout from COVID-19.\n\nA record number of Arizonans have applied for unemployment benefits as businesses have shuttered or scaled back operations to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.\n\nIf you are a struggling renter, help is available in a few ways.\n\nYou're feeling sick. Here's the latest on COVID-19 testing options in Arizona\n\nApril 2: As the new coronavirus spreads in Arizona, more and more people may get fevers, coughs and shortness of breath — the hallmark symptoms of COVID-19.\n\nBut many Arizonans will never know whether or not they had the virus.\n\nA variety of laboratories, clinics and even telemedicine groups have started offering tests in Arizona, but guidelines are strict for who gets a test. For the most part, unless you’re very sick and present multiple symptoms or known exposure, it may be difficult to get tested.\n\nASU researchers look for traces of COVID-19 in Tempe's sewage, which could serve as early warning system\n\nApril 2: Arizona State University researchers in Tempe are looking for traces of COVID-19 in wastewater, which could serve as an early warning system of the virus’s spread in communities.\n\nTempe officials said more data on how widespread the virus is in the city could help staff better deploy protective equipment and other resources, access testing kits and better prepare first responders and health care workers to handle the outbreak, said Rosa Inchausti, director of Tempe’s Strategic Management and Diversity Office.\n\n“Now we wake up and instead of checking the weather every day we look for two numbers, how many people are infected and how many people have died. But you don’t know anything about the people who are asymptomatic or who haven’t been tested,” Inchausti said. “That’s just not enough information for public officials to be making decisions.”\n\nJobless claims soar; 10% unemployment ahead?\n\nApril 2: The number of Americans who filed claims for unemployment benefits surged to a record 6.6 million last week as the coronavirus pandemic continued to spark massive layoffs and furloughs across the nation. The 6.6 million jobless claims reported by the Labor Department on Thursday was double the prior week’s record-smashing total of nearly 3.3 million. U.S. stocks, hammered by steep declines Wednesday, were modestly higher in early trading Thursday.\n\n“Sadly we’re only at the start of this process,” said James McCann, senior global economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments. \"When we look at all the jobs at direct risk from social distancing policies, and those which could be affected indirectly, the numbers start to get pretty scary.\"\n\nMore than 1,000 in US die in a single day from coronavirus\n\nApril 1: The U.S. topped 1,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day for the first time Wednesday, a daily death toll more than double that of two of America's most deadly illnesses — lung cancer and the flu.\n\nDeath counts from the virus are difficult to keep up to date in the daily chaos from the virus, but the Johns Hopkins coronavirus database — whose sources include the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the European CDC and the National Health Commission of China — shows that the U.S. hit 1,040 cases Wednesday at 10:25 p.m. ET.\n\nThe previous high mark for a single day in the U.S. was Tuesday, with 504 deaths.\n\nCostco to limit how many people per membership can enter clubs\n\nApril 1: Costco will limit how many people can enter its warehouse clubs as part of its response to the coronavirus.\n\nStarting Friday, April 3, the retail giant will allow no more than two people to enter stores with each membership card.\n\nEarlier this week, Costco cut its weekday hours because of the pandemic. Stores now close at 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and gas stations at U.S. locations will be open at 7:30 a.m. daily and close at 7 p.m. weekdays and at 6:30 p.m. weekends.\n\nCostco also is now offering three senior shopping hours a week and is allowing “those with physical impairments” to participate.\n\nThe senior hours originally started March 24 as a twice-weekly event for members 60 and up on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but Costco added Wednesdays as the third day effective April 1.\n\nArizona's case count rises by 10%\n\nApril 1: Arizona cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, now exceed 1,400, with 29 known deaths, according to new numbers posted by the Arizona Department of Health Services.\n\nThe number of identified cases in Arizona was 1,413, according to the most recent state figures. All of Arizona's 15 counties have at least one recorded case.\n\nThat's an increase of 124 confirmed cases, or 10%, since Tuesday.\n\nAs of Wednesday morning, Maricopa County recorded 11 deaths related to COVID-19. Pima County had eight deaths and Coconino County four, according to their respective websites. Navajo County had one reported death, that of an individual in their 60s with underlying health conditions, according to the county.\n\nUnemployment checks going out soon\n\nApril 1: Help is on the way for the record-shattering number of people seeking jobless benefits, which are set to increase by $600 a week.\n\nTens of thousands of Arizonans have applied for benefits in the past two weeks as businesses have closed or significantly reduced operations.\n\nThe state Department of Economic Security is responsible for reviewing and approving applications for people to get paid when they are let go from their jobs. The criteria for receiving benefits was expanded first by Gov. Doug Ducey in an executive order, and then again by Congress and President Trump last week.\n\nThe most significant change is a potential $600 a week in additional benefits for time away from work from March 29 through July 31. That's in addition to Arizona's cap of $240.\n\nSunlight does not kill the new coronavirus\n\nApril 1: An article on a holistic health blog that has been circulating on Facebook tells people to go outside to prevent catching the new coronavirus because sunlight kills it.\n\n“In my opinion, keeping the beaches closed and having people quarantined inside their homes is a bad decision. Getting more sunshine is a proactive step we can all take at protecting ourselves from the current coronavirus outbreak,” wrote David Friedman, the author of the blog post.\n\nThe claim has been shared widely on the internet and appeared in a COVID-19 video by Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., who is a physician.\n\nBut it holds little truth. according to experts. Experts have advised against using concentrated UV light to prevent or treat the coronavirus and do not recommend going in the sunlight to kill the virus.\n\nRead a full fact check of the claim, and learn why powerful UV light should be avoided.\n\nThese companies are still hiring in Arizona\n\nApril 1: As companies are laying off or furloughing employees and Arizona sees a record number of jobless claims, some companies in the state are still hiring.\n\nThese companies in Arizona have said they are hiring during the coronavirus outbreak. The industries include:\n\nGrocers and retailers\n\nFood and drink suppliers\n\nFirst responders\n\nHealth care\n\nSecurity companies\n\nEducation and tech services\n\nCall centers\n\nIndustrial protection\n\nAdditionally, Arizona At Work has a list of all job opportunities available across the state. For help finding a job or building a resume, visit azjobconnection.gov.\n\nDucey's stay-at-home order: What it means\n\nGov. Doug Ducey on March 30 issued a statewide \"stay-at-home\" order to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, preventing Arizonans from leaving their residences except for food, medicine and other \"essential activities.\" Here's what it means for you.\n\nAccording to the governor, essential services include:\n\nHealth care and public health operations.\n\nServices for elderly people, those with developmental disabilities, foster and adoption children and individuals experiencing homelessness.\n\nInfrastructure operation, such as food production, utility operators, construction and internet providers.\n\nFirst responders and other emergency personnel.\n\nGrocery stores and pharmacies.\n\nVeterinary care.\n\nOutdoor recreation.\n\nCharities and social service organizations, including nonprofits and food banks.\n\nMedia organizations.\n\nGas stations and other transportation-related businesses.\n\nBanks and credit unions.\n\nHardware and supply stores.\n\n\"Critical trades,\" such as plumbers, electricians, cleaning, sanitation and security.\n\nShipping and mail services.\n\nEducational institutions.\n\nLaundry services.\n\nRestaurants, for takeout and delivery.\n\nSuppliers for essential businesses.\n\nDistributors that enable telework.\n\nAirlines, taxis and ride-sharing services.\n\nResidential facilities and shelters.\n\nLegal, real estate and accounting services.\n\nDay-care centers for employees of essential businesses.\n\nManufacturers and distributors of \"critical products.\"\n\nHotels.\n\nFuneral services.\n\nPREVIOUSLY: Arizona coronavirus updates from March 2020", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/04/01"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/955178/what-are-omicron-symptoms", "title": "Omicron: the symptoms and key differences from a cold | The Week UK", "text": "A growing body of evidence that Omicron causes cold-like symptoms has prompted calls for an urgent update of government guidance on spotting the Covid-19 variant.\n\nAccording to data from the ZOE Covid study, which tracks reports of symptoms uploaded to an app by the public, the new “rapidly spreading” strain is producing “mild” symptoms that are “very hard” to differentiate from a common cold without testing, The Independent reported.\n\nTim Spector, who founded the ZOE project, said the data suggests that about half of all Omicron cases were being “missed” because they are not presenting with “classic” Covid symptoms of fever, new and persistent cough and a loss or change of smell or taste.\n\n“It is going to be producing cold-like symptoms that people won’t recognise as Covid if they just believe the official government advice,” Spector, a professor of epidemiology at King’s College London, told the BBC’s Breakfast programme.\n\nNew symptoms\n\nEarly reports from South Africa, where Omicron was first detected, suggest that symptoms “in the country's fourth wave are far milder than in previous waves”, said The Guardian.\n\nAlthough case rates “surged by 255%” within a week in early December as the new strain spread, “there is mounting anecdotal evidence that infections with the Omicron variant are provoking milder symptoms”, the paper reported.\n\nHowever, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has urged caution over the information emerging from South Africa. Whitty told a Downing Street press conference earlier this week that “the amount of immunity in South Africa for this wave – because of a prior Delta wave and vaccination – is far higher than it was for their last wave”.\n\n“That doesn’t mean that there isn’t some degree of slightly milder disease, that is possible,” he added. “But I just think there’s a danger people have over-interpreted this to say, this is not a problem and what are we worrying about?”\n\nAccording to Zoe study founder Spector, the “majority of symptoms” linked to Omicron are identical to those of a severe winter cold. Omicron symptoms include headaches, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, fatigue, sneezing and coughing.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/12/16"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_22", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/953564/boris-johnson-timeline-prime-minister-highs-and-lows", "title": "The highs and lows of Boris Johnson's time as prime minister | The ...", "text": "We will use the details you have shared to manage your registration. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your registration as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWould you like to receive The WeekDay newsletter ?\n\nThe WeekDay newsletter provides you with a daily digest of news and analysis.\n\nWe will use the details you have shared to manage your newsletter subscription. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your subscription as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWe will use the information you have shared for carefully considered and specific purposes, where we believe we have a legitimate case to do so, for example to send you communications about similar products and services we offer. You can find out more about our legitimate interest activity in our Privacy Policy.\n\nIf you wish to object to the use of your data in this way, please tick here.\n\n'We' includes The Week and other Future Publishing Limited brands as detailed here.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/07/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_23", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957149/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-23-june-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 23 June 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "PM to meet Charles in Rwanda\n\nBoris Johnson will tell the Prince of Wales he is “proud” of his Rwanda migrants policy during a meeting tomorrow, The Telegraph said. It will be the first meeting between the two men since it emerged that Prince Charles privately described the planned deportation of asylum seekers to the country as “appalling”. Clarence House described the meeting, which will take place in Rwanda, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, as Johnson “popping in for a cup of tea” with the Prince. Johnson said that he is “very much looking forward” to it.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2018/06/13/50-worst-cities-to-live-in/35909271/", "title": "Quality of life: These are the 50 worst cities to live in", "text": "Samuel Stebbins and Evan Comen\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nWhere Americans live can have a considerable impact on their quality of life. In some U.S. cities, everyday comfort and happiness is much harder to attain than in others.\n\nQuality of life is subjective, and difficult to measure. Still, there is a wide range of quantifiable factors that can impact quality of life in a given area. Affordability, safety, job market strength, quality of education, infrastructure, average commute times, air quality, and the presence of cultural attractions are just a few examples of factors that can influence overall quality of life.\n\n24/7 Wall St. created an index with measures in eight categories -- crime, economy, education, environment, health, housing, infrastructure, and leisure -- to identify the 50 worst cities to live in. Not confined to a single region, the worst cities span the country from the South to the Midwest and from New England to the Pacific coast.\n\nCorrection: In a previous version of this piece, due to a data processing error, the Las Vegas crime rate was reported as 2,136 per 100,000 population. In fact, the metro area's crime rate is 849.2 per 100,000 population. As a result, Las Vegas should not have been included as one of the worst cities to live in. Our list has changed order and a new metro area, Fort Smith, Arkansas has been added.\n\nResponse: Milwaukee makes list of least liveable cities in the U.S. Here's why that's bunk\n\n50. Fort Smith, Ark.\n\nPopulation: 88,122\n\n88,122 Median home value: $115,400\n\n$115,400 Poverty rate: 21.6%\n\n21.6% Pct. with at least a bachelor’s degree: 20.0%\n\nBy a number of measures assessing economic opportunity, education, crime, and public health, Fort Smith is one of the worst cities to live in. Just 20.0% of adults in the city have a bachelor’s degree, far less than the national college attainment rate of 31.3% and the smallest share of any major city in Arkansas. Low educational attainment can limit economic growth in an area and curb the earning potential of its residents. The typical Fort Smith household earns just $38,051 a year, far less than the national median income of $57,617.\n\nFort Smith also has the highest crime rate of any city in Arkansas other than Little Rock and one of the highest in the United States. There were 808 violent crimes reported in 2016 per 100,000 city residents, far more than the state violent crime rate of 551 incidents per 100,000 people and the national rate of 386 per 100,000.\n\nMore: Cincinnati, Denver and Charlotte make list of 15 US cities attracting the most Millennials\n\n49. Salt Lake City\n\nPopulation: 193,776\n\n193,776 Median home value: $285,100\n\n$285,100 Poverty rate: 16.1%\n\n16.1% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 45.6%\n\nOne factor detracting from quality of life in Salt Lake City is the area's high violent crime rate. Some 937 violent crimes were reported in 2016 per 100,000 city residents, more than twice the national violent crime rate of 386 incidents per 100,000 Americans and nearly four times the state rate of 243 per 100,000 Utah residents. Housing prices in Salt Lake City also have been rising fast in recent years and have outpaced the area's income growth, making housing unaffordable for many low-income residents.\n\nDespite the high violent crime rate, Salt Lake City has experienced substantial economic growth in the last several years. The number of jobs in the city rose 5.1% from 2014 to 2016, a faster pace than the nation as a whole.\n\n48. Gainesville, Fla.\n\nPopulation: 131,593\n\n131,593 Median home value: $154,600\n\n$154,600 Poverty rate: 33.4%\n\n33.4% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 42.7%\n\nGainesville is the home of the University of Florida, one of the top 50 national universities as ranked by U.S. News & World Report and the country's fifth largest university by undergraduate enrollment. While the presence of a large research university likely has added depth to the area's talent pool -- some 41.7% of Gainesville adults have a bachelor's degree compared to 31.3% of adults nationwide -- quality of life in the city is poor overall.\n\nThe typical Gainesville household earns just $32,968 a year, roughly $25,000 less than the national median household income. Some 33.4% of city residents live in poverty, more than twice the U.S. poverty rate of 14.0% and the seventh highest rate of any major U.S. city.\n\n47. Atlanta\n\nPopulation: 472,506\n\n472,506 Median home value: $262,600\n\n$262,600 Poverty rate: 22.4%\n\n22.4% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 50.5%\n\nWhile Atlanta has experienced substantial economic and population growth in recent years, the city's high violent crime rate continues to hinder the area's quality of life. There were 1,084 violent crimes reported in 2016 per 100,000 Atlanta residents, nearly three times the national violent crime rate of 386 incidents per 100,000 Americans.\n\nAnother factor detracting from quality of life in Atlanta is the city's poor air quality. According to real estate data provider ATTOM Data Solutions, air quality in Atlanta and the surrounding Fulton County is considered non-hazardous just 89.5% of the year, one of the smallest shares of any major city. Air pollution in Atlanta may be partially exacerbated by the area's record-setting heat in recent years. The temperature in Atlanta exceeded 85 degrees Fahrenheit a total of 136 days in 2016, the city's hottest year on record.\n\n46. Tacoma, Wash.\n\nPopulation: 211,304\n\n211,304 Median home value: $239,100\n\n$239,100 Poverty rate: 16.3%\n\n16.3% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 27.7%\n\nWhile Tacoma has experienced substantial economic growth in recent years -- the number of employed workers in the city rose by 6.1% from 2014 to 2016, compared to a 3.5% growth nationwide -- the area still struggles with high unemployment and violent crime. Some 6.6% of the Tacoma workforce is currently unemployed, a far higher jobless rate than the 4.9% national rate.\n\nAlthough crime has declined in many of the more dangerous neighborhoods in the city over the last several decades, Tacoma's violent crime rate remains the highest of any city in the state. There were 947 violent crimes reported in 2016 per 100,000 Tacoma residents, far more than the state violent crime rate of 302 incidents per 100,000 Washington residents and the national rate of 386 per 100,000.\n\n45. Albuquerque, N.M.\n\nPopulation: 559,270\n\n559,270 Median home value: $191,600\n\n$191,600 Poverty rate: 17.1%\n\n17.1% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 35.0%\n\nWhile cheap land and low taxes have spurred rapid development in much of the area surrounding Albuquerque, the city's population growth has been relatively limited in recent years. Albuquerque's population growth rate of just 1.2% from 2011 to 2016 is less than one-third the national population growth rate of 3.7% over that time. Similarly, the city's employment growth rate of just 2.4% from 2014 to 2016 was slower growth than in a majority of large U.S. cities over the same period. Some 5.8% of Albuquerque's workforce is unemployed, a higher jobless rate than the 4.9% national rate.\n\nAlbuquerque also struggles with one of the highest violent crime rates in the country. There were 1,117 violent crimes reported in 2016 per 100,000 city residents, the most of any major city in New Mexico and nearly three times the national rate of 386 incidents per 100,000 Americans.\n\n44. Jackson, Miss.\n\nPopulation: 169,141\n\n169,141 Median home value: $88,500\n\n$88,500 Poverty rate: 22.0%\n\n22.0% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 28.6%\n\nBy a number of metrics assessing economic opportunity, education, public safety, and infrastructure, Jackson is one of the worst cities to live in in the country. The typical Jackson household earns just $39,742 a year, far less than the national median household income of $57,617. Even adjusted for the area's low cost of living -- goods and services cost 13.9% less in Jackson and the surrounding Hinds County than they do nationwide -- incomes in Jackson are still far below the U.S. median. Jackson is also one of the more dangerous Southern cities. There were 856 violent crimes reported per 100,000 residents in 2016, more than twice the national violent crime rate.\n\nLike many areas with low incomes and high violent crime, Jackson has been losing residents. While the U.S. population grew 3.7% between 2011 and 2016, the number of Jackson residents declined by the same amount -- the largest population decline in Mississippi and the 14th largest decrease of any major city in the country.\n\n43. Syracuse, N.Y.\n\nPopulation: 143,378\n\n143,378 Median home value: $92,900\n\n$92,900 Poverty rate: 32.1%\n\n32.1% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 27.6%\n\nSyracuse is one of two upstate New York cities to rank among the worst cities to live in nationwide. A third, Rochester, nearly made the list as well. A relatively poor city, the typical household in Syracuse earns $33,695 a year, only slightly more than half the median income of $62,909 statewide. Additionally, 32.1% of city residents live below the poverty line, well more than double the state poverty rate of 14.7%.\n\nAs is often the case in cities with similarly negative economic indicators, Syracuse is losing residents. In the last five years, the city's population declined by 1.2%, even as the U.S. population climbed by 3.7%.\n\nMore: Who is getting paid more? 16 states where personal incomes are booming\n\n42. Miami\n\nPopulation: 453,584\n\n453,584 Median home value: $277,700\n\n$277,700 Poverty rate: 24.9%\n\n24.9% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 26.6%\n\nMiami is one of the most expensive cities in the country. Goods and services in Miami-Dade County are about 15% more expensive than they are on average nationwide. Housing is particularly expensive. The typical home in Miami is worth $277,700 compared to the median home value of $205,000 nationwide. Despite this, the typical household in the Miami area earns $34,901 a year, well below the median income of $57,617 nationwide.\n\nThe city is also relatively dangerous. Violent crime is about twice as common in Miami as it is nationwide as there were 879 violent crimes for every 100,000 people in 2016 compared to 386 per 100,000 nationwide.\n\n41. North Charleston, S.C.\n\nPopulation: 112,147\n\n112,147 Median home value: $152,000\n\n$152,000 Poverty rate: 25.8%\n\n25.8% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 22.1%\n\nMore than one in every four North Charleston residents live in poverty, compared to 15.3% of South Carolinians and 14.0% of Americans. Poorer cities are often relatively dangerous, and North Charleston is no exception. There were 885 violent crimes in North Charleston for every 100,000 residents in 2016, compared to state's violent crime rate of 502 per 100,000 and the nationwide rate of 386 per 100,000.\n\nWhile many cities on this list are losing residents, North Charleston is growing rapidly. In the past decade, the city's population expanded by 34.4%, more than all but a dozen other U.S. cities over the same period.\n\n40. South Bend, Ind.\n\nPopulation: 102,442\n\n102,442 Median home value: $77,400\n\n$77,400 Poverty rate: 24.7%\n\n24.7% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 24.1%\n\nSouth Bend, Indiana is one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. There were 1,012 violent crimes in South Bend for every 100,000 residents in 2016, more than double both the state and national violent crime rates of 405 incidents and 386 incidents per 100,000 people, respectively. As is often the case in high crime areas, property values in South Bend are depressed. The typical home in the city is worth just $77,400, less than half the national median home value of $205,000.\n\n39. New Haven, Conn.\n\nPopulation: 129,939\n\n129,939 Median home value: $191,000\n\n$191,000 Poverty rate: 24.5%\n\n24.5% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 32.4%\n\nNew Haven is one of two Connecticut cities to rank among the worst cities to live in nationwide. The city's 6.6% unemployment rate is higher than both the state jobless rate of 5.1% and the national rate of 4.9%. The weak job market likely only increases financial hardship for some city residents as it is not a particularly inexpensive place to live. Goods and services in New Haven County are about 16.5% more expensive than they are on average nationwide.\n\nNew Haven is not an especially safe city. There were 938 violent crimes for every 100,000 city residents in 2016, more than double the national violent crime rate of 386 per 100,000.\n\n38. Tallahassee, Fla.\n\nPopulation: 190,895\n\n190,895 Median home value: $196,700\n\n$196,700 Poverty rate: 26.1%\n\n26.1% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 49.6%\n\nTallahassee is one of six cities in the Sunshine State to rank among the least liveable in the country. As is the case with most other Florida cities on this list, Tallahassee has a relatively high poverty rate. More than one in every four city residents live below the poverty line compared to 14% of Americans nationwide. Additionally, both property and violent crimes are more than twice as common in Tallahassee than they are nationwide.\n\nUnlike most cities on this list, Tallahassee has a large college-educated population. About half of all adults in the city have a bachelor's degree or higher. In comparison, fewer than one in three adults nationwide have similar educational attainment.\n\n37. Kalamazoo, Mich.\n\nPopulation: 75,988\n\n75,988 Median home value: $98,000\n\n$98,000 Poverty rate: 30.9%\n\n30.9% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 31.3%\n\nAir quality in Kalamazoo is nearly the worst of any U.S. city. The city's air is considered hazardous for about 15% of days in a given year, a far larger share than the 6% average nationwide. The city is also among the most dangerous nationwide. There were 1,217 violent crimes in 2016 for every 100,000 residents, more than triple the U.S. violent crime rate of 386 per 100,000.\n\nAs is often the case among cities on this list, Kalamazoo is poor. Over 30% of the population lives in poverty, more than double the U.S. poverty rate of 14%.\n\n36. Knoxville, Tenn.\n\nPopulation: 186,238\n\n186,238 Median home value: $128,000\n\n$128,000 Poverty rate: 25.4%\n\n25.4% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 35.1%\n\nAbout one in every four Knoxville residents live in poverty, well above the 14% share of Americans and the second highest poverty rate of any large city in the state. Poorer areas often struggle with crime, and in Knoxville, both violent and property crimes are more than twice as common as they are nationwide.\n\nWhile the city struggles with low incomes and higher crime rates, the home of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville also has some positive attributes common in college towns. For example, 35.1% of residents have a bachelor's degree, a larger share than is typical nationwide. Additionally, the city has a greater than average concentration of bars and restaurants than the United States as a whole.\n\n35. Toledo, Ohio\n\nPopulation: 278,512\n\n278,512 Median home value: $79,100\n\n$79,100 Poverty rate: 26.3%\n\n26.3% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 18.7%\n\nToledo, Ohio, is one of the most dangerous cities in the country. There were 1,192 violent crimes for every 100,000 Toledo residents in 2016, more than three times the statewide violent crime rate and nearly triple the U.S. violent crime rate. A high crime rate can depress home values, and real estate in Toledo ranks among the least expensive in the country. The typical home in the city is worth just $79,100 compared to the value of $205,000 of the typical American home. It is also lower than in all but 13 other U.S. cities.\n\nAs is the case with nearly every other Midwestern city on this list, Toledo's population is shrinking. In the last five years, the number of people living in the city fell by 2.6%.\n\nMore: Public sector jobs: States where the most people work for the government\n\n34. Buffalo, N.Y.\n\nPopulation: 256,908\n\n256,908 Median home value: $83,500\n\n$83,500 Poverty rate: 30.5%\n\n30.5% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 26.7%\n\nBased on a number of socioeconomic indicators, Buffalo is the worst city to live in in New York state and one of the worst in the country. Buffalo is one of just a handful of cities nationwide where the typical household earns less than $33,000 a year. The low median income is due in part to the high jobless rate. Some 6.3% of Buffalo's labor force is out of a job, above both the state unemployment rate of 4.8% and the national rate of 4.9%. The jobs market has not improved meaningfully in the western New York city in recent years. Between 2014 and 2016, city employment grew by only 0.1% compared to 3.5% total employment growth nationwide over the same period.\n\nAs is the case with most Northeastern cities on this list, Buffalo has lost residents in recent years. In the past half-decade, the city's population count declined by 1.6%, even as the U.S. population expanded by 3.7% over the same period.\n\n33. Canton, Ohio\n\nPopulation: 71,329\n\n71,329 Median home value: $73,400\n\n$73,400 Poverty rate: 31.5%\n\n31.5% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 15.0%\n\nOnly 15 cities nationwide have a higher poverty rate than Canton, Ohio, where 31.5% of the population lives below the poverty line. The high poverty rate is likely due in part to the bleak jobs picture. The number of people working in the city fell by 1.3% from 2014 to 2016, and the annual unemployment rate stands at 6.4%. In comparison, employment climbed 3.5% nationwide over the same period and the annual U.S. unemployment rate stands at 4.9%.\n\nLow-income areas often also have low property values, and Canton has some of the cheapest real estate in the country. The typical area home is worth just $73,400 compared to the national median home value of $205,000.\n\n32. Fresno, Calif.\n\nPopulation: 522,021\n\n522,021 Median home value: $227,500\n\n$227,500 Poverty rate: 28.1%\n\n28.1% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 21.6%\n\nFresno is one of half a dozen cities in California to rank among the worst cities to live in nationwide. Like most California cities, Fresno is an expensive place to live. The typical area home is worth $227,500, or about five times the median income of $44,905 in the city. In comparison, the typical American home value of $205,000 is only about 3.6 times the national median income of $57,617.\n\nFresno is situated in California's San Joaquin Valley, a region with some of the nation's worst air quality. In the Fresno area, about 14% of days in a given year have hazardous air quality, compared to only 6% of days nationwide on average.\n\n31. Tucson, Ariz.\n\nPopulation: 530,690\n\n530,690 Median home value: $144,000\n\n$144,000 Poverty rate: 24.1%\n\n24.1% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 26.1%\n\nTucson is the second most populous city in Arizona and the only city in the state to rank among the worst U.S. cities to live in. The typical Tucson household earns $40,021 a year, only about three-quarters of the median annual household income in Arizona. Additionally, nearly one in every four city residents live in poverty, compared to 14.0% of Americans and 16.4% of people in Arizona. Crime is also relatively common in Tucson. There were 799 violent crimes and 5,891 property crimes in the city in 2016 per 100,000 people, more than double the comparable crime rates on a national scale.\n\nMore: What's the richest town in every state?\n\n30. Trenton, N.J.\n\nPopulation: 84,065\n\n84,065 Median home value: $86,500\n\n$86,500 Poverty rate: 27.8%\n\n27.8% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 14.8%\n\nIn Trenton, one of the poorest cities in the country, more than one in four residents live in poverty, and the typical household earns just $31,592 a year. Low-income Trenton residents live with additional financial stress as goods and services in the county around the New Jersey state capital are about 18% more expensive than they are on average nationwide.\n\nCrime is often more common in poor cities, and Trenton is no exception. There were 1,341 violent crimes for every 100,000 Trenton residents in 2016, a crime rate more than five times that of New Jersey.\n\n29. Dayton, Ohio\n\nPopulation: 140,478\n\n140,478 Median home value: $66,900\n\n$66,900 Poverty rate: 32.0%\n\n32.0% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 16.3%\n\nThe median annual household income in Dayton, Ohio, of $28,894 is the sixth lowest among all large U.S. cities. Low-income areas often also have low property values, and Dayton is no exception. The typical home in the city is worth $66,900, also the sixth lowest median home value of any similarly sized city in the United States.\n\nDayton may be an especially bad place for families with school-aged children. Standardized test scores in Dayton's public schools are well below the comparable results across Ohio as a whole.\n\n28. Springfield, Mass.\n\nPopulation: 154,079\n\n154,079 Median home value: $154,300\n\n$154,300 Poverty rate: 24.7%\n\n24.7% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 18.0%\n\nSpringfield is the only city in Massachusetts, and one of only three in the broader New England region, to rank among the worst cities to live in. Springfield's 6.9% unemployment rate is the highest of any Massachusetts city and well above the 4.9% U.S. unemployment rate. The high jobless rate exacerbates financial hardship in the city. About one in every four Springfield residents live below the poverty line, the highest poverty rate of any city in the state.\n\nAs is the case with most cities on this list, real estate is relatively inexpensive in Springfield. The typical home is worth $154,300, the lowest median home value of any city in the state and less than half the median home value of $366,900 across Massachusetts.\n\n27. Oakland\n\nPopulation: 419,987\n\n419,987 Median home value: $649,700\n\n$649,700 Poverty rate: 18.9%\n\n18.9% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 41.1%\n\nOakland's median household income of $68,060 a year is the highest of any city on this list and higher even than the median income nationwide of $57,617. However, the city's high incomes are largely offset by a high cost of living, as goods and services are about 27% more expensive in Oakland than they are nationwide, on average. Housing is particularly expensive. The typical home in Oakland is worth nearly $650,000, or about 10 times the city's median income. Nationwide, the median home value is worth only about 3.6 times the median income.\n\nA high violent crime rate can often drive down property value, but this has not been the case in Oakland. The city has the highest violent crime rate of any California city at 1,443 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2016.\n\n26. Merced, Calif.\n\nPopulation: 82,573\n\n82,573 Median home value: $215,400\n\n$215,400 Poverty rate: 28.2%\n\n28.2% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 16.4%\n\nMerced is one of several California cities on this list struggling with high unemployment. About one in every 10 workers in the city are out of a job, the sixth highest unemployment rate of any American city. The high jobless rate may contribute to the city's high poverty rate. More than one in every four Merced residents live in poverty, well above the 14.0% U.S. poverty rate.\n\nMost American cities have a relatively high concentration of restaurants and bars and places for entertainment, but Merced is an exception. There is a slightly lower-than-typical concentration of restaurants and eateries in the city, and the concentration of bars is about half the average concentration nationwide.\n\n25. Miami Beach, Fla.\n\nPopulation: 91,905\n\n91,905 Median home value: $479,400\n\n$479,400 Poverty rate: 13.5%\n\n13.5% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 46.2%\n\nMiami Beach -- one of three cities on this list in Miami-Dade County -- is one of the least affordable cities in the United States. The median home value is just under half a million dollars, about nine times the median household income in the city of $53,685. In comparison, the typical home nationwide is worth just 3.6 times the median household income. High crime rates often drive down property values, but not in Miami Beach. There were 1,023 violent crimes in the city for every 100,000 residents in 2016, nearly triple the national violent crime rate.\n\nUnlike most cities on this list, Miami Beach's population is well educated. More than 46% of adults in the city have a bachelor's degree or higher compared to just 31.3% of American adults.\n\nMore: Can you afford that new vehicle? 25 most expensive car models to insure\n\n24. Stockton, Calif.\n\nPopulation: 307,057\n\n307,057 Median home value: $243,700\n\n$243,700 Poverty rate: 17.7%\n\n17.7% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 16.7%\n\nStockton has one of the highest unemployment rates of any American city. Some 8.7% of the city's workforce is out of a job, far higher than the 4.9% U.S. annual unemployment rate. The high jobless rate contributes to the city's relatively low median income. The typical household in the city earns just $49,271 a year -- less than three-quarters of the median income of $67,739 across the state. Low-income residents face further financial strain as the cost of living is relatively high in Stockton. Goods and services are about 7% more expensive in the city than they are on average nationwide.\n\n23. Daytona Beach, Fla.\n\nPopulation: 66,649\n\n66,649 Median home value: $132,300\n\n$132,300 Poverty rate: 20.1%\n\n20.1% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 21.6%\n\nDaytona Beach is one of the poorest cities in the country, with a median annual household income of just $31,273. The city's low median income is likely due in part to a lack of jobs. Some 6.3% of the Daytona Beach workforce is out of a job, well above the 4.9% annual U.S. unemployment rate.\n\nThe lack of jobs may be partly due to the city's high crime rate, which may drive potential employers and small business owners away. There were 1,221 violent crimes and 6,297 property crimes for every 100,000 Daytona Beach residents in 2016, each nearly triple the comparable national crime rates.\n\n22. Charleston, W.Va.\n\nPopulation: 50,210\n\n50,210 Median home value: $150,300\n\n$150,300 Poverty rate: 20.0%\n\n20.0% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 38.7%\n\nThough the median household income in Charleston of $46,720 a year is considerably lower than the national median of $57,617, a dollar goes further in West Virginia's capital city. Goods and services are 17% less expensive in Charleston than they are on average nationwide.\n\nHowever, the city's low cost of living is likely indicative of its low desirability as a place to live. The city has high crime rates with both violent and property crimes more than three times more common in Charleston than they are nationwide. The city's air quality is also among the worst in the country. Hazardous air quality is reported on about 18% of days per year, compared to just 6% of days on average nationwide.\n\n21. Shreveport, La.\n\nPopulation: 194,472\n\n194,472 Median home value: $150,000\n\n$150,000 Poverty rate: 30.8%\n\n30.8% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 23.3%\n\nThe violent crime rate in Louisiana of 566 incidents for every 100,000 residents is the fifth highest among states. In Shreveport, violence is even more prevalent. There were 959 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2016, nearly double the corresponding state rate. Violence is often more common in poorer areas, and a large share of Shreveport residents face serious financial hardship. Some 30.8% of the city's population lives below the poverty line compared to the 20.2% of the state's population and 14.0% of the U.S. population.\n\nLike many cities on this list, Shreveport is losing residents. In the last five years, Shreveport's population fell by 3.7%, even as the U.S. population grew by 3.7%.\n\n20. Compton, Calif.\n\nPopulation: 97,537\n\n97,537 Median home value: $327,900\n\n$327,900 Poverty rate: 26.5%\n\n26.5% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 8.1%\n\nMore than one in every four Compton residents live on poverty level income, well above the 14.0% U.S. poverty rate. The high poverty rate is partly attributable to the city's weak job market. Some 8.2% of workers in Compton are unemployed compared to 4.9% of American workers nationwide. The jobs that are available in the city do not likely pay much. High-paying jobs are often only available to those with a college education, and in Compton, just 8.1% of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher, less than a third of the U.S. share of 31.3% of adults.\n\nPoor areas often have higher crime rates, and Compton is no different. There were 1,158 violent crimes in the city for every 100,000 residents in 2016, nearly three times the national violent crime rate.\n\n19. Little Rock, Ark.\n\nPopulation: 198,546\n\n198,546 Median home value: $161,000\n\n$161,000 Poverty rate: 18.8%\n\n18.8% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 40.2%\n\nLittle Rock, the capital of Arkansas, ranks as the worst city to live in in the state and one of the worst in the country. One of the most dangerous cities in the country, Little Rock's violent crime rate of 1,533 incidents per 100,000 residents is nearly quadruple the national violent crime rate of 386 incidents per 100,000. The high violent crime rate may discourage some from relocating to or starting a family in the city. In the last decade, Little Rock's population increased by only 0.2%, even as the U.S. population grew by 7.1%.\n\nLikely due in part to the concentration of jobs common in state capitals that require higher education, a relatively large share of the Little Rock population is college educated. Some 40.2% of the city's adults have a bachelor's degree or higher compared to the 31.3% of American adults. Despite a high educational attainment rate, the city's median household income of $45,605 is about $12,000 below the national median.\n\nMore: Migration and growth: The fastest growing (and shrinking) cities in the US\n\n18. Gary, Ind.\n\nPopulation: 74,186\n\n74,186 Median home value: $64,800\n\n$64,800 Poverty rate: 33.3%\n\n33.3% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 11.0%\n\nGary, Indiana, is one of the most economically depressed cities in the country. One in every three city residents live below the poverty line, more than double the national poverty rate of 14.0%. Gary is also one of only a handful of cities nationwide where most households earn less than $30,000 per year. The low incomes are reflected in the area's depressed real estate values. The typical home in Gary is worth just $64,800, nearly the lowest median home value of any U.S. city.\n\nThe financial hardship is due in part to a bleak jobs picture. Gary's 9.0% unemployment rate is one of the worst in the country and far higher than the annual U.S. unemployment rate of 4.9%.\n\n17. Pueblo, Colo.\n\nPopulation: 110,295\n\n110,295 Median home value: $126,200\n\n$126,200 Poverty rate: 24.2%\n\n24.2% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 18.7%\n\nPueblo is the only Colorado city to rank among the worst cities to live in. The typical household earns just $38,380 a year, by far the lowest median income of any city in the state. Pueblo is also home to many residents struggling with financial hardship. Nearly one in every four residents live below the poverty line, the highest poverty rate of any city in Colorado.\n\nPoor areas are more likely to struggle with crime than affluent cities, and Pueblo is no different. There were 980 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2016, the worst violent crime rate of any city in the state and nearly triple Colorado's violent crime rate.\n\n16. Rockford, Ill.\n\nPopulation: 147,404\n\n147,404 Median home value: $89,200\n\n$89,200 Poverty rate: 22.6%\n\n22.6% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 22.6%\n\nThe city of Rockford, Illinois, has an unemployment rate of 7.7%, the highest of any city in the state and well above the 4.9% annual U.S. jobless rate. The city also ranks as the most dangerous in the state, with a violent crime rate of 1,658 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2016 -- which is more than four times the U.S. violent crime rate.\n\nThe week jobs picture and high crime likely depress property values in the city. The typical home in Rockford is worth just $89,200, less than half the median home value of $186,500 across the state.\n\n15. Youngstown, Ohio\n\nPopulation: 65,161\n\n65,161 Median home value: $43,300\n\n$43,300 Poverty rate: 38.0%\n\n38.0% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 12.0%\n\nYoungstown, Ohio, is one of the poorest cities in the United States. Some 38.0% of the population lives below the poverty line, the third highest poverty rate among U.S. cities. Youngstown is also the only U.S. city where more than half of all households earn less than $25,000 a year. The low incomes are reflected in the city's low property values. The typical home in Youngstown is worth just $43,300, less than a quarter of the national median home value of $205,000.\n\nLike many poor cities, crime rates are high in Youngstown. There were 3,780 property crimes for every 100,000 city residents in 2016, well above the national property crime rate of 2,451 per 100,000.\n\n14. San Bernardino, Calif.\n\nPopulation: 216,242\n\n216,242 Median home value: $240,400\n\n$240,400 Poverty rate: 29.4%\n\n29.4% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 9.1%\n\nSan Bernardino is the second worst city to live in in California and one of the worst in the country. San Bernardino's 29.4% poverty is the third highest in the state and more than double the U.S. poverty rate. Widespread financial hardship is likely tied to the lack of available jobs in the city. Some 7.3% of workers are out of a job, well above the 5.4% statewide unemployment rate. Employers and small business owners may be discouraged from operating in the city because of the high concentration of crime. There were 1,331 violent crimes in the city for every 100,000 residents in 2016, about three times the statewide violent crime rate.\n\n13. Florence-Graham, Calif.\n\nPopulation: 63,390\n\n63,390 Median home value: $267,800\n\n$267,800 Poverty rate: 31.5%\n\n31.5% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 4.4%\n\nThe typical household in Florence-Graham earns just $34,738 a year, almost half the $67,739 the typical California household earns. The city's lower-income residents face additional financial strain with a high cost of living. Goods and services in Florence-Graham are about 37% more expensive than they are on average nationwide.\n\nHigh-paying jobs are often only available to those with a college education and the low incomes in Florence-Graham may be attributable to a relative lack of college-educated workers. Just 4.4% of adults in the city have a bachelor's degree or higher, the smallest share of any U.S. city and just a fraction of the national bachelor's degree attainment rate of 31.3%.\n\nMore: 25 richest cities in America: Does your metro area make the list?\n\n12. Homestead, Fla.\n\nPopulation: 68,000\n\n68,000 Median home value: $204,800\n\n$204,800 Poverty rate: 33.9%\n\n33.9% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 17.2%\n\nOne of three cities in Miami-Dade County to rank among the worst places in the country to live, Homestead is the worst city in Florida and 14th worst nationwide. The typical household in Homestead earns just $32,001 a year compared to the national median income of $57,617. Residents' financial strain is compounded by the city's a high cost of living. Goods and services are 15% more expensive in Homestead than they are on average nationwide.\n\nMost cities have high concentrations of bars, restaurants, and cafes, but Homestead is an exception. The number of bars and restaurants in for every 100,000 people is less than half the average concentration across the United States as a whole.\n\n11. Hartford, Conn.\n\nPopulation: 123,287\n\n123,287 Median home value: $161,200\n\n$161,200 Poverty rate: 27.3%\n\n27.3% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 16.8%\n\nHartford is the worst city to live in in both Connecticut and the broader New England region. The typical Hartford household earns $36,637 a year, less than half the median income in Connecticut of $73,433. Low-income individuals in the city are put under additional financial strain as goods and services are 17.3% more expensive in the city than they are on average nationwide. A bleak jobs picture in the city is partially to blame for the low median income. Some 9.4% of workers are out of a job, the largest share in New England and nearly double the 4.9% 2016 annual U.S. unemployment rate.\n\nThe city's poor economic conditions may be driving people out of Hartford. In the last five years, Hartford's population shrank by 1.3% even as the national population increased by 3.7%.\n\n10. Milwaukee\n\nPopulation: 595,070\n\n595,070 Median home value: $114,700\n\n$114,700 Poverty rate: 26.7%\n\n26.7% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 23.3%\n\nMore than one in every four MIlwaukee residents live in poverty, more than double the 11.8% state poverty rate. Poor cities often have higher crime rates than more affluent cities, and Milwaukee is no exception. There were 1,546 violent crimes for every 100,000 Milwaukee residents, more than five times the statewide violent crime rate of 306 per 100,000.