"Heavy winds sweeping across the West fueled fast-growing wildfires and forced mass evacuations as firefighters battled gamely to protect lives, homes and businesses."
"Nine years on, radiation levels have generally decreased, both from cleanup and from the natural decay of radioactive particles. Reports by the United Nations and the International Commission on Radiological Protection say radiation risks in Fukushima are low. Other organizations, like Greenpeace, contradict those findings, and many residents and evacuees remain concerned about radiation."
"But two spacecraft, built and launched in 1970s, have for the past few years been beaming back our first glimpses from this strange region we call interstellar space. As the first man-made objects to leave our Solar System, they are venturing into uncharted territory, billions of miles from home. No other spacecraft have travelled as far… And they have revealed that beyond the boundaries of our solar system lies an invisible region of chaotic, frothing activity."
"Even as Disney+ downloads increase, though, a social media-driven #BoycottMulan campaign is also gaining ground online."
"New data out Tuesday shows that more than 500,000 children in the U.S. have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic started, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The group said children represented 9.8% of all COVID-19 cases in the U.S., where more than 6.3 million total cases have been reported, per a tally by Johns Hopkins University." So much for the myth that kids are immune.
"After a week and a half of in-person classes, West Virginia University announced Monday it was moving undergraduate classes online after seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases and the occurrence of several parties this weekend at the school… The Morgantown campus canceled all in-person classes Monday and will host online classes only starting Wednesday through September 25, the school said in a statement. Undergraduate classes started on August 26."
"With colleges around the country reporting outbreaks of COVID-19, some schools have placed the blame on students. But experts say shaming students and zero-tolerance policies may be making the situation worse." In case you ever wondered about the competency of management and leadership, here it is. Just what the fuck did you think students would actually do? But it's really not about that, is it. It's about how much money the colleges and universities stood to lose for not having in-person classes. And that's why they did it. And now they're attempting to shift blame to the students for the decision they took while fully aware that they were exposing the students to this risk. And they intentionally increased the risk for everyone in the country (not just the students and those who live an work in those college towns).
"BioNTech and Pfizer Inc., which are developing a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, said in a news release on Wednesday that they plan to pursue regulatory review for BNT162b2 in October, depending on the success of the vaccine in late-stage clinical trials. However, the companies did not say what countries they plan to seek review in." Again note the release is made in the business news, not in the health news sector.
"Drugmaker AstraZeneca has announced that it is pausing its COVID-19 vaccine trial because of a 'potentially unexplained illness' in one of the trial volunteers." Oops.
"The chief and entire command staff of the police department in Rochester, New York, resigned on Tuesday — among other department changes — as outrage continued over the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man with mental health issues who died after having been put in a 'spit hood' and restrained by officers in March."
"A quirky candy maker has launched a nationwide treasure hunt, sending sugar mavens into a frenzy. They'll need to pay to play for the ultimate prize -- one of his candy factories… Instead of Willy Wonka, participants get David Klein, one of the original inventors of Jelly Belly jelly beans who's since left the company. He's consigning a candy factory to whoever wins his treasure hunt, only this hunt skimps on Oompa Loompas and spoiled children." Oh gods, not again. And "A spokesperson for Jelly Belly says its company has nothing to do with a contest that sounds like it’s straight from a movie script: a golden-ticket treasure hunt where the winner gets a key to a candy factory."
"In America's four largest cities, at least half of people say they have experienced the loss of a job or a reduction in wages or work hours in their household since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. That's the finding of a new poll published Wednesday by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health."
"Fire has destroyed Greece's largest migrant camp, the overcrowded Moria facility on the island of Lesbos… About 25 firefighters with 10 engines battled the flames as migrants were evacuated. Some suffered injuries from smoke exposure… It is unclear how the fires began, with some blaming the migrants and others blaming Greek locals."
How goes Brexit? "Ahead of a crucial round of talks between London and Brussels over the future trading relationship between the UK and the European Union, the British government made a startling admission: That it would be prepared to break the terms of an international treaty… The threat was relatively technical -- over an aspect of the withdrawal agreement that allowed the UK to leave the EU at the end of January -- but the admission by a government minister in the House of Commons sent shockwaves through diplomatic circles and raised questions about whether the UK can be trusted on the world stage."
"A former high-ranking official within the National Rifle Association is breaking ranks with the powerful gun lobby, publishing a book that accuses its leaders of decades worth of mismanagement and fraud that he says has left the organization in a state of financial and moral disarray." Shocked. Shocked I am to discover…
"The U.S. plans to cut the troop presence in Iraq from 5,200 to 3,000 by the end of September as President Donald Trump seeks to fulfill a campaign promise to end America's 'endless wars.'"
"White supremacists present the gravest terror threat to the United States, according to a draft report from the Department of Homeland Security… Two later draft versions of the same document — all of which were reviewed by POLITICO — describe the threat from white supremacists in slightly different language. But all three drafts describe the threat from white supremacists as the deadliest domestic terror threat facing the U.S., listed above the immediate danger from foreign terrorist groups."
"The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday moved to assume responsibility for defending President Trump in a defamation lawsuit brought by a woman who says Trump raped her in the 1990s." No. The DoJ is not the president's personal law firm, neither is the president being sued in the performance of his duties. This is an attempt to kill the case.
"President Donald Trump on Tuesday went further than ever before in putting the degradation of the rule of law at the center of his reelection campaign… Trump called on his supporters in North Carolina to act as poll watchers, to watch out for 'thieving, and stealing and robbing' that he is warning without evidence will taint Election Day. He made his call at a packed rally in Winston-Salem where he and many of his fans made a mockery of the state's mask mandate -- as well as the advice of his own government amid a pandemic that has killed nearly 190,000 Americans and was exacerbated by his prioritizing politics over science." Encouraging voter intimidation. Great. If I were the cynical type, I would encourage all conservatives to vote by mail and show up at the polls to request a ballot. Please, by all means do so. Insist on the ballot in person. Make a stink. Because it's a felony, and felons lose their right to vote.
"Georgia's top election official sounded the alarm Tuesday because he said 1,000 people voted twice in the state's elections so far this year — although when pressed, he acknowledged he didn't know whether any of them did so intentionally… Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, made the announcement in a news conference on Tuesday. He said the thousand voters turned in absentee ballots and then voted in person in the state's June primary, but he provided few details apart from that."
"Asked in an interview with CBS West Palm Beach whether he plans to vote in person in his home state, Trump said Tuesday he hasn't 'made that determination' yet… 'I may do absentee, or I may do that. I'd like to do it in person. I prefer doing it in person,' he added." You may remember a long time ago when Trump went to vote while accompanied by a reporter… he couldn't find the correct polling station.
"In a county where more than half of the residents are born outside the mainland U.S. — mostly in Latin America — Trump has outspent Joe Biden’s campaign by about $4 million on TV in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale media market, much of it on Spanish-language ads. The president’s conservative allies have dominated Spanish-language social media and WhatsApp messaging to Spanish-speakers. And the Miami-Dade County GOP has fielded candidates in five key local races, all of whom are Cuban-American, which could help turn out the pro-Trump Republican vote."
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "Just weeks after helping to broker peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), President Trump has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize." Oh Christ.
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