"Chief meteorologist Doug Kammerer paused his weather report on NBC Washington Thursday evening to call his family and inform them about a tornado warning nearby… Kammerer was on the air at about 8:45 p.m. doing a lengthy weather report when the National Weather Service issued the warnings."
"Ohio health officials reported the state's first flu-related pediatric death of the 2021-22 season Friday… Officials said an 8-month-old boy from Ashland County died from a flu-associated illness."
"New research suggests that one night of sleep with just a moderate amount of light may have adverse effects on cardiovascular and metabolic health… The findings tie into a broader body of evidence that indicates being exposed to light at night may be harmful in a variety of ways and could predispose people to chronic diseases." All the usual caveats apply (small study, etc).
"It takes just a tiny virus-laden droplet -- about the width of a human blood cell -- to infect someone with Covid-19… That's just one of the findings from research that deliberately infected healthy volunteers with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine."
"What happened to the medical director, a former Army doctor named Ray Brovont, isn’t an anomaly, some physicians say. It is a growing problem as more emergency departments are staffed by for-profit companies. A laser focus on profits in health care can imperil patients, they say, but when some doctors have questioned the practices, they have been let go. Physicians who remain employed see that speaking out can put their careers on the line." Jazz hands.
"Labor organizers always knew it would be tough to convince Amazon workers to unionize. But a surprisingly strong early showing in a New York election and a still-uncertain outcome in an Alabama election are giving them hope."
"Amid soaring inflation and worries about a looming recession, the U.S. economy added slightly fewer jobs than expected in March as the labor market grew increasingly tighter… Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 431,000 for the month, while the unemployment rate was 3.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 490,000 on payrolls and 3.7% for the jobless level."
"'All food prices are now predicted to increase between 4.5 and 5.5%,' the USDA's Economic Research Service explained in the March report."
"Automakers will likely report sharp sales declines for March and the first quarter, industry analysts say, as an ongoing shortage of new vehicles has left car-shoppers with few – and often expensive – choices."
"The Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation measure showed intensifying price pressures in February, rising to its highest annual level since 1983, the Commerce Department reported Thursday… Excluding food and energy prices, the personal consumption expenditures price index increased 5.4% from the same period in 2021, the biggest jump going back to April 1983."
"A federal program intended to help low-income student loan borrowers, and eventually offer them debt cancellation, has failed to live up to its promise, an NPR investigation has found… More than 9 million borrowers are currently enrolled in income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, which are designed to help people who cannot afford to make large monthly payments. The plans also promise loan cancellation after 20-25 years. But documents obtained by NPR offer striking evidence that these plans have been badly mismanaged by loan servicers and the U.S. Department of Education."
"Mortgage rates rose again this week as the conflict in Ukraine and rising inflation continued to weigh on the US economy. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.67% in the week ending March 31, up from 4.42% the week before, according to Freddie Mac."
"It's spring break season, and airports are jampacked again as the number of people flying is just about back to pre-pandemic levels… An analysis of the Transportation Security Administration's daily throughput data shows that an average of more than 2.1 million travelers have been going through airport security checkpoints each day over the past two weeks. That's only about 9% fewer people than over the same two-week period in 2019."
"China and Europe's top leaders are set to meet on Friday, as their vast and growing trade relationship threatens to be overshadowed by differences over Russia and other geopolitical tensions."
"Pope Francis on Friday made a historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the “deplorable” abuses they suffered in Canada’s Catholic-run residential schools and said he hoped to visit Canada in late July to deliver the apology in person to survivors of the church’s misguided missionary zeal."
"Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Friday it was exiting its business in Germany, amid a dispute between the two countries over Moscow's insistence on switching payments for Russian gas to rubles from euros… It was not immediately clear how the move would affect the supply of Russian gas, on which Germany depends for about 40% of its needs." Russia has no place to store this gas.
"Russian officials said Friday that Ukrainian helicopters struck an oil depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, about 20 miles from the border with Ukraine. Ukraine has not confirmed the attack." Uh, sure, Sergie. Not like Russia hasn't lied about this thing before. Oh, and to my Russian friends, just a reminder that there is very good evidence that points to your current leader using the FSB to create false flag operations to justify a war in Chechnya (you remember the school bombings, right) and, coincidentally, assure he'd be elected president after Boris Yeltsin. In case you ever wondered why I say, "stay safe, my Russian friends."
"The 33-year-old mayor of the Ukrainian town of Melitopol was kidnapped by Russian forces in early March and held for five days. Now Ivan Fedorov is in France to bear witness to his town's occupation by the Russians, and he says the soldiers who interrogated him knew nothing about the town or Ukraine."
"Russian forces have withdrawn from Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, the state enterprise overseeing Ukraine's nuclear power plants said on Thursday… 'It was confirmed that the occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the Exclusion Zone, marched in two columns towards the Ukrainian border with the Republic of Belarus,' said Energoatom in a statement published on Telegram."
"Philadelphia set a homicide record in 2021. Now police hope a new tactic deters crime."
"President Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, is planning to leave the White House to take an on-air role at MSNBC, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC on Friday… Psaki, who is still fleshing out details with the company, is expected to leave the White House around May, Axios reported earlier Friday."
"Attorneys for InfoWars host Alex Jones say he’ll finally sit for a deposition in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by families of victims killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting… Jones was held in contempt of court on Wednesday after missing two full days of depositions last week. Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis gave him until April 15 to sit for two full days of deposition, and for every weekday before then that he doesn’t sit for one, she’ll fine him at least $25,000."
"Gov. Ron DeSantis floated the idea Thursday of changing Florida law to revoke the Walt Disney Company’s right of self-rule in the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the Florida-based seat of the Magic Kingdom… In the days since DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill into law, which opponents call the 'Don’t Say Gay' law, opposition to the legislation by Disney has provoked talk of using state legislation to take away the company’s ability to self-govern its lands. Disney first got the right of legal self-control in 1967, with passage of the Reedy Creek Improvement Act."
"But after 2020, the former president has embraced more longshot candidates and is seeking to oust incumbents that did not overturn his defeat. In addition to the governor's race, Trump recruited challengers to unseat Georgia's sitting secretary of state, attorney general and insurance commissioner, along with choices for leader of the state Senate, a wide-open Republican congressional primary and a battleground U.S. Senate race."
"Former President Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner provided 'helpful' information to the Democratic-led House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a member of the panel said."
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