\n\nAs is the case with nearly every Midwestern city on this list, Milwaukee's population is shrinking. In the last five years, the city's population count fell by 0.5%, even as the U.S. population grew by 3.7%.\n\nMore: Who is drinking the most? The drunkest (and driest) cities in America\n\n9. Baltimore\n\nPopulation: 614,664\n\n614,664 Median home value: $153,500\n\n$153,500 Poverty rate: 21.9%\n\n21.9% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 30.8%\n\nBaltimore's median annual household income of $47,350 is the lowest of any city in Maryland. The city's poor households face additional strain because of the high cost of living. Goods and services are about 12% more expensive in Baltimore than they are nationwide on average.\n\nLong commutes cut into personal time and can diminish overall quality of life. In Baltimore, a city with some of the most congested roadways in the country, the average commute time is over half an hour, longer than in the vast majority of American cities.\n\n8. Springfield, Mo.\n\nPopulation: 167,313\n\n167,313 Median home value: $115,900\n\n$115,900 Poverty rate: 24.6%\n\n24.6% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 25.7%\n\nAlong with St. Louis, Springfield is one of two Missouri cities to rank among the worst cities to live in. As is also the case in St. Louis, crime detracts considerably from overall quality of life in Springfield. There were 1,345 violent crimes for every 100,000 city residents in 2016, more than triple the U.S. violent crime rate. Additionally, there were 8,518 property crimes in the city for every 100,000 people in 2016, the third highest property crime rate in the United States.\n\nA large share of Springfield residents struggle financially. About one in every four city residents live below the poverty line, the largest share of any large city in the state.\n\n7. Albany, Ga.\n\nPopulation: 74,904\n\n74,904 Median home value: $88,800\n\n$88,800 Poverty rate: 32.5%\n\n32.5% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 20.1%\n\nThe populations of several cities on this list are shrinking, but few are losing residents as fast as Albany, Georgia. In the last five years, Albany's population declined by 4.8%, even as the U.S. population expanded by 3.7%. The falling population is likely attributable in part to bleak economic conditions. Some 32.5% of city residents live in poverty, more than double the state poverty rate of 16.0% and the U.S. rate of 14.0%. More jobs in the city would likely go a long way to ease serious financial hardship. Some 7.0% of workers in Albany are out of job, the highest unemployment rate of any Georgia city.\n\n6. Wilmington, Del.\n\nPopulation: 71,455\n\n71,455 Median home value: $145,600\n\n$145,600 Poverty rate: 27.7%\n\n27.7% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 25.6%\n\nLow incomes and a high cost of living likely detract from overall quality of life for many in Wilmington, Delaware. The typical household in the city earns just $36,435 a year -- well below the median income of $57,617 nationwide -- and 27.7% of the city's population lives below the poverty line, nearly double the U.S. poverty rate. Meanwhile, goods and services in Wilmington are about 17% more expensive than they are on average nationwide.\n\nWilmington also ranks as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. There were 1,798 violent crimes in Wilmington for every 100,000 residents in 2016, more than all but four other cities and more than quadruple the national violent crime rate.\n\nMore: Cost of living: The purchasing power of a dollar in every state\n\n5. Cleveland\n\nPopulation: 385,81\n\n385,81 Median home value: $66,800\n\n$66,800 Poverty rate: 35.0%\n\n35.0% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 16.3%\n\nOne of the poorest cities in the country, Cleveland's 35% poverty rate is more than double the U.S. poverty rate and higher than that of all but one other city in the state. Cleveland's 6.9% jobless rate is also the second highest of any city in the state. The city is also dangerous. There were 1,633 violent crimes in the city for every 100,000 residents in 2016, more than in all but eight other U.S. cities and quadruple the national violent crime rate.\n\nWidespread poverty, a high crime rate, and a bleak jobs picture likely partially explain the declining population. In the last decade, Cleveland's population fell by 2.4% even as the country's population as a whole grew by 7.1%.\n\n4. Memphis\n\nPopulation: 652,752\n\n652,752 Median home value: $96,800\n\n$96,800 Poverty rate: 26.9%\n\n26.9% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 25.6%\n\nIn Memphis, serious financial hardship and high crime rate detract from the overall quality of life of many residents. Some 26.9% of area residents live in poverty, the largest share of any city in the state and well above the 14.0% U.S. poverty rate. Poorer cities often struggle more with crime, and Memphis is no exception. There were 1,830 violent crimes in the city for every 100,000 residents in 2016, a higher violent crime rate than in all but three other U.S. cities and nearly five times the comparable U.S. violent crime rate.\n\n3. St. Louis\n\nPopulation: 311,404\n\n311,404 Median home value: $125,800\n\n$125,800 Poverty rate: 23.8%\n\n23.8% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 34.1%\n\nSt. Louis is the worst city to live in in Missouri and third worst nationwide. A concentration of violence in parts of the city makes St. Louis a particularly difficult place to live. There were 1,932 violent crimes for every 100,000 city residents in 2016, the third highest violent crime rate of any U.S. city and five times the comparable U.S. rate. Crime rates are often higher in economically depressed areas, and St. Louis is a relatively poor city. Some 23.8% of residents live below the poverty line, a higher poverty rate than in the majority of U.S. cities and nearly 10 percentage points above both the U.S. and statewide poverty rates of 14.0%.\n\nAs is the case in nearly every other Midwestern city on this list, St. Louis is losing residents. The city's population fell by 11.2% over the past decade, even as the U.S. population expanded by 7.1%.\n\n2. Flint, Mich.\n\nPopulation: 97,379\n\n97,379 Median home value: $28,200\n\n$28,200 Poverty rate: 44.5%\n\n44.5% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 10.5%\n\nFlint is second-worst city to live in in both Michigan and the United States as a whole. Some 44.5% of Flint's population lives below the poverty line, the highest poverty rate of any city in the country. Financial hardship in the city is precipitated in part by a lagging job market. The city's 9.8% unemployment rate is double the annual U.S. unemployment rate of 4.9%. The city may be an unattractive place for many employers and small business owners to operate in, both because of high crime rates and the relatively small college-educated population. Flint's violent crime rate of 1,587 incidents per 100,000 people is more than triple the state violent crime rate. Also, only 10.5% of city residents have a bachelor's degree, about a third of the 31.3% share of American adults.\n\n1. Detroit\n\nPopulation: 672,829\n\n672,829 Median home value: $43,500\n\n$43,500 Poverty rate: 35.7%\n\n35.7% Pct. with at least a bachelor's degree: 14.9%\n\nThe poster child of American post-industrial urban decline, Detroit, Michigan, ranks as the worst city in the country to live in. Once home to 1.8 million residents at the peak of U.S. auto manufacturing in the 1950s, the city is now home to fewer than 700,000 after decades of decline.\n\nA poor, economically depressed city, more than one in every three Detroit residents live below the poverty line. The city also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States, with 10.9% of the workforce out of a job. Detroit is also dangerous. There were over 2,000 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2016.\n\nMore: Which town in your state is the poorest? Here is the list\n\nDetailed findings\n\nProblems like poverty, high unemployment rates, and high crime rates can have far-reaching effects -- and rarely does one exist without the others.\n\nBy itself, a high concentration of violent and property crime is bad for any city. People living in high crime areas are at greater risk of being the victim of a crime -- and even if they are not victims themselves, high crime rates can take a toll on residents’ mental health.\n\nHigh crime rates can also have economic implications for a city. Employers and small business owners may be less likely to operate in cities with high crime rates. This can then lead to higher jobless rates and economic stagnation. Of the 50 cities on this list, 39 have both higher than typical violent crime rates as well as unemployment rates above the 4.9% nationwide annual average.\n\nThe high unemployment rates in the cities on this list may also be due in part to their poorly educated labor pools -- a less educated workforce may make a city less attractive for major employers. Only a dozen of the 50 cities on this list are home to a larger share of adults with a bachelor’s degree than the 31.3% share nationwide.\n\nA weak job market tends to lower the typical income in an area, and the cities on this list tend to be relatively poor. In the majority of the worst cities to live in, the median income is less than $40,000 a year. Oakland, California, is the only city on this list with a median household income above the national median of $57,617. However, in many of the higher income cities like Oakland, a high cost of living offsets the higher incomes. In Oakland, goods and services are 27.4% more expensive on average than they are nationwide.\n\nFor many American homeowners, their home comprises the bulk of their wealth. However, low incomes, high crime rates, and stagnant economies have depressed home values in many of these cities. In 17 of the 50 cities on this list, the typical home is worth less than $100,000, and only 12 cities have a higher median home value than the national median of $205,000. In those cities with higher home values, homeownership may be prohibitively expensive as in most cases the median home value is more than five times the median income. Nationwide, the median home value is worth only about 3.6 times the median income.\n\nIn addition to some of the interconnected social and economic measures included in our index. We considered several factors that tend to move independently of one another, including air quality, average commute times, and risk of natural disasters.\n\nMore: Despite overall sustained GDP growth in US, some cities still hit hard by extreme poverty\n\nMethodology\n\nTo determine America’s 50 worst cities to live in, 24/7 Wall Street considered the roughly 600 cities that the U.S. Census Bureau reported as having populations of more than 50,000 in 2016. Dwere was collected in nine major categories: crime, demography, economy, education, environment, health, housing, infrastructure, and leisure.\n\nWithin each category, specific measures contributed to a city’s overall category score. For example, the economy category included median household income adjusted for cost of living, the ratio between a city’s and its state’s median household income, poverty and unemployment rates, as well as a city’s three-year employment growth. Each measure was adjusted to range from 0 to 1 using min-max normalization, with lower scores indicating better outcomes.\n\nNormalizing each measure, as opposed to aggregating category scores in other ways, allowed us to assign weight to individual measures for added importance rather than entire categories. It also enabled us to expose the principal components of our index — those measures with wider variation that disproportionately determine the rank of a city’s composite score. The housing category, for example, had the widest range, giving it the greatest pull in our index. Crime and economy also had large variances.\n\nWe did not include any measures in the demography category in our composite index. However, this category provided exclusion rules. Cities that are better to live in often attract job seekers and their families. Conversely, labor market slack, unaffordable housing, high crime rates, or other negative factors may induce people to move to a different city with better prospects. Population figures are from the Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey (ACS).\n\nThe crime category consists of both violent and property crime rates from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2016 Uniform Crime Report. High crime rates have the potential to make a city less desirable. As a result, cities with crime rates lower than the national rates were rewarded, while cities with higher crime rates were penalized.\n\nThe economy category includes a city’s 2016 unemployment rate and employment growth from 2014-2016, both from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cities were penalized for having poverty rates above the national rate of 14.0%. Our goal was to identify cities that were livable for everyone, not just the rich. Still, if incomes are too low, a city may not be desirable. To that end, we adjusted median household income the for cost of living in the city. Cities were penalized if cost-adjusted incomes were less than $44,000 or more than $112,000 a year, roughly 80% to 200% of a typical household’s income nationwide. Poverty rates and median income came from the 2016 ACS. Cost of living data came from property and real estate data provider ATTOM Data Solutions.\n\nAs a proxy for school system strength, we considered high school standardized test scores relative to state scores from ATTOM Data Solutions. Test score data are for 2015 or the most recently available year. Additionally, the education category included the percentage of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree from the ACS, as well as the number of colleges and universities in a city per 100,000 residents from the Department of Education. Both measures are as of 2016.\n\nIn the environment category, we included an air quality index to assess the levels of a variety of pollutants on a given day. Additionally, we considered an index measuring natural hazard risk, as well as average monthly rainfall. All data in this category came from ATTOM Data Solutions.\n\nFrom the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), we calculated 30-day risk-adjusted mortality rates of heart attacks, COPD, heart failure, pneumonia, and stroke. Also from CMS, we examined the rate at which individuals were readmitted to a hospital within 30 days of being discharged. This category also includes preventable hospitalizations — the share of hospitalizations that could have been treated with outpatient or ambulatory care for every 1,000 Medicare recipients from County Health Rankings.\n\nIn our housing index, we considered the ratio of a city’s median home value to the statewide median home value. Cities were penalized if a city’s home values were worth less than 90% of statewide home values. Conversely, if home values were typically 25% higher than across the state, high barriers to entry exist that can make a city unaffordable. As an additional measure of affordability, we included the ratio of median home value to median annual household income. This ratio — called a price-to-income ratio — helps identify cities that are less liveable for a broad audience. We also considered median property taxes as a percentage of median home value. All data in this category came from the 2016 ACS.\n\nFrom the ACS, we considered the percentage of commuters travelling to work by foot or public transportation. Additionally, we reviewed the average time it takes to travel to work each day. Lastly, we included the number of airports in the metro area in which the city is located. There are, for example, no airports in New York County, the primary county of New York City. However, at least three major airports exist outside county limits — and within the metro area — that service people who live in the city. Airport data came from the Federal Aviation Administration and only consider operational public-use and commercial airports as of 2015.\n\nThe leisure category can be broken into two parts: activities that take place in the city and outside it. Within a city, residents may take advantage of restaurants and bars, libraries and archives, theater companies, fitness and recreational sports centers, museums, movie theaters, hotels, or amateur and professional sports teams. To engage in other pastimes — skiing, for example — residents likely have to leave city limits. We included in this index the number of zoos, nature parks, ski resorts, and golf courses in the counties surrounding the city. All data in this category were aggregated to the city level from 2015 Zip Code Business Patterns, a program maintained by the Census and adjusted for the city’s 2016 population.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/06/13"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_24", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220624_25", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/09/uk/nuclear-fusion-climate-energy-scn-intl/index.html", "title": "Climate change: A giant donut-shaped machine just proved a near ...", "text": "In a giant donut-shaped machine known as a tokamak, scientists working in the English village of Culham, near Oxford, were able to generate a record-breaking 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy over five seconds on December 21 last year. Five seconds is the limit the machine can sustain the power before its magnets overheat.\n\nThe JET tokamak near Oxford, England, produced a record amount of sustained energy from nuclear fusion. Credit: EUROFusion.\n\nA magnetic field is required to contain the high temperatures needed to carry out the fusion process, which can be as high as 150 million degrees Celsius, 10 times hotter than the center of the sun.\n\n\"Our experiment showed for the first time that it's possible to have a sustained fusion process using exactly the same fuel mix planned for future fusion power plants,\" Tony Donné, CEO of EUROfusion, said at a press conference.\n\nEUROfusion, a consortium that includes 4,800 experts, students and staff from across Europe, carried out the project in partnership with the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The European Commission also contributed funding.\n\nThe potential for fusion energy is enormous. The experiment used the elements deuterium and tritium -- which are isotopes of hydrogen -- to fuel the fusion. Those elements are likely to be used in commercial-scale fusion, and can be found in seawater.\n\n\"The energy you can get out of the fuel deuterium and tritium is massive. For example, powering the whole of current UK electrical demand for a day would require 0.5 tonnes of deuterium, which could be extracted from seawater -- where its concentration is low but plentiful,\" Tony Roulstone from the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering told CNN.\n\nHe said the fusion generated by the tokamak -- called the Joint European Torus (JET) -- was around the same as a wind turbine, and could power one house's energy for a day.\n\nA view of Torus Hall, where the JET tokamak machine lies.\n\n\"But if generated repeatedly, it could power thousands of houses.\"\n\nExperts say the results prove that nuclear fusion is possible, and no longer a pipedream solution for the climate crisis.\n\n\"These landmark results have taken us a huge step closer to conquering one of the biggest scientific and engineering challenges of them all,\" said Ian Chapman, CEO of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.\n\nMark Wenman, a nuclear materials researcher at Imperial College London, said in a statement that the experiment's results are \"exciting,\" and that they show \"fusion energy really is no longer just a dream of the far future -- the engineering to make it a useful, clean power source is achievable and happening now.\"\n\nJET has been subject to such extreme heat and pressure that this experiment is likely the last it will cope with.\n\nBut its results are seen as a huge boon for ITER, a fusion megaproject in the south of France supported by the US, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea and Russia. The ITER project is 80% built and aims to begin nuclear fusion sometime in 2025-26.\n\nWhile JET's goal was to prove that nuclear fusion could be generated and sustained, ITER's aim is to produce a tenfold return on energy, or 500 MW of fusion power from 50 MW of energy put in.\n\nThe results are promising, but mastering nuclear fusion as an everyday energy source is still likely a long way off.\n\n\"The JET results are impressive and probably will get better as they proceed through their experiments. They are producing high power 12 MW, but right now just for five seconds. Much longer fusion burn is what is required,\" Roulstone said.\n\nThe most recent report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the latest science shows that the world must nearly halve its greenhouse gas emissions this decade and reach zero net emissions by 2050 to keep global warming in check. That means making a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, like coal, oil and gas.\n\nThose actions are required to have any hope of containing warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, seen as a threshold to substantially worsening climate impacts, according to the IPCC.", "authors": ["Danya Gainor", "Angela Dewan"], "publish_date": "2022/02/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/business/nuclear-power-france/index.html", "title": "France announces plans to build up to 14 nuclear reactors | CNN ...", "text": "Paris (CNN Business) France has announced plans to build up to 14 new nuclear reactors in a move that could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide a buffer against volatile energy prices.\n\nPresident Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France would construct six nuclear reactors, and study the possibility of commissioning a further eight.\n\n\"Given the electricity needs, the need to also anticipate the transition and the end of the existing fleet, which cannot be extended indefinitely, we are going to launch today a program of new nuclear reactors,\" Macron said.\n\nConstruction will commence in 2028, and the first new reactor could be commissioned by 2035.\n\nThe push deeper into nuclear marks a policy reversal for Macron, who promised four years ago to close 12 nuclear reactors as part of a move away from the power source. France was forced to turn to coal power this winter to meet its energy needs after more than a fifth of the country's nuclear reactors went offline.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Joseph Ataman", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/02/11"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/business/gas-prices-russia-ukraine-putin/index.html", "title": "Gas prices could soar if Russia invades Ukraine - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) If Russia invades Ukraine, inflation-weary Americans will likely pay even higher prices at the pump .\n\nThat's because Russia is the No. 2 oil producer on the planet , behind only the United States. And Ukraine is a key energy transit hub, where a large amount of Russian natural gas exports to Europe flow through.\n\nAn invasion of Ukraine would trigger immediate fears of sanctions from Washington on Russia's vast energy resources, damage to the region's energy infrastructure and raise the specter of Vladimir Putin weaponizing exports of natural gas and crude oil.\n\nInvestors would buy first and ask questions later.\n\n\"There is a very good chance we would reach $100. That's going to be inflationary with an exclamation point,\" said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities. \"We don't need that at all. We can't afford that at all.\"\n\nA conflict between Russia and Ukraine would boost gas prices, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.\n\n\"Such a huge geopolitical event would [have] major implications on the gas prices, if not leading to turmoil,\" IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told CNNI's Julia Chatterley on First Move.\n\n'All bets are off'\n\nIt's impossible to say how high prices would go — and how long they would stay high. But $100 oil would surely lift prices at the pump. And that means a Russia-Ukraine conflict has the potential to impact most Americans.\n\nGasoline prices, which move with a lag to oil, have already started to creep higher in recent days. The national average hit $3.32 a gallon on Wednesday, up from the recent low of $3.28, according to AAA.\n\n\"If there is a war with Russia, then all bets are off,\" said Claudio Galimberti, senior vice president of analysis at Rystad Energy.\n\nOil prices are up sharply this week and analysts say concerns about a Russia-Ukraine conflict have contributed to those gains.\n\n\"The market has been really slow to appreciate the risks of an invasion,\" said Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. \"Putin is not really a bluffer. He's known for backing words with action.\"\n\nThe White House is talking to energy companies and countries\n\nAll of this underscores the difficult situation the White House finds itself in, economically, politically and of course from a national security standpoint.\n\nInflation is already a major political and economic problem for President Joe Biden. The recent rebound in gasoline prices threatens to further aggravate inflation. And $100 oil in a Russia-Ukraine conflict would make it even worse.\n\n\"Whatever we decide is the right course for our collective interest and security,\" a spokesperson for the National Security Council told CNN in a statement, \"we are prepared to deliver severe costs to the Russian economy including its financial system and sectors deemed critical to the Kremlin and President Putin's ambitions -- while minimizing unwanted spillover.\"\n\nThat last part -- mitigating the impact -- could be tricky.\n\nA senior administration official told CNN that officials are taking contingency planning very seriously \"to make sure we are prepared to mitigate any impact and assess potential spillovers.\" That contingency planning, the official said, includes conversations with energy companies and countries.\n\nThe administration official added that the White House has been \"very clear\" about how it would respond to an invasion and \"that should already start being priced into the markets.\"\n\nNatural gas prices could spike\n\nEuropeans would pay the biggest price in a conflict. That's because Europe relies on Russia for natural gas. Heating costs in Europe skyrocketed last fall as natural gas futures spiked.\n\nThe impact to American consumers is less direct.\n\nRussia ships relatively modest amounts of oil to the United States, totaling just 200,000 barrels per day as of October. That represents just 3% of total US oil imports of 6 million barrels.\n\nHowever, crude is a globally traded commodity and prices at the pump are based off world oil prices. An oil shock anywhere is felt everywhere.\n\nNot just that, but a spike in natural gas prices overseas would have significant ripple effects.\n\nThat's because very high natural gas prices would force some power plants and factories in Europe and Asia to switch away from gas to oil. In other words, demand would go higher for oil.\n\n'Weaponize energy'\n\nAt the same time, supply would be in doubt.\n\nFirst, a military conflict would threaten energy infrastructure in the region.\n\nBut even if pipelines and refineries are spared, Russia could decide to slash its supply of natural gas -- or even crude oil.\n\n\"Russia can weaponize energy exports -- to make everyone feel the pain,\" said Croft, the RBC strategist. \"A lot of people believe Russia will respond by withholding supply, to make us pay the price.\"\n\nAnd then there's the risk that the White House responds to an invasion by slapping sanctions on Russian oil and natural gas.\n\nPresident Biden warned Wednesday of imposing \"severe costs and significant harm\" on the Russian economy if Putin invades Ukraine.\n\n\"It's going to be heavy, it's going to be real and it's going to be consequential,\" Biden said.\n\nBiden noted that Russia relies on its oil-and-gas exports for its economy. However, he stopped short of threatening to impose energy sanctions.\n\nCroft, a former CIA analyst, suggested the reluctance of US officials to threaten energy sanctions on Russia is telegraphing a vulnerability to Putin.\n\n\"If you carve out energy, you are signaling you're concerned about energy,\" she said.\n\nAny conflict could work against Russia's future as a dominant gas supplier.\n\n\"When you make long-term contracts, you have to trust your partner that under any conditions you will get this gas,\" noted IEA's Birol.\n\nSanctions could make inflation worse\n\nLeveling sanctions would be a difficult decision for Biden.\n\nOn the one hand, energy is vital to Russia's economy, making it an obvious target for sanctions and a way to make Putin face real consequences.\n\nCrude oil and natural gas made up about 43%, on average, of the Russian government's annual revenue between 2011 and 2020, according to the US Energy Information Administration . Oil and gas revenue spiked by 60% during the first nine months of last year, making them the biggest growth driver for government revenue, according to the World Bank.\n\n\"Russia is a one-pony town. Energy is the only thing they have. It's the glaring weakness in their economy,\" said Mizuho's Yawger.\n\nAnd yet seizing on that weakness by limiting the supply of Russia's natural gas and oil would drive prices higher at a time when they are already elevated.\n\n\"This war situation would be bad enough. But if you start putting sanctions on energy, it just super-sizes the whole inflation story and takes it to the next level,\" said Yawger. \"You would be committing economic, and political, suicide by doing that.\"\n\nWill OPEC and Big Oil come to the rescue?\n\nCroft, the RBC analyst, said the Biden administration would likely respond to a price spike by releasing more barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, likely in a coordinated fashion with other nations. That could help cushion the blow.\n\nBiden could also try to convince Saudi Arabia-led OPEC to open the spigots, arguing that very high prices aren't good for producers if they destroy demand.\n\nAnalysts say US oil companies, which have up until recently been reluctant to significantly increase production, would respond to $100-plus oil by cranking output.\n\nBut that wouldn't translate to more gasoline overnight. And in the meantime, prices at the pump would remain high.\n\n-- CNN's Chris Liakos contributed to this report", "authors": ["Matt Egan", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/01/20"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/environment/954645/cop26-how-the-uk-is-doing-on-three-key-net-zero-pledges", "title": "Cop26: how the UK is doing on three key net zero pledges | The ...", "text": "Experts Ashley Fly, Grant Wilson and Ljubomir Jankovic assess whether the prime minister is delivering on his climate promises The UK is hosting the 26th annual UN climate summit in Glasgow. Boris Johnson’s government boasts of having the most ambitious climate change targets in the world. But how is the country’s progress to net zero emissions by 2050 going? Three experts look at three key pledges. Transport Pledge: to phase out sales of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030. Progress: electric vehicles, or EVs, accounted for 15.2% of all new UK vehicle registrations in September 2021, up from an average of 6.6% in 2020 and 1.6% in 2019. There are now almost 100 different EV models to choose from and a growing network of nearly 5,000 rapid chargers, up from 2,000 in 2018. In Norway, a country which is aiming for a more ambitious 2025 ban on petrol and diesel vehicles, nearly 80% of all vehicle sales in September were electric, up from 54.3% in 2020. Norway has demonstrated that a transition to electric vehicles is possible with current technologies if attractive policies, such as EV tax exemptions, are in place. There are lots of hurdles which the UK must overcome to achieve its own 100% EV sales target by 2030, such as households which lack driveways to charge their EVs at home and the commercial van sector, which will also fall under the ban. The government can help by installing more on-street charging points, simplifying the use of rapid charging points so they can all take contactless payment, and working with manufacturers to offer test drives. Electric vans currently qualify for government grants worth up to £6,000, but businesses may need more generous incentives. As the rest of the world rushes to meet their own EV targets, there could be a shortage of materials, parts and skills to make enough to keep up with demand. This could cause the price of EVs to rise or overwhelm waiting lists. One solution is to invest in the UK’s automotive sector and develop a flexible domestic supply chain with a network of gigafactories to produce the millions of batteries needed. Skip advert\n\nOverall, the signs are looking good for high levels of EV purchasing in the near future, but it’s not time to take the foot off the zero emission gas just yet. Electricity Pledge: to stop burning coal to generate electricity by 1 October 2024. Progress: the UK’s rapid elimination of coal-fired power since 2015 has been possible due to three factors: a fall in electricity demand, an increase in renewable generation (wind and to a lesser degree solar) and a shift from coal to gas generation. However, there is still a residual amount of coal generation that has supplied between 1% and 2% of electricity demand at an annual level from 2019 to 2021. Coal is on track to generate around six terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2021. The drop in wind generation from 2020 to 2021 alone (largely due to an unusually calm summer) has been around 6-8 TWh. Coal remains a flexible source of generation that can be called upon to fill gaps when other sources are struggling or to help with unforeseen outages. This happened in September when the interconnector cable that imports electricity from France was taken offline due to a fire. A new electrical interconnector to Norway could further reduce the country’s dependence on generation from coal. Energy companies are also introducing time of use tariffs which nudge customers to shift electrical demand away from expensive peak periods such as weekday evenings – when coal is traditionally used to fill short-term gaps in supply – by passing on the higher cost of electricity at these times. The shift from coal is merely a step towards fully decarbonising the electrical system. The next is to remove natural gas. It’s entirely plausible that Britain will remove coal-generated electricity by October 2024, but keeping it out will depend on finding low-carbon means of balancing electricity supply and demand. That will mean making the electrical system more resilient to shocks, such as the sudden loss of power or high demand. EVs can help, by supplying electricity back to the grid when needed – effectively acting as small, distributed batteries. But by the time meaningful levels of controllable demand (and potentially supply) from EV charging are available to the system, coal generation will be long gone. Skip advert The other major challenge is balancing the system between seasons and years. Britain uses much more energy in winter than summer. As more energy generation (as well as demand) becomes dependent on the weather, Britain will have to prepare for years with significantly lower output from wind in particular. Coal excels here, with cost-effective stockpiles which can be turned into months of electricity supply. Batteries, pumped water and other forms of short-term electrical storage will never reach these sorts of scales. Without coal, energy system operators must find low-carbon solutions to this challenge of seasonal balancing. It will be surprising if coal generation lasts quite as long as October 2024 in Britain, and the milestone is one that should be rightly celebrated when it happens. However, the longer term storage that coal provided (and gas and nuclear still do) is something that Britain’s needs to address for a low-carbon electrical sector that is resilient to sustained low wind weather events. Heating Pledge: to ensure all new heating systems installed in UK homes are low-carbon from 2035.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/01"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/954513/is-it-worth-switching-your-gas-boiler-to-a-heat-pump", "title": "Heat pumps: is it worth replacing your gas boiler? | The Week UK", "text": "In October last year, during the run-up to the Cop26 climate change conference, the UK government announced plans to subsidise the introduction of low-carbon heat pumps in order to cut reliance on fossil-fuel heating. As part of a “home heating revolution” in Britain, the government set out plans to start phasing out gas boilers by offering £5,000 grants to help 90,000 households install home heat pumps, The Guardian said. For 50 years the gas boiler has been “the mainstay of central heating”, said The Times. “Its days, however, are numbered” as new gas-reliant boilers will be banned from UK homes by 2035. Although the government is considering a number of green alternatives to heat homes, including the use of hydrogen boilers, the most “viable” alternative for the majority of households will be electric-powered heat pumps. Climate change is not the only crisis that Britain is battling – there’s also the cost of living crisis, too. The three-year boiler upgrade scheme will help “reduce the cost of more environmentally-friendly heating systems”, the BBC reported. And in his Spring Statement last month, Chancellor Rishi Sunak also announced that households will now pay 0% VAT on energy-saving equipment such as heat pumps and solar panels. With energy bills going through the roof, can households afford to make the switch from gas boilers to heat pumps? What are heat pumps and how do they work? An electric heat pump works like “a reverse fridge, extracting warmth from the outside air, the ground or a nearby water source before concentrating the heat and transferring it indoors”, The Guardian explained. Heat pumps are “nothing new”, said The Times, but very few are installed each year – roughly 27,000. The number of heat pumps being installed in UK homes will have to be scaled up considerably, with Boris Johnson’s climate advisers recommending that “by 2030 there should be 5.5 million heat pumps in British homes”. Skip advert Heat pumps work even when outside temperatures are very low and near freezing. They are also “much more efficient than a gas boiler” as they are able to produce “around three times the energy they use”, said the i news site.\n\n“Crucially, heat pumps are also clean”, The Times added. Gas-reliant boilers produce masses of carbon dioxide: the gas boilers in British homes “produce twice as much CO2 as the nation’s gas-fired power stations”. But if we can ensure the electricity used to power heat pumps comes from “truly green sources” then “water is the only byproduct” of using a heat pump. How much do heat pumps cost to install? The cost of installing a heat pump can be significant and depends on the type installed and the size of a property, the BBC said. The installation can also prove to be “difficult and expensive”. For example, you may need to install “bigger radiators or dig into floors”. Heat pump prices are “usually high, taking into account the installation”, said GreenMatch.co.uk. The typical price range for a complete installation is “between £8,000 and £45,000, to which the running costs have to be considered”. The cost for an air to water heat pump range from £7,000 to £18,000, while ground source heat pumps can cost up to £45,000. “The running costs of heat pumps depend on your household, its insulation properties and size.” What grants are available and who is eligible? Through the boiler upgrade scheme, government grants will be provided to encourage property owners to install low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy explained. The scheme is open to domestic and small non-domestic properties in England and Wales and runs from 2022 to 2025. “These grants will help property owners overcome the upfront cost of low carbon heating technologies.” From 1 April, if the installation and system set-up of a low-carbon heating system is completed then support will be entitled under the scheme. From 11 April installers will be able to open an account for the scheme with administrator Ofgem, and from 23 May the scheme opens for grant applications and payments. Entitlements include: £5,000 off the cost and installation of an air source heat pump\n\n£5,000 off the cost and installation of a biomass boiler\n\n£6,000 off the cost and installation of a ground source heat pump What are the advantages of heat pumps? Heat pumps are “normally three times more efficient than gas boilers but they use electricity to run, and electricity prices are typically more expensive than gas”, the BBC said. However, given the current high price of gas, “heat pumps could still be cheaper”. The government has said it will look at ways to ensure heat pumps are “no more expensive to run than a gas boiler in the long run”. Skip advert", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/10/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/11/energy/europe-russia-energy-end-date/index.html", "title": "Europe sets 2027 deadline to end reliance on Russian oil and gas ...", "text": "London (CNN Business) Europe has given itself just five years to break its addiction to Russian oil and gas .\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that EU leaders had agreed to spend the next two months drafting proposals for eliminating the bloc's dependency on Russian energy imports by 2027.\n\n\"By mid-May we will come up with a proposal to phase out our dependency on Russian gas, oil and coal by 2027, backed by the necessary national and European resources,\" Von der Leyen said after an emergency summit of EU leaders called to discuss Russia's war in Ukraine.\n\nThe European Union has promised to diversify its energy supplies before, notably back in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. Little progress was made, partly because Germany — Russia's biggest energy customer in Europe — didn't want to rock the boat with Moscow.\n\nBut President Vladimir Putin's decision to order last month's invasion changed all that. Within days, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had killed off the Nord Stream 2 pipeline , a project co-financed by German companies that would have vastly increased Russia's capacity to send gas directly to Europe, bypassing Ukraine.\n\nAnd earlier this week, Von der Leyen and her officials outlined plans to slash EU gas imports from Russia this year by finding alternative suppliers, speeding up the shift to renewable energy, reducing consumption through energy efficiency improvements and extending the life of coal and nuclear power plants that would otherwise have been shut down.\n\nFrans Timmermans, EU climate policy chief, said Tuesday that Europe could replace 100 billion cubic meters of Russian gas imports by the end of 2022.\n\n\"That is two thirds of what we import from them,\" he told reporters. \"Two thirds by the end of this year. It's hard, bloody hard but it's possible if we're willing to go further and faster than we've done before,\" he added.\n\nThe European Union depends on Russia for about 40% of its natural gas. Russia also supplies about 27% of its oil imports, and 46% of its coal imports. Taken together, that trade is worth tens of billions of dollars a year to Russia.\n\nEU leaders have made clear this week that the bloc can't yet join the United States in banning Russian oil, because of the impact that would have on households and businesses already grappling with record high prices. A giant fertilizer company this week slashed European production because of record high natural gas prices.\n\nBut Europe knows it needs to act fast to reduce the potential for Moscow to use energy as a weapon in the economic warfare unleashed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\n\nRussian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said Monday Russia could cut off the supply of gas to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in retaliation for Berlin blocking the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.\n\nSpeaking alongside EU Council President Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron after the summit in Versailles, near Paris, von der Leyen said the Commission would bring forward a proposal requiring underground gas storage facilities to be 90% full by the beginning of October each year.\n\n\"This will be our insurance policy against supply disruption,\" she said.", "authors": ["Mark Thompson", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/03/11"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/science-health/956519/power-stations-in-space-sbsp-explained", "title": "Power stations in space: how this science fiction concept is being ...", "text": "Power stations in space sounds like an idea from science fiction – and in fact it is an idea from science fiction: in 1941, Isaac Asimov’s story Reason described a space station that transmits energy collected from the Sun to other planets using microwave beams. Today, the technology required to do this exists, and space-based solar power (SBSP) is being taken seriously.\n\nThe idea is that a vast satellite, miles in length, would generate electricity via thousands of photovoltaic panels. This would then be transmitted to Earth using high-frequency radio waves. On the ground, this beam of microwave energy would be intercepted by a field of ellipse-shaped radio antennae, converted into electricity, and distributed to the grid.\n\nBut is this actually a realistic prospect?\n\nBrian Ryan, vice-president of innovation for National Grid, admits that people think he’s “mad” when he talks about it. “It is a little bit out there,” he says, “but it’s not that far out there. I think we will see space-based solar power playing a huge role in our energy ecosystem in the next 20 years... The potential is unlimited.”\n\nA report for the UK Government published last year by the engineering consultancy Frazer-Nash described SBSP as “technically feasible” and potentially affordable, compared with other sources of clean electricity. The US also believes SBSP technology is worth investigating: a military project is under way, as is one at the world-respected California Institute of Technology. Japan’s space agency is working on a space solar farm. China reportedly aims to launch its first station by 2035, and has already started construction in the city of Chongqing.\n\nWhy is it thought to be a good idea?\n\nSBSP could potentially solve various knotty energy problems. It is estimated that global energy demand will double by 2050, and the search is on for sources that don’t use fossil fuels or originate from objectionable regimes. There’s a lot of clean power available in space: a narrow strip around the Earth could provide more than 100 times the forecast global energy demands of humanity in 2050, the Frazer-Nash report noted.\n\nUnlike renewable power sources on our planet’s surface, SBSP would not be intermittent. It’s always sunny in space, and power stations would be in high geostationary orbit – i.e. remaining in a fixed position relative to the Earth – providing power near-continuously. This would mean both more energy in absolute terms, and also that SBSP would be able to provide baseload power – the minimum amount of electric power required by the electrical grid at any given time. At present, renewable sources cannot provide baseload power; only fossil fuels and nuclear power stations can do so. Finally, SBSP could be beamed to different parts of the world, as required.\n\nHow much energy could it give?\n\nPrototype designs for SBSP stations envisage each one sending at least one gigawatt of power to Earth. One gigawatt is enough to power approximately 750,000 homes, and is comparable to the output of a nuclear power station. John Mankins, a former Nasa scientist who is a leading expert in SBSP, thinks that his design would generate three gigawatts, but that one gigawatt would be lost in the process of being beamed back to Earth.\n\nWouldn’t it be very expensive?\n\nYes, the main costs being the need for multiple rocket launches to blast the components into space, and for robotic assembly of the SBSP station in orbit. A solar power satellite would need to be “an order of magnitude larger in mass and extent than any spacecraft currently in orbit”, the Frazer-Nash report acknowledges.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2022/04/22"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/europe/954657/could-war-return-to-europe-bosnia", "title": "Is Bosnia on the brink of a civil war? | The Week UK", "text": "For four years after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, western powers decided against intervention as ethnic conflict gripped Bosnia. More than 100,000 people were killed during the 1992-95 war, which led to mass murder on a scale not witnessed in Europe since the Second World War. Now, a quarter of a century on from the peace deal that ended the war, those powers are again being confronted by the potential for deadly sectarian fighting. The latest Liz Truss is meeting members of Bosnia’s multiethnic armed forces in Sarajevo today during a visit to underline the UK’s continuing commitment to peace in the Western Balkans. The foreign secretary is also unveiling plans to deepen “security and economic partnership with Bosnia in the face of secessionists and Russian attempts to influence and destabilise”, the Foreign Office said in a statement. These plans include a bid “to mobilise $100m of UK-backed investment in the Western Balkans by 2025”. Addressing military personnel at Sarajevo’s Army Hall, Truss was due to warn that Russia’s aggression “cannot be appeased” and that Bosnia’s “future lies in sovereignty and self-determination, in greater partnership with Nato and countries like the UK”. Sarajevo last month called for Nato to accelerate its bid to become a member of the alliance in order to preserve regional security following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Bosnia’s Defence Minister Sifet Podzic told Al Jazeera that his country was participating in the Membership Action Plan, which he described as “the last step before gaining [Nato] membership”. But if the alliance insisted that Bosnia “fulfils all criteria”, he warned, gaining membership “will take a while”, because “we will need a lot of time to modernise our army”. Uneasy truce The Bosnian War was triggered when Bosnia and Herzegovina joined several republics of the former Yugoslavia and declared independence. After three and a half years of bloodshed, the conflict was ended by the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Skip advert By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted 45 Serbs, 12 Croats, and four Bosniaks of war crimes committed during the war.\n\nMany thousands of Bosniaks and Croats died in concentration camps run by Serb forces at sites including Omarska and Trnopolje. But the Srebrenica massacre, in which 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered, was the most notorious act of genocide. Better known as the Dayton Accords, the peace deal saw the majority Muslim Bosniaks and Serb separatists, who fought under the flag of the Republika Srpska, agree to a single sovereign state. But in what The Washington Post described as “a complex compromise”, this state was divided into two parts: the largely Serb-populated Republika Srpska and mainly Croat-Bosniak-populated Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The deal “reestablished Bosnia as a unified state and granted the right of return for victims of ethnic cleansing”, a move that ran contrary to the “wishes of Serb and Croat ultra-nationalists”, the paper continued. But it also “adopted ethnic federal structures recognising Republika Srpska as a political entity with self-governing rights”, something Bosniaks opposed. The uneasy peace has been maintained ever since. But a report by UN High Representative Christian Schmidt in November warned that threats by Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the presidency as part of a triumvirate power-sharing agreement, to “pull out of state-level institutions” is ”tantamount to secession”. The suggestion that Serbs could form their own military “endangers not only the peace and stability of the country and the region, but – if unanswered by the international community – could lead to the undoing of the [Dayton] agreement itself”, Schmidt wrote in his first report since becoming Bosnian overseer. A splintering of the military “into two or more armies” would mean “the level of international military presence would require reassessment”, he added. “A lack of response to the current situation would endanger the [Dayton Accord], while instability in BiH would have wider regional implications.” ‘Shopping spree’ Schmidt’s report came shortly after Bosnian Serb police held what they described as an “anti-terrorist” drill just outside the capital Sarajevo. The move was “seen by many as another provocation by the Serb separatist leadership”, reported Al Jazeera. Skip advert The exercise took place on 22 October in a ski resort at Mount Jahorina, an “area from where the Bosnian Serb military relentlessly shelled and sniped Sarajevo” during the conflict three decades ago. The drill “involved armoured vehicles, helicopters, and special police force personnel in camouflage uniforms and armed with assault rifles”, the broadcaster added, and prompted the EU peacekeeping force that has remained in the country since the 1990s to deploy “an aircraft to monitor the exercise”.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/11/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/energy/2017/11/08/geopolitical-implications-renewable-energy/838203001/", "title": "The geopolitical implications of renewable energy", "text": "Todd Royal\n\nOIlprice.com\n\nAn October report from BlackRock (BLK) — the world’s largest publicly traded investment management firm — wisely states, “markets are calm but geopolitics are anything but.”\n\nWind and solar energy — two leading renewable energy options — could possibly become a dangerous part of an energy mix as the world continues on a downward geopolitical slope.\n\nBoth are intermittent and unreliable, and can only produce consistent energy under certain weather parameters, and neither, at this time, can be stored at scale. Renewable energy options are also tough on the environment because wind and solar energy requires large amounts of land compared to conventional, reliable fossil fuel energy.\n\nHowever, renewables are consistently publicized as growing faster than fossil fuels, but that’s misleading. Unless hydroelectricity is being produced under a controlled scenario with dammed water then renewable energy is inferior to coal, nuclear and natural gas powered electricity.\n\nWhile renewables don’t emit carbon dioxide, they may not, unfortunately, be the solution to lower emissions. This is where renewables can create a dangerous geopolitical climate for nations pursuing them wholeheartedly.\n\nMore:Production quotas in question: Is $60 oil too tempting for OPEC to cheat?\n\nMore:Analysis: Two undeniable shifts in today’s energy markets\n\nMore:Why can't Millennials bank on clean energy jobs? Low-cost oil\n\nA new paper by the Center of the American Experiment, “Energy Policy in Minnesota the High Cost of Failure,” chronicles Minnesota’s $15 billion experiment with wind energy over traditional fossil fuels, which didn’t lower CO2 emissions and caused Minnesota’s price of electricity to rise above the national average for the first time on record.\n\nImagine this on a larger scale. Think Africa — where 635 million citizens are without any form of modern energy at this time. This lack of scalable, affordable energy that fossil fuels and nuclear energy provide can be construed as a direct correlation for the inherent instability of Africa, its lower economic growth, higher rates of overpopulation and lacking the wherewithal to combat radicalization by groups like ISIS throughout the continent.\n\nThe geopolitical nightmare of the reliable energy problem grows when you include figures by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that states 1.2 billion worldwide are also without power.\n\nPeople like hip-hop artist Akon mean well when they make big plans like attempting to install solar solutions for 14 African countries, but there seems to be a lack of understanding some critical environmental implications of those actions, like not addressing the problems and higher costs that renewables cause. If the United States still can’t figure out how to lower electricity costs using renewable energy, then it’s doubtful that Africa can right now.\n\nThis could doom over a billion people to higher costs they can’t afford, unreliable energy and more than likely needing high emitting, coal-fired power plants as an energy backup. The smarter decision is to follow Warren Buffet's lead by investing in fossil fuel to help avert the geopolitical disasters that renewables could cause fragile nations in need of scalable, reliable energy options. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that 77% of the world’s energy needs by 2040 will still be met by fossil fuels.\n\nElectric vehicles (EVs) also run into the same geopolitical problems as renewable energy, while also requiring enormous government subsidies. This is something that Buffet discovered when he bought a controlling stake in Pilot Flying J, the truck-stop chain that sells food, coffee and diesel to truckers on U.S. cross-country hauls.\n\nBuffet believes that EVs or autonomous vehicles won’t replace combustible engines powered by gasoline. He reiterated this stance on a Bloomberg Television appearance, stating, “Who knows when driverless trucks are going to come along and what level of penetration they have?”\n\nBloomberg and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) have said that EVs will overtake cars run on gasoline by 2025 in affordability. Buffet may have read that in BNEFs fine print in these reports that explains for EV forecasts to be true, government regulators have to push taxes, mandates and publicly-funded rebates to make EVs as cost effective as a gasoline-powered vehicle.\n\nFiat loses $20,000 on every EV, General Motors loses $9,000 on every Chevy Bolt, and Tesla sustains profits by selling zero-emission credits to conventional car companies. If California and other countries ban gasoline-powered cars, then where would the profits be replaced? If you consider what Russia did once oil crashed in 2014, it’s not hard to imagine other countries going this EV path to make hegemonic movements the way Russia did when it annexed Crimea and pushed into Syria while aligning with Iran.\n\nWhere this becomes geopolitically troubling is when China, India, the U.K., France and even California talk of banning the combustible engine between 2030-2040. As an example, it will be difficult for California to ban gasoline-powered cars the same way it will be nearly impossible in the coming decades for the other above-mentioned countries to accomplish that goal. This British EV push is particularly troubling since they implemented Brexit and are moving away from the European Union along with the security of the post World War II order of economic prosperity.\n\nGoing back to that example, and the massive amount of energy needed to match a typical filling station, along with what an EV-only station would require when gasoline-powered cars are banned, Canadian engineer David Booth reported, “An electric filling station would have to have the 30 megawatts of capacity available, equivalent to the electricity use of 20,000 homes to supply electricity to charge 25 or 30 million vehicles in California.”\n\nThinking geopolitically, what happens to energy legacy industries (coal, natural gas, gasoline) during the phasing-out process? The Chinese example is particularly troubling, as they’re building the dirtiest emitting coal-fired power plants in Pakistan. India counters the China-Pakistan alliance by building the largest coal-fired power plant in recent memory on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.\n\nThese type of energy policies lead to environmental degradation that causes wars, water shortages and business decisions that seem to be more about establishing green credibility instead of energy stability. China, Pakistan and India going back and forth using energy as a weapon is similar to how Russian state-owned energy firm Rosneft is the Kremlin’s weaponized, foreign policy instrument against the west.\n\nMore:Follow USA TODAY Money and Tech on Facebook\n\nRosneft has used what the New York Times called, “Rosneft’s Venezuela model,” to support belligerent governments in Syria and Iran while driving a wedge between NATO, Turkey and the West. Going with unstable, intermittent energy (renewables) and costly transportation options (EVs) is a means for geopolitical influence and counter pressure points to be used against peaceful nations and governments.\n\nEnergy is the building block for thriving, human flourishing to exist. Stable, reliable, scalable energy that coal, nuclear and natural gas provides can be used as a counter to nations like China, Iran, and Russia (CIR) that seem to be on a hegemonic march to acquire additional energy resources. As popular as renewable energy and electric vehicles are at this time, they can be used geopolitically against peaceful nations. This weaponization of energy can be stopped by western-aligned nations embracing the abundance that fossil fuel provides and bringing over a billion people out of energy poverty.\n\nLet’s keep working on futuristic energy and transportation, but stop playing energy checkers while CIR-nations play energy chess.\n\nOilprice.com is a USA TODAY content partner offering energy industry news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.\n\nMore top reads from Oilprice.com:\n\nBig Oil CEO Slams Saudi Energy Reform\n\nThe Radical Transformation Of U.S. Oil Imports\n\nIs $60 The New Floor For Oil Prices?", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/11/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/energy/2018/01/19/2018-breakout-year-clean-energy-investment/1044984001/", "title": "2018: A Breakout Year For Clean Energy | OilPrice.com", "text": "Nick Cunningham\n\nOilprice.com\n\nThe bullish momentum for global clean energy investment, which rose 3% to $333.5 billion in 2017, will continue this year.\n\nThere was significant progress in the transition to cleaner energy in 2017, and 2018 should see more of the same. New solar installations will top 100 GW this year, with China likely to make up about half of that total, according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), which lays out some key predictions for 2018.\n\nHowever, beginning this year, BNEF says that new countries will become relevant in the race for clean energy, including sizable solar installations slated for Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.\n\nFalling costs and proliferating installations of wind and solar are underpinning the sector’s growth. At the same time, cheaper inputs mean that developers can get more gigawatts of clean energy per dollar invested, which explains why the headline investment figure appears to not be growing by all that much.\n\nMore:OPEC under pressure to scale back production cuts as oil rally continues\n\nMore:Federal regulators deal huge blow to the coal industry\n\nMore:OPEC versus Shale: The oil inventory saga continues in 2018\n\nThere were some eye-popping figures and notable progress for new renewable energy projects in 2017. For instance, the tariffs for some onshore wind projects in Mexico dropped to a whopping $18.60 per MWh, a price that “would have been unthinkable only two or three years ago,” Angus McCrone, Chief Editor at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, wrote in the report.\n\nMeanwhile, the cost of lithium-ion batteries plunged by an additional 24% last year, which raises the odds that by the mid-to-late 2020s, EVs could beat out conventional gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles not just on the lifetime cost, but even on upfront cost.\n\nBattery costs will continue to decline this year, but at a slower rate than in the past. Soaring prices for cobalt and lithium carbonate will offset some of the declines in cost, to be sure, but BNEF still sees the average cost of battery packs falling by an additional 10% to 15%. Economies of scale, larger average battery pack size, and an additional 5% to 7% improvement in energy density will continue to boost the economics of batteries, BNEF argues.\n\nEV sales will hit 1.5 million units in 2018, and again, China will lead the way with more than half of that total.\n\nThe recent rally in oil prices (and somewhat for gas) will aid in the transition to cleaner energy, making wind, solar and EVs more competitive.\n\nIt isn’t all clear skies for clean energy, however, as there are some pitfalls on the horizon. Geopolitical surprises could run headlong into the aggressive bull rally in global stock markets, leading to a selloff. BNEF says that a war in the Middle East, or on the Korean peninsula, or even political turmoil in the U.S., could upset financial markets, which would spell trouble for clean energy.\n\nOn top of that, the ongoing withdrawal of monetary stimulus from the U.S., Europe and Japan could raise interest rates, raising the cost of capital and hurting the economics for clean energy, which is an industry characterized by low operating costs, but high capital costs.\n\nMore:Follow USA TODAY Money and Tech on Facebook\n\nIn the U.S., the Trump administration could decide to slap tariffs on imported solar panels, a decision that is expected as soon as this week. If onerous, the solar tariffs could “boost local prices for PV modules and render a meaningful portion of the U.S. solar project pipeline economically unviable,” BNEF wrote.\n\nStill, the Trump administration will be unable to arrest the decline of coal, regardless of what it says. Cold weather has led to a slight uptick in natural gas prices and may have temporarily boosted coal-fired generation a bit, but the sector is in structural decline. Natural gas production is expected to break new records this year, and BNEF forecasts Nymex prices to average about $3/MMBtu. Ultimately, 2018 is shaping up to be the second largest year for coal plant retirements, with an estimated 13 GW of capacity expected to be shut down.\n\nWith coal on the way out in the U.S., coal will make its “last stand” in India. Coal producers around the world have pinned their long-term hopes on India, but from 2019 onward, BNEF predicts, renewable energy will surpass fossil fuels in terms of new electricity generation. “This will be a major milestone for a country that most see as a key battleground for the fight to stabilize global greenhouse emissions growth,” BNEF says.\n\nOverall, while the usual caveats about uncertainty regarding policy, regulation and the performance of financial markets apply, 2018 is shaping up to be another great one for renewable energy.\n\nOilprice.com is a USA TODAY content partner offering energy industry news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.\n\nMore top reads from Oilprice.com:\n\nRomania Poised To Ramp Up Gas Output\n\nIs Venezuela’s Oil Industry Bouncing Back?\n\nCan We Afford Renewable Energy?", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/01/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_26", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/21/mitch-mcconnell-wants-end-beefed-up-unemployment-benefits/5237309002/", "title": "Mitch McConnell wants to end beefed-up unemployment benefits", "text": "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is being accused by Democrats at home and across the country of turning his back on Kentucky at a critical time after he reportedly vowed to put a stop to enhanced unemployment benefits.\n\nMcConnell made clear during a conference call with House GOP members on Wednesday how the $600 weekly boost — which was provided to help those who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus — \"will not be in the next bill\" out of Washington.\n\nA source familiar with the conversation on Thursday told The Courier Journal that McConnell said the Senate was, \"going to have to clean up the Democrats' crazy policy that is paying people more to remain unemployed than they would earn if they went back to work.\"\n\nThis statement comes as 47,000 Kentuckians filed initial unemployment claims as of May 16, and more than 246,000 Kentuckians are asking for continued assistance as parts of the state economy begin to reopen.\n\nOregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the finance committee, told The Courier-Journal in an interview Thursday the numbers he's seen show COVID-19 has hit Kentucky with a \"wrecking ball\" economically.\n\n\"Mitch McConnell's comments indicate he either doesn't care or doesn't understand that unemployment insurance doesn't just protect families who've had misfortune, it's a lifeline for communities,\" he said.\n\nWyden said those benefits are more than just wage replacement but also inject demand into the market as a way to stabilize the economy. He is pushing for a bill that would link unemployment benefits to economic conditions and continue the extra $600 until a state's unemployment rate falls below 11%.\n\nRead more:Coronavirus pandemic pushes Mitch McConnell and other Senate candidates to change tactics\n\nKentucky has seen nearly 800,000 people apply for unemployment benefits since mid-March, when the coronavirus first put a choke hold on the U.S. economy. Since then, the state's jobless rate has surged to a little more than 15% in April.\n\nThe Kentucky Democratic Party also pounced on McConnell's hardening position in the context of those statistics, saying it comes as the GOP leader is holding up additional financial aid for states and local governments withstanding massive budget deficits because of the contagion.\n\n“This is what happens when you surround yourself with expensive D.C. consultants who don’t care about Kentucky,\" Democratic Party spokeswoman Marisa McNee said.\n\n\"First, Mitch wanted to let states go bankrupt, leading to layoffs for first responders and public health officials,\" she added. \"Now, he wants to cut unemployment benefits for Kentuckians who are out of work through no fault of their own. Kentucky deserves better.”\n\nRelated:More than 40,000 people filed for unemployment last week in Kentucky\n\nMcConnell said during a Thursday interview with Fox News that continuing unemployment insurance is important amid the coronavirus crisis but emphasized the extra $600 benefits will end in July.\n\n\"We think that in order to create jobs, we need to incentivize people to go back to work, not encourage them to stay home,\" he said.\n\nUnemployment insurance typically covers up to 45% of lost wages, but Congress took an extraordinary and bipartisan step with the CARES Act to provide 100% of lost wages for many Americans.\n\nThe thinking at the time was this was needed in order to keep people safe from the coronavirus while also stabilizing the economy, but McConnell's comments indicate how conservatives are beginning to thaw on the idea.\n\nMcConnell's office pointed to an ABC News story on Thursday about how some employers are having a hard time competing with the boosted benefits.\n\nIn it, ABC draws attention to a study showing roughly 40% of workers made less in their jobs than they would on the new unemployment, according to national data gathered by Noah Williams at the Center for Research On the Wisconsin Economy.\n\nMcConnell has reportedly told President Donald Trump any new legislation must create incentives for people to get back to work. He said previously he wants see how the previous COVID-19 relief bills, which total about $3 trillion, play out before the Senate moves on any new proposals.\n\nGov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said earlier this week how his administration believes it has enough money in its Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to last through the spring and at least part of the summer.\n\nKentucky took out a $972 million loan to cover unemployment benefits when it zeroed out its trust fund during the Great Recession of 2008-09. The state finished repaying the federal government in 2015.\n\nBut with nearly two in five Kentucky workers out of a job, the governor said he expects the state will have to take out a loan unless the federal government provides more direct assistance.\n\nAsked Thursday if he's worried that unemployment benefits outpacing private sector wages will dampen the reopening, Beshear said he thinks plenty of people are ready to get back to work.\n\n\"I'm not for cutting the benefits they are getting at this time,\" he said.\n\nMcConnell has conceded, according to other reports about Wednesday's conference call, how further aid may be necessary in the coming weeks but that it must be more short-term relief.\n\nHouse Democrats passed the HEROES Act last week with a $3 trillion price tag, but McConnell reportedly told the GOP House members the bill will have to go through serious changes in the Republican-controlled Senate before being considered.\n\nReach Phillip M. Bailey at pbailey@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4475. Follow him on Twitter at @phillipmbailey.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/05/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2020/06/01/kentucky-teacher-year-arrested-breonna-taylor-protest/5306818002/", "title": "Breonna Taylor protest: Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year ...", "text": "LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The 2020 Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year was arrested this weekend protesting the death of Breonna Taylor in downtown Louisville.\n\nMatt Kaufmann, who teaches in Jefferson County Public Schools, was booked Sunday night on an unspecified misdemeanor charge, according to the Department of Corrections booking log.\n\nAn arrest citation was not immediately available.\n\n\"(Kaufmann) was arrested this evening for protesting and standing up for #BreonnaTaylor and for Black Lives in Louisville,\" local activist Hannah Drake wrote on Facebook.\n\n\"No way he was not peaceful,\" she said. \"He is physically okay but a little roughed up.\"\n\nMore:Beshear announces investigation into LMPD, National Guard fatally shooting man on Broadway\n\nPolice arrested at least 40 people during Sunday's protests demanding justice after the police shooting that left 26-year-old Taylor, an unarmed black woman, dead in March.\n\n\"JCPS supports the right of our employees to peacefully protest,\" Renee Murphy, a spokeswoman for JCPS, said.\n\nKaufmann was named Kentucky's top high school teacher last spring for his work teaching English at Marion C. Moore High School.\n\n\"Matt exemplifies inclusivity,\" his then principal, Rob Fulk, said at the time. \"I have witnessed firsthand the exceptional environment he creates among his students, one that promotes a strong sense of social justice, togetherness, and uniqueness.\"\n\nAn outspoken advocate for public education, Kaufmann also ran for state Senate in 2018. He lost in the primary.\n\nThis story may be updated.\n\nReach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4471, and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth. Support strong local journalism by subscribing: courier-journal.com/subscribe.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/07/21/breonna-taylor-protests-nfac-plans-hold-armed-march-louisville/5477815002/", "title": "Breonna Taylor protests: NFAC plans to hold armed march in ...", "text": "LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Black militia is planning to hold an armed march in Louisville on Saturday to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, according to a video from the leader of the group.\n\nJohn Fitzgerald \"Jay\" Johnson, the self-proclaimed grand master and founder of the NFAC, which stands for the Not F***ing Around Coalition, said in a video posted on Sunday that those wishing to march must come in a specific uniform: black boots, black pants, black button-down shirt and black mask. He added that members must come with several types of guns.\n\n\"Understand the seriousness of this situation,\" said Johnson, who goes by the name The Real Grandmaster Jay. \"Breonna Taylor was murdered in her home. ... We gotta go in on this one.\"\n\nFLASH SALE:Click here to get unlimited digital access at $39 for one year. Offer limited to new subscribers.\n\nIn a video published Monday, Johnson said that the group will meet at noon Saturday at Central High School, 1130 W. Chestnut St. But on Tuesday afternoon, Louisville Metro Police spokeswoman Jessie Halladay said the NFAC will change locations so that it is not on school property.\n\nUnlawful possession of a weapon on school property is a felony in Kentucky. Halladay said she did not have any additional information to share about the rally location.\n\nJohnson met electronically with Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Louisville Metro Council President David James on Monday, according to James, who added that he organized the meeting.\n\nCameron is investigating the killing of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was unarmed in her South End apartment when Louisville police fatally shot her March 13. Cameron spokeswoman Elizabeth Kuhn confirmed the phone call took place.\n\n\"The conversation was productive,\" Kuhn wrote in an email. \"Attorney General Cameron discussed his continued commitment to moving forward with our office’s independent and thorough investigation into the death of Ms. Taylor.\"\n\nThe militia made waves July 4 when roughly 1,000 members of the group marched in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where there is a mountainside carving of three Confederate leaders: Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson. Authorities said the event was peaceful, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but the group's presence caused a stir on social media.\n\nProtesters have taken to the streets of Louisville for 55 days to demand justice for Taylor, who was shot as police served a \"no-knock\" search warrant as a part of a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found in the apartment.\n\nCourt records show that police obtained a warrant with a no-knock provision for Taylor's apartment signed by Circuit Judge Mary Shaw. Even so, officials have said that plainclothes officers knocked and announced their presence before breaking in Taylor’s door with a battering ram.\n\nTaylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was also in the apartment, fired one shot in response, hitting Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh. Mattingly and Officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove returned fire, striking Taylor five times.\n\nShe died in her hallway.\n\nFACT CHECK: Debunking 7 widely shared rumors in the Breonna Taylor police shooting\n\nMore:Breonna Taylor was briefly alive after police shot her. But no one tried to treat her\n\nLike many of the protesters, Johnson, the leader of the NFAC, is demanding that the three officers involved in the shooting be fired by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and criminally charged by Cameron. One of the officers in the shooting, Hankison, was fired last month and is in the process of appealing the termination.\n\nIn a call last week organized by local activist Lebron Seay, Johnson told David James, D-6th District, and Louisville Chief of Community Building Vincent James that 5,000 to 6,000 people from his group will hold an armed march in Louisville if there is not progress made in Taylor's case.\n\n\"I would be so remiss not to tell you that there are a lot of people nationwide that are ready to descend on your city to extract justice if you cannot give us some type of guarantee that something is coming soon,\" Johnson said.\n\nDavid James said during the call that the investigation has taken so long due to Fischer's \"piss-poor leadership,\" as the city did not turn over the police's investigative to Attorney General Cameron until a few weeks ago.\n\nIn an interview with The Courier Journal, David James said he had not spoken with Johnson before and joined the call to \"help answer any questions\" and to make sure Johnson \"was aware of whatever the facts were.\"\n\nDavid James also said that the \"lack of transparency\" of Fischer's administration has led to a distortion of facts and that he was asked to join the call after the Louisville mayor refused to do so.\n\nJean Porter, a spokeswoman for Fischer, told The Courier Journal on Tuesday that the mayor was not invited to the call with Johnson.\n\nOpinion:Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron can't submit to outside pressure in Taylor case\n\nDavid James said he is \"not a big fan of people carrying weapons while they're protesting or marching through the city, no matter who they are.\" However, he added that the group consists of \"law-abiding citizens following the rules and laws of the state of Kentucky\" and that they have the right to protest.\n\nThe Metro Council president added that he is more worried about people reacting to the NFAC and that there may \"be one person that does one stupid thing, and then we have a problem.\"\n\nLouisville Metro Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said the department is aware of Johnson's video announcing the NFAC's intentions to come to Louisville and the department has attempted to reach out to the group's organizers \"to understand what their plans are.\"\n\n\"We have had several protests posted over the past several weeks, some of which have occurred and some which have not,\" Mitchell said. \"We will take the appropriate steps to prepare for whatever may occur.\"\n\nMitchell declined to comment further on whether the department has successfully reached Johnson and what steps the department is taking to ensure the march is safe.\n\nAccording to Porter, Louisville police have been in contact with Johnson about tentative plans for the march and \"their shared goal for a peaceful event.\"\n\nWhen asked during a Tuesday press briefing if the state would send police to the armed march in Louisville, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said his administration has not received a request to get involved.\n\n\"Any time a request comes in, we'll have to look at the danger that's out there for life and safety of folks,\" Behsear said. \"But at the time, we have not received any official request for assistance.\"\n\nContact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/21/football/serena-williams-lewis-hamilton-chelsea-intl-spt/index.html", "title": "Serena Williams and Lewis Hamilton join consortium to buy Chelsea ...", "text": "(CNN) Twenty-three-time grand slam champion Serena Williams and seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton have joined Martin Broughton's bid to buy Premier League club Chelsea, a source close to the bid told CNN Sport on Thursday.\n\nThe source was speaking on the condition of anonymity, and while they would not confirm how much either was investing as part of the consortium, they stated that both were investing as sport business investors.\n\nBroughton's consortium includes World Athletics President Sebastian Coe as well as Josh Harris and David Blitzer, who own sport teams including the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Philadelphia 76ers, the source added.\n\nA second source also confirmed Coe's involvement with Broughton's bid. Broughton is the former Liverpool chairman.\n\nFreud Communications -- Hamilton's communications consultancy -- confirmed the Formula One driver's involvement in Broughton's bid to CNN.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Amanda Davies"], "publish_date": "2022/04/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/sport/liv-golf-tournament-explainer-spt-intl/index.html", "title": "LIV Golf series: Everything you need to know - CNN", "text": "(CNN) It's the hottest topic in the sport of golf : the LIV Golf series is already making waves -- and it's just one day old.\n\nThe new golf tour began on Thursday in London, with fans arriving at the Centurion Club to witness some of the sport's biggest names playing in the inaugural event just north of London.\n\nBut what is the LIV Golf series, the new venture which threatens to shake the foundations of the sport to its core?\n\nA general view of the LIV Golf logo on the 18th green at the Centurion Club.\n\nWhat is the LIV Golf series?\n\nIt's a new tour organized by LIV Golf Investments which consists of eight events across the world, which began in London on Thursday.\n\nFronted by former world No. 1 Greg Norman, the team-based series runs from June to October with the aim, it says, to \"holistically improve the health of professional golf on a global scale to help unlock the sports' (sic) untapped potential.\"\n\nIt is backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) -- a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the man who a US intelligence report named as responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi's murder.\n\nSaudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a meeting with the US Secretary of State in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on September 18, 2019.\n\nThe PIF has pledged to award $250 million in total prize money. Each of the first seven events will have a total prize purse of $25 million, with $20 million split between individual players and the remaining $5 million shared between the top three teams at the end of each week.\n\nAhead of the first event in London, the 12 teams were announced, as well as their captain. On Tuesday, captains selected the rest of their teams in a draft format akin to the NFL and NBA drafts.\n\nUnlike typical golfing events, London's event is over three days, not four, with the 48-man field beginning with a shotgun start -- all at the same time -- in the hopes of being a more engaging, action-packed style event.\n\nCompeting in a traditional stroke play format, the lowest score will be the winner.\n\nWhereas in the first two rounds, the best two scores will count for each team, in the final round, the best three scores will count, with the lowest overall team score after 54 holes being named the team winner.\n\nFor the final event -- a team championship -- the format changes to a four-round, match-play knockout tournament.\n\nGreg Norman smiles on the first tee on the first day of the LIV Golf series at the Centurion Club.\n\nWhich golfers have signed up?\n\nThe eye-watering money on offer has attracted a mix of golfers to sign up for the opening event in London, from all ages, backgrounds and success on the golf course.\n\nSix-time major winner Phil Mickelson and former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson are amongst those to headline the event, while other major winners Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel also participated.\n\nRyder Cup stalwarts Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood also were part of the first cohort to sign up, and the field includes 18 players ranked in the top 100 in the world.\n\nOn the other hand, it also provided a platform for other golfers just making their first strides in the sport, including Thailand's 15-year-old Ratchanon Chantananuwat\n\n2020 US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau was the next blockbuster name to sign up, adding his name on Friday to the ever-growing list of players to join.\n\nAnd according to multiple reports, 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed will be the next big name to sign up to the breakaway tour.\n\nJohnson attends a press conference ahead of the LIV Golf series event at the Centurion Club.\n\nWhy is it so controversial?\n\nThe LIV Golf series hasn't come without its question marks.\n\nThe source of the money, Saudi Arabia's PIF, has led to queries and criticism aimed at organizers and players about choosing to play for money from the country given its human rights record.\n\nThe country has been criticized by human rights groups for years. In March, Saudi Arabia executed 81 men in the biggest mass execution in decades. Rights groups have criticized the country for executing people who were minors at the time of the offenses for which they were convicted.\n\nAnother avenue of controversy surrounding the league is the breakaway nature from golf's established tours.\n\nThe PGA Tour and the DP World Tour -- formerly the European Tour -- have long been where players have plied their trade across the golfing calendar, outside of the four majors.\n\nBut, providing monetary and life balance issues as excuses, the decision from a faction of players who broke away to play in the LIV Golf series has been met with mixed reaction from their fellow tour members.\n\nMembers of the HY Flyers GC team (from left) Thailand's TK Chantananuwat, South Africa's Justin Harding, Mickelson and the US' Chase Koepka pose for pictures during a press conference ahead of the LIV Golf series event at the Centurion Club.\n\nWhat do the players say?\n\nOn the eve of the series, the world's most lucrative golf event, the competitors were grilled by journalists in an often-tense press conference in St Albans, England.\n\nMickelson was the main focus of attention, mainly because he is one of the sport's biggest stars but also because this will be his first competitive event since his controversial comments about the Saudi Arabian-funded events were published earlier this year by his biographer.\n\nThe six-time major winner was quoted from a 2021 interview with author Alan Shipnuck for his upcoming book, \"Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar,\" as saying that he would consider joining the proposed Super League because it is a \"once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.\"\n\nShipnuck quoted Mickelson as saying disparaging things about Saudi Arabia's human rights record and asserting that the kingdom killed journalist Khashoggi.\n\nIn his opening answer in Wednesday's press conference, when asked about the human rights record of the country providing funding for the venture, Mickelson appeared to be remorseful.\n\n\"I don't condone human rights violations at all,\" he repeatedly said.\n\nMickelson attends a press conference ahead of the LIV Golf series event at the Centurion Club.\n\nJohnson -- the highest-ranked player in the competition at 15 in the world -- resigned his PGA Tour membership and said on Tuesday: \"I don't want to play for the rest of my life, this gives me an opportunity to do what I want to do.\"\n\nEurope's Ryder Cup stalwart Graeme McDowell was also asked about the killing of Khashoggi during his press conference.\n\n\"We all agree that was reprehensible. No one's going to argue that fact but we're golfers. We're not politicians.\n\n\"If Saudi Arabia want to use the game of golf as a way for them to get to where they want to be, we're proud to help them on that journey, using the game of golf and the abilities we have to help grow the sport.\"\n\nWhat about those not taking part?\n\nThe first LIV event is taking place at the Centurion Club. That and the PGA Tour's Canadian Open are being held almost simultaneously and is the first head-to-head showdown between the two tours.\n\nThe Centurion's $25 million purse almost triples the Canadian Open's $8.7 million. Defending his title in Canada will be Rory McIlroy, the world No. 8.\n\n\"Any decision that you make in your life that's purely for money usually doesn't end up going the right way,\" said McIlroy on Wednesday, as reported by Reuters.\n\n\"Obviously, money is a deciding factor in a lot of things in this world, but if it's purely for money, it's not, it never seems to go the way you want it to.\"\n\nIn terms of star power, the Canadian Open will easily trump the Centurion line-up. Among the headliners in Toronto will be world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas.\n\n\"People are entitled to choose as they wish,\" said Thomas. \"I don't dislike DJ now. I don't think he's a bad dude. I'm not going to treat him any differently.\n\n\"He's entitled to choose as he wishes.\n\n\"Now, I'm disappointed and I wish that he and others wouldn't have done it, but that's their decision.\"\n\nWhat does it mean for the future of golf?\n\nIt is unclear what this will mean for the future of golf, and where players will choose to ply their trade in the future.\n\nMany of the players impacted by the ban -- Mickelson, Westwood and Poulter -- are in the twilights of their careers, perhaps reducing the severity of the suspension.\n\nA few players, including Johnson, Garcia and Kevin Na, resigned their PGA Tour status before play started on Thursday in London.\n\nBut for six-time major winner Mickelson, who has already earned lifetime status on the PGA Tour, it throws into question his long-term commitment to the tour. He said in his press conference on Wednesday ahead of the inaugural LIV Golf series event that he didn't want to give up his lifetime membership of the PGA Tour, saying: \"I've earned that, and I don't plan on just giving it up.\"\n\nJohnson and Mickelson walk off the first tee after playing their shots during the first round of the inaugural LIV Golf series event at the Centurion Club.\n\nAnd for the young talent in the game, the suspension offers a conundrum.\n\nThe PGA Tour is the preeminent golf tour in the world at the moment, and therefore seen as the pinnacle. However, the new, big-money tour offers a significant earning opportunity for players around the globe, in particular the up-and-coming talent.\n\nDo younger players decide to commit to the LIV Golf series, thereby ruining their chances at playing on the PGA Tour, or stick to the 'traditional' route and play on the PGA Tour and potentially reduce their earning capabilities?\n\nThe DP World Tour -- the sport's current second biggest tour -- has yet to announce any potential sanctions to players. When contacted by CNN, it said it had \"no comment to make\" on the LIV Golf series.\n\nAs for golf's four majors, players' appearances on the LIV Golf series have also thrown their participation in those into disarray.\n\nAlthough next week's US Open has said players are free to play if they're qualified, next month's Open Championship at St. Andrew's has yet to make a public decision.\n\nShortly after the announcement, LIV Golf released a strongly worded response, calling the suspension \"vindictive.\"\n\n\"Today's announcement by the PGA Tour is vindictive and it deepens the divide between the Tour and its members,\" it said.\n\n\"It's troubling that the Tour, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for golfers to play the game, is the entity blocking golfers from playing. This certainly is not the last word on this topic. The era of free agency is beginning as we are proud to have a full field of players joining us in London, and beyond.\"", "authors": ["Ben Morse", "Aimee Lewis"], "publish_date": "2022/06/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/09/06/the-worlds-most-important-event-every-year-since-1920/113604790/", "title": "History: The world's most important event every year since 1920", "text": "Angelo Young and John Harrington\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nOver the past 100 years, we’ve witnessed some of the most profound changes in human history.\n\nBetween a pandemic, wars, technological developments, progress in civil rights, and breakthroughs in science and medicine, the old order has been swept away, sometimes giving way to freer forms of governing and sometimes not.\n\nCenturies-old empires crumbled as new ideologies – from communism to fascism – took root in many parts of the world. Wars in the early part of the 20th century led to the end of the colonial world and gave birth to new nations. These wars also cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars. These are the most expensive wars in U.S. history.\n\nThroughout the past century, technological innovations transformed our lives in ways we never dreamed. Progressive ideas also emerged and changed the world as women, African Americans, and the LGBTQ community demanded, and often won, equal rights – from the ratification of the 19th Amendment in the United States to the legalization of same-sex marriage in many countries around the world. Even so, recent civil rights protests tell us the fight for equality is not over.\n\nDunkin' or Starbucks:Among America's favorite brew-at-home coffee brands, which comes out ahead?\n\nPlanes, phones and automobiles:These are the top-selling products from each state in the US\n\nThe COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging the world in 2020 reminds us that for all of our scientific breakthroughs, we’re still vulnerable to deadly viruses that can shut down economies and disrupt society. People are hoping science can save Earth from the devastating changes to the climate that continue to imperil the ecosystems of our planet. In the coming years, natural disasters may have an increasingly impactful role on the course of history. Here are 26 disaster scenarios caused by climate change.\n\nTo determine the most important event the year you were born, 24/7 Tempo drew on research materials and media sources to compile its list. Deciding the most important event in a given year is by its nature a subjective exercise. In reaching our decisions, we chose the event that had the most far-reaching impact, even if it was not necessarily the most famous event in a given year.\n\nThe world's most important event every year since 1920\n\n1920: Women's Suffrage\n\n• Date: Aug. 26\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nThough the United States was founded under democratic principles, only a minority of its population – in the beginning only white landowning males over the age of 21 – could actually vote. But after the 19th Amendment of the Constitution was passed, women finally gain a voice and the right to cast their ballots, though the voting rights fight was far from over for many African American women, especially in the South.\n\n1921: Chinese Communists Rise\n\n• Date: July 1\n\n• Location: Beijing\n\nIn a prequel to the rise of Mao Zedong and Red China, the Chinese Communist Party is founded and three weeks later it convenes its first National Congress that is attended by Mao. It would take another 28 years before the Republic of China becomes the People's Republic of China.\n\n1922: British Empire Shrinks\n\n• Date: Feb. 28\n\n• Location: London\n\nThe British Empire was at its peak toward the end of World War I, commanding a global population estimated to be as many as 570 million people, or about a fourth of the world's population at the time. The empire's size began to shrink in 1920, when Britain declared limited independence for Egypt, which leads to full independence two years later.\n\n1923: Great Kanto Earthquake\n\n• Date: Sept. 1\n\n• Location: Tokyo, Yokohama, Japan\n\nThe Great Kanto earthquake, also known as the Tokyo-Yokohama earthquake, strikes the Japanese mainland at noon on Sept. 1, 1923, with a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale. The death toll is estimated at 140,000 people. The force of the temblor destroys hundreds of thousands of homes that either collapse or are engulfed in fire. The quake sets off a tsunami that reaches a height of almost 40 feet at Atami in the Sagami Gulf, killing 60 people there. The most significant outcome of the catastrophe is the rebuilt Tokyo would become a modern metropolis.\n\n1924: From Lenin to Stalin\n\n• Date: Jan. 21\n\n• Location: Moscow\n\nFollowing the death of Vladimir Lenin on Jan. 21, the new leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, immediately begins a purge of political rivals. Some are simply moved to different positions, while others, like Leon Trotsky, the presumed successor to Lenin, are exiled. Stalin's paranoia grows as he takes control of the nation, and with it the level of violence and killing of anyone perceived to be a threat to his power and control.\n\n1925: Scopes Monkey Trial\n\n• Date: July 10\n\n• Location: Dayton, Tennessee\n\nAfter teaching the theory of evolution in a Tennessee high school, the state prosecutes science teacher John Thomas Scopes because state law prohibits such teaching as it runs counter to biblical beliefs. The trial pits well-known Christian fundamentalist and former presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan against renowned attorney Clarence Darrow. The jury rules against Scopes, forcing him to pay a fine of $100 (about $1,498 in 2020 dollars). It would take another 43 years before the U.S. Supreme Court would rule that laws punishing people for teaching evolution violate the First Amendment.\n\n1926: U.S. Starts Numbered Highway System\n\n• Date: Nov. 11\n\n• Location: U.S.\n\nIn a precursor to the modern interstate highway system, the federal government introduces a national highway numbering system in an effort to standardize roadways, especially local roads and trails with names unfamiliar to outsiders. The U.S. Numbered Highway System makes it easier for the growing number of car owners to figure out how to get from one city or town to the next and opens the way for the great American road-trip tradition.\n\n1927: Lindbergh Nonstop to Paris\n\n• Date: May 21\n\n• Location: New York to Paris\n\nWhen the monoplane The Spirit of St. Louis touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris on the evening of May 21, Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly over the Atlantic Ocean nonstop, making him one of the heroes of the age. His feat fires the imagination of aspiring aviators about the commercial possibilities of flight. Lindbergh would stay in the news, but for regrettable reasons. A strong advocate for American isolationism in the 1930s, he is criticized for his admiration of Nazi Germany’s aircraft industry. Also, his infant son would be killed during a bungled kidnapping attempt in 1932.\n\n1928: Earhart Crosses Atlantic\n\n• Date: June 17-18\n\n• Location: Wales\n\nAmelia Earhart becomes the first woman to pilot a plane across the Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Wales, making her an American national heroine and feminist icon who would go on to set numerous aviation records. She would later set another record as the first person – man or woman – to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan would vanish over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 during Earhart's attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Recent evidence has emerged indicating Earhart may have sent distress signals after surviving a crash, possibly on the remote Gardner Island in the western Pacific Ocean.\n\n1929: Wall Street Crashes\n\n• Date: Oct. 24-29\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nThe \"Roaring Twenties\" come to a halt on Black Tuesday in October 1929, when stocks take a nosedive, contributing to the Great Depression. Reasons for the worst economic downturn in American history include over-lending by weakly regulated banks, excessive stock price valuation, too many stocks purchased on margin, unrestrained exuberance that sends millions of people to convert their savings into stocks, tightening of the credit by the Federal Reserve, and an agricultural drought.\n\n1930: Ho Chi Minh Rises in Vietnam\n\n• Date: Feb. 2\n\n• Location: Hanoi\n\nIn an event that would have repercussions for U.S. foreign policy decades later, Vietnamese independence fighter Ho Chi Minh founds the Communist Party of Vietnam as part of his effort to oust French colonial occupiers. \"Uncle Ho,\" as he was known to his many supporters, was inspired by the Russian Bolsheviks, who oppose the Tsarist autocracy, seeing parallels between that struggle and the fight against the foreign occupiers of his country.\n\n1931: Empire State Building Completed\n\n• Date: May 1\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nU.S. President Herbert Hoover inaugurates the completion of the Empire State Building on May Day. It becomes the tallest building of the iconic Manhattan skyline until the construction of the World Trade Center Towers are completed in 1973. Incredibly, the 86-story office building took only 13 months to build, with construction starting in March of the previous year.\n\n1932: Hitler Becomes German\n\n• Date: Feb. 25\n\n• Location: Germany\n\nSeven years after Adolf Hitler renounces his Austrian citizenship, a fellow member of the Nazi Party gets him a low-level government job, which comes with automatic citizenship. This opens the way for him to run for office. Already a well-known party activist, it takes Hitler only two years from receiving his citizenship status to becoming the leader of Germany.\n\n1933: FDR Elected\n\n• Date: March 12\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nWith the Great Depression sending millions of Americans to soup kitchens and chasing whatever work they can find, newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt begins his weekly \"Fireside Chats\" as Americans are eager for guidance and solace during those dark times. FDR's first radio talk explains to Americans in plain language why he ordered that banks would close temporarily at different time in different parts of the country. The purpose, he explains, is to curb panic rushes of withdrawals, which has been hurting efforts to stabilize the banking system.\n\n1934: Hitler Consolidates Power\n\n• Date: June 30\n\n• Location: Berlin\n\nGermans, who had been suffering from a disastrous economic depression in 1929-30, begin to embrace the ideas of the Nationalist Socialist Workers Party – the Nazi Party. It becomes the largest party after the 1932 elections. In 1933, Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany. After President Paul von Hindenburg dies in 1934, Hitler then purges members of his own party – the bloody Night of the Long Knives – with the help of Nazi storm troopers and becomes the unquestioned leader of Germany.\n\n1935: FDR Launches New Deal\n\n• Date: Aug. 14\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nPresident Roosevelt, grappling with the Great Depression, signs into law his signature Social Security Act, a law that creates the country's first retirement security system. Earlier that year, as part of his \"New Deal\" policy, the president established the Works Progress Administration, a massive economic stimulus program, putting millions of Americans to work building the country's public infrastructure.\n\n1936: Owens Flouts Nazis\n\n• Date: Aug. 3\n\n• Location: Berlin\n\nAs the concept of racial purity and superiority dominates Germany in the 1930s, African-American sprinter Jesse Owens of Oakville, Alabama, shows them who is the master racer. During the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, and under the gaze of Adolf Hitler, Owens wins four Olympic gold medals for the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints, the long jump, and the 400-meter relay.\n\n1937: UAW Changes Car Industry\n\n• Date: Feb. 11\n\n• Location: Flint, Michigan\n\nNearly two years after the establishment of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), the union scores a major victory in Flint, Michigan. Workers at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant Number One lay down their tools and occupy the factory, demanding union representation, a fair minimum wage, safer working conditions, and not to outsource labor to non-union plants. Despite efforts by GM and local police to extricate them from the plant, including shutting off the heat, cutting off food supply, and attacks that leave 16 workers and 11 police officers injured, the strike lasts 44 days. The strike leads to an agreement between GM and the UAW, which includes a 5% pay raise and permission to talk in the lunchroom.\n\n1938: Anti-Semitism Surges\n\n• Date: Nov. 9\n\n• Location: Germany, Austria, Sudetenland\n\nGrowing anti-Semitic scapegoating amid Germany's crippling economic conditions culminates in the Kristallnacht, or \"Night of Broken Glass,\" a pogrom sparked by a speech from German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Storm troopers and other Nazi groups are ordered to attack and destroy Jewish businesses, homes, and houses of worship. In one night of attacks in Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking area of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, dozens of Jews are killed and tens of thousands are rounded up and sent to concentration camps.\n\n1939: World War II Starts\n\n• Date: Sept. 1\n\n• Location: Westerplatte, Poland\n\nUnder the cover of predawn darkness, a German battleship floats quietly into the center of Danzig Harbor and opens fire on a Polish stronghold in Westerplatte, the first shots of World War II. In the following weeks, Nazi forces, including 2,000 tanks and 1,000 aircraft, would shatter Polish defenses and surround Warsaw, which surrenders 26 days after the Danzig Harbor attack.\n\n1940: McDonald's Founded\n\n• Date: May 15\n\n• Location: San Bernardino, California\n\nBrothers Richard and Maurice McDonald open McDonald’s Barbecue Restaurant, offering BBQ ribs, pork sandwiches, and 23 other menu items. Eight years later, they would restructure their popular local business to focus on hamburgers, milkshakes, and fountain sodas, emphasizing speed, a simple menu, and low prices. In the 1950s, businessman Ray Kroc would buy out the brothers and grow McDonald’s into one of the world’s largest restaurant chains.\n\n1941: Pearl Harbor\n\n• Date: Dec. 7\n\n• Location: Oahu, Hawaii\n\nKnowing the U.S. is gearing up to engage them in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, Japan deploys a massive air attack on U.S. Navy ships parked at Pearl Harbor. The surprise assault by 353 Japanese aircraft leads to the deaths of 2,403 people, including 1,177 sailors aboard the ill-fated USS Arizona, one of 19 vessels that were damaged or destroyed in the attack. Nearly 330 aircraft were also damaged or destroyed. The United States declares war on Japan the next day and three days later against Germany and Italy.\n\n1942: GIs Arrive in Europe\n\n• Date: Jan. 26\n\n• Location: Northern Ireland\n\nThe first U.S. troops destined to fight in Europe in the world's greatest war arrive in Northern Ireland. It is the beginning of a military buildup that would culminate in the invasion of France more than two years later. Before then, the United States was providing only material support to its ally across the Atlantic, while building up what President Roosevelt called the \"Arsenal of Democracy\" in anticipation for the inevitable entry of the United States into the war in Europe.\n\n1943: Invention of LSD\n\n• Date: April 19\n\n• Location: Basel, Switzerland\n\nSwiss chemist Albert Hoffman had been studying the potential medicinal value of lysergic compounds when he accidentally exposed himself to LSD-25, which he had created years earlier in his lab. This was the first LSD trip, a quarter-century before the counterculture endorses the hallucinogenic compound. Hoffman describes the \"not unpleasant\" experience as \"uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.\" Hoffman takes a second dose and writes a paper about his discovery. The U.S. Army tests the drug on soldiers numerous times from 1955 to 1967, briefly toying with the idea of using LSD as a weapon to disorient enemy soldiers during combat.\n\n1944: D-Day\n\n• Date: June 6\n\n• Location: Normandy France\n\nThe plan for the biggest one-day military campaign in history, the invasion of Normandy by Allied forces to push the Nazis out of France, is hatched in extreme secrecy a year earlier. The plan is conceived during the Quebec Conference by Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. The invasion starts at 6:30 a.m. on five beaches, and over the next 24 hours about 4,900 Allied soldiers are killed, many of them the instant the doors of their Higgins transport boats opened directly into German machine gun fire.\n\n1945: World War II Ends\n\n• Date: Sept. 2\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nThe surrender of Japan marks the end of World War II amid one of the most tumultuous years of the 20th century. Earlier in the year, leaders of three nations – Benito Mussolini, Franklin Roosevelt, and Adolf Hitler – die and Nazi Germany surrenders. Though the surrender of Japan was inevitable, the prospect of a horrific Allied assault on the Japanese mainland convinces the United States to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bomb attacks, along with the entry of the Soviet Union in the war against Japan, compel the Japanese to surrender.\n\n1946: Baby Boom Starts\n\n• Date: Jan. 1\n\n• Location: U.S.\n\nMore American babies are born – 3.4 million – in 1946 than in any year in U.S. history up to then. The number of births grows to 4 million per year from 1954 to 1964, the last year of the baby boomer generation, the biggest generation at that point in history.\n\n1947: India Gains Independence\n\n• Date: Aug. 15\n\n• Location: Washington D.C\n\nThe sun sets on the British Empire in India in 1947, as the Asian nation becomes the world's largest democracy. Independence is the culmination of decades of work by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Indian nationalists committed to throwing off the yoke of British colonialism. The transition to independence comes at a price. The subcontinent is partitioned into two nations, Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Violence erupts between Hindus and Muslims as Hindus migrate to India and Muslims shift to Pakistan. It is estimated that 1 million people die during the migration.\n\n1948: Birth of Israel\n\n• Date: May 15\n\n• Location: Middle East\n\nAfter Israel declares its independence following a UN resolution, neighboring Arab states with troops from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Transjordan (now Jordan), Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia attack the former British-controlled Palestinian mandate. The Arab-Israeli War ended with an armistice that leaves Israel with some territories as Egypt and Jordan retains control over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, respectively.\n\n1949: NATO Founded\n\n• Date: April 4\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nWith the Cold War worsening, the Soviet Union detonates its first nuclear bomb and quickly exerts its influence over Eastern Europe. It attempts to do the same in Western Europe, which is still recovering from the massive destruction of World War II. To respond to the Soviet threat, U.S. and Western European allies form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Fundamentally, NATO simply states that an attack on any NATO member would be considered an attack on all NATO members. Cold War tensions ratchet up later that year when the communists take over China, the world’s most populous nation.\n\n1950: Korean War Starts\n\n• Date: June 25\n\n• Location: Korea\n\nThe North Korean People's Army crosses the 38th parallel into South Korea, eliciting almost an immediate response from U.S. President Truman, and starting the Korean War – a proxy battle between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Three years later, a ceasefire would halt the war. The uneasy relations between North Korea and South Korea last to this day.\n\n1951: Rosenbergs Sentenced\n\n• Date: March 29\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nHusband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for their part in passing along atomic secrets to the Soviet Union during and after World War II. They are executed two years later. Not everyone is convinced of their involvement in the scheme. Supporters claim they are scapegoats swept up in the Cold War hysteria of the time. Documents revealed decades later would show the detailed extent of Julius Rosenberg's involvement in the spy ring, though Ethel's participation in the scheme remains inconclusive.\n\n1952: First Hydrogen Bomb Test\n\n• Date: Nov. 1\n\n• Location: Marshall Islands\n\nThe United States successfully detonates its first hydrogen bomb, a second generation thermonuclear device, in the Marshall Islands as part of Operation Ivy, one of a series of nuclear bomb tests. From 1946 to 1958, the United States used the remote Pacific Marshall Islands as its nuclear weapons testing site, detonating a total of 67 nuclear tests.\n\n1953: The Dawn of DNA\n\n• Date: Feb. 28\n\n• Location: Cambridge, England, U.K.\n\nCambridge University scientists James Watson and Francis Crick announce they have discovered the fundamental behavior and double-helix structure of DNA. Though scientists had been aware of DNA since the 1860s and its role in genetic inheritance since 1943, Watson and Crick were the first to explain how DNA works to replicate itself and pass on genes from one generation to the next.\n\n1954: Brown vs. Board of Education\n\n• Date: May 17\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nIn a landmark case involving Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas, who had to cross a railroad track to reach an all-black elementary school even though an all-white school was closer, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the segregated school system was unconstitutional on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The clause would be used again by the courts to reverse state-level racial segregation practices and ordinances.\n\n1955: Parks Starts a Movement\n\n• Date: Dec. 1\n\n• Location: Montgomery, Alabama\n\nRosa Parks makes history by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus. The arrest of Parks for insisting to remain seated leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the ascent of a young pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr., as a local activist leader to advance the civil rights cause. A successful federal lawsuit by the NAACP against the city leads to the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system on Dec. 21 of the following year.\n\n1956: Hungary Suppressed\n\n• Date: Nov. 4\n\n• Location: Budapest\n\nCold War tensions escalate when Hungarians take to the streets, demanding democratic reforms. Three days later, Red Army troops invade Hungary, killing thousands. Nine days after the incursion, Budapest is occupied by the Soviet troops in one of the largest and most aggressive actions taken by the Soviet Union since the end of World War II.\n\n1957: The Little Rock Nine\n\n• Date: Sept 24\n\n• Location: Little Rock, Arkansas\n\nU.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders federal troops to protect nine African American high school students as they start classes at the all-white Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. This would become one of the first high-profile actions by the federal government against state-level racial segregation.\n\n1958: US Launches First Satellite\n\n• Date: Jan. 31\n\n• Location: Cape Canaveral, Florida\n\nThe United States successfully launches Explorer 1, three months after the Soviet Union sent its first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. The two superpowers would go on to send more satellites into space, creating a Cold War space race to build ever more sophisticated orbital communications devices.\n\n1959: Castro Takes Over Cuba\n\n• Date: Jan. 1\n\n• Location: Havana\n\nU.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Havana as Fidel Castro's forces advance on the Cuban capital. Days later, rebels led by Ché Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city, followed two days later by Castro's forces, who quickly consolidate power in Cuba, establishing a communist government in the Caribbean's largest country.\n\n1960: Lunch Counter Sit-in\n\n• Date: Feb. 1\n\n• Location: Greensboro, North Carolina\n\nWhen four African American college students – Ezell A. Blair, Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil and David L. Richmond – sit down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and ask for service, they are denied. The young men refuse to leave, leading to a larger six-month protest that results in the desegregation of the lunch counter by that summer. The Greensboro Woolworth’s would close in 1993, and a section of the lunch counter be donated to the Smithsonian.\n\n1961: Berlin Wall Built\n\n• Date: Aug. 13\n\n• Location: Berlin, East and West Germany\n\nBy the late summer of 1961, the loss of skilled workers such as teachers, engineers, and doctors to the West reaches crisis levels in East Germany. On Aug. 12, 2,400 East Germans cross into West Berlin, the most in a single day. The next day, with the approval of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, East Germany builds a wall that would extend 27 miles through Berlin, dividing families and friends for the next 28 years. The wall would serve as an enduring symbol of the Cold War, used by presidents John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan to inspire a divided city.\n\n1962: Cuban Missile Crisis\n\n• Date: Oct.16-28\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nWhen the United States learns that the Soviet Union is building nuclear missile installations 90 miles south of Miami in communist Cuba, the Kennedy administration starts a naval blockade around the island, which is at times tested, and Kennedy demands the removal of the missiles.The standoff is widely considered to be the closest the two nuclear superpowers come to direct military confrontation. Cooler heads prevail. The Soviet Union offers to remove the missiles in exchange for a guarantee that the United States will not invade Cuba. In secret, the administration also agrees to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey.\n\n1963: JFK Assassinated\n\n• Date: Nov. 22\n\n• Location: Dallas\n\nAs President John F. Kennedy prepares for his re-election bid, he embarks on a multi-state tour starting in September 1963. He is murdered by a sharpshooter’s bullet fired by Lee Harvey Oswald at about 12:30 p.m. as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Oswald himself is murdered two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.\n\n1964: LBJ's \"War on Poverty\"\n\n• Date: Jan. 8\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nBogged down by the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson struggles constantly to pivot away from the war to focus on his stated goals of reducing poverty, ending segregation, and establishing the social programs many Americans rely on to this day, including the immensely popular Medicare program. During his “War on Poverty” State of the Union Address of Jan. 8, 1964, LBJ outlines the need for the country to reduce poverty, end racial discrimination, attend to the health needs of the elderly, and other progressive goals. Later achievements during LBJ’s administration are the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Social Security Amendments of 1965.\n\n1965: Civil Rights Turns Violent\n\n• Date: March 7\n\n• Location: Selma, Alabama\n\nThe fatal shooting of protester Jimmy Lee Jackson by an Alabama state trooper sparks a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Hundreds of civil rights activists march in what becomes known as “Bloody Sunday.” Police would confront the marchers, led by John Lewis (who would serve as a House Democrat from Georgia) and others. As the activists cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, police attack the protesters with tear gas and billy clubs, hospitalizing 50. Lewis would pass away in July 2020, his body crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the last time in a horse-drawn carriage.\n\n1966: Mao Purges Rivals\n\n• Date: Aug. 13\n\n• Location: Beijing\n\nAt the end of a weeklong session of the Communist Party Central Committee of the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao Zedong condemns the political elites, calling on China's youth to rebel against the entrenched political hierarchy. It is the beginning of the decade-long Cultural Revolution that fundamentally transforms Chinese society. Intellectuals, members of the former Nationalist government, and people with ties to Western powers are persecuted, sent to re-education labor camps, or killed by the factions of Red Guards formed in the wake of Mao's call to action.\n\n1967: Six-Day War\n\n• Date: June 5\n\n• Location: Middle East\n\nAmid escalating tensions with its neighbors, Israel launches a pre-emptive strike that destroys most of Egypt's air force. Syria, Jordan, and Iraq also attack Israel. As the war continues, Israel takes the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, captures East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, and in heavy fighting seizes the Golan Heights from Syria. A ceasefire went into effect on June 10.\n\n1968: King Assassinated\n\n• Date: April 4\n\n• Location: Memphis, Tennessee\n\nRev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is fatally shot by James Earl Ray as the civil rights icon stands on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, a tragedy that sparks race riots nationwide. King's influence in words and actions touch and move not only the nation, but the world, and resonate to this day. Two months later, on June 4, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and brother of John F. Kennedy, is fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan, an Arab Christian from Jerusalem, who believes Kennedy is \"instrumental\" in oppressing Palestinians.\n\n1969: Landing on the Moon\n\n• Date: July 20\n\n• Location: Moon\n\nPresident Kennedy’s goal of a manned lunar landing before 1970 is realized six years after his assassination. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins blast off from the Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 a.m. aboard the Saturn V rocket. After three days of travel, Armstrong and Aldrin land the Eagle module on the lunar surface as Collins remains in lunar orbit to pilot the module. Upon their return to Earth, the three astronauts are put in 21-day quarantine to ensure they do not bring back any lunar contagions.\n\n1970: War In Asia Widens\n\n• Date: April 29\n\n• Location: Eastern Cambodia\n\nAlthough the United States should be scaling back U.S. troop presence in Vietnam, President Richard Nixon approves an operation with the South Vietnamese to invade Cambodia to oust Northern Vietnamese forces there. The Cambodian incursion inflames anti-war protests in the United States as it is perceived to be an escalation of U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia.\n\n1971: Pentagon Papers\n\n• Date: Feb. 8\n\n• Location: Laos\n\nThe Pentagon Papers, a study by the U.S. Department of Defense about the country's involvement in the Vietnam war, are released and published first in The New York Times, then other newspapers. The documents expose several missteps and how several administrations have misled the American public regarding the war in Vietnam. They also reveal an expanded campaign in Cambodia and Laos, especially clandestine bombing in Laos, which today is considered the heaviest bombardment in history.\n\n1972: Nixon Goes To China\n\n• Date: Feb. 21\n\n• Location: Beijing\n\nPresident Richard Nixon, a virulent anti-communist earlier in his political career, surprises the American public by traveling to Beijing, China, for a week of talks in a historic first step toward normalizing relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Until this trip, the United States and communist China were de facto enemies, fighting proxy wars in the Korean Peninsula in the 1950s and South Vietnam at the time of Nixon’s visit.\n\n1973: Roe v. Wade\n\n• Date: Jan. 22\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nIn a landmark 7-2 decision that will be known as Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court rules that under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, states cannot completely bar a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy. However, the court adds that as the pregnancy develops, the state can balance a woman's right to privacy with its interest in preserving the \"potentiality of human life.\" As a result, states can ban abortion in the third trimester except in cases where a pregnancy affects a woman's health.\n\n1974: Nixon Resigns Out\n\n• Date: Aug. 8\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nPresident Richard Nixon announces his resignation amid impeachment proceedings stemming from the Watergate scandal and his administration's attempt resist a congressional investigation. The scandal exposes abuses of power by the White House after five burglars were busted breaking in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon becomes the only president in U.S. history to resign.\n\n1975: Saigon Falls\n\n• Date: April 30\n\n• Location: South Vietnam\n\nTwo years after the last American troops leave Vietnam, communist troops from North Vietnam capture Saigon, ending nearly two decades of relentless war in the rice paddies and jungles of that Southeast Asian nation. The final tally of war dead for the United States is 58,202.\n\n1976: The Concorde Changes Air Travel\n\n• Date: Jan. 21\n\n• Location: London and Paris\n\nTwo supersonic Concorde jets take off simultaneously – one from London to Bahrain, operated by British Airways, and the other from Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar in Senegal, operated by Air France – marking the first time paying passengers enjoy commercial travel at faster than the speed of sound. Though travel by one of the 16 Concordes ever put into service could slash travel time from New York to London in half, the high cost of maintenance, soaring ticket prices, as well as a fatal accident in 2000, sealed the fate of the narrow, slope-nosed aircraft.\n\n1977: Rise of the PC\n\n• Date: January\n\n• Location: Chicago\n\nPersonal home computers began to emerge in the 1970s, but many of the earliest versions resembled calculators that would plug into televisions sets. By 1977, however, the desktop home computer begins to resemble their more modern versions – with an accompanying attached or separate computer screen and a magnetic tape or floppy disk storage device. The Commodore PET is unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago that year, while the first Apple II and Radio Shack's TRS-80 go on sale.\n\n1978: Cult's Mass Suicide\n\n• Date: Nov. 18\n\n• Location: Jonestown, Guyana\n\nMore than 900 people die in one of worst recorded acts of cult-related mass murder-suicide after most of the victims and perpetrators drink a powdered drink mix dosed with cyanide. Most of the victims are Americans, devotees of Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones, a former Methodist-trained preacher who built a following and led the flock to Guyana. Among the dead are 276 children who drink the poison. A small number of cult defectors are killed by Peoples Temple gunmen who also slay California congressman Leo Ryan, who had gone to Guyana to investigate Jonestown.\n\n1979: Islamic Republic Born in Iran\n\n• Date: Feb. 11\n\n• Location: Tehran\n\nWorsening economic conditions, increasing discontent with the government, and wide support for religious leader in exile Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini end the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The shah and his family flee Iran in January 1979. On Feb 11, the monarchy is dissolved, and on April 1, Khomeini declares Iran an Islamic republic. With support among the nation's clergy and their many followers, he begins rebuilding Iranian society based on conservative Shiite religious principles.\n\n1980: Reagan Elected\n\n• Date: Nov. 4\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nWith the United States in an economic malaise and the Iranian hostage crisis hobbling the presidency of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan is elected the 40th president in a landslide. Reagan, who would serve two terms, was the oldest man elected president at the time. Reagan's election changes the trajectory of American politics, ushering in an era of conservative leadership. During his tenure, he takes a more aggressive approach to the Soviet Union and increases defense spending. Reagan convinces Congress to cut taxes, a move that many economists credit with triggering an economic boom in the 1980s.\n\n1981: AIDS Impacts America\n\n• Date: June 5\n\n• Location: Los Angeles\n\nThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes a report about five gay men who had been diagnosed by local physicians with a rare form of pneumonia – the first reported U.S. cases of what would later become known as HIV/AIDS. The autoimmune disease spread so fast that by the end of 1982, 500 Americans had died from what now the CDC called acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. An estimated 35 million people worldwide would die from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic.\n\n1982: Mexico Triggers Regional Debt Crisis\n\n• Date: Aug 12\n\n• Location: Mexico City\n\nGlobal economic stagnation in the 1970s and early 1980s, and excessive borrowing among Latin America's biggest economies, boils over when Mexico's Finance Minister Jesús Silva-Herzog tells the U.S. Federal Reserve his country can no longer service its debt to $80 billion. After the announcement, lenders realize virtually every country in Latin America, led by Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, are not able to pay back loans. The crisis would lead to years of eroding wages, weak-to-negative economic growth, sky-high unemployment, severe austerity measures, and political instability – known as the \"lost decade\" in Latin America.\n\n1983: The Internet is Born\n\n• Date: Jan. 1\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nThe internet as we know it today – a seemingly endless collection of websites hosted on servers scattered across the globe – is still more than a decade away. But at the beginning of 1983, the the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) – a small network for academics and researchers – transitions to the standard TCP/IP protocol of the World Wide Web. The protocol would become the internet's cornerstone and technical foundation as it allows expanded available address space and decentralizes the network, thus also expanding accessibility.\n\n1984: Chemicals Kill Thousands in India\n\n• Date: Dec. 2\n\n• Location: Bhopal, India\n\nThe chemical disaster in Bhopal is still considered history's worst industrial disaster. About 30 tons of methyl isocyanate, an industrial gas used to make pesticide, are released at a Union Carbide Corp. plant. About 600,000 poor residents of nearby shanty towns are exposed to a highly toxic compound that kills about 15,000 people and countless farm animals, according to Indian government estimates. The calamity leads to a generation of birth defects. To this day, locals claim the now-abandoned site is riddled with toxic materials left behind by Union Carbide, which was acquired by Dow Chemical in 2001.\n\n1985: Reagan, Gorbachev Meet\n\n• Date: Nov. 19\n\n• Location: Geneva\n\nDespite his often bellicose criticisms of the Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan agrees to meet with his counterpart, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, in Geneva in the first meeting between leaders of the two Cold War foes in nearly a decade. Though the meeting yields little of substance, it starts a closer relationship between the two men who both seem committed to scaling back the nuclear arms race between the two nuclear superpowers.\n\n1986: Shuttle Tragedy\n\n• Date: Jan. 28\n\n• Location: Off the coast of Florida\n\nThe 25th mission of the U.S. space shuttle program ends with the tragic loss of seven astronauts as space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Among those killed are Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space. The failure is later identified as a problem with the so-called O-rings used to form a seal in the seams of the shuttle's external fuel tanks.\n\n1987: Stock Market Tanks\n\n• Date: Oct. 19\n\n• Location: Worldwide\n\nOct. 19, 1987 is called Black Monday because on that day the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 508 points, or more than 22%. The drop is worse than the crash in 1929. It is also worse than the market plunge after the 9-11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. Among the reasons cited for the drop are rising tensions in the Persian Gulf, concern over higher interest rates, and the belief that the bull market is ending. Computerized trading, relatively new at the time, accelerates trade orders, which speeds up the market drop. As a result of the collapse, exchanges put in place so-called circuit breakers intended to halt trading when stocks fall too fast. This measure is designed to provide investors a cooling off period and avoid a panic.\n\n1988: When the U.S. Armed Iran\n\n• Date: March 16\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nLt. Col. Oliver North and Vice Adm. John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States for their involvement in the so-called Iran-Contra affair. The scandal involved members of the Reagan administration who illegally sold arms to Iran to help facilitate the release of American hostages, and then transfer the proceeds of the sale to fund the Nicaraguan contras, a loose affiliation of right-wing militias. North is convicted, but his conviction is vacated and reversed, while Poindexter's convictions are also reversed on appeal.\n\n1989: The Berlin Wall Falls\n\n• Date: Nov. 9\n\n• Location: Berlin, East and West Germany\n\nCracks in the monolithic Soviet bloc are starting to appear in the 1980s, and the very symbol of communist repression comes crashing down in November, when the Berlin Wall is breached, ending a 28-year division of the city. During the day on Nov. 9, a spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party says starting at midnight that day, citizens of East Germany are free to cross the country's borders. Almost immediately Berliners start slamming the wall with axes and sledgehammers. By nightfall, the celebration turns into what one observer calls \"the greatest street party in the history of the world\" and the city is reunited. East and West Germany would reunite one year later.\n\n1990: Democracy in Poland\n\n• Date: Jan. 28\n\n• Location: Poland\n\nWith the hold of the Soviet Union and communism on East Europe loosening, Poland's ruling communist party votes to dissolve and become more moderate. In the following elections, Lech Wałęsa, leader of the Solidarity Movement and the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, wins the election and becomes president.\n\n1991: American Goes to War in Middle East\n\n• Date: Jan. 17\n\n• Location: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait\n\nAfter Saddam Hussein's Iraq invades and occupies Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, the United States sends forces to defend neighboring Saudi Arabia from being overrun and to protect its vital oil assets in Operation Desert Shield. With Saudi Arabia secured, U.S. implements Operation Desert Storm to push Iraqi forces back across the border with Kuwait in a military operation that lasts until a ceasefire takes effect in April.\n\n1992: Cold War Ends\n\n• Date: Feb. 1\n\n• Location: Camp David, Maryland\n\nJust weeks after the dissolution of the Soviet Union on Dec. 26, 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, meet at Camp David to formally declare the end of the Cold War that began shortly after the end of World War II. The meeting comes days after both countries announce they would stop aiming nuclear missiles at each other. Russia declares its 11 former communist satellite republics – from Armenia to Uzbekistan – independent.\n\n1993: The EU Becomes Reality\n\n• Date: Nov. 1\n\n• Location: Brussels\n\nThe Treaty of the European Union, also known as the Maastricht Treaty, goes into effect in November, after a rough series of political wrangling that, among other concessions, allows the U.K. and Denmark to opt out of the common euro currency. The treaty opens the way to removing border controls among member states and invites new members to join the union.\n\n1994: Amazon.com is Born\n\n• Date: July 5\n\n• Location: Seattle\n\nWith an initial aim of becoming an online bookstore, Jeff Bezos and a handful of angel investors launch Amazon.com, just as e-commerce is about to take off. In 2020, after expanding from books to the so-called “Everything Store” and growing a business selling cloud services to companies like Netflix and Instagram, Bezos would be the world’s richest man.\n\n1995: Domestic Terror Strikes Oklahoma\n\n• Date: April 19\n\n• Location: Oklahoma City\n\nIn the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, anti-government radicals Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. They time the truck-bomb attack for a weekday morning in order to maximize casualties. For the murder of at least 168 people, including 19 children who were in a childcare center in the building, and the injury of hundreds of others, an unremorseful McVeigh is executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001. Nichols is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.\n\n1996: The Dawn of Cloning\n\n• Date: July 5\n\n• Location: Midlothian, Scotland, U.K.\n\nDolly the Sheep enters the annals of bioengineering when scientists at Scotland's Roslin Institute become the first to not only successfully clone a mammal, but also the first to do so using an adult cell rather than an embryonic one. After 277 so-called cell fusions that created 29 embryos, the teams managed to turn an udder cell into a nearly complete biological carbon copy of the sheep from which it came.\n\n1997: Machine Tops Chess Champ\n\n• Date: May 11\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nArtificial intelligence and machine learning have been serious areas of study (and hype) for over 60 years. In 1997, one of the most significant victories for silicon logic came when IBM's Deep Blue became the first machine to beat a world chess champion. The the refrigerator-sized computer beat Garry Kasparov twice and tied him three times in a six-game match.\n\n1998: The Age of Google Begins\n\n• Date: Sept. 4\n\n• Location: Menlo Park, California\n\nWith seed money from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, among others, Stanford University Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin launch the search engine Google. The digital advertising behemoth Google Inc., now Alphabet Inc., is a $1.104 trillion company with several subsidiaries, including video-sharing platform YouTube; autonomous-car development company Waymo; and X, the company’s research and development division.\n\n1999: NATO's First Independent Strike\n\n• Date: March 24\n\n• Location: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia\n\nIn order to expel Serbian forces from Kosovo during the Kosovo War, NATO forces initiate their first-ever military campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Montenegro and Serbia) without U.N. Security Council authorization as Russia and China oppose the attack. The NATO air strikes are aimed at stopping an onslaught against ethnic Albanians by the government of Slobodan Milošević. The NATO attacks last nearly three months, culminating in the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.\n\n2000: International Space Station Opens\n\n• Date: Nov. 2\n\n• Location: Low earth orbit\n\nCommanders Bill Shepherd from the United States and Yuri Gidzenko of Russia, along with Russian flight engineer Sergei Krikalev become the first temporary residents of the International Space Station two years after the first component of the research center was put into low-Earth orbit about 250 miles above sea level. Since that first crew, there have been 229 other visitors to the ISS, some of them multiple times, led by 146 from the United States and 47 from Russia.\n\n2001: 9/11\n\n• Date: Sept. 11\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nIn the worst attack on U.S. soil since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, 19 hijackers inspired by Islamist extremism kill nearly 3,000 people after crashing three passenger-laden commercial aircraft into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane, United Airlines 93, crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew attempt to regain control of the plane headed Washington D.C.\n\n2002: Homeland Security\n\n• Date: Nov. 25\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nFollowing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. Congress and President George W. Bush enact the Homeland Security Act, the biggest government reorganization of national security efforts since the Department of Defense was created in 1947. The sweeping legislation creates the massive Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for everything from protecting infrastructure from cyber-attacks to managing the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.\n\n2003: US Crushes Iraq\n\n• Date: March 19\n\n• Location: Iraq\n\nWith the help of British and other allied forces, the United States begins its invasion of Iraq with a rapid bombing \"Shock and Awe\" campaign with the intention of destroying Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction; the weapons are never found. Coalition forces manage to quickly topple the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, but have to fight insurgent forces for years afterward.\n\n2004: Facebook Founded\n\n• Date: Feb. 4\n\n• Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts\n\nMark Zuckerberg, a 23-year-old Harvard University student, creates “The facebook,” a local social networking site named after the orientation materials that profiles students and faculty and given to incoming college freshmen. Sixteen years later, Facebook has become an $843.6 billion digital advertising behemoth so integral to many people’s lives that it has been criticized for helping foreign powers and propagandists influence the U.S. political system.\n\n2005: Katrina Overwhelms New Orleans\n\n• Date: Aug. 29\n\n• Location: U.S. Gulf Coast\n\nAfter spending four days in the Gulf of Mexico bulking up to a category 5 hurricane, Katrina slams into New Orleans, inundating the city and creating a humanitarian crisis that lasts for weeks. The catastrophe underscores the precarious situation not only in the Big Easy, but also the surrounding area of the Gulf Coast. At least 1,833 people in the storm's path are killed, and the storm inflicts $161 billion in damages to the region, the costliest storm in U.S. history.\n\n2006: Hussein Executed\n\n• Date: Dec. 30\n\n• Location: Baghdad\n\nThree years after U.S. soldiers pulled him from a hole in the ground where he had been hiding, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is hanged after he was convicted for crimes against humanity, specifically for ordering the massacre of 148 Shiites in 1982 following a failed assassination attempt against him.\n\n2007: The iPhone\n\n• Date: Jan. 9\n\n• Location: San Francisco\n\nApple CEO Steve Jobs, who died in October 2011, first shows the world one of the most popular branded consumer electronic devices in history, the iPhone. Since the first generation phone that Jobs introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show that year, there have been 18 versions of the mobile device, and more than 1.2 billion units have been sold globally through 2017. Only Samsung's Galaxy smartphone comes close to that volume.\n\n2008: Dow Plunges\n\n• Date: Sept. 29\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nThe Dow Jones Industrial Average records an intraday drop of 777.68 points after Congress rejects a massive $700 billion bailout of U.S. banks. The bill would pass days later. The market reacts also to months of global market turmoil amid the 2008 global financial crisis spurred by the U.S. subprime mortgage market crash. The Dow fell by more than half during the 2007-09 Great Recession, tumbling from 14,164 on Oct. 9, 2007 to 6,594 on March 5, 2009.\n\n2009: America’s First African American President\n\n• Date: Jan. 20\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nAfter defeating Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona by amassing 365 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote, Barack Obama is sworn in as the first African American president of the United States. Obama inherits the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but with his party holding majorities in both houses of Congress at the time, the president is able to pass a stimulus package and his signature Affordable Care Act in March 2010.\n\n2010: Catastrophic Oil Spill\n\n• Date: April 20\n\n• Location: Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana\n\nEleven workers die and 17 are injured after an explosion and fire erupts on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig 40 miles from the Louisiana coast. The explosion causes the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, spewing 3 million barrels of crude over the three months it takes to stop the leak. British oil company BP says costs climbed to $65 billion in claims for the accident, including a $1.7 billion charge it took as recently as the fourth quarter of 2017.\n\n2011: Bin Laden Killed\n\n• Date: May 2\n\n• Location: Abbottabad, Pakistan\n\nIn an intense 40-minute nighttime firefight, 25 U.S. Navy SEALs hunt down and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Within hours, bin Laden’s body is identified using DNA and then buried at sea.\n\n2012: The \"God Particle\" Is (Probably) Discovered\n\n• Date: July 4\n\n• Location: Near Geneva\n\nNearly 600 feet below the France-Switzerland border at CERN's Large Hadron Collider Facility, an international team of scientists discovers a new particle widely believed to be the elusive Higgs boson, known as the \"God Particle,\" which is thought to be a fundamental component of the universe. Higgs boson has been an important element of particle physics theory for decades, but until 2012 there had been no physical evidence to support its existence.\n\n2013: Snowden Reveals Secrets\n\n• Date: June 6\n\n• Location: Hong Kong\n\nAfter surreptitiously leaving his job at U.S. National Security Agency contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, computer security consultant Edward Snowden meets secretly in Hong Kong with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. He reveals the first of a series of secrets about numerous U.S. and European government surveillance operations. Hailed as a courageous whistleblower and privacy champion by some, and a traitor that compromised counterterrorism efforts by others, the American now resides in exile in Moscow.\n\n2014: Russian Bear Bites Ukraine\n\n• Date: March 16\n\n• Location: Crimea\n\nExploiting political unrest in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrates the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The action incites peals of condemnation from world leaders and a raft of economic sanctions against Moscow. This strategically important and predominantly Russian-speaking region on the Black Sea has been coveted by the Russians as part of their strategic efforts to check NATO expansion along Russia's western border.\n\n2015: NASA Flies by Pluto\n\n• Date: July 14\n\n• Location: 3 billion miles from Earth\n\nNASA spacecraft New Horizons becomes the first human-made object to fly past and observe the dwarf planet Pluto. New Horizons sends back stunning photographs of this enigmatic and distant member of the solar system, including images of a mountain range and massive icebergs floating in frozen nitrogen. New Horizons is now en route to the Kuiper Belt, a massive asteroid belt at the far reaches of the solar system.\n\n2016: Trump Elected\n\n• Date: Nov. 8\n\n• Location: U.S.\n\nRunning on a populist agenda, Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States and the fifth president in U.S. history (the second since the 2000) to win despite losing the popular vote. The real estate developer and television personality ran on a platform of putting \"America First\" in global trade and foreign policy negotiations and cracking down on undocumented immigrants.\n\n2017: Hurricane Triple Whammy\n\n• Date: August-September\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nWithin just four weeks, three massive hurricanes – Harvey, Irma, and Maria – strike Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean, killing 228 people, inflicting a combined $265 billion in damages, and displacing millions of homeowners. Hurricane Maria inflicts immense damage to the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which was already struggling from economic insolvency.\n\n2018: Wildfires\n\n• Date: November\n\n• Location: Northern California\n\nWildfires engulfed northern California in November, the deadliest in that state’s history. The catastrophe cost the lives of 88 people and fire consumed 18,500 homes and businesses. State and federal officials estimated that it would cost $3 billion to clean up debris. Climate change activists said the conflagrations were evidence that global warming is no longer a distant concern and that it is occurring now.\n\n2019:Hong Kong Protests\n\n• Date: Beginning in March\n\n• Location: Hong Kong\n\nResidents of the small economic powerhouse of Hong Kong, which was given special administrative region status as a condition to its handover to China from Great Britain, protested a proposed extradition bill in March. That led to other mass demonstrations in Hong Kong throughout the year over concerns China was trying to erode Hong Kong’s autonomy.\n\nPeople power manifested itself in protests in other nations as well in 2019, with demonstrations leading to the ouster of presidents in Algeria and Sudan.\n\n2020: COVID-19\n\n• Date: March\n\n• Location: Worldwide\n\nA novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes the disease COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. The virus spread to Europe and the United States in early 2020 and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11. The outbreak reached virtually every nation on Earth, leading to countrywide lockdowns, massive layoffs, business closures, and school shutdowns. As of Aug. 26, the pandemic claimed more than 820,000 lives worldwide, including about 179,000 people in the U.S. COVID-19 has become the worst pandemic since the Spanish flu in 1918.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/09/06"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/golf/pga-tour-commissioner-liv-golf-intl-spt/index.html", "title": "PGA Tour commissioner announces higher prize money at some ...", "text": "(CNN) PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan told reporters Wednesday prize money at eight regular season tournaments will be increased, an announcement that comes on the heels of several big-name golfers leaving the tour for the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series .\n\n\"Let me be clear, I am not naïve. If this is an arms race and if the only weapons here are dollar bills, the PGA Tour can't compete,\" Monahan said at a news conference. \"The PGA Tour, an American institution, can't compete with a foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars in an attempt to buy the game of golf.\"\n\nDuring the commissioner's news conference, the LIV Golf series announced former world No. 1 Brooks Koepka would be joining the venture.\n\nLIV Golf is organized by LIV Golf Investments and backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) -- a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the man who a US intelligence report named as responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi . Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi's killing.\n\nEarlier this month, Monahan announced that all golfers playing in the breakaway series will no longer be eligible to participate in PGA Tour tournaments.\n\nMonahan said the Tour welcomes \"good, healthy\" competition but said the new tour is an \"irrational threat\" and is not concerned with the \"true growth\" of the game.\n\nUntil now, the various golf tours and organizations have worked together, he said.\n\n\"But when someone attempts to buy the sport, dismantle the institutions that are intrinsically invested in its growth and focused only on a personal priority, that partnership evaporates and instead we end up with one person, one entity using endless amounts of money to direct employees, not members or partners, toward their personal goal,\" Monahan said. \"Which may or may not change tomorrow or the next day. I doubt that's the vision any one of us have the for the game.\"\n\nIn a memo to players obtained by CNN Monahan wrote that the Sentry Tournament of Champions, The Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Players Championship, WGC - Dell Technologies, Memorial Tournament, FedEx St. Jude Championship and BMW Championship would have millions added to their prize money, including several that will see 67% more in the purses.\n\nMonahan also said the PGA Tour will create a series of up to three international events that will feature a limited-field in a no-cut format. The international events will take place after the conclusion of the fall schedule and will include the top 50 players from the final FedEx Cup points list and the best performers in the fall.\n\nHe revealed the PGA Tour will return to a calendar year schedule culminating with the FedEx Cup playoffs, which will feature a smaller field of 70 players instead of the usual 125, followed by fall events that will determine the top 125 players.\n\nThe first full season of the new changes will begin in the 2024 calendar year.\n\nScottie Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world, said he doesn't think there is any amount of money that will change his mind about playing on the PGA Tour.\n\n\"The money that we have on the PGA Tour, I never dreamed of playing for this much money as I do now,\" he said. \"I mean, I can't, I don't know, I don't know how much money I've made this year, but it's definitely more than I deserve for whacking a little white golf ball around.\"\n\nScheffler said he wasn't going to tell others what they should do, but in the past, doing things based on the money involved hadn't worked out well for him.\n\nSix-time major winner Phil Mickelson and former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson are among those who played in the first LIV Golf event, while other major winners Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel also participated.\n\nThere are seven LIV events remaining this year, including an event in Portland that begins June 30 and a tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, with the first round on July 29.", "authors": ["Homero De La Fuente"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/05/26/tulsa-race-massacre-centennial-events-greenwood-district-black-wall-street-remembered/7447656002/", "title": "Tulsa Race Massacre events: Updates as Black Wall Street ...", "text": "Survivors, dignitaries, state residents and people from all walks of life will gather in Tulsa over the next week to commemorate the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre on Black Wall Street.\n\nThe Oklahoman will be providing live updates from Tulsa over the next several days. Check back to this article often to get the latest information on events at the Tulsa Race Massacre centennial.\n\nRacially diverse crowd joins for candlelight vigil in Greenwood, despite rain and chilly weather\n\nKevin Dedner looked around him as he stood with two friends on Monday at the corner of Greenwood and Archer avenues.\n\nHoisting an umbrella in the air, the Washington, D.C. resident explained why he chose to stand in the rain with more than 100 other people at a candlelight vigil held at 10:30 p.m. to mark the moment the first shot was fired that started the Tulsa Race Massacre 100 years ago in Greenwood.\n\n\"I started the morning at the dedication of the (Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church prayer) wall and it was very still before the rain and the wind wasn't blowing. All I could think about was how 100 years ago, all of these people were starting their day here,\" said Dedner, who is African American.\n\n\"They thought it was going to be a normal day and they thought they were going to go on building their lives and futures for their children and by 10 o'clock that night, the whole world as they knew it, would unravel. So I wanted to here to honor their memory, to really join them in their suffering, because when we suffer, we then know our path to healing.\"\n\nDedner had a message for the city where white mobs murdered Black Tulsans and burned their homes, businesses and churches in the thriving community called Black Wall Street — but no one has ever been punished for the killings and calls for justice and reparations haven't been answered.\n\n\"Tulsa, America is staring you back. Tulsa is important to our healing in America,\" he said.\n\nSome of the people in the racially diverse crowd had trouble keeping their candles burning due to the wind and rain, but the majority worked together, often with strangers, to keep their flames lit for the roughly 15-minute vigil.\n\nAt one point, a woman began singing the hymn \"Hallelujah\" and many people joined in. When she inserted the phrase \"Greenwood rising\" into the song, some voices became louder as they sang the victorious words and several people briefly cheered.\n\nJeremy Panakos, who is white, said he was part of a group from the University of Tulsa.\n\n\"We're here to show our support for the community and to show we're a part of it,\" he said.\n\nTerrance Curry, who is African American, said he was a New York native currently living in Tulsa. He said he attended the candlelight vigil to remember the race massacre victims whose lives were changed forever 100 years ago.\n\n\"I have to say I'm extremely grateful about being here and experiencing that,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm grateful to be in Tulsa and not being a native Tulsan, seeing what this looks like boots on the ground, what Black Wall Street is, and seeing everyone coming out today honoring those that came before us.\"\n\nViola Bloom said she grew up in Tulsa but she'd been away for several years while living in New York.\n\n\"I came to commemorate this tragedy, this piece of Tulsa history, to acknowledge it, to honor the lost and to show that I care,\" she said.\n\n\"Tulsa being the site of this incredibly tragic event also gives us an example for how to heal and how to come together and create something beautiful. There's the inspiring story of this incredible wealth that was here, the incredible community, the incredible potential. I just feel brokenhearted, thinking about what we lost. It was the most tragic loss to the Black community, but as a white Tulsan, I feel like we lost too. They had to rebuild and rebuild. I know urban renewal was part of the reason this community declined. but just imagining what this community could be today if it had not encountered all those obstacles, I feel like it's a tragic loss for the entire city.\"\n\nOn a more hopeful note, Bloom said she was making a personal commitment to racial healing and reconciliation as a flier for the candlelight gathering suggested.\n\n\"This is sort of my personal gesture, a commitment on my part to address racism when I see it and not turn a blind eye, to use my privilege to make a change. I have a greater vision for what Tulsa can become. I just wanted to come out and feel this community and this place at this time. It's an incredible thing — this was the moment and I feel like it's incredibly moving to be here.\"\n\n— Carla Hinton\n\n\n\nNew York's Harlem Chamber Players to broadcast Tulsa Race Massacre commemorative program\n\nNew York's Harlem Chamber Players will present \"Pity These Ashes: Tulsa 1921-2021,\" an online concert program on June 19, which is Juneteenth, in partnership with The Greene Space at WQXR and WNYC, Harlem Stage, and the Harlem School of the Arts.\n\nThe program will feature the world premiere of \"TULSA 1921 (Pity These Ashes, Pity This Dust)\" by Adolphus Hailstork, commissioned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, with a libretto by Herbert Woodward Martin. The concert also will include performances of Starburst by Jessie Montgomery, Prema by Alice Coltrane, and The People Could Fly by Trevor Weston.\n\n“Our wish for this program is to use music to confront our painful past that has been buried from us for too long. These brilliant works by Black composers — underrepresented in the classical music canon — tell a story of endurance and resilience, and we hope it helps people to move forward and heal,\" said Liz Player, founder of the Harlem Chamber Players, in a statement.\n\nThe concert event will be filmed and broadcast from The Greene Space at WQXR and WNYC and will feature star mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, WQXR host and author Terrance McKnight, violinist Jessica \"Lady Jess\" McJunkins, conductor Amadi Azikiwe, harpist Ashley Jackson and musicians from The Harlem Chamber Players.\n\n\"The intersection of art and social justice is at the very foundation of Harlem Stage. We are so pleased to partner on this critical work that shines a light on truth and injustice, and showcases the immense, diverse talent of artists of color,\" said Pat Cruz, Harlem Stage artistic director and CEO, in a statement.\n\nFor more information, go to https://www.harlemchamberplayers.org.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\n'Legacy of Black Wall Street' special to appear on Oprah Winfrey Network\n\nPioneers of the Greenwood District past and present will appear in the two-part special \"The Legacy of Black Wall Street\" on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.\n\nThe OWN Spotlight event will premiere Tuesday and June 8 on subscription streaming service and will then broadcast in primetime at 8 p.m. those same nights on OWN.\n\n\"The Legacy of Black Wall Street\" will chronicle the rise of Black Wall Street up until the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which destroyed the 36-block booming business epicenter.\n\nRather than focusing on the massacre, the documentary shifts will amplify the voices of those Black trailblazers back then who went West to build their American dream. The special will intertwine their stories of the past with the stories of contemporary Black pioneers now who continue the path to healing and rebuilding.\n\n\"We're proud to tell this powerful story and commemorate the triumphant survivors who worked to rebuild and reclaim Black Wall Street,\" said OWN President Tina Perry in a statement. \"This is a significant moment in our history that will not be forgotten. We will continue to amplify Black excellence and resilience on OWN as we make strides on the road to healing.\"\n\nThe history is shared through the lives of five individuals who were on Black Wall Street in the early 1900s: Loula Williams, Augusta Stradford, Dr. Andrew C Jackson, Drusilla Dunjee Houston and A.J. Smitherman.\n\nInterwoven with their stories are the perspectives of the race massacre descendants and present-day activists in Greenwood: Venita Cooper, Jerica Wortham, Charity Marcus, Dr. Jabraan Pasha and Raven Majia Williams.\n\nIn addition, the documentary will include new interviews with various experts, financial professionals, historians and professors, such as Dr. Angela Davis, Dr. Ellora Derenoncourt as well as state Rep. Regina Goodwin and J. Kavin Ross, both direct descendants of the Tulsa massacre\n\n\"OWN Spotlight: The Legacy of Black Wall Street\" is produced by Trailblazer Studios. Executive producers include Ashleigh Di Tonto and Jeff Lanter. Deborah Riley Draper serves as director and producer.\n\n\"It is an honor getting to spend time with these truly remarkable pioneers and their direct descendants. Deborah and I wanted to share the intimate and unknown origin stories of those pioneers that can only be told by those closest to them; an oral history that's passed down from generation to generation. Getting to be the stewards of their stories is a privilege that is not lost on us,\" said Di Tonto, senior vice president of development for Trailblazer Studios, in a statement.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nJustice for Greenwood group praises John Legend for supporting survivors\n\nThe Justice for Greenwood Foundation praised Grammy Award-winning recording artist John Legend on Monday for issuing a statement calling for a “true reckoning and reparations for the survivors and their descendants” of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and encouraging donations to Justice for Greenwood.\n\nAttorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, who is representing the three living race massacre survivors in a reparations lawsuit; Tiffany Crutcher; and Greg Robinson of Justice for Greenwood released the following statement:\n\n\"For a century, the survivors, descendants, and the community of Greenwood have been unable to shake the weight of the legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Its continued harms haunt us to this very day, contributing to the gross inequities leaving the Black community in Tulsa with a shortened life span, lower pay, fewer opportunities for job or economic mobility, higher rates of heart disease and diabetes, and a disturbing school-to-prison pipeline. The first step to addressing these systemic issues and dismantling the forces of white supremacy begins with respect, repair, and restitution.\n\n\"Thank you to John Legend for honoring the survivors of the massacre and recognizing that the path forward for truth, justice, and accountability begins with reparations. Mother Randle, Mother Fletcher, and Hughes Van Ellis have waited long enough for justice — we cannot spare another day in delivering them reparations so we can begin to heal and move forward together.\"\n\nLegend released a statement via Twitter sending his love to the people of Tulsa as they commemorate the 100th anniversary of the race massacre. The singer-songwriter was to headline a star-studded event called \"Remember and Rise\" on Monday but it was canceled.\n\n\"While we won't be together tomorrow, I look forward to visiting with you in the near future, and, most importantly, to a true reckoning and reparations for the survivors and their descendants. To help the victims of Greenwood and their descendants receive justice and reparations, please consider donating: justiceforgreenwood.org/donate,\" Legend said in his statement.\n\n— Carla Hinton\n\nSpeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi releases statement on Tulsa Race Massacre centennial\n\nU.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi released the following statement marking 100 years since the start of the Tulsa Race Massacre:\n\nToday is a day of profoundly solemn commemoration, as our nation marks one hundred years since the start of the Tulsa Race Massacre. A century ago, the Black community in Greenwood suffered one of the most brutal and senseless campaigns of racial violence in American history, targeted because of their commitment to pursuing their American Dream. Compounding the cruelty, the truth of this horrific act – hundreds murdered and injured, homes and businesses destroyed, generational wealth erased – is too often ignored and overlooked, allowing ignorance and bigotry to persist.\n\nThanks to Congressman Hank Johnson’s leadership on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s resolution to commemorate the Massacre, the House is fighting to ensure that our nation does not look away from this dark chapter in our history. We were grateful that courageous survivors Viola Ford Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis and Lessie Benningfield Randle testified before Congress earlier this month to share their heartbreaking stories from that tragic day.\n\nPresident Biden and the Democratic Congress are united in our strong condemnation of this heinous Massacre and all appalling acts of bigotry and violence against the Black community. Our nation’s fight against systemic racism and racial violence continues today with a renewed sense of urgency, sparked by the murder of George Floyd and so many others subjected to police brutality. As we fight to enact the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, we will not relent in our urgent work to advance justice, peace and prosperity for all – and we keep the memory of those murdered in Tulsa, and all those we have lost to racial violence, in our hearts.\n\n— Oklahoman Staff\n\nBiden names May 31, 2021 National Day of Remembrance for Tulsa Race Massacre\n\nAn official proclamation naming May 31, 2021 a Day of Remembrance: 100 Years After the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was issued by President Joe Biden this morning.\n\n“The Federal Government must reckon with and acknowledge the role that it has played in stripping wealth and opportunity from Black communities,” Biden said in the proclamation.\n\nBiden called for the people of the United States to commemorate the massacre, celebrate the survivors and their stories, and commit to fighting racism.\n\n“We honor the legacy of the Greenwood community, and of Black Wall Street, by reaffirming our commitment to advance racial justice through the whole of our government, and working to root out systemic racism from our laws, our policies and our hearts,” Biden continued in the proclamation.\n\nThe announcement comes ahead of the President’s scheduled trip to the city tomorrow, amid ongoing celebrations and remembrance ceremonies for the massacre’s centennial anniversary.\n\n— JaNae Williams\n\nSmithsonian marking Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial with virtual panel\n\nSmithsonian Magazine and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre with a virtual panel discussion titled \"Historically Speaking: In Remembrance Of Greenwood\" at 6 p.m. Wednesday.\n\nThe free panel will explore the development of Tulsa's Greenwood District, the events which led to its Black residents being the target of racially motivated violence and the aftermath that highlights the community's resilience and regrowth. Panelists include Lisa Cook, a professor at Michigan State University; Victor Luckerson, a Tulsa resident and a contributor to Smithsonian Magazine’s April 2021 cover package devoted to the race massacre and the Black history of Oklahoma; and Paul Gardullo, the National Museum of African American History and Culture's curator of history.\n\nMichael Fletcher of ESPN's \"Undefeated\" will moderate. To register or get more information, go to https://nmaahc.si.edu/event/historically-speaking-100th-anniversary-and-remembrance-tulsa-race-massacre.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nFestival attendees take in history and culture\n\nSeveral people taking in the sights and sounds of the Black Legacy Wall Street Festival on Sunday shared their reasons for attending some of the events and activities marking the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.\n\nAnn Harris, Broken Arrow: I'm here for the history. Even though I'm not from here — I'm originally from Little Rock, Arkansas — I have a 3-year-old grandson who lives in North Tulsa. That's the most important thing, that I can pass down that cultural history. This week, we're teaching him different things and he can point to the pictures and we ask him what is that and he's saying \"Wall Street Grandma,\" so he's already learning. Grandma is excited about it.\n\nRoland Martin, digital media and broadcast journalist: On my show we focus on African Americans. This is American history, not just Black history. So for us being Black owned media, it's up to us to tell our own stories but not just talk about what took place over the last 100 years, but also to put forth the mission of what should happen over the next 100 years. My focus is what happens on June 1, June 2, June 3, June 4. That's why we were here, for the live community events but also talking to people and sort of laying the foundation for what should happen next.\n\nRachel Dazey, Tulsa: I'm really here to support Black friends who are artists. Community is important. It's important that the community is talking about it I think it's important that it's reaching outside Tulsa too. It's good that the media's here to highlight this. It's the largest race massacre in our nation's history. If anything, it (attention) should be bigger than it is.\n\nLee Roland, Oklahoma City: I love this, to see Black people celebrating their heritage. I took a picture with one of the survivors so I'm just thankful that I could put my arm around her and say thank you for what you did.\n\nIrving Roland, Los Angeles: We're here to commemorate the lives that we lost 100 years ago and basically celebrate progression and hopefully move in the right direction. Everyone is out here having fun, the fellowship is great and I'm just thankful that I was able to fly in and be a part of it.\n\nKabaka Maroon, Raleigh, North Carolina: We (Black Panthers) came here for the March on Tulsa because of what happened in 1921, which I consider as a slaughter. It was a high level of violence that day performed against our people. So I came here to feel my ancestors' spirits. I'm real deep rooted in the spiritual. I didn't come here to celebrate. I came here to mourn the people that were murdered here.\n\nThe Rev. Mary Ivey, Washington, D.C.: My ministry is called Maine Avenue Ministries. I'm from Vian and my parents are buried there. I came to this because of the nature of what it is and what it means not only to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but to the world at large. I came because a lot of people don't even know about Greenwood. Greenwood is one of the most historical events that should be studied and reviewed in history, in terms of not only race but cultural relations, for all of the world, not just for Black people and white people, but for all nations and nationalities to understand that we're all one humanity. Before we can gain real solid ground, we have to have people admit to what happened and why it happened.\n\n— Carla Hinton\n\nOklahoma advocates to be featured at Intersectional Pride Series\n\nThree days of in-person and virtual events honoring the legacy of Black Wall Street, Oklahoma’s BIPOC LGBTQIA+ and the state's arts community will take place Monday-Wednesday to coincide with the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the first week of Pride Month 2021 and International Sex Workers’ Day.\n\nThe Intersectional Pride Series — a collaboration of 10 nonprofit organizations, spearheaded by New York Transgender Advocacy Group — is intended to remember, activate and encourage healing, according to a news release.\n\nThe series will include both live and streamed conversations with Oklahoma Black artists, advocates in criminal legal reform and leaders in the BIPOC, trans, queer and sex work communities. Self-care will be encouraged through a complimentary group therapy session for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and Oklahoma residents by a two-spirit indigenous licensed Oklahoma therapist.\n\nThe event will include film screenings, panel discussions and presentations. Complimentary skincare and makeup gift bags sponsored by Clinique will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis during in-person events at Living Arts Tulsa, 307 E Reconciliation Way.\n\n\"Whoever you are is multi-layered. You are not just one thing. I am a multi-racial transgender queer filmmaker, a Tulsa native, researcher, sex worker, and an advocate. Approaching difficult issues from an intersectional lens is critical to dismantling oppression. I hope these unique events can contribute to conversations happening around the centennial,\" said J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly, the primary event organizer and director of “Transcend: 5 Black Artists by 5 Black Artists,\" in a statement.\n\nRegistration is required at Bit.ly/NYTAGTulsa100.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nCBS special 'Tulsa 1921' airing Monday\n\n\"CBS This Morning\" co-host Gayle King will anchor \"Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy,\" a one-hour CBS News primetime special marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, to be broadcast at 9 p.m. Monday on the CBS Television Network and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.\n\n\"Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy\" also will be presented at 10 p.m. Tuesday on BET and 9 p.m. Tuesday on the Smithsonian Channel.\n\n“For years, what happened in Tulsa was hidden from America,” King says in a statement. “Many people still are unaware of the depth of death and destruction that occurred 100 years ago. It is important to dig up the past in order to realize a better future.”\n\nThe special will feature interviews with Tulsa Race Massacre survivors Viola Fletcher, 107, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 106. Descendants John Rogers, founder of the country’s first Black-owned asset management firm and whose great-grandfather owned the Stradford Hotel, and CBS News correspondent Danya Bacchus, whose great-great-grandparents owned the Dreamland Theatre, also will appear on the program. The hotel and theater both were destroyed in 1921.\n\nThe CBS special will include additional interviews with Michael Eric Dyson, Vanderbilt University professor and author; Hannibal B. Johnson, Tulsa attorney and author; Karlos K Hill, associate professor and chair of the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma; Michelle Place, executive director of the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum; the Rev. Robert R.A. Turner, pastor of Tulsa's Vernon AME Church; Damario Solomon Simmons, Tulsa civil rights attorney; G.T. Bynum, the mayor of Tulsa; Karen Sieber, historian at the McGillicuddy Humanities Center at the University of Maine; Mary N. Elliott, curator of slavery at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; and John W. Franklin, managing partner of Franklin Global LLC.\n\n\"Tulsa 1921\" will conclude with a special spoken-word performance by 17-year-old Garrett Bland, a senior at Tulsa's Booker T. Washington High School.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nTulsa music icon Charlie Wilson releases video prayer to mark race massacre anniversary\n\nOklahoma native, 13-time Grammy Award nominee and former Gap Band frontman Charlie Wilson posted a fervent video prayer via Twitter Sunday to mark the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre.\n\n\"As we approach the 100th Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, let us pray for the families and the community of Greenwood as they continue to heal from the pain,\" Wilson posted on Twitter with the video.\n\nWilson and his brothers, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson, named their hitmaking funk and R&B band the Gap Band after Greenwood, Archer and Pine, three streets in the historic Greenwood District in their hometown of Tulsa.\n\nIn addition, Charlie Wilson appeared as a guest artist on a track of the new self-titled album by the Oklahoma hip-hop consortium Fire in Little Africa. A tribute to the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial and the Greenwood District, \"Fire in Little Africa\" was released Friday on Motown Records.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nJohn Legend, headliner of canceled 'Remember + Rise' event, issues statement on race massacre\n\nEmmy-, Grammy-, Oscar- and Tony-wining John Legend, who was supposed to headline Monday's scrapped \"Remember + Rise\" Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial tribute, issued a lengthy statement about the Greenwood massacre on Twitter Sunday morning, encouraging people to support reparations for the victims of the tragedy and their descendants.\n\n\"Sending love to the people of Tulsa as they commemorate the Massacre of 100 years ago. While we won't be together tomorrow, I look forward to visiting with you in the near future, and, most importantly, to a true reckoning and reparations for the survivors and their descendants,\" Legend wrote on Twitter.\n\nOrganized by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, \"Remember + Rise,\" which also was to feature activist Stacey Abrams, actor Hill Harper and an extensive celebrity lineup, was abruptly canceled Thursday after a dispute boiled over between the commission and attorneys representing the three known race massacre survivors.\n\n\"The road to restorative justice is crooked and rough — and there is space for reasonable people to disagree about the best way to heal the collective traumas wrought by white supremacy. But one thing that is not up for debate — one fact that we must hold with conviction — is that the path to reconciliation runs through truth and accountability,\" Legend posted on Twitter.\n\n\"Our collective work starts by confronting our past, openly and honestly — and by teaching and learning about the most painful chapters of our history, right alongside our noble ideals and aspirations. But our work doesn't end at remembering and discussing the truth. It extends to reparations — to break the vicious, persistent cycle of anti-Black racism and inequality set in motion by slavery and Jim Crow; to spur investment in the business and communities that have had so much stolen fm and denied to them.\"\n\nHe included a James Baldwin quote: \"history is literally present in all that we do,\" adding \"because without truth, there can be no justice, but with it, we can rebuild, more perfect, together.\"\n\nHe ended his post by asking people to please consider donating to justiceforgreenwood.org, \"to help the victims of Greenwood and their descendants receive justice and reparations.\"\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nOSU-Tulsa to host sunrise vigil Tuesday\n\nOklahoma State University-Tulsa, 700 N Greenwood Ave., will host \"5:08 – A Sunrise Vigil in remembrance of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre\" from 5 a.m. until sunrise Tuesday to commemorate the race massacre centennial.\n\nThe event is planned around the exact time on the morning of June 1, 1921, when witnesses recount hearing a train whistle or a similar sound, which was interpreted as a signal for the full invasion of the Greenwood District to begin.\n\nThe vigil is open to all.\n\nParticipants will hear brief remarks and readings of statements from survivors, then have space to share their thoughts or remain in silent contemplation and remembrance, according to the Facebook event.\n\nThe vigil will take place at the Ellis Walker Woods Memorial, an outdoor memorial at the intersection of Greenwood Avenue and John Hope Franklin Boulevard on the OSU-Tulsa campus. It honors the first principal of Tulsa's Booker T. Washington High School.\n\nIn case of rain, the event will be moved to the OSU-Tulsa Main Hall Commons.\n\nFor more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/osutulsa.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nLeaders, community members take 'Pathway to Hope'\n\nTheRese Aduni strolled along the Pathway to Hope, a new pedestrian walkway in the Greenwood District.\n\nAduni knows a lot about hope.\n\nHer grandparents, Lula Barnes and Willie Lee Anderson, survived the Tulsa Race Massacre and had a special reason to be hopeful in the aftermath of the horrific events of May 31 and June 1, 1921: Her grandmother was pregnant with her father Harold M. Anderson.\n\nAduni was among the community members, donors, state and civic leaders who recently gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony officially dedicating the \"Pathway to Hope.\"\n\nThe walkway is a symbolic connection between Black Wall Street and the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park. It is among the projects sponsored by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission. People gathered for the dedication then took part in \"The Dawn of a New Day\" march for reconciliation that served as the official opening of the walkway.\n\nThe commission held the recent dedication in conjunction with the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation's National Symposium.\n\nThe walkway pays tribute to many of the leaders and historical milestones over the last 10 years through art produced by the Greenwood Art Project.\n\nState Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, the centennial commission's chairman, thanked people who helped make the pathway possible. Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation Tim Gatz also made remarks.\n\nReuben Gant, interim director and board member of the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, said the idea for the special pathway came about seven or eight years ago.\n\n\"I realized then that something needed to be done to unearth this untold story of lost history, lost lives,\" he said.\n\nGant said many visitors to the Greenwood area think that the massacre was what ultimately destroyed the Greenwood that survivors and their descendants rebuilt, but he said it was desegregation, urban renewal and the highway that was eventually carved through the area that had a dampening effect on progress.\n\nAduni also spoke about the rebuilding of Greenwood and how important it was for people to know that the many of the survivors did rebuild their homes and businesses.\n\nAs for her grandparents, she said they didn't talk much about the tragedy.\n\n\"They were busy trying to make sure it never happened again,\" she said.\n\nBut they were survivors.\n\nAnd they had hope.\n\n— Carla Hinton\n\n'Society’s Cage' art installation to be exhibited at Vernon AME Church\n\nThe \"Society’s Cage\" experiential art installation will be exhibited in Tulsa in conjunction with the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial.\n\nIt will be installed on the grounds of the historic Vernon AME Church, 311 N Greenwood Ave., and will be open to the public from Sunday through Juneteenth, which is June 19.\n\nThe \"Society’s Cage\" installation was initiated and led by a team of Black architects in the Washington, D.C., office of SmithGroup, one of the nation’s leading integrated design firms. The design team was moved to create the installation in the aftermath of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a news release.\n\n“The intent of 'Society’s Cage' is to educate about racialized state violence through an immersive experience,” said lead designer Dayton Schroeter, a principal at SmithGroup, in a statement. “The installation complements the commemoration, remembrance and reconciliation in spirit with the centennial of the Massacre, the most egregious and least-recognized instance of racial injustice in our nation’s history.”\n\nThe installation features a distinctive interpretive pavilion sculpted to symbolize the historic forces of racialized state violence. The artwork provides a sanctuary to reflect, record and share personal thoughts. It is meant to provide a mechanism for building empathy and healing.\n\nFounded in 1905, the Vernon AME Church is the only standing Black-owned structure on Greenwood Avenue from the Black Wall Street era and one of the few edifices to survive the race massacre.\n\n\"Society’s Cage\" debuts in Tulsa in partnership with Tri-City Collective, Inc.; the Tulsa Artist Fellowship; Jewish Federation of Tulsa; Vernon A.M.E. Church; Temple Israel (of Tulsa); and Sharna Newman Frank Educational Gallery Philanthropic Fund.\n\nThe installation has previously been exhibited in Washington, D.C., on the National Mall and in Baltimore, Maryland, on War Memorial Plaza.\n\nSmithGroup is the lead sponsor for \"Society’s Cage\" and is partnered with the Architects Foundation to raise funds for their diversity advancement scholarship program through the installation, to support historically underrepresented youth to pursue careers in architecture.\n\nFor more information about the \"Society’s Cage\" installation, go to https://www.smithgroup.com/societys-cage.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nAngela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance teaming with MTV to make Tulsa Race Massacre series\n\nMTV Entertainment Studios and Bassett Vance Productions — the production company formed by esteemed husband-and-wife actors Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance — announced this week that award-winning playwright Nathan Alan Davis will write a scripted original limited-series inspired by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.\n\n“Angela and I have always had a deep appreciation for history, especially when it comes to stories that are rooted in the Black community. We look forward to working on this series with MTV Entertainment Studios that will explore an important slice of American history as we look to reflect on events that changed the lives of countless Black families in Tulsa, Oklahoma one hundred years ago,” said Vance, principal at Bassett Vance Productions, in a statement.\n\n“We are excited to work with Nathan because his vision directly aligns with the story that Angela and I want to tell. Although the series will revisit the Black pain and tragedy that took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, it will also importantly introduce to many the stories of the extraordinary, entrepreneurial people who built Black Wall Street and all that this community accomplished.”\n\nThe series is the first project from Bassett Vance Productions as part of the deal made with MTV Entertainment Studios in 2020.\n\nDavis, who has been a writer on BET's \"American Soul\" and Facebook Watch's \"Sorry For Your Loss,\" will get his first chance as a show creator on the series.\n\nHe previously has written about the Tulsa Race Massacre with his upcoming play, \"The High Ground,\" which is set to premiere at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The New York-based writer has garnered awards for his produced plays \"Nat Turner in Jerusalem,\" \"Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea\" and \"The Wind and the Breeze.\"\n\n“I am honored to be partnering with Courtney, Angela, MTV Entertainment Studios and their extraordinary teams in this vital endeavor,\" Davis said in a statement. \"Exploring the history of Tulsa’s Greenwood District as a limited dramatic series affords us a precious opportunity and a deep responsibility. I greatly look forward to crafting a story that will not only shed light on the people of Black Wall Street, but give fresh life to the spirit, ideas, hopes, fears, and dreams that motivated them.”\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nOSU-Tulsa offering special hours for photo exhibit 'Black Settlers in Tulsa'\n\nOklahoma State University-Tulsa, 700 N Greenwood Ave., is offering special public viewing hours of “Black Settlers in Tulsa: The Search for the Promised Land,” an exhibit featuring photography by Don Thompson and oral histories by Eddie Faye Gates, this weekend to mark the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial.\n\nThe exhibit, which was recently moved to the gallery space outside the B.S. Roberts Room in the OSU-Tulsa Conference Center to be more accessible to the public, will be open from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.\n\nThe Black Wall Street Legacy Festival continues Saturday and Sunday in the Greenwood District. For more information, go to https://www.blackwallstreetlegacyfest.com/#events and follow updates on https://www.facebook.com/BlackWallStreetLegacyFest.\n\nThe exhibit’s regular hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/osutulsa.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nMobile gallery the G.A.P. Van keeps on rolling during centennial events\n\nThe G.A.P. Van, a multi-use, collaborative mobile art exhibition, workshop space and crosstown poster project that has been engaging with Tulsans for the past several months keeps on rolling through the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial events.\n\nThe G.A.P. Van is part of the Greenwood Art Project, an official initiative of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission. The mobile gallery launched in conjunction with PBS' \"American Portrait,\" a national storytelling project.\n\n\"We record American portrait stories, and then we also had a poster call-and-response,\" said Jerica Wortham, project director for the Greenwood Art Project. \"With that call-and-response, community members just made different posters and we just put them on the side (of the van) so that we create collages. Over time, we'll just continue to paste over with the different posters and fliers because we have hundreds of posters that were created by community members.\"\n\nFor more information, go to https://www.greenwoodartproject.org/gap-van.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nOpening ceremonies delayed for Tulsa Children's Museum of Art\n\nThe open ceremonies for the Tulsa Children's Museum of Art, 700 N Greenwood Ave. on the Oklahoma State University-Tulsa campus, have been delayed.\n\nMuseum founder Courtney Skipper told The Oklahoman that the event has been postponed from its originally planned date on Tuesday due to the heightened security in place for Pres. Biden's Tulsa visit.\n\nInstead, the museum will host a red-carpet reception from 3 to 5 p.m. June 5 for student-artists whose work has been accepted for inclusion in its first exhibit. The youths will have the chance to meet with local and national press to speak about their work.\n\nThe museum's inaugural exhibit \"Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the 1921 Race Massacre: Through the Eyes of Children\" will be on view in the OSU-Tulsa Main Commons during normal university hours. The campus will be hosting the museum until it has a permanent space, Skipper said.\n\nFor the exhibit, the museum partnered with schools, teachers, historical societies and art schools to recruit Oklahoma schoolchildren in prekindergarten to 12th grade to submit visual artworks that respond to the race massacre centennial.\n\nFor more information, go to https://www.tulsachildrensmuseumofart.org.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nLiving Arts of Tulsa keeping special hours for Tulsa Race Massacre commemoration\n\nLiving Arts of Tulsa, 307 E Reconciliation Way, will offer special gallery hours through the weekend and into next week for the Tulsa Race Massacre 100th anniversary.\n\nThe nonprofit contemporary art gallery's \"The Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Project\" encapsulates local artists’ response and influence of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre over the last 100 years. It is on view through June 19, which is Juneteenth.\n\nParticipating artists are Jamario Beard, Francine Campbell, Adam Carnes, Marie Casimir, Dr. Delia Cook Gillis, Yusuf Etudaiye, Terricia Foster, Faith Green, Elizabeth Henley, Jessica Hines, Talitha Jacobs, Sonie Joi-Thompson-Ruffin, Kalup Linzy, Andrea Martin, Patrick McNicholas, Katherine Mitchell, Brad Morrow, Taylor Painter-Wolfe, Michael Palazzo, Cristiana Prado, Spencer Plumlee, Amanda Ruyle, Sondra Stidham, Adrian Sturdevant, C.J. Ward and Jave Yoshimoto.\n\nMore: Dance film to screen at OU Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Symposium\n\nSelect works are provided by the Living Arts of Tulsa Archives and the Greenwood Art Project.\n\nGallery hours for the centennial are noon to 4 p.m. Friday-Tuesday. Living Arts of Tulsa will be closed Wednesday and reopen for noon to 4 p.m. Thursday.\n\nAdmission is free, but online ticketing is recommended due to the limited capacity with COVID-19. For more information, go to http://www.livingarts.org.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nLankford cites 'political agenda' for his resignation from 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission\n\nU.S. Sen. James Lankford resigned from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission in recent weeks. According to his office, the Oklahoma Republican \"has seen a drift from the original goals of the Commission to a more partisan political agenda, and as a result, he notified the Commission he can no longer serve as a member.\"\n\nIn January, Lankford apologized to Black Tulsans for questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election, saying he didn’t recognize the “blind spot” he had in doing so.\n\nSome Black Oklahomans were angered because many of the states whose results were under fire have large Black populations. Some leaders said then that Lankford should resign from the commission, even though the senator has been making public speeches for years about the importance of the massacre centennial.\n\nRepublican Jackson Lahmeyer, a Tulsa pastor, has announced his intent to run against Lankford next year and has criticized the incumbent for not being loyal enough to former President Donald Trump.\n\nAfter news broke on Friday that Lankford had stepped down from the commission, Lahmeyer tweeted:\n\n\"Enough pressure and he caves just like Jan 6, 2021. WE the people have been beating this drum and WE WON!\"\n\nLahmeyer has previously accused Lankford of backing down, or caving, because the senator dropped his planned opposition to Arizona's Electoral College votes after rioters broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6.\n\n— Chris Casteel\n\nJay-Z meets virtually with Tulsa Race Massacre survivors\n\nGrammy-winning rapper, songwriter, record executive and businessman Jay-Z on Thursday met virtually with Viola “Mother” Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, two of the last known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.\n\nOrganizers of the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival released details Friday on the virtual meeting. Per the Legacy Fest organizers, Jay-Z called the meeting \"an honor to be in the presence of royalty.”\n\n“Thank you to Jay-Z for taking the time to meet with Mother Fletcher and Mother Randle. These powerful Black women have spoken their truth and fought for justice for over a century, and now it’s on us to carry their legacy forward and ensure their stories are cemented into history,\" said Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, lead organizers of the Black Wall Street Legacy Fest, in a statement.\n\nLegacy Fest officially kicked off Friday morning with the Black Wall Street Memorial March, followed by the Black Wall Street Summit, the African Street Festival, the World Culture Music Festival, a headlining performance by John P. Kee and more.\n\nFor more information, go to https://www.blackwallstreetlegacyfest.com and follow updates on https://www.facebook.com/BlackWallStreetLegacyFest.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nPBS' 'American Experience' streaming Tulsa Race Massacre documentary\n\nIn commemoration of the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, PBS' seminal history series \"American Experience\" is streaming its acclaimed documentary \"Goin' Back to T-Town\" at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/t-town.\n\nDirected by Sam Pollard, \"Goin' Back to T-Town,\" which first aired in 1993, tells the story of Greenwood, an extraordinary Black community in Tulsa, that prospered during the 1920s and '30s despite rampant and hostile segregation. Devastated in 1921 by one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history, the neighborhood rose from the ashes. By 1936, it boasted the largest concentration of Black-owned businesses in the U.S., known as “Black Wall Street.”\n\nMore: Tulsa Race Massacre history recounted in PBS documentaries airing tonight and premiering in spring\n\nTold through the memories of longtime Greenwood residents, the film features final recorded interviews of some of the eyewitnesses who survived the 1921 attacks.\n\nPBS' new Tulsa Race Massacre documentary \"Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten\" will premiere at 8 p.m. Monday on PBS (OETA in Oklahoma), pbs.org and the PBS Video app.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nAlfre Woodard, Tiffany Cross, Sen. Chris Coons and more added to Black Wall Street Legacy Festival\n\nOscar-nominated Tulsa native Alfre Woodard, Tiffany Cross, Rashad Robinson, Philonise Floyd, and Delaware Sen. Chris Coons are among the leaders, entertainers and activists from across the nation joining survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre at the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival, commemorating the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.\n\nLegacy Fest officially kicked off Friday morning with the Black Wall Street Memorial March, to be followed by the Black Wall Street Summit, the African Street Festival, the World Culture Music Festival, a headlining performance by John P. Kee and more.\n\nWoodard and fellow actor Jay Ellis will be featured Sunday at Tulsa's Black Wall Street Legacy Festival.\n\nAmong those who have been added to the festival: Tiffany Cross, political analyst and journalist; Rashad Robinson, President of Color of Change; Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd; Roland Martin, journalist; Rep. Cori Bush; Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative; Brittany Packnett Cunningham, activist, educator and writer; Charles M. Blow, journalist and op-ed columnist for The New York Times; Damario Solomon-Simmons, founder and executive director, Justice for Greenwood; Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee; Ben Crump, national civil rights attorney; Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; Nicole Austin-Hillery, executive director of the US Program at Human Rights Watch; Daniel Roumain, composer and performer; Brandan ‘B-mike’ Odums, visual artist and political activist\n\nAmong those making virtual appearances Oklahoma native Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Steve Cohen, Rep. Hank Johnson, Sen. Cory Booker, and Nina Turner, former state senator and Congressional candidate for Ohio’s 11th district.\n\nThe Oklahoma City Thunder will also sponsor a private luncheon honoring the massacre’s three last known survivors on Saturday.\n\nThe Black Wall Street Legacy Festival is headlined by the last known Tulsa Race Massacre survivors — 106-year-old Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, 107-year-old Viola “Mother” Fletcher, and 100-year-old Hughes Van Ellis — who will lead a procession and participate in an event honoring their legacy and continued fight for justice and accountability.\n\nWeekend highlights will include the Centennial Black Wall Street Heritage Parade at 11 a.m. Saturday, a headlining set by Grammy-winning musician and Maroon 5 keyboardist PJ Morton at 8:45 p.m. Saturday and a screening and conversation with \"Watchmen\" creator Damon Lindelof and writer Cord Jefferson at 7 p.m. Sunday.\n\nMore: PJ Morton, 'Watchmen' creator join Black Wall Street Legacy Festival\n\nWoodard and Ellis will appear at the Legacy Fest Main Event (Homecoming), set from 2:30 to 7 p.m. Sunday. For more information, go to https://www.blackwallstreetlegacyfest.com and https://www.facebook.com/BlackWallStreetLegacyFest.\n\nFor those unable to attend in person, live-streams of each event are being posted on https://www.facebook.com/BlackWallStreetLegacyFest and https://www.facebook.com/TheBWSTimes.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nGreenwood Rising grand opening pushed to early July due to rain delays\n\nDue to the recent rain impacting the final few days of construction, the new Greenwood Rising: The Black Wall Street History Center will not be complete in time for the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial.\n\nBut much of the space will be ready to preview starting Wednesday, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission has announced.\n\nSen. Kevin Matthews, the commission's founder and chair, confirmed at a press conference Thursday that the ribbon cutting and dedication for Greenwood Rising will still take place at 11:29 a.m. Wednesday.\n\nAs many descendants of the race massacre are traveling to Tulsa in anticipation of seeing the history center, the commission is dedicating 10 days — Wednesday-June 12 — to previewing Greenwood Rising before it closes for finishing touches and officially opens in early July.\n\nThe VIP opening is set for 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday-June 8, with the last tours at 8 p.m. Timed-entry tickets are required, with priority given to race massacre survivors and family members, direct descendants and their families, freedmen and descendants of freedman, North Tulsa community leaders and elders, North Tulsa churches and community members with ties to the historic Greenwood District.\n\nThe preview window for the Tulsa community is planned for 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. June 9-12, with the last tours at 8 p.m. Timed-entry tickets are required and prioritized for Tulsa residents.\n\nAll visitors, including those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, are required to wear face masks and undergo temperature checks. Occupancy at Greenwood Rising will be limited to 20 people per tour to limit the risk of exposure.\n\nAll tours stop June 13 for the completion of exterior construction, with a grand opening tentatively scheduled for July 3. Details will be finalized in June.\n\nGreenwood Rising admission will be free for the first year, but registration will be required.\n\nNormal operating hours will be 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday-Monday and Wednesday-Saturday. The history center will be closed on Tuesdays.\n\nThe commission's primary brick-and-mortar project, the $18.6 million, 11,000-square-foot history center is situated at Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, the gateway to the Greenwood District. For more information, go to https://www.greenwoodrising.org.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nOklahoma hip-hop collective Fire in Little Africa releases Greenwood tribute album on Motown Records\n\nFire in Little Africa — a coalition of Oklahoma rappers, musicians and artists who initially came together to record a compilation hip-hop album and has since blazed into a multimedia movement receiving national notice — has released its eponymous album.\n\nA 21-track collection of original material that aims to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, \"Fire in Little Africa\" is out Friday on Motown Records/Black Forum in partnership with Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center and Woody Guthrie Center.\n\nIn March 2020, 60 rappers, poets and producers from Tulsa, OKC and Lawton gathered in Tulsa's Greenwood District to record an album to speak to the truth of what happened there on May 31-June 1, 1921. They recorded 143 songs in five days, executive producer Steph Simon told The Oklahoman in an April interview.\n\n\"It was everybody getting on board for a cause, which is not only spreading awareness of Black Wall Street, but taking that history and that mentality and instilling it into people going forward,\" said Simon, who is featured with Hakeem Eli'juwon on the new Fire in Little Africa music video for \"Elevator.\"\n\n\"It's catching like an organic wave where people are talking about (it) — and that's exciting because you don't see that these days in music. But music hasn't came with such a powerful message like this in so long, and people are hungry for or thirsty for this type of message.\"\n\nOklahoma music icon Charlie Wilson, a 13-time Grammy nominee and the former frontman of the Tulsa-grown Gap Band, is a featured guest artist on the song \"Party Plane.\"\n\nIn conjunction with the album release, members of the collective are participating in this weekend's Black Wall Street Legacy Festival. Fire in Little Africa will take part in the Black Wall Street Legacy Summit at 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Greenwood Cultural Center and perform at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on the Legacy Fest Main Stage. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/fireinlittleafrica and https://www.blackwallstreetlegacyfest.com.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nGreenwood Art Project artists gather at Skyline Mansion\n\nArtists and supporters of the Greenwood Art Project, an initiative of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, gathered for a reception Wednesday night at a site of historical significance: the Skyline Mansion, 620 N Denver Ave.\n\nOnce known as the Brady Mansion, the Skyline Mansion is the former home of the late Tate Brady, a Ku Klux Klan member and an instigator of the Tulsa Race Massacre. It is now owned by Tulsa native and former NFL running back Felix Jones, who has turned it into an event center.\n\nCurrently on view inside the mansion is \"Greenwood: Black Wall Street,\" an exhibition of collaged posters depicting the history of the Greenwood District and the Tulsa Race Massacre by Jimmy Friday, a Greenwood Art Project artist and Tulsa native.\n\nFor more information on the Skyline Mansion, go to https://www.skylinemansion.com.\n\nLook for more from The Oklahoman in the coming days on the Greenwood Art Project, and check out the schedule of art experiences, installations and exhibitions at https://www.greenwoodartproject.org/calendar.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nTulsa Race Massacre survivors attend centennial events\n\nTulsa Race Massacre survivors Viola “Mother” Fletcher, 107, and Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, 106, were among the attendees at centennial events Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon.\n\nFletcher made an appearance Wednesday evening at a meet-and-greet for Greenwood Art Project artists at the Skyline Mansion event center. Ebony Iman Dallas, an Oklahoma City-based Greenwood Art Project artist called meeting Fletcher a magical moment and said people should pray for the survivors as they share their stories.\n\n\"It felt like a dream honestly, to be here in 2021 and have a firsthand witness who has the strength and determination to tell her story,\" Dallas said.\n\nFletcher got to see her likeness as captured by Tulsa artist Udonna Wallace, who has hand-drawn portraits of many Tulsa Race Massacre survivors. The drawings were displayed outside the Skyline Mansion during the Wednesday event and will be exhibited again from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, during \"A Century Walk: 100 Years,\" which will recreate the route many Black Tulsans took while fleeing the violence of the Tulsa Race Massacre.\n\n\"I didn't know what I was getting into with this, but I'm glad I did. I'm very glad that I did,\" Wallace said.\n\nFletcher and Randle also appeared Thursday afternoon at a special sneak peek for organizers and press of “The Legacy of Survival” exhibit at the Gilcrease Museum of Art. The centerpiece of the exhibit is interactive conversational videos of Fletcher and Randle.\n\nLook for more from The Oklahoman in the coming days on the Greenwood Art Project and \"The Legacy of Survival\" exhibit.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nMore:How did 1921 Black Wall Street residents defy America's 'caste' system? Author Isabel Wilkerson gives talk at reconciliation symposium\n\nNBCUniversal News Group releasing digital documentary on massacre\n\nAs the country marks 100 years since the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, NBCUniversal News Group will offer extensive coverage. The cross-platform series \"Tulsa: The Massacre & the Movement\" begins on Thursday across \"Today,\" \"NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,\" NBCNews.com, MSNBC, NBC News NOW, CNBC and Peacock.\n\nMSNBC correspondent Trymaine Lee hosts the digital documentary \"Blood on Black Wall Street: The Legacy of the Tulsa Massacre,\" which examines how the violence inflicted on a once-thriving economic hub has impacted generations of Black Tulsans. Lee will speak with descendants still struggling financially and emotionally, while they push the city to recognize the role it played. The documentary will stream Friday on NBCNews.com and NBC News NOW, and it will be available Sunday on Peacock on demand.\n\nLee also hosts a special two-part episode of MSNBC’s \"Into America\" podcast that traces the century-long financial impact of the massacre through the story of two Black families, as well as the efforts of white Tulsa residents as they face their families’ past. The first episode will be available on Thursday and the subsequent one on June 3.\n\nLee and NBC News reporter Antonia Hylton will also cover the weekend centennial events, honoring the more than 300 victims and countless survivors of the massacre.\n\nIn addition, Lee and NBCU Academy will team up with The Juice Radio, a youth-led radio program out of KBOB, as they tour Greenwood to learn more about the city’s history. The report will be featured on https://www.nbcuniversal.com.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nTulsa Race Massacre centennial:From Black Wall Street to George Floyd, the echoes of trauma shape Black Americans' reality\n\nTulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum presents key to the city to Greenwood Art Project lead artist Rick Lowe\n\nTulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum appeared Wednesday afternoon at the public unveiling of the Greenwood Art Project, where he presented lead artist Rick Lowe with the key to the city.\n\n\"A hundred years after the worst event in the history of our city, we have artists from all around the world who have pulled together to help represent what was lost, what was rebuilt, the work that needs to be done — through art,\" Bynum said at the event.\n\nThe Greenwood Art Project is an initiative of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission and is funded in part by a $1 million award from Bloomberg Philanthropies' Public Art Challenge and a $200,000 grant from The George Kaiser Family Foundation.\n\nMore than 25 local artists were commissioned through the project to create original works to honor the resilience and recovery of the Greenwood District, as well as to express the challenges of the current era.\n\nBynum said he felt confident that Tulsa would win the $1 million Bloomberg Philanthropies 2018 Public Art Challenge after Lowe, a renowned Houston-based artist and organizer, agreed to take the lead of the Greenwood Art Project.\n\n\"The fact that one of the great artists in the whole world cares enough about what happened in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (and) wants to tell that story to the world and that he would dedicate years of his life to helping us do that, this community owes so much to Rick Lowe for his leadership and his guidance,\" Bynum said.\n\nHe then presented Lowe with a golden oversize key to the city.\n\n\"The highest award that a mayor gets to give anybody, Rick, is the key to the city,\" Bynum said. \"There's some medieval castle that this unlocks somewhere, but on behalf of all 400,000 of my fellow Tulsans, I want to present this to you out of our deep appreciation for your dedication to this work. We're so grateful for you.\"\n\nLowe thanked Bynum and joked that he and William Cordova, his co-lead artist for the Greenwood Art Project, would have to fight over the key, even going so far to try to slip it into Cordova's pocket.\n\n\"We can probably find another one for William,\" Bynum said. \"And that's classic Rick: always focused on others.\"\n\nAs part of the 100th anniversary commemoration of the Tulsa Race Massacre, a variety of Greenwood Art Project installations, experiences and collaborations are debuting over the next few days, with more set to be unveiled well into the summer. For more information, go to https://www.greenwoodartproject.org/calendar.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nNational Geographic's June issue features Tulsa Race Massacre cover\n\nNational Geographic’s June magazine issue, “Reckoning with the Past,” published online on Wednesday and includes a number of features on the Tulsa Race Massacre and an overall discussion of race in America.\n\nThe cover of the issue features the work of Kadir Nelson, a renowned artist who has album covers for Michael Jackson and Drake, stamps and numerous magazine covers to his credit. This is Nelson’s third cover for National Geographic, and the magazine's editors asked him to take on the challenge of visually framing the legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre that took place in 1921 for their readers.\n\nNelson's National Geographic cover depicts prominent Black families from the Greenwood District — the most affluent Black neighborhood in America’s history to this day — while showcasing how the largely forgotten community was affected by the events that occurred 100 years ago in Tulsa.\n\nDaneen L. Brown, a Washington Post reporter and Oklahoma native, wrote the feature story for the June issue, titled “Reckoning with the Past.”\n\nIn addition, National Geographic Documentary Films partnered with prolific documentarian Dawn Porter — who last year released “Good Trouble: John Lewis” and “The Way I See It” — and Trailblazer Studios on a feature documentary that sheds new light on a century of intense racial conflict. \"Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer\" premieres at 8 p.m. June 18 on the National Geographic channel and will be available on Hulu on the same day.\n\nBrown reports on the search for a mass grave in Tulsa in the documentary.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nPhilbrook Museum of Art pin raising funds for Black Wall Street Memorial\n\nArtists Adrian Aguilera and Betelhem Makonnen have joined forces with Tulsa's Philbrook Museum of Art to produce an exclusive artists' edition lapel pin of their 2020 collaborative work \"untitled (a flag for John Lewis or a green screen placeholder for an America that is yet to be).\"\n\nA verdant version of the American flag, the original artwork is displayed high above the museum's lobby as part of its exhibition \"From the Limitations of Now,\" which uses an array of artworks — from tapestries and video installations to beadwork and digital photographs — to explore America's past of violence and racial injustice and envision a changed future.\n\n'We survived it, thank God':Tulsa Race Massacre survivor discusses tragedy 100 years later\n\nThe latest installment of the artists' series of reimagined American flags honors civil rights icon and Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who died last July, as well as all past and present liberation workers who continually fight for freedom, justice and equal rights for all Americans.\n\nIn an initiative developed in collaboration with activist Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, all net proceeds from the sales of this artists’ edition lapel pin will support the Black Wall Street Memorial, a project of the Tulsa Community Remembrance Coalition. For more information on the memorial project, go to blackwallstreetmemorial.com.\n\nThe artist-designed green flag lapel pins cost $10 each. They are on sale in the Philbrook Museum Shop, 2727 S Rockford Road, or online at Philbrook.org/shop.\n\n— Brandy McDonnell\n\nReparations:Tulsa Race Massacre survivors ask city to 'do the right thing'\n\nElizabeth Warren, other national Congressional leaders to attend Tulsa Race Massacre centennial\n\nThe Black Wall Street Legacy Festival 2021 has announced the participation of Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as well as Representatives Hank Johnson, D-Ga., Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., in this weekend’s events.\n\nDetails of the congressional members' involvement have not been released, though many have been vocal advocates for reparations and national recognition of the Tulsa Race Massacre.\n\nThe White House announced Tuesday that President Joe Biden will be in Tulsa on Tuesday to mark the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre.\n\nWarren, a native Oklahoman, sponsored a resolution in March alongside Rep. Shiela Jackson Lee (D-TX) to commemorate the centennial. The resolution also sought to acknowledge the Tulsa Race Massacre “as one of the largest single instances of State-sanctioned violence against Black people in American history.” It further condemned those involved and the coverup and honored the lives and legacies of those killed or injured.\n\nJohnson announced plans to introduce the Tulsa-Greenwood Massacre Claims Accountability Act last week during a subcommittee hearing. The bill would provide an opportunity for financial compensation to survivors and family members of victims of the massacre.\n\nIn a statement about the bill, Johnson said, “Congressional action is warranted because not only is there precedence in providing reparations for atrocities such as the Tulsa Massacre, but there is substantial evidence that shows government officials – including the police and the National Guard – were complicit in the massacre 100 years ago this month.”\n\n— JaNae Williams\n\nOK Congressional delegation honors Tulsa Race Massacre\n\nOklahoma’s Congressional delegation introduced resolutions in both chambers seeking to focus on the recognition and accurate historical representation of the Tulsa Race Massacre.\n\nThe resolution also contained language pushing for the massacre to be part of nationwide educational curriculum and recognizing the historically Black towns of Oklahoma. Senators James Lankford and Jim Inhofe brought proceedings Tuesday to pass the motion swiftly, before the 100th anniversary of the massacre. It passed unanimously in the Senate.\n\n“Before 1921, Greenwood district, also known as Black Wall Street, was a vibrant, thriving prosperous Black community,” Inhofe said in a speech after the resolution's passing. “But then, the evening of May 31 into the early morning of June 1, 1921—there was a horrific massacre where hundreds of Black Tulsans were murdered and thousands were made homeless overnight. It was truly terrible and horrific. That’s why it is important to come together to honor the victims and their families and share their stories today and with future generations.”\n\nA similar resolution co-sponsored by Oklahoma’s Representatives — Markwayne Mullin, Kevin Hern, Frank Lucas, Stephanie Bice and Tom Cole — was also introduced in the House.\n\n“The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was one of the darkest moments in our state and our nation’s history,” said Bice, in a statement. “There is still much work to be done, in Tulsa, the state of Oklahoma, and nationwide, to heal our community, educate the public about the horrific events of the past, and ensure such a tragedy never occurs again. While significant progress has been made, this resolution allows us as Oklahomans to not only recognize the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, but to also ensure that victims and survivors’ stories are known to future generations of Oklahomans and Americans.”\n\n— JaNae Williams\n\nDig deeper into the Oklahoman's coverage of the Tulsa Race Massacre", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/01/14/the-biggest-news-story-every-year-since-1950/40987857/", "title": "The Biggest News Story Every Year Since 1950 – 24/7 Wall St.", "text": "John Harrington and Grant Suneson\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nEach year there are major news events that capture the world’s attention. These stories range from massive conflicts or catastrophes that leave thousands dead or stranded to technological developments and supreme court decisions that completely change our daily lives.\n\n24/7 Wall St. reviewed the biggest news stories in each year since 1950. The event we chose for a given year wasn’t always the most talked-about story when it occurred, but each one in retrospect proved to have the biggest impact on history.\n\nMajor milestones in civil rights, wars and conflicts, and breakthroughs in science and medicine stand out in news coverage over this time period. As technology evolved, modifying and innovating our lives in ways never dreamed of, progressive ideas also found footing and changed the world. Women, African Americans, and the LGBTQ community demanded, and often won, equal rights – from the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the legalization of same-sex marriage. Here are the most important human rights milestones since 2000.\n\nIncreasingly, major news events in recent years include severe weather events and other catastrophes tied to global climate change. Devastating changes to our climate now endanger the ecosystems of our planet. In the coming years, natural disasters will have an increasingly large role on the course of history. Here are 26 disaster scenarios caused by climate change.\n\nDangerous states:Which states have the highest rates of violent crime and most murders?\n\nStock market:Investors could still be in for a bumpy ride in 2020\n\n1950: Korean War starts\n\n• Date: June 25\n\n• Location: Korea\n\nThe North Korean People’s Army crosses the 38th parallel into South Korea, eliciting an almost immediate response from U.S. President Harry Truman and marking the beginning of the Korean War – a proxy battle between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. The parties would agree to a ceasefire three years later. The uneasy relations between North Korea and South Korea last to this day.\n\n1951: Rosenbergs sentenced\n\n• Date: March 29\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nHusband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for their part in passing along atomic secrets to the Soviet Union during and after World War II. They are executed two years later. Not everyone is convinced of their involvement in the scheme. Supporters claim they are scapegoats swept up in the Cold War hysteria of the time. Documents would reveal decades later the extent of Julius Rosenberg’s involvement in the spy ring, though Ethel’s participation in the scheme remains inconclusive.\n\n1952: First hydrogen bomb test\n\n• Date: Nov. 1\n\n• Location: Marshall Islands\n\nThe United States successfully detonates its first hydrogen bomb, a second-generation thermonuclear device. The detonation in the Marshall Islands is part of Operation Ivy, one of a series of nuclear bomb tests. From 1946 to 1958, the United States used the remote Pacific Marshall Islands as its nuclear weapons testing site, conducting a total of 67 nuclear tests.\n\n1953: The dawn of DNA\n\n• Date: Feb. 28\n\n• Location: Cambridge, England, U.K.\n\nCambridge University scientists James Watson and Francis Crick announce they have discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. Though scientists had been aware of DNA since the 1860s and of its role in genetic inheritance since 1943, Watson and Crick were the first to explain how DNA works to replicate itself and pass on genes from one generation to the next.\n\n1954: Brown v. Board of Education\n\n• Date: May 17\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nIn a landmark case involving Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas, who had to cross a railroad track to reach an all-black elementary school even though an all-white school was closer, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the segregated school system is unconstitutional on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The clause would be used again by the courts to reverse state-level racial segregation practices and ordinances.\n\n1955: Parks starts a movement\n\n• Date: Dec. 1\n\n• Location: Montgomery, Alabama\n\nRosa Parks makes history by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus. Her arrest for insisting to remain seated leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the ascent of a young pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr., as a local activist leader working to advance the civil rights cause. A successful federal lawsuit by the NAACP against the city leads to the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system on Dec. 21 of the following year.\n\n1956: Hungary suppressed\n\n• Date: Nov. 4\n\n• Location: Budapest\n\nNine years after the start of the Cold War, Hungarians take to the streets, demanding democratic reforms. Three days later, Soviet Red Army troops invade Hungary, killing thousands. Nine days after the incursion, Soviet troops occupy Budapest in one of the largest and most aggressive actions taken by the Soviet Union since the end of World War II.\n\n1957: The Little Rock Nine\n\n• Date: Sept 24\n\n• Location: Little Rock, Arkansas\n\nU.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders federal troops to protect nine African American high school students as they start classes at the all-white Little Rock Central High School. This would become one of the first high-profile actions the federal government would take against state-level racial segregation.\n\n1958: US launches first satellite\n\n• Date: Jan. 31\n\n• Location: Cape Canaveral, Florida\n\nThe United States successfully launches Explorer 1, three months after the Soviet Union sends its first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. The two superpowers would go on to send more satellites into space, creating a Cold War space race to build ever more sophisticated orbital communications devices and to achieve spaceflight capabilities and generally space superiority.\n\n1959: Castro takes over Cuba\n\n• Date: Jan. 1\n\n• Location: Havana\n\nU.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Havana as Fidel Castro’s forces advance on the Cuban capital. Days later, rebels led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city, followed two days later by Castro’s forces. Castro quickly consolidates power in Cuba, establishing a communist government in the Caribbean’s largest country.\n\n1960: Lunch counter sit-in\n\n• Date: Feb. 1\n\n• Location: Greensboro, North Carolina\n\nWhen four African American college students – Ezell A. Blair, Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond – sit down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter and ask for service, they are denied. The young men refuse to give up their seats, their sit-in leading to a larger six-month protest that results in the desegregation of the lunch counter by that summer and many other restaurants across the south.\n\n1961: Berlin Wall built\n\n• Date: Aug. 13\n\n• Location: Berlin, East and West Germany\n\nBy the late summer of 1961, the loss of skilled workers such as teachers, engineers, and doctors to the West reaches crisis levels in East Germany. On Aug. 12, 2,400 East Germans cross into West Berlin, the most in a single day. The next day, with the approval of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, East Germany begins building a wall that would extend 27 miles through Berlin, dividing families and friends for the next 28 years. The wall would serve as an enduring symbol of the Cold War, used by presidents John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan to inspire a divided city.\n\n1962: Cuban missile crisis\n\n• Date: Oct.16-28\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nWhen the United States learns that the Soviet Union is building nuclear missile installations 90 miles south of Miami in communist Cuba, the Kennedy administration enacts a naval blockade around the island, which is at times tested, to demand the removal of the missiles. The standoff is widely considered to be the closest the two nuclear superpowers come to direct military confrontation. Cooler heads prevail. The Soviet Union offers to remove the missiles in exchange for a guarantee that the United States will not invade Cuba. In secret, the administration also agrees to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey.\n\n1963: JFK assassinated\n\n• Date: Nov. 22\n\n• Location: Dallas\n\nAs John F. Kennedy prepares for his re-election bid, the 34th president of the United States embarks on a multi-state tour in September 1963. He is murdered by a sharpshooter’s bullet fired by Lee Harvey Oswald at about 12:30 p.m. as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Oswald himself is murdered two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.\n\n1964: LBJ's \"War on Poverty\"\n\n• Date: Jan. 8\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nPresident Lyndon B. Johnson struggles to shift focus away from the Vietnam War and on his stated goals of reducing poverty, ending segregation, and establishing the social programs that many Americans rely on to this day, including the immensely popular Medicare program. During his “War on Poverty” State of the Union Address of Jan. 8, 1964, LBJ outlines the need for the country to reduce poverty, end racial discrimination, attend to the health needs of the elderly, and other progressive goals. LBJ later ushers in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Social Security Amendments of 1965.\n\n1965: Selma to Montgomery march\n\n• Date: March 7\n\n• Location: Selma, Alabama\n\nThe fatal shooting of protester Jimmy Lee Jackson by an Alabama state trooper sparks a march in the state from Selma to Montgomery. Hundreds of civil rights activists march in what becomes known as “Bloody Sunday.” Police confront the marchers, led by John Lewis (who is a House Democrat from Georgia) and others. As the activists cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, police attack the protesters with tear gas and billy clubs, hospitalizing 50.\n\nA comfortable retirement:In which states will your money will last longest or shortest?\n\nRobocalls on the rise:Which states get the most and where does yours rank?\n\n1966: Mao purges rivals\n\n• Date: Aug. 13\n\n• Location: Beijing\n\nAt the end of a weeklong session of the Communist Party Central Committee of the People’s Republic of China, Chairman Mao Zedong condemns the political elites, calling on China’s youth to rebel against the entrenched political hierarchy. It is the beginning of the decade-long Cultural Revolution that fundamentally transforms Chinese society. Intellectuals, members of the former Nationalist government, and people with ties to Western powers are persecuted, sent to re-education labor camps, or killed by factions of the Red Guards formed in the wake of Mao’s call to action.\n\n1967: Six-Day War\n\n• Date: June 5\n\n• Location: Middle East\n\nAmid escalating tensions with its neighbors, Israel launches a pre-emptive strike that destroys most of Egypt’s air force. Syria, Jordan, and Iraq also attack Israel. As the war continues, Israel takes the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, captures East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, and in heavy fighting seizes the Golan Heights from Syria. A ceasefire goes into effect on June 10.\n\n1968: Dream denied\n\n• Date: April 4\n\n• Location: Memphis, Tennessee\n\nRev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is fatally shot by James Earl Ray as the civil rights icon stands on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, a tragedy that sparks race riots nationwide. King’s influence in words and actions touch and move not only the nation, but the world, and resonate to this day. Two months later, on June 4, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and brother of John F. Kennedy, is fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan, an Arab Christian from Jerusalem, who believes Kennedy is “instrumental” in oppressing Palestinians.\n\n1969: Landing on the moon\n\n• Date: July 20\n\n• Location: Moon\n\nPresident Kennedy’s goal of a manned lunar landing before 1970 is realized six years after his assassination. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins blast off from the Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 a.m. aboard the Saturn V rocket. After three days of travel, Armstrong and Aldrin land the Eagle module on the lunar surface as Collins remains in lunar orbit to pilot the module. Upon their return to Earth, the three astronauts are put in 21-day quarantine to ensure they did not bring back any lunar contagions.\n\n1970: Vietnam War turns to Cambodia\n\n• Date: April 29\n\n• Location: Eastern Cambodia\n\nAlthough the United States should be scaling back U.S. troop presence in Vietnam, President Richard Nixon approves an operation with the South Vietnamese to invade Cambodia to oust Northern Vietnamese forces there. The Cambodian incursion inflames anti-war protests in the United States as it is perceived to be an escalation of U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia.\n\n1971: Pentagon Papers\n\n• Date: Feb. 8\n\n• Location: Laos\n\nThe Pentagon Papers, a study by the U.S. Department of Defense about the country's involvement in the Vietnam war, are released and published first in The New York Times, then other newspapers. The documents expose several missteps and how several administrations have misled the American public about how involved the military was and about plans to escalate the war in 1964. They also reveal an expanded campaign in Cambodia and Laos, especially clandestine bombing in Laos, which today is considered the heaviest bombardment in history.\n\n1972: Nixon goes to China\n\n• Date: Feb. 21\n\n• Location: Beijing\n\nNixon, a virulent anti-communist earlier in his political career, surprises the American public by traveling to Beijing for a week of talks in a historic first step towards normalizing relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Until this trip, the United States and communist China were de facto enemies, fighting proxy wars in the Korean Peninsula in the 1950s and South Vietnam at the time of Nixon’s visit.\n\n1973: Roe v. Wade\n\n• Date: Jan. 22\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nIn a landmark 7-2 decision that will be known as Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court rules that under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, abortion is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. The court adds that as the pregnancy develops the state can balance a woman’s right to privacy with its interest in preserving the “potentiality of human life.” As a result, states can ban abortion in the third trimester except in cases where a pregnancy affects a woman’s health.\n\n1974: Nixon resigns\n\n• Date: Aug. 8\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nPresident Richard Nixon announces his resignation amid impeachment proceedings stemming from the Watergate scandal and the administration’s attempt resist a congressional investigation. The scandal exposes abuses of power by the White House after five burglars were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon becomes the only president in U.S. history to resign.\n\n1975: Saigon falls\n\n• Date: April 30\n\n• Location: South Vietnam\n\nTwo years after the last American troops left Vietnam, communist troops from North Vietnam capture Saigon, ending nearly two decades of relentless war in the rice paddies and jungles of that Southeast Asian nation. The total number of fatal casualties for the United States is 58,220.\n\n1976: The Concorde changes air travel\n\n• Date: Jan. 21\n\n• Location: London and Paris\n\nTwo supersonic Concorde jets take off simultaneously – one from London to Bahrain, operated by British Airways, and the other from Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar in Senegal, operated by Air France – marking the first time paying passengers enjoy commercial travel at faster than the speed of sound. Though travel by one of the 16 Concordes ever put into service could slash travel time from New York to London in half, the high cost of maintenance, soaring ticket prices, as well as a fatal accident in 2000, would seal the fate of the narrow, slope-nosed aircraft.\n\n1977: Rise of the personal computer\n\n• Date: January\n\n• Location: Chicago\n\nPersonal home computers began to emerge in the 1970s, but many of the earliest versions resembled calculators that would plug into televisions sets. By 1977, however, the desktop home computer begins to resemble the more modern versions – with an accompanying, attached or separate, computer screen and a magnetic tape or floppy disk storage device. The Commodore PET is unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago that year, while the first Apple II and Radio Shack’s TRS-80 also go on sale.\n\n1978: Cult's mass suicide\n\n• Date: Nov. 18\n\n• Location: Jonestown, Guyana\n\nMore than 900 people die in one of worst recorded acts of cult-related mass murder-suicide as nearly all the victims and perpetrators drink a powdered drink mix laced with cyanide. Most of the victims are Americans, devotees of Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones, a former Methodist-trained preacher who built a following and led the flock to Guyana. Among the dead are 276 children. A small number of cult defectors are killed by Peoples Temple gunmen who also slay Leo Ryan, California Congressman who had gone to Guyana to investigate Jonestown.\n\n1979: Islamic Republic born in Iran\n\n• Date: Feb. 11\n\n• Location: Tehran\n\nWorsening economic conditions, increasing discontent with the government, and wide support for religious leader in exile Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini end the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The shah and his family flee Iran in January 1979. On Feb. 11, the monarchy is dissolved, and on April 1, Khomeini declares Iran an Islamic republic. With support among the nation’s clergy and their many followers, he begins rebuilding Iranian society based on conservative Shiite religious principles. In November, a mob raids the U.S. embassy, taking more than 60 Americans hostage. The crisis would be influential in the following year's presidential election and would not fully resolve until January 1981.\n\n1980: Reagan elected\n\n• Date: Nov. 4\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nWith the United States in an economic malaise and the Iranian hostage crisis hobbling the presidency of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan is elected the 40th president in a landslide. Reagan, who would serve two terms, was the oldest man elected president at the time. Reagan’s election changes the trajectory of American politics, ushering in an era of conservative leadership. During his tenure, he takes a more aggressive approach to the Soviet Union and increases defense spending. Reagan convinces Congress to cut taxes, a move that many economists credit with triggering an economic boom in the 1980s.\n\n1981: AIDS impacts America\n\n• Date: June 5\n\n• Location: Los Angeles\n\nThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes a report about five gay men who had been diagnosed by local physicians with a rare form of pneumonia – the first reported U.S. cases of what would later become known as HIV/AIDS. The infectious autoimmune disease spreads so fast that by the end of the 1982, 500 Americans would die from what the CDC later calls acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. The death toll would rise to 5,000 by 1985.\n\n1982: Mexico triggers regional debt crisis\n\n• Date: Aug 12\n\n• Location: Mexico City\n\nGlobal economic stagnation in the 1970s and early 1980s as well as excessive borrowing among Latin America’s biggest economies boils over when Mexico’s Finance Minister Jesús Silva-Herzog tells the U.S. Federal Reserve his country can no longer service its debt of $80 billion. After the announcement, lenders realize virtually every country in Latin America, led by Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, is not able to pay back loans. The crisis would lead to years of eroding wages, weak to negative economic growth, sky-high unemployment, severe austerity measures, and political instability – known as the “lost decade” in Latin America.\n\n1983: The internet is born\n\n• Date: Jan. 1\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nThe internet as we know it today – a seemingly endless collection of websites hosted on servers scattered across the globe – is still more than a decade away. At the beginning of 1983, however, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) – a small network for academics and researchers – transitions to the standard TCP/IP protocol of the World Wide Web. The protocol would become the internet's cornerstone and technical foundation as it allows expanded available address space. The protocol also decentralizes the network, thus also expanding accessibility.\n\n1984: Chemicals kill thousands in India\n\n• Date: Dec. 2\n\n• Location: Bhopal, India\n\nThe chemical disaster in Bhopal is still considered history’s worst industrial disaster. About 30 tons of methyl isocyanate, an industrial gas used to make pesticide, are released at a Union Carbide Corp. plant. About 600,000 poor residents of nearby shanty towns are exposed to a highly toxic compound that kills about 15,000 people and countless farm animals, according to Indian government estimates. The calamity leads to a generation of birth defects. To this day, locals claim the now-abandoned site is riddled with toxic materials left behind by Union Carbide, which was acquired by Dow Chemical in 2001.\n\n1985: Reagan, Gorbachev meet\n\n• Date: Nov. 19\n\n• Location: Geneva\n\nDespite his often bellicose criticisms of the Soviet Union, Reagan agrees to meet with his counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, in Geneva in the first meeting between leaders of the two Cold War foes in nearly a decade. Though the meeting yields little of substance, it initiates a closer relationship between the two men, who both seem committed to scaling back the nuclear arms race between the two nuclear superpowers.\n\n1986: Chernobyl disaster\n\n• Date: Apr. 26\n\n• Location: Prypyat, Soviet Union\n\nA combination of poor design and human error leads to a power surge in a reactor in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This leads to a massive explosion that puts highly radioactive material into the air. Soviet officials try to cover up the incident, but Swedish scientists notice the increased levels of radioactivity. It takes a little over a week for the radioactive emissions to be contained, but by then radioactive particles had already spread thousands of miles by wind currents to countries as far away as France. A 1,600 square mile area around the plant known as the “exclusion zone” is deemed unsafe, and more than 220,000 people have to be resettled. The radiation causes deformities in nearby livestock and cancer in many people near the blast. Though exact figures are hard to come by, the UN reports years later there were over 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer in children who were in the affected areas. The Chernobyl disaster is still considered the worst nuclear power failure in history.\n\n1987: Stock market tanks\n\n• Date: Oct. 19\n\n• Location: Worldwide\n\nThe Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 508 points, or more than 22%, on Oct. 19, 1987, later referred to as Black Monday. The drop, in percentage terms, is worse than the crash in 1929. It is also worse than the market plunge after the 9-11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. Among the reasons cited for the drop are rising tensions in the Persian Gulf, concern over higher interest rates, and the belief that the bull market is ending. Computerized trading, relatively new at the time, accelerates trade orders, which speeds up the market drop. As a result of the collapse, exchanges put in place so-called circuit breakers intended to halt trading when stocks fall too fast. This measure is designed to provide investors a cooling off period and avoid a panic.\n\n1988: End of fighting in Iran-Iraq war\n\n• Date: July 20\n\n• Location: Iraq-Iran border\n\nFrom 1980 to 1988, neighboring Middle East countries Iran and Iraq are engaged in a protracted war. It begins when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launches an attack on Iran in 1980, sensing an opportunity in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Iraqi forces initially make incursions into Iranian land, but they lose the area gained in 1982 after Iran is able to mobilize its military and repel the Iraqi forces. Hussein seeks a peace deal that year, but Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini refuses. From 1982 to 1988, the fighting is characterized by sporadic missile launches, attacks on each others’ oil tankers, and the use of chemical weapons, mostly by the Iraqis. By 1988, Iran’s economy is in dire straits, forcing Iran to agree to a UN-brokered ceasefire. The two countries signed an official peace treaty in 1990. Anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million troops were killed in the war and up to 100,000 Kurds.\n\n1989: The Berlin Wall falls\n\n• Date: Nov. 9\n\n• Location: Berlin, East and West Germany\n\nCracks in the monolithic Soviet bloc are starting to appear in the 1980s, and the very symbol of communist repression comes crashing down in November, when the Berlin Wall is breached, ending a 28-year division of the city. During the day on Nov. 9, a spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party says that starting at midnight that day, citizens of East Germany would be free to cross the country’s borders. Almost immediately Berliners start slamming the wall with axes and sledgehammers. By nightfall, the celebration turns into what one observer calls “the greatest street party in the history of the world,” and the city is reunited. East and West Germany would reunite one year later.\n\n1990: Democracy in Poland\n\n• Date: Jan. 28\n\n• Location: Poland\n\nWith the hold of the Soviet Union and communism on East Europe loosening, Poland's ruling communist party votes to dissolve and become more moderate. In the following elections, Lech Wałęsa, leader of the Solidarity Movement and the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, wins the election and becomes president.\n\n1991: American goes to war in Middle East\n\n• Date: Jan. 17\n\n• Location: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait\n\nAfter Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invades and occupies Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, the United States sends forces to defend neighboring Saudi Arabia from being overrun and to protect its vital oil assets there, calling it Operation Desert Shield. With Saudi Arabia secured, the United States implements Operation Desert Storm to push Iraqi forces back across the border with Kuwait in a military operation that lasts until a ceasefire takes effect in April.\n\n1992: Cold War ends\n\n• Date: Feb. 1\n\n• Location: Camp David, Maryland\n\nJust weeks after the dissolution of the Soviet Union on Dec. 26, 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, meet at Camp David to formally declare the end of the Cold War that began shortly after the end of World War II. The meeting comes days after both countries announce they would stop aiming nuclear missiles at each other. Russia declares its 11 former communist satellite republics – from Armenia to Uzbekistan – independent.\n\n1993: The EU becomes reality\n\n• Date: Nov. 1\n\n• Location: Brussels\n\nThe Treaty of the European Union, also known as the Maastricht Treaty, goes into effect in November, after a rough series of political wrangling. Among other concessions, the treaty allows the U.K. and Denmark to opt out of the common euro currency. The treaty opens the way to removing border controls among member states and invites new members to join the union.\n\n1994: Rwandan genocide\n\n• Date: April-July\n\n• Location: Rwanda\n\nFor decades, Rwanda has been embroiled in a conflict between the country's two major ethnic groups – the Hutu and the Tutsi. Over 100 days, an estimated 800,000 people are killed, mostly Tutsis, but some moderate Hutus as well. When Tutsi militant group eventually gains control of the country, some two million Rwandans flee to nearby African nations. In 2008, three former Rwandan officials are convicted by an international court of organizing the genocide.\n\n1995: Domestic terror strikes Oklahoma\n\n• Date: April 19\n\n• Location: Oklahoma City\n\nIn the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, anti-government radicals Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. They time the truck-bomb attack for a weekday morning in order to maximize casualties. For the murder of at least 168 people, including 19 children who were in a child-care center in the building, and the injury of hundreds of others, an unremorseful McVeigh is executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001. Nichols is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.\n\n'You can do better':Jeff Bezos ripped for $690K Australian wildfire relief donation\n\nCutting the cord:As prices go up, here's how you can still save money streaming\n\n1996: The dawn of cloning\n\n• Date: July 5\n\n• Location: Midlothian, Scotland, U.K.\n\nDolly the Sheep enters the annals of bioengineering when scientists at Scotland’s Roslin Institute become the first to not only successfully clone a mammal, but also the first to do so using an adult cell rather than an embryonic one. After 277 cell fusions that developed 29 embryos, the team manages to turn an udder cell into a virtually identical biological carbon copy of the sheep from which it came.\n\n1997: Machine tops chess champ\n\n• Date: May 11\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nArtificial intelligence and machine learning notch a significant victory in 1997, when IBM’s Deep Blue machine defeats a world chess champion. The refrigerator-sized computer loses to grandmaster Garry Kasparov in the first match but proceeds to beat him twice and tie him three times in the next five games.\n\n1998: The age of Google begins\n\n• Date: Sept. 4\n\n• Location: Menlo Park, California\n\nWith seed money from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos among others, Stanford University Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin launch the search engine Google. The digital advertising behemoth Google Inc., now Alphabet Inc., is an $863 billion company with several subsidiaries, including YouTube, autonomous-car development company Waymo, and X, the company’s research and development division.\n\n1999: NATO's first independent strike\n\n• Date: March 24\n\n• Location: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia\n\nIn order to get Yugoslav forces out of Kosovo during the Kosovo War, NATO forces initiate their first-ever military campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Montenegro and Serbia) without U.N. Security Council authorization as Russia and China oppose the attack. The NATO air strikes are aimed at stopping an onslaught against ethnic Albanians by the government of Slobodan Milošević. The NATO attacks last nearly three months, culminating in the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.\n\n2000: International Space Station opens\n\n• Date: Nov. 2\n\n• Location: Low earth orbit\n\nCommanders Bill Shepherd from the United States and Yuri Gidzenko of Russia, along with Russian flight engineer Sergei Krikalev, become the first temporary residents of the International Space Station two years after the first component of the research center was put into low-Earth orbit about 250 miles above sea level. Since that first crew, there have been 229 other visitors to the ISS, some of them multiple times, led by 146 from the United States and 47 from Russia.\n\n2001: 9/11\n\n• Date: Sept. 11\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nIn the worst attack on U.S. soil since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, 19 hijackers inspired by Islamist extremism kill nearly 3,000 people after crashing three passenger-laden commercial aircraft into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane, United Airlines 93, crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew attempt to regain control of the plane headed to Washington D.C.\n\n2002: Homeland Security Act\n\n• Date: Nov. 25\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nFollowing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. Congress and President George W. Bush enact the Homeland Security Act, the biggest government reorganization of national security efforts since the Department of Defense was created in 1947. The sweeping legislation creates the massive Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for everything from protecting infrastructure from cyber attacks to managing the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.\n\n2003: US invades Iraq\n\n• Date: March 19\n\n• Location: Iraq\n\nWith the help of British and other allied forces, the United States begins its invasion of Iraq with a rapid bombing called Shock and Awe with the intention of destroying Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction; the weapons are never found. Coalition forces manage to quickly topple the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein but have to fight insurgent forces for years afterward.\n\n2004: Facebook founded\n\n• Date: Feb. 4\n\n• Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts\n\nMark Zuckerberg, a 23-year-old Harvard University student, creates The Facebook, a local social networking site named after the orientation materials that profiles students and faculty and given to incoming college freshmen. Within 15 years, Facebook would become a $512 billion digital advertising behemoth so integral to many people’s lives that it is criticized for helping foreign powers and propagandists influence the U.S. political system.\n\n2005: Katrina overwhelms New Orleans\n\n• Date: Aug. 29\n\n• Location: U.S. Gulf Coast\n\nAfter spending four days in the Gulf of Mexico bulking up to a category 5 hurricane, Katrina slams into New Orleans, inundating the city and creating a humanitarian crisis that lasts for weeks. The catastrophe underscores the precarious situation not only in the Big Easy, but also the surrounding area of the Gulf Coast. At least 1,833 people in the storm’s path are killed, and the storm inflicts $161 billion in damages to the region, the costliest storm in U.S. history.\n\n2006: Hussein executed\n\n• Date: Dec. 30\n\n• Location: Baghdad\n\nThree years after U.S. soldiers pulled him from a hole in the ground where he had been hiding, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is hanged. Hussein had been convicted for crimes against humanity, specifically for ordering the massacre of 148 Shiites in 1982 following a failed assassination attempt against him.\n\n2007: The iPhone\n\n• Date: Jan. 9\n\n• Location: San Francisco\n\nApple CEO Steve Jobs, who died in October 2011, reveals to the world one of the most popular branded consumer electronic devices in history, the iPhone. Since the first generation phone that Jobs introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show that year, there have been 24 versions of the mobile device, and more than 2.2 billion units have been sold globally through 2018, when Apple stopped reporting iPhone sales. Only Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone comes close to that volume.\n\n2008: Dow plunges\n\n• Date: Sept. 29\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nThe Dow Jones Industrial Average records the largest-ever intraday drop in points, 777.68, after Congress rejects a massive $700 billion bailout of U.S. banks. The bill would pass days later. The market reacts also to months of global market turmoil amid the 2008 global financial crisis spurred by the U.S. subprime mortgage market crash. The Dow falls by more than half during the 2007-2009 Great Recession, tumbling from 14,164 on Oct. 9, 2007 to 6,594 on March 5, 2009.\n\n2009: America's first African-American president\n\n• Date: Jan. 20\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nAfter winning in a landslide against Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, amassing 365 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote, Barack Obama is sworn in as the first African American president of the United States. Obama inherits the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but with his party holding majorities in both houses of Congress at the time, the president is able to pass a stimulus package and his signature Affordable Care Act in March 2010.\n\n2010: Catastrophic oil spill\n\n• Date: April 20\n\n• Location: Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana\n\nEleven workers die and 17 are injured after an explosion and fire erupts on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig 40 miles from the Louisiana coast. The explosion causes the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, spewing 3 million barrels of crude oil over the three months it takes to stop the leak. British oil company BP says costs from the clean-up, legal fees, and settlements reached $65 billion.\n\n2011: Bin Laden killed\n\n• Date: May 2\n\n• Location: Abbottabad, Pakistan\n\nIn an intense 40-minute nighttime firefight, 25 U.S. Navy SEALs hunt down and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Within hours, bin Laden’s body is identified using DNA and then buried at sea in the Arabian Sea.\n\n2012: The 'God Particle' is (Probably) Discovered\n\n• Date: July 4\n\n• Location: Near Geneva\n\nNearly 600 feet below the France-Switzerland border at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Facility, an international team of scientists discovers a new particle widely believed to be the elusive Higgs boson, known as the “God Particle,\" which is thought to be a fundamental component of the universe. The Higgs boson has been an important element of particle physics theory for decades, but until 2012 there had been no physical evidence to support its existence.\n\n2013: Snowden reveals secrets\n\n• Date: June 6\n\n• Location: Hong Kong\n\nAfter surreptitiously leaving his job at U.S. National Security Agency contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, computer security consultant Edward Snowden meets secretly in Hong Kong with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. Snowden reveals the first of a series of secrets about numerous U.S. and European government surveillance operations. Hailed as a courageous whistleblower and privacy champion by some and a traitor that compromised counterterrorism efforts by others, the American now resides in exile in Moscow.\n\n2014: Russia invades Ukraine\n\n• Date: March 16\n\n• Location: Crimea\n\nExploiting political unrest in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrates the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The action incites peals of condemnation from world leaders and a raft of economic sanctions against Moscow. This strategically important and predominantly Russian-speaking region on the Black Sea has been coveted by the Russians as part of their strategic efforts to check NATO expansion along Russia’s western border.\n\n2015: NASA flies by Pluto\n\n• Date: July 14\n\n• Location: 3 billion miles from Earth\n\nNASA spacecraft New Horizons becomes the first human-made object to fly past and observe the dwarf planet Pluto. New Horizons sends back stunning photographs of this enigmatic and distant member of the solar system, including images of a mountain range and massive icebergs floating in frozen nitrogen. New Horizons is now en route to the Kuiper Belt, a massive asteroid belt at the far reaches of the solar system.\n\n2016: Trump elected\n\n• Date: Nov. 8\n\n• Location: U.S.\n\nRunning on a populist agenda, Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States and the fifth president in U.S. history (the second since the 2000) to win despite losing the popular vote. The real estate developer and television personality ran on a platform of putting “America First” in global trade and foreign policy negotiations and cracking down on undocumented immigrants.\n\n2017: Hurricane triple whammy\n\n• Date: August-September\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nWithin just four weeks, three massive hurricanes – Harvey, Irma, and Maria – strike Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean, killing 228 people, inflicting a combined $265 billion in damages, and displacing millions of homeowners. Hurricane Maria inflicts immense damage to the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which was already struggling due to economic insolvency.\n\n2018: Wildfires\n\n• Date: November\n\n• Location: Northern California\n\nThe deadliest wildfires in the state’s history engulf northern California in November. The catastrophe costs the lives of 88 people, and the fire consumes 18,500 homes and businesses. State and federal officials estimate that it would cost $3 billion to clean up debris. Climate change activists say the conflagrations are evidence that global warming is no longer a distant concern and that it is occurring now.\n\n2019: Trump impeached\n\n• Date: Dec. 18\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nOn Dec. 18, 2019, Donald Trump becomes just the third U.S. president to be impeached. A whistleblower reveals that in July Trump had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, as well as cybersecurity company Crowdstrike. These requests were made just after Zelensky said Ukraine wanted to buy weapons from the United States. After the call comes to light, Democratic leaders file two articles of impeachment – for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. They say Trump abused his power by using the office of the president to target a political opponent. The obstruction of Congress charge stems from accusations that Trump Administration officials tried to cover up the whistleblower’s report. Trump calls the investigation a “witch hunt” and denies any wrongdoing. The House passes both articles in a vote that goes almost entirely along party lines, moving the impeachment proceedings along to the Senate.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/01/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/2021/07/01/sarasota-county-centennial-is-july-1-most-important-events-from-1921-2021/7745608002/", "title": "100 most important events in Sarasota County history from 1921-2021", "text": "This summer marks the 100th anniversary of Sarasota County. To celebrate the centennial, we looked back at the events from the past century that shaped our lives today and made Sarasota one of the most famous beach towns in the country. We traced the origins of Sarasota County communities, institutions, traditions, transportation, charitable organizations and businesses including restaurants and hotels. We examined the histories of local arts and entertainment organizations, public parks, sports teams, and venues, as well as individual accomplishments by Sarasotans in various fields ranging from politics and literature to the circus and rock ’n’ roll. We also revisited the busting of color barriers and the legacies of Overtown and Newtown. These neighborhoods, in fact, easily warrant their own timeline of significant events, which can be found at the richly detailed newtownalive.org site dedicated to commemorating and preserving the history of Sarasota’s Black communities.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/01"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_27", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220624_28", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/17/europe/eu-commission-endorses-ukraine-candidacy-intl/index.html", "title": "EU Commission supports Ukraine's bid to join the bloc - CNN", "text": "(CNN) Ukraine's bid to join the European Union received a major boost on Friday morning, after the bloc's executive said it believed the country should be formally considered for candidate status in the wake of Russia's invasion .\n\nSpeaking in Brussels, the European Commission's President Ursula von der Leyen said the Commission recommends \"that Ukraine is given candidate status. This is of course on the understanding that the country will carry out a number of further reforms.\"\n\n\"In the view of the Commission, Ukraine has clearly demonstrated the country's aspiration and the country's determination to live up to European values and standards.\"\n\nVon der Leyen ended her statement by saying: \"We all know that Ukrainians are ready to die for the European perspective. We want them to live with us the European dream.\"\n\nThe Commission also recommended candidate status for Ukraine's neighbor Moldova, but not for Georgia, until it meets further conditions. Leaders of the 27 EU member states will now meet for a summit next week to discuss its opinion.\n\nEven if the member states agree that Ukraine should be a candidate nation -- which is far from certain -- the process to join the EU is complicated and takes, on average, just under five years to complete, according to the think tank, UK in a Changing Europe\n\nDuring a joint press conference in Kyiv on Thursday with the EU's main three political leaders, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia's attack on his country amounted to an attack on all of Europe.\n\nHe added that the best way to demonstrate \"our common and strong position\" is by supporting Ukrainian integration into the EU, adding that its status as a candidate for EU membership \"can amplify freedom in Europe historically and become one of the key European decisions of the first third of the 21st century.\"\n\nZelensky said Ukraine was ready to work to become a full EU member: \"We understand that that the path to the European Union is really a path and it is not one step. But this path must begin, and we are ready to work so that our state is transformed into a full member of the European Union and Ukrainians have already earned the right to embark on this path.\"\n\nMacron later said that the possible granting of EU candidate status to Ukraine was a result of Russia's invasion. He was speaking in an interview with CNN affiliate BFMTV Friday on board a train leaving Ukraine.\n\n\"Ukraine normally should not be a candidate,\" he said following his visit to Kyiv, \"We're doing it because of the war and because we think it's good.\n\n\"It's a sign of hope, it's a message for Ukraine to say that they are in the European family,\" he said.\n\nWhile Macron said most of Western Europe was supportive of the plan, \"We have countries that are more reticent,\" he said.\n\nThe French leader added that the question of Ukraine's candidacy for the EU will be decided at the European Council summit next Thursday and Friday.\n\n\"The path is long to join the EU,\" he added.\n\nUkrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal expressed his gratitude for the EC's decision. \"Grateful to @vonderleyen for this decision!\" he said via Twitter. \"It will accelerate the process of full [Ukrainian] integration into the [European] internal market and effectively accompany the recovery of #Ukraine by EU standards.\"\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia has \"nothing against\" Ukraine joining the EU.\n\n\"The EU is not a military-political bloc, unlike NATO, therefore we have always said and I have always said that our position here is consistent, understandable, we have nothing against it,\" Putin said during a panel discussion following his speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.\n\n\"It is the sovereign decision of any country to join or not to join economic associations, and it is up to this economic association to accept new states as its members or not. As far as it is expedient for the EU, let the EU countries themselves decide. Whether it will be for the benefit or to the detriment of Ukraine is also their business,\" Putin said.\n\n(From left) Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis meet for a working session in Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv on June 16, 2022.\n\nWhat happens next?\n\nUkraine will now work to meet the Copenhagen Criteria, an opaque trio of requirements that the EU must be satisfied a candidate state has met in order to enter the proper accession negotiations. They focus on whether or not that country has a functioning free-market economy, whether the country's institutions are fit to uphold European values such as human rights and the EU's interpretation of the rule of law and whether the country has a functioning, inclusive democracy.\n\nThere are also real concerns that Ukraine is a long way from meeting the Copenhagen Criteria any time soon. According to Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine is 122nd on its list of 180 countries. For comparison, Russia sits in 136th place.\n\nOnce the country is deemed to have met this criteria, it can begin the EU's 35 chapters of negotiation, the final three of which return to some areas of the Copenhagen Criteria.\n\nThen, when the leaders of the EU member states have agreed, it must then be ratified in the EU Parliament and by the legislative branches of each member state's government.\n\nUkraine formally applied to join the EU on February 28, just four days after Russia began its invasion. Zelensky said at the time that the bloc must \"urgently admit Ukraine using a new procedure ... our goal is to be with all Europeans and, to be equal to them. I am sure we deserve it. I am sure it is possible.\"\n\nBefore the war started, Zelensky had said that Ukraine would also like to join NATO. However, in the months since, he has cooled on the idea after it appeared the alliance was not willing to admit Kyiv any time soon.\n\n\"I requested them personally to say directly that we are going to accept you into NATO in a year or two or five, just say it directly and clearly, or just say no,\" Zelensky said . \"And the response was very clear, you're not going to be a NATO member, but publicly, the doors will remain open,\" he said.\n\nCNN's Joseph Ataman, Camille Knight, Anna Chernova and Niamh Kennedy contributed to this report.", "authors": ["Luke Mcgee"], "publish_date": "2022/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/europe/ukraine-nato-membership-putin-analysis-cmd/index.html", "title": "Why Ukraine's longshot bid to join the EU is likely to enrage Putin ...", "text": "(CNN) Four days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine and started a bloody war that shows no signs of ending soon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially applied for the country to join the European Union.\n\nOn the same day, February 28, he asked that the EU \"urgently admit Ukraine using a new procedure ... our goal is to be with all Europeans and, to be equal to them. I am sure we deserve it. I am sure it is possible.\"\n\nNearly four months later, the EU Commission said on Friday that Ukraine should be considered a candidate state. It is now for the 27 EU member states to decide whether or not they agree with the Commission's opinion.\n\nThe question of whether or not Ukraine should join the EU and how Russia would react has been a contentious issue for years. In 2013, pro-European protests erupted after former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych made a sudden decision to not sign an agreement with the EU that would pull Ukraine further into the EU's orbit. Instead, he opted to pursue closer ties with Putin's Russia.\n\nThe following year, Russia invaded Donbas and illegally annexed Crimea.\n\nWhile most European nations are firmly behind Ukraine and have, to varying degrees, aided Zelensky in his war efforts, it's far from certain that his wish will be granted.\n\nFor political and procedural reasons, it is possible that the EU ultimately decides that now is not the right time. And even if they did agree with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's opinion that Ukraine should be considered for membership, it could take years, even decades, for it to become a reality.\n\nHere's why.\n\nWhat is the process for joining the EU?\n\nOn paper, the process is relatively straightforward. A country applies and the Commission gives a verdict on whether or not it should be considered for candidacy. As is likely to be the case with Ukraine, the Commission will probably present a few ways for member states to go about accepting a new candidate.\n\nAs von der Leyen made clear on Friday, Ukraine will still have to meet a series of criteria before proper accession negotiations can begin, even if the EU 27 agree to accept its candidate status next week.\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a debate as part of a plenary session at the European Parliament on June 8, 2022 in Strasbourg, eastern France.\n\nThe Copenhagen Criteria is a fairly opaque trio of requirements that the EU must be satisfied a candidate state has met in order to enter the proper accession negotiations. They focus on whether or not that country has a functioning free-market economy, if the country's institutions are fit to uphold European values such as human rights and the EU's interpretation of the rule of law and whether the country has a functioning, inclusive democracy.\n\nOnce the country has deemed to have met this criteria, they can begin the EU's 35 chapters of negotiation, the final three of which return to some areas of the Copenhagen Criteria.\n\nThen, when the leaders of the EU member states have agreed, it must then be ratified in the EU Parliament and by the legislative branches of each member state's government.\n\nHow do EU countries feel about Ukraine joining the EU?\n\nThis is where it starts to get complicated. While the EU and its 27 members have broadly supported Ukraine in its war effort, having a country that's currently at war start the accession process raises all sorts of issues.\n\nThere are a number of candidate states that have been in the accession process for years, and have in some cases had their accession slowed down because of domestic political instability. One example of this is the case of Turkey, whose application has been essentially frozen following fears over a backslide over the rule of law and human rights. Starting the process with a country currently at war will raise questions from other candidate states who have had their applications similarly frozen.\n\nThere are also real concerns that Ukraine is a long way from meeting the Copenhagen Criteria any time soon. According to Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine is 122nd on its list of 180 countries. For comparison, Russia sits in 136th place. Given that parts of Ukraine are currently occupied by Russia and could be long after the war is over, it is hard to predict if this improves or worsens in the coming years. Some EU officials have also expressed fears that after the war, it is hard to tell what human rights will look like inside Ukraine.\n\nA woman walks past a tent displaying the European Union and Ukrainian flags in Independence Square on January 28, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.\n\nBeyond these practical questions, there are political objections too. Some Western member states who have been in the EU from the start are worried about the balance of power shifting eastwards, where some countries have been backsliding on things like the rule of law in recent years. The European establishment has struggled with both Hungary and Poland playing loose with the EU rules and is learning the hard way that once a country is inside, they can get away with a lot more.\n\nOther member states are concerned about Ukraine joining the bloc and immediately consuming a huge amount of the EU budget because of the enormous rebuilding exercise that will need to be undertaken.\n\nAnd some simply express concern that getting Ukraine into a long, painful negotiation with the EU is not the best way to support the country at this moment in time.\n\nHow long would it take?\n\nIt really depends on what state Ukraine is in when war ends. It seems highly unlikely that Ukraine will be anywhere near meeting the criteria to even start negotiations for a significant period of time after the end of the war. Aside from the rebuilding project, Ukraine will have to make the transition from a country operating under various degrees of martial law and curfews to a functioning democracy.\n\nThe average time for a country to join the EU is four years and 10 months, according to the London think tank, UK in a Changing Europe. Member states that might be considered a sort of blueprint for Ukraine's membership -- Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Slovenia -- were all over the average wait time.\n\nWhat would joining the EU mean for Ukraine?\n\nUkraine would be a member of the world's largest trading bloc, the EU's single market and customs union, and would have the protection of EU courts and access to the EU budget.\n\nJoining the EU would also place Ukraine very clearly in the club of countries that are considered to be part of the Western alliance and US-led world order.\n\nHow has Russia reacted?\n\nThe Kremlin said Friday's development required Moscow's \"increased attention.\" \"We all know about the intensification in Europe and discussions about strengthening the defense component of the EU. Therefore, there are different transformations that we observe,\" spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said during a daily call with reporters.\n\nMoscow has previously said that joining the EU would be on a par with joining NATO, a point harder to push back against now that the EU is becoming so overtly geopolitical.\n\nRussia has already reacted very badly to the suggestion that Finland and Sweden, EU member states, might join NATO. Seeing Ukraine warmly embraced by an institution so associated with the West will no doubt be seen as an act of aggression by Putin.\n\nHow likely is Ukraine's bid to succeed?\n\nIt won't happen soon, but it is likely that the EU will make a special effort to support Ukraine following its invasion by Russia.\n\nMany European leaders have been to visit Zelensky in Kyiv, and the thinking among some officials is that they cannot come out of the leaders' summit on June 24 empty-handed after posing for photos alongside a real war-time president.\n\nBut the EU has a long history of doing unexpected things, even throughout this crisis. And more often than not, these debates become a war of attrition among countries unable to see eye-to-eye, before being kicked into the long grass for another day.", "authors": ["Analysis Luke Mcgee"], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/15/europe/european-prime-ministers-kyiv-intl/index.html", "title": "'Europe stands with you': EU leaders express solidarity with Ukraine ...", "text": "(CNN) The Prime Ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic reaffirmed their support for Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion during a meeting Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in capital Kyiv.\n\nFollowing the meeting, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called for the European Union to \"very quickly\" grant Ukraine candidate status.\n\n\"We are here to admire your fight against such a cruel aggressor. This invasion has to stop,\" Morawiecki said. \"Those who are killed by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, they can never be forgotten. They are not forgotten.\"\n\nHe also emphasized Poland, which shares a 310-mile border with Ukraine, would try to help Ukraine organize its defenses.\n\n\"We will never leave you alone. We will be with you. Because we know you are fighting not only for your homes, for your freedom, for your security, but also for ours,\" he said.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Antonia Mortensen", "Abbaggini", "Mariya Knight", "Jeevan Ravindran"], "publish_date": "2022/03/15"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/europe/956002/will-ukraine-join-eu", "title": "Will Ukraine join the EU? | The Week UK", "text": "We will use the details you have shared to manage your registration. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your registration as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWould you like to receive The WeekDay newsletter ?\n\nThe WeekDay newsletter provides you with a daily digest of news and analysis.\n\nWe will use the details you have shared to manage your newsletter subscription. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your subscription as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWe will use the information you have shared for carefully considered and specific purposes, where we believe we have a legitimate case to do so, for example to send you communications about similar products and services we offer. You can find out more about our legitimate interest activity in our Privacy Policy.\n\nIf you wish to object to the use of your data in this way, please tick here.\n\n'We' includes The Week and other Future Publishing Limited brands as detailed here.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2022/03/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/17/ukraine-russia-invasion-live-updates/7655995001/", "title": "Ukraine moves closer to EU candidacy; Families of 2 missing ...", "text": "This is a recap of updates out of the war in Ukraine for Friday, June 17. For the latest news, click here.\n\nThe executive arm of the European Union recommended Friday that Ukraine become a candidate for membership, the first step in a process that could take decades.\n\nThe endorsement is set to be discussed by the bloc's leaders next week in Brussels.\n\n\"Ukraine has clearly demonstrated its aspiration and determination to live up to European values and standards,\" President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter. \"We want them to live with us the European dream.\"\n\nRussia's invasion in February increased pressure to fast-track Ukraine's candidate status. But accession talks require unanimous approval from all 27 member counties and some do not agree on how quickly the process of accepting new members should proceed.\n\nThe announcement comes as Russia continued its attacks on cities in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region leaving desperate residents wondering what the next years hold for them.\n\nLatest developments:\n\n►Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg on Friday after the Kremlin said “massive cyberattacks” delayed his appearance, according to the Washington Post and CNN.\n\n► Ukraine will not host Eurovision Song Contest in 2023, organizers announced Friday. In May, the Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won the contest with \"Stefania,'' and the right to host next year's event.\n\n►The UK said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in Ukraine Friday on a surprise visit, his second trip since the Russian invasion began.\n\n►Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday criticized the U.S. for its \"reckless and insane\" sanctions against the Kremlin, claiming that his economy will overcome the financial consequences to his war in Ukraine.\n\nFamilies of 2 Americans missing in Ukraine speak out\n\nThe families of two Alabama men – who went missing near Kharkiv in a battle last week and were feared to have been captured – told USA TODAY they are holding out hope that the men could be released.\n\nJoy Black's fiancée Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, a 27-year-old former Marine, drew up a will, said goodbye to her and left Hartselle, Alabama, in April to help Ukrainians repel Russian forces.\n\nThat same month, not far away in Tuscaloosa, former Army Sgt. Alexander Drueke, a 39-year-old Iraq war veteran, had deliberated for a month before deciding to pack his gear for Ukraine.\n\nRussian state television on Friday showed video of the two men, confirming that they were taken captive and raising fears about their fate. They are believed to be the first Americans captured by Russian forces since the war began on Feb. 24.\n\nPreviously, Dianna Shaw, 55, Drueke’s aunt, urged the government to help bring them home. If they are in custody, \"We appeal for Alex's and Andy's humane treatment in the meantime,\" Shaw said in a text message to USA TODAY on Friday. \"Coach Nick Saban always tells us Bama fans to 'trust the process' and that's exactly what we are doing.\"\n\nMeantime, the State Department has said it was aware of reports a third American was missing in Ukraine, whom the Washington Post and CNN identified as Grady Kurpasi, another Marine veteran.\n\nOn Friday, President Joe Biden said he'd been briefed. \"We don't know where they are, but I want to reiterate: Americans should not be going to Ukraine now. Say it again: Americans should not be going to Ukraine,\" he told reporters. Read more here.\n\n— Chris Kenning, USA TODAY\n\nBiden: There's a 'price to pay' in helping Ukraine but it was important\n\nIn a rare interview with a news organization, President Biden told the Associated Press on Thursday \"there was going to be a price to pay\" for helping Ukraine, but not acting would have been worse.\n\n\"You’d see chaos in Europe,\" Biden said. \"The Russians might have continued into other countries and China and North Korea could have been emboldened to make their own moves.\"\n\nAsked about the political risk he now faces from higher gas prices and whether Americans have a daily sense of the national security stakes he described, Biden said most households are just trying to figure out how to put food on the table. But as president, he has to be willing to make tough decisions despite any political consequence, he said.\n\nTreasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently acknowledged that the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan's expanded child tax credit increased demand and might have caused a “marginal” increase in food prices. Biden rejected that possibility.\n\n“You could argue whether it had a marginal, minor impact on inflation. I don’t think it did. And most economists do not think it did,” he said. “But the idea that it caused inflation is bizarre.” Read more here.\n\n— Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY\n\nRussian-owned superyacht seized by US arrives in Hawaii\n\nA Russian-owned superyacht seized by the United States arrived in Honolulu Harbor on Thursday flying an American flag after the U.S. won a legal battle in Fiji last week to take the $325 million vessel.\n\nThe FBI has linked the Amadea to the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov. The U.S. said Kerimov secretly bought the Cayman Island-flagged vessel last year through various shell companies.\n\nMORE:How the seizure of Russian superyachts helps the feds punish Putin and his oligarchs\n\nThe ship became a target of Task Force KleptoCapture, launched in March to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs to put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine. The 348-foot-long vessel, about the length of a football field, features a live lobster tank, a hand-painted piano, a swimming pool and a large helipad.\n\nLawyer Feizal Haniff, who represented Millemarin Investments, the owner on paper, had argued the owner was another wealthy Russian who, unlike Kerimov, doesn’t face sanctions.\n\nUS to send $1B package to Ukraine\n\nThe U.S. announced it would send a $1 billion package of military assistance to Ukraine earlier this week — the largest allocation of aid provided by the U.S. since the invasion began.\n\nThe American aid package includes $350 million in rapid, off-the-shelf deliveries by the Pentagon and $650 million in other longer-term purchases. The U.S. military will send Ukraine 18 howitzers, 36,000 rounds of ammunition for them, tactical vehicles, in addition to other equipment like Harpoon coastal defense systems and secure radios.\n\nDeputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar said this week that Ukraine had only received 10% of the military assistance it had requested from western countries.\n\nMeanwhile, France, Germany, Slovakia, Canada, and Poland also pledged to send more military aid to Ukraine this week.\n\nRussian spy attempted to access international court investigating war crimes as an intern, Dutch say\n\nA Russian military spy posed as a Brazilian national in an attempt to get an internship at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, which is investigating war crimes allegations in Ukraine, the Dutch intelligence service said Thursday.\n\nThe General Intelligence and Security Service named the Russian intelligence officer as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov and said that in April he used an elaborately constructed identity to try to infiltrate the court. It published a letter that accompanied Cherkasov's internship application. Writing under the alias Viktor Muller Ferreira, he spun a complex cover tale about growing up in poverty in Brazil and how members of his family suffered from heart problems.\n\nCherkasov was detained at a Dutch airport and deported to Brazil, where he could face court proceedings.\n\n“If the intelligence officer had succeeded in gaining access as an intern to the ICC, he would have been able to gather intelligence there and to look for (or recruit) sources, and arrange to have access to the ICC’s digital systems,\" the General Intelligence and Security Service said in a statement.\n\nThat would have provided a \"significant contribution\" to the intelligence that Russia is seeking. The spy might also have been able to influence criminal proceedings, the service said.\n\nThere was no immediate reaction from Moscow, though the attempted infiltration may indicate how seriously Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking allegations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The Kremlin has consistently denied the accusation, saying the West was concocting a misinformation campaign against Russia.\n\n– Kim Hjelmgaard\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/europe/eu-approves-ukraine-candidateship-intl/index.html", "title": "Ukraine's EU hopes rise as bloc's leaders approve candidate status ...", "text": "(CNN) Ukraine's long-term goal of joining the European Union has received its latest shot in the arm, after the bloc's 27 member states agreed Thursday that the country should be given candidate status -- a significant step on the path to full membership.\n\n\"Today marks a crucial step on your path towards the EU,\" European Council President Charles Michel said on Twitter after talks in Brussels. Leaders also agreed to approve Moldova's candidacy.\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said he \"sincerely commends\" the European Council's decision, calling it \"a unique and historical moment in EU/Ukraine relations.\"\n\nThe decision, made at an EU Council summit, comes a week after President of the European Commission Ursula von Der Leyen said it was the opinion of the bloc's executive body that Ukraine deserved candidate status because it \"has clearly demonstrated the country's aspiration and the country's determination to live up to European values and standards.\"\n\nHowever, it is still likely to be years before Ukraine is able to join the EU. The process is lengthy and requires agreement from the 27 member states at almost every stage. This means that there are multiple opportunities for member states to use their veto as a political bargaining chip.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Luke Mcgee"], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/01/europe/serbia-russian-gas-eu-analysis-intl-cmd/index.html", "title": "Analysis: Serbia's gas deal with Putin has created a fresh headache ...", "text": "(CNN) On Sunday, Serbia's president Aleksandar Vucic announced that his country had agreed to a new three-year gas supply deal with Russia's state energy provider, Gazprom.\n\nThe news came at an awkward time, and in doing so, Vucic created a fresh headache for the Western anti-Putin alliance and, notably, for the European Union.\n\nOn the other side of the continent, EU heads of state were mired in in grueling negotiations over a sixth package of sanctions against Moscow. The final deal, announced late Monday, includes a partial ban on Russian oil imports to the bloc.\n\nBut Brussels was forced to make an exemption for oil that is imported to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic via a pipeline, in order to get everyone on board. This was seen by some EU members as a major concession.\n\nWhile Serbia is not an EU member state, it is part of an EU enlargement plan that also includes some of its neighbors. The EU is set on expanding to the east and sees the Western Balkans as key to European security -- even more so in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nOf these Balkan states, Serbia in particular is seen as crucial for numerous reasons.\n\nIts size, population and geographical location all make it a major stakeholder in the geopolitics of the region. If you want to have a conversation about the future of Bosnia or Kosovo, you are going to need the Serbian government in the room.\n\nHowever, Serbia is also very reliant on Russia when it comes to gas. It is also militarily cooperative with Moscow. In short, Serbia benefits enormously from its relationship with Russia, and even if it obtains EU membership down the road, it will not want to burn its bridges with the Kremlin.\n\nThis creates two simultaneous realities for the EU that, when placed next to one another, are rather difficult to reconcile.\n\nSerbia is so big and important that it is crucial to the EU's enlargement project, which seeks to strengthen and expand European values, stability and security.\n\nIt is also so big and important that it can do deals with Russia, China and the EU all at the same time -- however it sees fit -- and still be the apple of Brussels' eye.\n\nThat might be about to change, though.\n\nWhile Serbia has backed several UN resolutions condemning Russia's invasion, it has not sanctioned Moscow or aligned itself with Brussels on sanctions against Moscow -- something candidate states are expected to do. The new Russian gas deal, some EU officials and analysts fear, may be a step too far for some EU member states.\n\n\"If concluded, the deal would dash hopes of those who saw an opportunity to reduce the Russian influence in the region,\" said Filip Ejdus, associate professor of international security at the University of Belgrade.\n\nEjdus believes Vucic might be seeking to have his cake and eat it. He predicts the Serbian president \"will certainly make reassurances that Serbia remains on the EU path, while maybe still expecting a better counter-offer by German chancellor Olaf Scholz.\"\n\nHowever, Ejdus warned that \"the gamble might backfire this time,\" as the EU has other policy priorities at the moment; he says trust between the two parties may be permanently damaged.\n\nWhether that means that accession talks stall, or that the EU takes a different approach, remains to be seen. However, there is no denying that the gas deal has been a particularly bitter pill for officials and diplomats in Brussels to swallow.\n\n\"We are worried,\" one senior EU official told CNN. \"Alignment from countries outside the EU is more important than ever, for countries inside the EU that are trying to hold the line,\" they said, referring specifically to Hungary, the EU member state most opposed to a hard stance on Russia.\n\nSteven Blockmans, director of research at the Centre for European Policy Studies, told CNN that ever since the start of the war, \"the EU has been pressuring third countries, including China, to have a similar approach to sanctions. If even states currently trying to join the EU circumvent the sanctions, it lends credence to outliers within the bloc to withstand pressure from Brussels to support a strong common position on Russia.\"\n\nAnd the difficulties Serbia is causing Brussels don't end with sanctions. \"This whole situation is a major pain for us, because it ties in with the conversation about whether or not Ukraine should join the EU,\" said one senior European diplomat. Ukraine formally applied for EU membership in early March, a process that can take years even when the bloc's members fully support a new country joining.\n\nMultiple officials and diplomats explained to CNN why this debate is so tricky for the EU and its internal conversation about the bloc's future.\n\nSome member states want to speed up the process for Ukraine, and think Serbia's lack of alignment with the EU's approach on Russia makes a case for countries that want to align as soon as possible to get preferential treatment.\n\nOthers don't want Ukraine or the Western Balkan nations to join at all, fearing that they would alter the balance of the EU, giving eastern European states more power in a bloc that has historically been dominated by Western European countries like Germany and France.\n\nFinally, some member states share a degree of Euroskepticism and would welcome another member state less enamored with calls from some countries, notably France, for the bloc to become more closely politically integrated.\n\nAll this might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, while a war is being fought on the European continent. However, Putin's invasion of Ukraine has created an opportunity for Europe's security map to be redrawn.\n\nTo some extent, countries traditionally aligned with the US have grasped the opportunity to strengthen Western security with both hands. Finland and Sweden appear set to join NATO while others, most notably Germany, have committed to huge increases in defense spending.\n\nThe UK, no longer part of the EU, has worked well with its European allies and shown that -- despite Brexit -- it can still play a leading role in a united European front.\n\nOn the other hand, the chaos and uncertainty also creates opportunities for people in positions like Vucic's. He is useful to Brussels and to Moscow and clearly feels he can continue playing both sides for all they're worth.\n\nThe EU has faced many difficulties since the Ukraine crisis began, and keeping all 27 of its member states on side has been no easy task. But the fact that Serbia's gas deal happened in the same week that EU leaders met to have a showdown over banning Russian energy (one that ended with a fudge) underscores the extent to which some things are simply out of Brussels' centralized hands.\n\nAs time goes on, that could become a very tricky issue for the future of the European project.", "authors": ["Analysis Luke Mcgee"], "publish_date": "2022/06/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/23/ukraine-russia-invasion-live-updates/7708413001/", "title": "Ukraine recap: EU makes Ukraine a candidate for membership", "text": "Editor's note: This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Thursday, June 23. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Friday, June 24, as Russia's invasion continues.\n\nThe European Union leadership approved Ukraine's candidacy for membership Thursday, starting the embattled nation on a yearslong path toward cementing a closer relationship with the West as it attempts to distance itself from its Russian invaders.\n\n\"Historic agreement, historic decision,\" European Council President Charles Michel tweeted after the decision was announced on the first day of an EU leaders summit in Belgium.\n\nUkraine has already implemented about 70% of EU rules, norms and standards, European officials have said. But they warned that the country still needs political and economic reforms, pointing to corruption. EU candidate status doesn't guarantee Ukraine membership and does not provide the military security provided by NATO membership. Still, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elated.\n\n\"Sincerely commend EU leaders’ decision at #EUCO to grant a candidate status,\" he tweeted. \"It’s a unique and historical moment.\"\n\nThe EU also granted candidate status to Moldova, a tiny, non-NATO country that borders Ukraine.\n\nUSA TODAY ON TELEGRAM:Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates straight to your phone\n\nLatest developments:\n\n►The U.S. will send $450 million more in military aid to Ukraine, including more medium-range rocket systems, officials said Thursday.\n\n►Nike announced it will fully shut down operations in Russia after initially suspending its company-owned business three months ago. \"Our priority is to ensure we are fully supporting our employees while we responsibly scale down our operations over the coming months,\" the company said.\n\n►Germany activated the second phase of its three-stage emergency plan for natural gas supplies Thursday, warning that winter energy supplies are a concern due to dwindling deliveries from Russia.\n\nRussia's war in Ukraine entering new phase\n\nAfter its early military humiliation, Russia has regrouped in Ukraine and focused its wrath in the east with relentless shelling – giving Moscow momentum as the war moves into a bleak new phase.\n\nWith its vast supply of artillery, armor and troops, Russia now has an edge, experts say. Combat in Ukraine has shifted to the eastern part of the country, its mineral-rich, industrial heartland. Russian-backed separatists have fought for control of the region, known as the Donbas, since 2014.\n\n\"About 20% of Ukrainian territory has de facto been annexed,\" said Seth Jones, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \"They’ve replaced currency with ruble in many areas, replaced the educational curriculum, including Russian history. The hand-picked local authorities are Russian.\"\n\nBut Ukraine still holds potent advantages, including a fierce will to fight and new Western weapons.\n\nThe direction of the conflict will likely come into clearer focus over the summer, when Russia is likely to attempt to consolidate its gains in the Donbas region. However, experts believe local resistance, the steady flow of Western arms and Russian incompetence suggest they'll have difficulty holding ground.\n\nRead the key takeaways on the current state of the war here.\n\n-Tom Vanden Brook\n\nRussian forces make gains, could see 'tactical victory' soon\n\nSurging Russian forces overwhelmed two more villages in eastern Ukraine on Thursday and closed in on the city of Lysychansk amid a slow but systematic advancement through the industrial heart of Ukraine.\n\nLysychansk and small areas of sister city Severodonetsk represent the last hurdle in Russia's quest to control the Luhansk region. The fall of Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka comes one day after Russia rolled into the villages of Pidlisne and Myrna Dolyna.\n\nOleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, acknowledged the \"threat of a tactical Russian victory (in the region) is there, but they haven’t done it yet.\"\n\nThe regions of Luhansk and Donetsk make up the Donbas region, home of Russian separatist \"republic.\" After its failure to take the capital of Kyiv in the early days of the war, Russia has made no secret of its redirected efforts to control the Donbas.\n\nUkraine: US missile systems promise 'summer will be hot' for Russians\n\nU.S. high-mobility missile artillery systems (HIMARS) have arrived in Ukraine, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said. The Ukrainian military has already undergone special training for the weapons in Europe, he said.\n\nThe U.S. provided ammunition that can hit targets from more than 40 miles away – valuable, but not the longer-range missiles sought by Ukraine that could reach close to 200 miles.\n\n\"Thank you to my colleague and friend @SecDef Lloyd J. Austin III for these powerful tools!\" Reznikov said on Twitter. \"Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them.\"\n\nEstonian PM Kaja Kallas says don’t sleep on Russia\n\nEstonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas says the West shouldn’t underestimate Russia’s military capabilities in Ukraine, saying Moscow is in it for the long haul as the war enters its fifth month.\n\nKallas said Europe should ensure that those committing war crimes and attempted genocide are prosecuted, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin escaped punishment for annexing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and supporting an insurgency in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region that killed over 14,000 people even before this year’s war began.\n\n“I’ve heard talks that, you know, there is no threat anymore because they have exhausted themselves. No, they haven’t,” she said of the Russian military, which failed to take Kyiv in the early stages of the war and is now concentrating its firepower in the east.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/politics/blinken-austin-kyiv-ukraine-zelensky-meeting/index.html", "title": "Austin says US wants to see Russia's military capabilities weakened ...", "text": "(CNN) Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin insisted Monday that Russia was failing in its Ukraine incursion, with Austin explicitly saying that the US wants to see Russia's military capabilities weakened.\n\nThe two top US officials, speaking at a news conference at an undisclosed location in Poland near the Ukrainian border, made the comments following a trip to Kyiv, where they met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pledge US support in the war and announce that US diplomats would be returning to Ukraine.\n\n\"We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,\" Austin said at the news conference. \"So it has already lost a lot of military capability. And a lot of its troops, quite frankly. And we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.\"\n\nBlinken told reporters that Russian attempts to \"subjugate Ukraine and take its independence\" has \"failed.\"\n\n\"Russia has sought as its principal aim to totally subjugate Ukraine, to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence -- that has failed. It has sought to assert the power of its military and its economy. We, of course, are seeing just the opposite, a military that is dramatically underperforming and an economy ... as a result of sanctions that is in shambles,\" Blinken said.\n\n\"We don't know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene,\" he said.\n\nThe remarks are the latest in a series of public comments by US leaders challenging Putin's longevity as Russia's President and as the war in Ukraine has shifted to a new phrase in the east. US President Joe Biden and the White House have said the US is not officially calling for regime change and officials have also predicted a potentially drawn-out conflict.\n\nAustin's comments also seem to represent a further extension of US goals, building on past comments from Blinken and other officials about Moscow's status at the end of the war.\n\nBlinken last week said in a statement that the US' \"continued efforts to ratchet up pressure on Putin's crumbling economy together will help weaken the Russian Government's position and further isolate them from the world until Russia ends its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine.\"\n\nThe White House said Monday that Austin was talking about the US \"objective to prevent\" the Russian military from taking over Ukraine, and described it as consistent with the administration's long-held goal.\n\nAsked about the defense secretary's comments, a National Security Council spokesperson said the US wants Ukraine to win and \"that's why we're doing everything we can to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to strengthen the Ukrainians' hands on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.\"\n\nA senior State Department official told the traveling press Monday that such negotiations are \"evolving,\" noting that \"Russia's hand has been weakened as a result of these first two months, Ukraine's hand has been strengthened, that effects the positions that there would be in any negotiation,\" but \"part of the problem is as best we can tell there is no effective negotiation going on right now.\"\n\nUS diplomats to return to Ukraine\n\nThe visit to Kyiv by Blinken and Austin makes them the highest-level US officials to have traveled to the country since the Russian invasion began in late February.\n\nWhile in Kyiv, Blinken and Austin met with Zelensky, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and Interior Minister Denys Monastrysky for an extended, roughly 90-minute bilateral meeting, the senior State Department official said.\n\nAs part of the resumed US diplomatic presence in Ukraine, diplomats will \"start with day trips into the Lviv\" and \"will graduate to potentially other parts of the country and ultimately, to resume presence in Kyiv,\" according to a senior State Department official.\n\nBlinken and Austin discussed the Biden administration's intention to provide $713 million in additional foreign military financing to Ukraine and allied European and Balkan partners, according to the senior State Department official and a senior Defense Department official. Part of that new military assistance funding will help Ukraine transition to NATO-capable systems, the State Department official said. The two secretaries also discussed deliveries of recent US military assistance to Ukraine and the ongoing training for Ukrainian soldiers, the officials said.\n\nThe post that has been without a confirmed ambassador since Biden on Monday announced that he will nominate Bridget Brink as US ambassador to Ukraine.The post that has been without a confirmed ambassador since Marie Yovanovitch was recalled in May 2019. Brink is the current US ambassador to Slovakia.\n\nZelensky's office issued a readout of the meeting on Monday, stressing the importance of the visit and saying the country \"counts on the support of our partners.\"\n\n\"We appreciate the unprecedented assistance of the United States to Ukraine,\" Zelensky said, according to the readout. \"I would like to thank President Biden personally and on behalf of the entire Ukrainian people for his leadership in supporting Ukraine, for his personal clear position. To thank all the American people, as well as the Congress for their bicameral and bipartisan support. We see it. We feel it.\"\n\nOfficials reiterate no involvement by US forces\n\nThe traveling US press corps did not travel with the secretaries to the Ukrainian capital. In a background briefing, the State and Defense officials made clear that the US military would still not be involved directly in the war.\n\n\"The President has been very clear there will be no US troops fighting in Ukraine and that includes the skies over Ukraine,\" the defense official said, adding, \"This visit does not portend actual involvement by US forces.\"\n\nIn the Monday press briefing, Austin said the US believes Ukraine can win the war against Russia with \"the right equipment and the right support.\"\n\n\"In terms of their ability to win -- the first step in winning is believing that you can win. And so, they believe that we can win. We believe that we -- they -- can win, if they have the right equipment, the right support, and we're going to do everything we can and continue to do everything we can,\" Austin told reporters.\n\nHe said, \"we're going to push as hard as we can as quickly as we can to get them what they need\", adding that the nature of the fight between Ukraine and Russia has evolved. He said \"they're now focused on is a different type of terrain. So they need long-range fire.\"\n\nWhile officials hailed the trip as a testament to the US commitment to Ukraine, they have also faced questions about why Biden did not make the trip himself.\n\n\"The President of the United States is somewhat singular, in terms of what travel would require. So it goes well beyond what a Cabinet secretary would or what virtually any other world leader would require,\" the State Department official noted.\n\nUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the country earlier this month. Top officials from the EU and the Baltics have also visited Zelensky in Kyiv.\n\nFresh training for Ukrainians\n\nBlinken and Austin's visit came as the first tranche of about 50 Ukrainians will complete artillery training in a country outside Ukraine, the defense official said. Another tranche of about 50 Ukrainians will also begin training soon, the defense official said.\n\n\"The first tranche of artillery training is complete,\" Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Sunday who traveled to the region with the secretaries in a briefing in Poland. \"We train soldiers that will go back, and their colleagues will be able to follow and be all in on systems.\"\n\nSome of the howitzers included in the most recent military assistance package for Ukraine are already in the country, the defense official said. The howitzers are expected to be effective at this stage of the war as it's shifted to the Donbas, where the terrain is suited to \"long range\" weaponry, Kirby said.\n\nKirby noted the speed with which the military assistance shipments has arrived in Ukraine and said that the decision for how to deploy the assistance is up to the Ukrainians.\n\n\"It's not taking more than 24 to 48 hours depending on what's being shipped and the availability of ground transportation to get it into Ukraine,\" Kirby said. \"As we've said before, when (the assistance is) transferred to Ukrainian hands, it's Ukrainian property, and we are not dictating to them how fast they get it to the front line or what units get them.\"\n\nMilitary officials described to reporters the ongoing concern among NATO countries about the threat that Russia poses to them.\n\n\"Not just here in Poland, I think many of the countries are concerned about Russia's next steps,\" said Lt. Gen. John Stephen Kolasheski, the commanding general of V Corps in Poland. \"And are very pleased to have the US military here working side by side -- helping them develop their capabilities and capacity. ... I think they are recognizing that Russia is currently and will be a threat in the future.\"", "authors": ["Kylie Atwood", "Jennifer Hansler"], "publish_date": "2022/04/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/17/opinions/eastern-europe-lessons-for-ukraine-cristian-gherasim-opinion/index.html", "title": "Opinion: As Ukraine dreams of joining the EU, its ex-communist ...", "text": "Cristian Gherasim is an analyst, consultant and journalist focusing on Eastern and Central European affairs. Follow him on Twitter @Crstn_Gherasim . The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.\n\n(CNN) A few days into Ukraine's war, neighboring Romania quickly found itself as one of the main escape routes for those fleeing for their lives. I was on Romania's northern border, witnessing for the first time in my life the fallout of war, as tens of thousands of refugees crossed into my home country.\n\nThe bitterly cold weather was offset by the warm welcome refugees received, a short respite from the reality they were escaping. Those crossing the border were met by volunteers offering everything from a warm meal, blankets, hot drinks and medicine, to hygiene products, clothing and free transport to major cities in Romania. Some arrived late at night, soaking wet, and had to wait many long hours, most of the time well into the next day, to enter Romania. The freezing temperatures and daily snowfall made the long queues even harder to bear.\n\nI saw women and children dropped off by husbands, fathers and partners, as able men were barred from leaving Ukraine, allowed only to accompany loved ones to the border and then return to fight. Couples reached for each other through the chain-linked border fence, in scenes that were at times surreal and cinematic.\n\nFor Eastern Europe, the Ukrainian tragedy strikes a deep chord -- not only because of its proximity but because stories of Soviet occupation are still entrenched in the public mindset. In places like Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, and the Baltics, those memories intertwine with the momentous change of becoming European Union member states.\n\nNow, as the war forces the EU to reconsider its defense strategy in the biggest shake-up since the Cold War, Eastern Europe has proven more determined than ever not to let Russia get away with its aggression.\n\nThese former communist countries, now European Union member states, know all too well what their warmongering eastern neighbor is capable of. When Ukraine came under attack, these former Eastern Bloc members feared they could be next. They responded quickly, helping the millions of Ukrainians fleeing war and sending weapons to assist Kyiv in its fight. Such a unity in response could very well help rejuvenate the European Union.\n\nThat said, for a region that has sought to align itself with the West, that process has not been an easy one.\n\nNow, Ukraine is looking westward quite eagerly. On the eve of Russia's invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky sought both EU and NATO membership. Those aspirations are being taken seriously—and have received a significant boost. Today, the European Union leaders agreed to grant Ukraine, along with Moldova, candidate status to join the EU.\n\n\"We want to support Ukraine in its European journey,\" European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had said earlier this month, appearing alongside Zelensky in Kyiv.\n\nAs Ukraine pursues its hopes of joining the Western club, important lessons can be learned from the struggles of other former Soviet and Soviet-dominated countries that followed the same path.\n\nIn governance and wealth, an east-west divide lingers in the EU\n\nIt's been over 15 years since Bulgaria and Romania, Eastern Europe's newest EU member states, joined the bloc. The excitement of shrugging off their communist past ushered in a time of hopefulness and change. Yet, the reality remains complex.\n\nRomania and Bulgaria witnessed a slow-but-steady rise in the standard of living. The same has been true in much of Eastern and Central Europe, where countries such as Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic or the Baltic states have grown their economies significantly.\n\nBut Romania and Bulgaria have lagged in effecting broader reforms. A culture of clientelist politics and fraud has marred the overall picture. For both countries, much-needed overhauls of the judicial systems still have yet to be accomplished. This reality is likely to make future EU enlargement a much stricter affair.\n\nWithin the EU, an east-west divide lingers. Bulgaria continues to be EU's poorest member, followed by Romania, both light years away from their significantly richer Western counterparts.\n\nPainfully, Bulgaria and Romania have the EU's worst health care systems and the lowest life expectancy rates of all member states. Romania ($699 per inhabitant) and Bulgaria ($662) spend significantly less on their medical systems than all other EU countries, according to 2019 EU statistics. (By comparison, top performers such as Luxembourg, Sweden and Denmark, spend more than $5200 on health per citizen each year.)\n\nUnity and liberalism in the face of war\n\nBut despite its economic woes, Eastern Europe has behaved admirably in handling the Ukrainian crisis. Calls to help Ukraine have echoed around the world, but in this region, action has been swift.\n\nUkraine's neighbors have led the way in welcoming refugees and offering assistance. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy , Eastern European nations top the list of countries committing aid to Ukraine, as a share of their own gross domestic product The small Baltic nation of Estonia has offered the most to Ukraine by GDP share; Latvia ranks second. Both dwarfed Germany by more than tenfold.\n\nThe nations of Eastern Europe are also among those pushing for a firm line on Russia. A debate has emerged in Western circles as to how this war -- and Russian President Vladimir Putin -- should be approached. On one side, some say the West will have to live with Russia long term, the war will end faster if Putin is offered an off-ramp, and it's best not to \"humiliate\" Russia in a way that could sow future conflict, as French President Emmanuel Macron argued . Others, including US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have said Russia should be thoroughly defeated. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, especially, has emerged as a strong voice in the latter camp.\n\nEastern European countries have also been sending critical weapons (including howitzers) to help Kyiv's forces. These shipments come as Ukraine implores its friends for more help, as calls to send more and heavier weapons grow louder, and as Germany's government in particular faces internal criticism for not doing more.\n\nIt is this very push that is slowly changing the face of the European Union. Eastern Europe is at its vanguard. In short, it has proven to be a moral leader in this crisis.\n\nHurdles ahead\n\nBut it's not all rainbows and sunshine.\n\nThe eastern wing of the EU has its own differences to mend, Hungary being the top example. The populist government in Budapest, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has been pushing for chummy relations with Putin.\n\nFortunately, Hungary remains an outlier, but its potential to disrupt EU affairs is significant. As Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European studies at Oxford University, explained to the Financial Times : \"Because of how the EU works, even if Hungary is a small member state, Russia and China have a prospect of almost having a seat at the decision-making table in Brussels.\"\n\nHungary's ability to hold the EU captive was last seen when the 27-nation bloc tried to cut Russian oil purchases. Only after weeks of negotiations did the EU manage to enact sanctions, while exempting Hungary from the embargo.\n\nMoldova a case in point\n\nWhat challenges might lie ahead for Ukraine, as it hopes to join the Western club?\n\nAs a useful case in point, we can look to tiny Moldova, which has similar ambitions. The former Soviet republic, sandwiched between Ukraine and the EU, has recently been making headlines over the risk of getting caught in Russia's crosshairs. Moldova applied to join the EU along with Ukraine in the wake of Russia's latest aggression. But corruption and an unreformed judicial system are very much dashing Moldova's hope.\n\nThe European Commission has been sounding the alarm over the country's rampant corruption for quite some time. In addition to the overhaul of its governance, Moldova needs a drastic break with the oligarchic system, wherein rich and powerful people like Vladimir Plahotniuc, Anatolie Stati, Ilan Shor have made names for themselves.\n\nThe good news is that if Moldova and other aspiring nations manage to curb corruption and enact reforms, joining the EU will provide them with much-needed resources to further develop. For example, Romania and Bulgaria managed to absorb tens of billions of euros from Brussels -- money used to build new infrastructure and expand their economies.\n\nEU membership has helped Eastern European countries stay on track. For future members, that looms as an added benefit. This is particularly significant for my home country of Romania, where European Commission supervision has helped keep up a functioning rule-of-law system.\n\nCan Ukraine ever be part of the group?\n\nThe spotlight is on Eastern Europe now and is expected to remain so for a while.\n\nThe attention plays in Moldova's and Ukraine's favor. Besides their strategic importance, the EU needs their softer assets: It needs the heroism Ukrainians have shown as much as it needs Moldova's compassion in receiving the largest number of war refugees of any country in relation to its population size.\n\nThat said, it's unlikely Ukraine could join the EU as things stand currently. As France's Macron put it , it would likely take decades for Ukraine's EU bid to be approved. (Rather, Macron suggested , a \"parallel European community\" should be considered, presumably with less-strict membership criteria.) Unfortunately, Macron is right: Ukraine is a ways off from reaching EU levels of good governance.\n\nBut this crisis has indeed shifted the EU's center of gravity to the east, and for good reasons.\n\nThe region is coming of age politically. Thirty years after the fall of communism and 18 years after post-Soviet states began joining the EU, Eastern Europe now understands how to navigate the EU's complex institutions. Eastern Europeans hold an almost tragic sense of history, which gives them a better understanding of what could come next, as a war unfolds next door. Its economies are growing , and its leaders have a desire to stand up to aggressors and bullies like Russia and China. The Baltics, in particular, can boast strong stances against Putin and integration with NATO.\n\nWhether the rest of the EU can learn from all of this remains to be seen. What is certain, though, is that a stronger Eastern Europe is better for the EU and the entire free world.\n\nThis article has been updated to reflect the news that European Union leaders granted Ukraine candidate status.", "authors": ["Opinion Cristian Gherasim"], "publish_date": "2022/06/17"}]}
{"question_id": "20220624_29", "search_time": "2022/06/24/14:16", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/19/us/fina-vote-transgender-athletes/index.html", "title": "FINA votes to restrict transgender athletes from competing in elite ...", "text": "(CNN) The International Swimming Federation (FINA) has voted to approve a new policy that will restrict most transgender athletes from competing in elite women's aquatics competitions.\n\nSwimming's world governing body approved the new \"gender inclusion\" policy on Sunday, after 71.5% of FINA's member federations voted in support at the FINA Extraordinary General Congress 2022.\n\nThe new gender inclusion policy, which is set to go into effect on June 20, 2022, says that male-to-female transgender athletes will only be eligible to compete in the women's categories in FINA competitions if they transition before the age of 12 or before they reach stage two on the puberty Tanner Scale.\n\nThe policy also says athletes who have previously used testosterone as part of female-to-male gender-affirming hormone treatment will only be eligible to compete in women's competitions if the testosterone was used for less than a year in total, the treatment didn't take place during puberty and testosterone levels in serum are back to pre-treatment levels.\n\nAs a result of the vote, FINA said it will establish a new working group in order to develop open category events for athletes that do not meet the governing body's eligibility criteria for men's or women's categories.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Homero De La Fuente"], "publish_date": "2022/06/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/20/sport/swimming-transgender-ruling-explainer-spt-intl/index.html", "title": "FINA transgender ruling: Everything you need to know - CNN", "text": "(Reuters) World swimming's governing body FINA on Sunday voted for new eligibility rules that restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women's competitions.\n\nThe policy is the strictest from any Olympic sports body and effectively bars any transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in women's events.\n\nFINA also agreed to work towards establishing an \"open\" category for some events that would ensure all swimmers would have the chance to compete.\n\nThe decision means that swimmers such as American Lia Thomas will not be able to compete in world championships or the Olympics.\n\nUniversity of Pennsylvania swimmer Thomas became the first transgender NCAA champion in Division I history after winning the women's 500-yard freestyle earlier this year.\n\nThe success of Thomas, who competed on Pennsylvania's men's team for three years before transitioning and setting multiple program records with the women's team, provoked a wide-ranging debate about the issues of inclusivity and competitive fairness in swimming and sport in general.\n\nHere is the background to FINA's decision and why this ruling is important to the world of sport.\n\nWhy did FINA take this decision?\n\nThere have been growing calls from former swimmers and coaches for the governing body to restrict the participation of transgender women in the sport, which intensified after Thomas's success at the US college championships.\n\nLia Thomas reacts after swimming the 100 Freestyle prelims at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 19, 2022.\n\nThose who campaigned for change argued that people who have gone through male puberty have physical advantages and therefore women's competition needed to be protected.\n\nSupporters of trans participation argue that not enough research has been done into the question of whether trans women have any advantage. Groups such as Athlete Ally have stated that FINA's new policy is \"discriminatory, harmful, unscientific.\"\n\nIs this a ban on all transgender swimmers in competition?\n\nThe ruling only applies to elite competitions run by FINA, such as their world championships, and competitions where FINA sets the eligibility criteria -- primarily the Olympic Games. It also impacts on who is eligible to set a world record in women's swimming.\n\nIt does not necessarily apply to national or regional competitions or lower-level meets. National federations could apply their own criteria for their competitions.\n\nThe ruling also only impacts on transgender athletes in women's competitions. Female-to-male transgender athletes (transgender men) will continue to be eligible to compete in men's races without any restriction.\n\nThe creation of an 'open category,' details of which have yet to be worked out, would also create a space for transgender women to compete.\n\nWhat evidence did FINA produce before making this decision?\n\nThe new FINA policy came out of a working group that had three components -- an Athlete Group, a science and medicine group and a legal and human rights group, which FINA says studied \"the best available statistical, scientific, and medical evidence concerning sex differences in sports performance, and any associated male sex-based advantage.\"\n\nFINA said the Science Group was comprised of \"independent experts in the fields of physiology, endocrinology, and human performance, including specialists in sex differences in human performance and in transgender medicine.\"\n\nDelegates to the FINA congress in Budapest were told by members of the group that the evidence showed that going through male puberty gave trans women swimmers a physical advantage that remained even after hormone treatment as part of their transition.\n\nWhat is the position of other sports?\n\nIn November, the International Olympic Committee issued a 'framework' on the issue, leaving eligibility decisions up to individual sports bodies, but adding that \"until evidence determines otherwise, athletes should not be deemed to have an unfair or disproportionate competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status.\"\n\nLast year, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender athlete to compete in the Olympics in a different gender category than assigned at birth.\n\nMany sports bodies have allowed transgender women to compete in women's events if they have lowered their testosterone levels to a certain point.\n\nLast week, the International Cycling Union (UCI) tightened its rules by increasing the transition period for lower testosterone from 12 months to two years and halving the maximum level to 2.5 nmol/L.\n\nThe FINA ruling could increase pressure for similar moves inside other sports.\n\nCan the decision be challenged?\n\nThe normal route for challenging the rulings of international sports bodies is through the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Lausanne, Switzerland. Other sports will be watching any legal moves with keen interest.", "authors": ["Story Reuters"], "publish_date": "2022/06/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/08/01/2021-olympics-seeking-balance-new-rules-transgender-athletes/5440555001/", "title": "2021 Olympics: Seeking balance in new rules for transgender ...", "text": "TOKYO – After the Tokyo Games, the International Olympic Committee will release updated framework on transgender athlete participation that seeks to balance fairness and inclusion. Given the competition here, the guidance could hardly be more anticipated.\n\nFor the first time in the nearly two decades since the IOC first took a position on the question, openly transgender athletes are competing in the Olympics.\n\nNew Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has drawn much of the focus, and harassment, for the way the IOC includes transgender athletes. The 43-year-old has become an unwilling participant in a cultural debate about what is fair and whether transgender women have an advantage over their cisgender counterparts.\n\nCanadian soccer player Quinn is the other out transgender athlete competing here, but Quinn's participation doesn’t bring the same scrutiny because they were assigned female at birth and play a team sport.\n\nThough the numbers of transgender athletes participating at any level, let alone an Olympic level, are miniscule, the IOC’s framework stands to have significant influence not just for those athletes but for the sports federations that will take their cues from what the IOC decides.\n\nWith little data to determine what, if any, advantages transgender athletes – and women in particular – have, the IOC will update its current consensus statement, which mandates transgender women undergo hormone therapy for at least a year, among other requirements.\n\n“I have to think just looking at the arc of history in sport, even with the hot politics of the issue, the IOC is going to have to find a way to actually balance inclusiveness and fairness,” said Roger Pielke Jr., a professor who studies sport governance at the University of Colorado. “It’s not easy, and maybe nobody will be happy with what they do, but choosing one over the other in the form of a ban seems socially and politically untenable.\n\n“That just doesn’t seem to square with where the world is at and where sport is at.”\n\nDespite that, the discussion in sport has ranged from full exclusion of transgender women – as World Rugby now does – to full inclusion without mitigation of any sex-linked characteristics.\n\nThe less caustic part of the debate revolves around whether transgender women who have gone through male puberty retain any advantage and what is needed to mitigate that. Holding on to hard-fought gains for their own inclusion and place in sports, women’s advocates argue for protection of the category.\n\n“This is a large and difficult and complex topic,” said IOC medical director Richard Budgett. “There are no IOC rules and regulations around transgender participation. That depends on each international federation, so Laurel Hubbard is a woman and is competing under the rules of her federation. And we have to pay tribute to her courage and tenacity in actually competing and qualifying for the Games.\n\n“When it comes to the advantages and disadvantages, there’s always more to learn.”\n\nRegardless of the debate, the guidance affects a small number of transgender athletes. Since the IOC released its first consensus statement in 2003, women have had more than 29,000 entries to the Games from 2004-18, according to stats from Olympic historian Bill Mallon.\n\nCisgender women, whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth, have claimed more than 2,000 medals over eight Olympics in that time.\n\nWomen make up 49% of the roughly 11,000 athletes competing in Tokyo.\n\n“Women athletes have to understand this is not an attack on women’s athletes,” said Canadian cyclist Kristen Worley, who was the first transgender athlete to be subject to the IOC’s 2003 policy. “It’s not an attack on women’s sports.”\n\nWith little science comparing transgender women athletes to their cisgender counterparts, the IOC is tasked with offering a basic framework that international federations can use to make rules specific to their sport and even event.\n\n“The IOC or any sporting organization has to make policy based on the data that exist,” said Joanna Harper, a researcher at Loughborough University in London who pioneered studies on transgender female athletes. “They have to do the best they can with the information they have at hand. I hope we can get more and better data in the future, and we will come up with better policies in the future as a result of the data.”\n\n'Sexually and psychologically violated'\n\nOlympic sports have a long history of gender verification, including through visual examination of women’s nude bodies. From the Cold War in the 1960s up until the Sydney Olympics in 2000, female athletes were subject to chromosome testing.\n\nAgainst that backdrop, the IOC released its first consensus statement on transgender athletes in 2003, requiring sex reassignment surgery including “external genitalia changes and gonadectomy,” legal recognition of their gender and at least two years of hormone therapy.\n\nSeeking to compete in the 2008 Olympics, Worley was the first to be subject to the policy, saying a room of men – some of whom were sport officials and not medical professionals – “sexually and psychologically violated” her.\n\n“Because the IOC handed down these policies, it was assumed that somehow I was a threat to sport,” Worley said. “There’s no science and research to any of this.”\n\nIn 2015, she challenged the policy at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, arguing it had violated her human rights. The case concluded with Cycling Canada, Ontario Cycling Association and the Union Cycliste Internationale agreeing to review their policies.\n\nAround that time, the IOC was working on revising its consensus statement. Its latest iteration, released in 2015, requires transgender women to declare that identity for at least four years and receive hormone therapy that maintains their testosterone below a specified level for 12 months.\n\nBy that point, the NCAA and World Athletics had policies dating from 2011 for allowing transgender women to participate with hormone therapy.\n\n“Trans women weren’t taking over sports, weren’t taking over World Athletics. They weren’t taking over any sport in the NCAA,” said Harper, who advised the IOC on the 2015 statement.\n\n“At that point, the IOC certainly felt pretty comfortable in terms of coming up with new specifications.”\n\n'The science is slender'\n\nAs the IOC and international federations look for data to guide their policies, they continue to run into one problem: there isn’t much.\n\nStudies comparing transgender women to cisgender women are rare. Harper, herself a distance runner before and after she transitioned, released one of the first in 2015, comparing race times for eight transgender distance runners before and after their transition.\n\nShe found the runners had slowed significantly but that they stayed the same relative to their competitors. So if a runner was faster than 82% of her peers before transitioning, she was about the same in the female category.\n\nHarper acknowledged in that study that the science supporting either policy is slim.\n\n“The science is still in its infancy,” Harper said. “The science is slender any way you slice it, whether you’re trying to justify inclusion or exclusion.”\n\nA study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine last year compared fitness test results of 29 transgender men and 46 transgender women in the U.S. Air Force. It found that transgender women performed 31% more push-ups and 15% more sit-ups in one minute and ran 1.5 miles 21% faster than cisgender women.\n\nAfter two years of hormone therapy, the push-up and sit-up advantage disappeared, but the transgender women were still 12% faster than cisgender women. The study also found that before hormone therapy, the transgender women did fewer push-ups than cisgender men.\n\n“We do need more evidence actually. It’s easy to compare cisgender males to cisgender women in performance. But it’s just not as simple as that,” Budgett said. “If it were as simple as that, then clearly it would be unfair. But there is a whole effect of that transitioning that is going to be different in different individuals and can help make it fair enough that you can have meaningful sport and protect all the women who are taking part in that sport.”\n\nA systematic review of the literature published this year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found hormone therapy reduced hemoglobin levels to those on par with cisgender women. It reduced strength, lean body mass and muscle area, though those values remained above cisgender women after 36 months of hormone therapy.\n\nHarper, who was one of five authors on that study, pointed to grip strength. While transgender women retained a 17% advantage over cisgender women, that was less than the 57% advantage cisgender men had.\n\n“That’s not unreasonable,” Harper said. “You’ve got to put trans women into one category or another.”\n\nSome women’s groups, including Save Women’s Sports in the United States and Fair Play for Women in the United Kingdom, oppose transgender inclusion, putting them out of step with the IOC’s current efforts.\n\nA U.S.-based group led by several prominent Olympians, including Nancy Hogshead-Makar and Donna De Varona, advocates for what it calls a middle-ground approach of full inclusion if a transgender woman transitions before puberty, then seeking ways for inclusion with mitigation of any retained advantages if a woman transitions after puberty.\n\n“The science is still coming in, and it is coming in on the side of more needs to be done for somebody to unwind that sex-linked advantage,” Hogshead-Makar said. “We want to follow the science and find out how much time and how much winding has to be done in order to … have it be fair that they are included in the girls and women’s category.”\n\nBudgett said more data is needed comparing transgender female athletes to their cisgender counterparts rather than data comparing men to women.\n\n“There’s always more science, and there’s quite a large amount of research being done at the moment to ascertain the residual advantage after going through male puberty, but you have to weigh that against all the other disadvantages of going through transition,” Budgett said. “There are lots of aspects of physiology and anatomy and the mental side that contribute to an elite performance, and it’s very difficult to say, yes, she has an advantage because she went through male puberty when there’s so many other factors to take into account. It’s not simple.”\n\nGetting it right\n\nThe IOC expects to release its new framework in the coming months to help guide international federations on how they can set policies for their sport. One thing is clear – nuance will be key.\n\nTransgender athletes are not a monolith, and when and how they transition might have bearing on considerations sports organizations need to make. Additionally, all signs are pointing to a sport-by-sport approach and perhaps even more variation within a sport.\n\nWhat works for archery and shooting, for instance, is quite likely to be different from weightlifting or track & field. Even within a sport it could vary. Requirements for a distance runner might need to be different from those for a shot putter, for example.\n\nSafety also would have to be considered, especially in contact and combat sports.\n\n“We want fairness. I think in competitive sport, there should be mitigation,” said Kirsti Miller, a former international-level athlete in Australia who has become an advocate since transitioning. “It shouldn’t be on a strict testosterone level. It’s got to be on an individual base.”\n\nOn a sport-by-sport basis, federations will need data to set boundaries designed to mitigate any retained advantages transgender athletes might have while preserving fairness for women.\n\nBut even that ignores the realities of sport, which already accept and even celebrate advantages – in athletes’ physiology, primarily, but also in environment and access to resources.\n\n“The notion of fairness and advantage in sports is based to me on the fact that all elite sports are about advantage,” said Eric Vilain, director of the Center for Genetic Medicine Research at Children’s National Hospital. “The notion that in sports there should be a level playing field just for transgender athletes would be a complete double standard, in my opinion, because there is no such level playing field.”\n\nWhile much of the science has yet to be worked out – leaving the debate to a hot-button cultural issue – figuring out how to address this is similar to the Paralympics, Pielke argued. The Games figure out how to classify athletes, and this is no different.\n\nFor an Olympic movement that was created for and by white men and has slowly over the decades grown to be more diverse, making this into a classification decision instead of a cultural flashpoint can help the IOC achieve its balance of fairness and inclusion.\n\n“As long as sport is organized around two genders,” Pielke said, “then it’s incumbent on sports organizations to find a way to fit everybody into the gender category that they’re recognized in broader society.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/01"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/sport/lia-thomas-sebastian-coe-intl-spt/index.html", "title": "World Athletics president calls future of women's sport 'fragile ...", "text": "(CNN) The president of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, reportedly said that the integrity and future of women's sport is \"fragile\" and defended his governing body's rules on testosterone. His comments came days after American swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship last week.\n\n\"The integrity of women's sport if we don't get this right, and actually the future of women's sport, is very fragile,\" Coe said in remarks at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade, according to The Times of London.\n\nUniversity of Pennsylvania swimmer Thomas last week became the first out transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title after finishing first in the women's 500-yard freestyle event.\n\nThomas, who previously swam for the men's team at UPenn, has been the target of intense scrutiny in the US as many states have moved to limit the participation of transgender women in women's sports. Her success has sparked questions, especially in right-wing media and among Republican politicians , about what makes for fair competition and who gets to be counted as a woman.\n\nAccording to World Athletics rules, which govern track and field events -- and do not apply to swimming -- a transgender woman must demonstrate that she has had testosterone levels continuously below 5 nmol per liter for a period of at least 12 months to be allowed to compete, and must keep those levels \"for so long as she wishes to maintain her eligibility to compete in the female category of competition.\"\n\nBut some athletes do not fit neatly into these rules. The governing body considers an athlete to be transgender if the person's \"gender identity ... is different from the sex designated to them at birth.\" But the rules do not specify how, and when, an athlete should prove the sex they were assigned at birth. It is also unclear whether the rules apply to athletes whose gender is nonbinary. The organization has a separate set of rules for athletes with differences of sex development (who are sometimes known as intersex).\n\n\"There is no question to me that testosterone is the key determinant in performance,\" Coe said.\n\n\"Look at the nature of 12 or 13-year-old girls. I remember my daughters would regularly outrun male counterparts in their class but as soon as puberty kicks in that gap opens and it remains. Gender cannot trump biology,\" Coe said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.\n\nBut a 2017 study in the journal Sports Medicine found \"no direct or consistent research\" of trans people having an athletic advantage over their cisgender peers.\n\n\"You can't be oblivious to public sentiment, of course not,\" he said. \"But science is important.\"\n\n\"If I wasn't satisfied with the science that we have and the experts that have been working on this for a long time, this would be a very different landscape,\" Coe said, according to The Telegraph.\n\nCNN has reached out to World Athletics for comment on Coe's statements but has yet to receive a reply.\n\nThomas has not spoken publicly since an interview with the SwimSwam podcast in December. In that interview, she nodded in the direction of the controversy but did not engage.\n\n\"We expected there would be some measure of pushback by some people. Quite to the extent that it has blown up, we weren't fully expecting,\" she said. \"I just don't engage with it. It's not healthy for me to read it and engage with it at all, and so I don't.\"\n\nThere are several different hormones that are naturally produced at a range of levels in people of all genders and sexes. Sensitivity to hormones can also affect the development of anatomy and may cause anatomical variations that are not associated with typical binary categories of male or female. There is debate in the scientific community as to whether androgenic hormones like testosterone are useful markers of athletic advantage.\n\nFor over a decade, the NCAA has required transgender women to be on testosterone suppression treatment for a year before they are allowed to compete on a women's team.\n\nBut in January, the NCAA said it would take a sport-by-sport approach to its rules on transgender athletes' participation and defer to each sport's national governing body.\n\nUSA Swimming then released a set of stricter guidelines that require elite trans women athletes to have at least three continuous years of testosterone levels below 5 nmol per liter, and to prove to a panel of medical experts that they do not have a competitive advantage over cisgender women.\n\nThe new rule threatened to make Thomas ineligible to compete at the NCAA championships. However, the NCAA said those rules will be instituted in a phased approach over the coming seasons rather than in the middle of the current season.\n\nLast week, Reka Gyorgy of Virginia Tech wrote in an open letter published on the website of Swimming World magazine and shared by Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw on Twitter that it was \"disrespectful\" for the NCAA to allow Thomas to compete against what Gygory referred to as \"biologically female (swimmers),\" using a term that does not have one standard medical definition, and is sometimes used to suggest -- contrary to science -- that there are characteristics shared by all cisgender women that differentiate them from all transgender women.\n\n\"I'd like to point out that I respect and fully stand with Lia Thomas; I am convinced that she is no different than me or any other D1 swimmer who has woken up at 5am her entire life for morning practice. She has sacrificed family vacations and holidays for a competition,\" Gyorgy wrote.\n\n\"She has pushed herself to the limit to be the best athlete she could be. She is doing what she is passionate about and deserves that right. On the other hand, I would like to critique the NCAA rules that allow her to compete against us,\" she added.\n\nUPenn swimmer Lia Thomas dives during the 100 Freestyle prelims at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 19th, 2022 at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta.\n\nAfter Thomas' victory last week, several news sites had alleged that the three college swimmers beaten by Thomas staged a protest on the podium.\n\nHowever, Erica Sullivan, Thomas' closest competitor, clarified in an Instagram post that she had been subjected to \"false claims on Right Wing media,\" and that the image, where she was posing with fellow Tokyo Olympic competitors, had been taken out of context. In the same post, she also published an image of her shaking Thomas' hand.\n\nIn an opinion piece for Newsweek, she wrote: \"I have been given a platform to advocate for my community, and I can't sit silently by as I see a fellow swimmer's fundamental rights be put up for debate. All swimmers embody a diverse set of identities and characteristics. What makes us each unique also contributes to our success in the pool.\n\n\"Yet no one questions the validity of how cisgender athletes' unique traits and skills, or who they are, contribute to their success. However, University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas has been unfairly targeted for just that -- for being who she is, a transgender woman.\n\n\"Like anyone else in this sport, Lia has trained diligently to get to where she is and has followed all of the rules and guidelines put before her. Like anyone else in this sport, Lia doesn't win every time.\n\n\"And when she does, she deserves, like anyone else in this sport, to be celebrated for her hard-won success, not labeled a cheater simply because of her identity,\" she said.", "authors": ["Amy Woodyatt"], "publish_date": "2022/03/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/football/transgender-footballers-german-fa-spt-intl/index.html", "title": "Transgender and non-binary players can choose men's or women's ...", "text": "(Reuters) Transgender and non-binary footballers can now decide themselves whether to play for a men's or women's team instead of being bound by personal identification data, the German Football Association (DFB) said on Thursday.\n\nIt said the ruling was included in the DFB match regulation for amateurs, the junior regulation and the futsal rulebook.\n\n\"At its core this ruling says that players with a personal (gender) status that is 'diverse' or 'no reference' and players who change their gender can take their own decision whether they will be issued an eligibility to play for a men's or women's team,\" the DFB said.\n\n\"This is also the case for transgender footballers who can now change (teams) at a moment they decide or can stay on at the team they have been playing for.\"\n\nUntil now it was the gender named in the personal identification documents that determined the eligibility of footballers from junior level upwards and whether they would play for a men's or a women's team, according to the DFB.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Story Reuters"], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}]}