Linkee-poo Thursday Nov3

Vote like democracy depends on it, because it does.

"The event description sells itself: 'the greatest masquerade on earth, hosted at the largest Masonic Temple in the world.'… Theatre Bizarre has not always called the Detroit Masonic Temple home, but it's hard to imagine it happening anywhere else. As one of the most storied buildings in Detroit, featuring a seemingly endless collection of rooms, hallways, and hiding places, the setting seems perfect for hosting an evening of unexpected delights and terrors."

"While coal's devastating contribution to climate change has been well documented, it has also left a long and painful legacy in communities where it's mined. A joint investigation by Bloomberg News and NPR found that Alpha is one of several large U.S. coal companies that used the same playbook. They transferred old mines in need of cleanup to smaller operators with meager financial resources, raising the risk that taxpayers, rather than industry, will eventually be stuck with the cost."

"So much has been lost over time that residents have voted twice to relocate. But Shishmaref remains in the same place. The relocation is too costly. In this Inupiat village of 600 residents live mostly off subsistence hunting of seals, fishing and berry picking. Some fear that if they move, they’d lose that traditional way of life that they’ve carried on from their ancestors."

"The answer is yes, according to a new paper in Nature Communications presenting evidence that many species thought to be mute do in fact vocalize — and the researchers caught it on tape." It's amazing what you find when you just look.

"Just after news leaked in May that the Supreme Court planned to overturn Roe v. Wade, Liz Lebrón and her colleagues noticed something unusual: a spike in false and misleading information on abortion being shared in Spanish on social media."

"The drug that killed her daughter was rare a decade ago, but fentanyl and other lab-produced synthetic opioids now are driving an overdose crisis deadlier than any the U.S. has ever seen. Last year, overdoses from all drugs claimed more than 100,000 lives for the first time, and the deaths this year have remained at nearly the same level — more than gun and auto deaths combined."

"'Long COVID is destroying lives. It is actively destroying lives. And right now, there is no known cure for long COVID,' Dr. David Putrino says… Meanwhile, researchers who’ve spent decades studying Chronic Fatigue Syndrome also known as ME/CFS, are saying, 'We can help.'"

"The analysis found the average student lost more than half a school year of learning in math and nearly a quarter of a school year in reading – with some district averages slipping by more than double those amounts, or worse… Online learning played a major role, but students lost significant ground even where they returned quickly to schoolhouses, especially in math scores in low-income communities."

"The unusually high number of RSV infections so early in the year are already pushing hospitals to capacity. In normal years, RSV sends thousands of children to the hospital over fall and winter, but for the second year in a row experts have seen an unprecedented spike in the number of cases beginning during the summer months." And many are treating RSV as "not serious" because it's not COVID. But then we're also seeing a decrease in the proper use of PPE with COVID patients as well.

"Bernal says that, through marketing and advertising, state-run lotteries have no regulation to their 'predatory practices' that affect low-income communities — which are made up of primarily Black and brown people."

"Time is running out if you're hoping to book a relatively inexpensive flight over the holidays. Airlines say that demand is sky high and, as a result, airfares are soaring." What coming recession?

"Inflation hit a new record in the 19 countries that use the euro currency, fueled by out-of-control prices for natural gas and electricity due to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Economic growth also slowed ahead of what economists fear is a looming recession, largely as a result of those higher prices sapping Europeans’ ability to spend."

"Across the board, government bonds are giving investors the best payouts seen in years: 4%, 5%, 6%. This is far better than the return you'll get on the stock market right now (the S&P 500 is down nearly 20% so far this year), though still not enough to keep up with inflation."

"New York will require employers as of Nov. 1 to disclose 'a good faith salary range for every job, promotion, and transfer opportunity advertised,' according to the city’s Commission on Human Rights… Similar salary transparency laws are being adopted by a small but growing number of cities and states across the country in an effort to address pay disparities for women and people of color."

"Biden in brief remarks criticized major oil companies for making record-setting profits while refusing to help lower prices at the pump for the American people. The president suggested he will look to Congress to levy tax penalties on oil tax companies if they don’t begin to invest some of their profits in lowering costs for American consumers. The president issued the warning just days before the Nov. 8 midterm elections." A windfall tax is certainly justified at this time.

"The Federal Reserve ordered another big boost in interest rates on Wednesday, and warned that rates will have to go even higher to bring stubbornly high inflation under control." If inflation is being driven by profiteering (as it's starting to look like), higher interest rates won't affect this.

"The Justice Department has arrested 21 people suspected of belonging to a theft ring that made millions of dollars from stolen catalytic converters, the car parts that have increasingly become targets across the country."

"In a dystopian nightmare come to life, the Cambodian government has given Chinese crime syndicates free rein to bring in tens of thousands of foreign men and women who — according to human rights organizations and their own accounts — are held captive to work in crowded cyber scam mills."

"A massive barrage of Russian strikes Monday morning hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities, leaving residents without water and power supplies. The strikes appear to be retaliation for what Moscow alleged was a Ukrainian attack on its Black Sea Fleet over the weekend. Russia suspended a Ukraine grain export deal last week that has helped keep world food prices down."

"A small number of U.S. military forces inside Ukraine have recently begun doing onsite inspections to ensure that Ukrainian troops are properly accounting for the Western-provided weapons they receive, a senior U.S. defense official told Pentagon reporters Monday."

"Afghan special forces soldiers who fought alongside American troops and then fled to Iran after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal last year are now being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, three former Afghan generals told The Associated Press." Oh look, it's our broken promises coming back to bite us. Again.

"United States Capitol Police security cameras installed at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco residence recorded the break-in to her home early last Friday morning, according to a source familiar with the investigation." So much for the conspiracy theories. Unfortunately the truth is not a cure for the lies, because the content of the lie is not the thrust of the lie.

"Voters in five states, including four that are among the most conservative in the country, are deciding on whether to legalize recreational marijuana this election. If passed in each state, Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota would join 19 other states and the District of Columbia where cannabis has already been legalized for personal use."

"He won by a razor-thin margin over an opponent who refuses to concede. He'll take over a deeply polarized country with a troubled economy. And while some Brazilians are hopeful he can put the country back on track, others view him as a crook… Despite engineering a stunning political comeback by winning the presidency in Sunday's runoff election over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could face a short honeymoon — and a long four years in office."

"Florida motorists can expect to pay more at the pump as the state’s month-long gas tax 'holiday' ends… The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas Monday stood at $3.29, about a dime cheaper than at the start of October. But the AAA auto club said that likely will change quickly when the state’s 25.3-cent-a-gallon gas tax returns Tuesday, after being suspended in October by lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis."

"Now Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, is on trial for criminal tax fraud — on the hook for what prosecutors say was a 15-year scheme by his most trusted lieutenant to avoid paying taxes on those fringe benefits."

"Another pro-MAGA activist has been outed as a Chinese spy, according to the Washington Post… Just as Elon Musk is taking over Twitter, the company uncovered three China-based operatives pretending to be influencers in American politics as part of an effort to polarize Americans ahead of the 2022 midterm elections."

"The New Hampshire dynamic reflects the emboldened GOP’s increasing confidence in candidates who party leaders believed were essentially unelectable — or at least seriously flawed — just weeks or months ago. But heading into the final full week of the 2022 midterms, Republican leaders are betting that anti-Democratic political headwinds will supersede what Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell himself called 'candidate quality' issues in his own party."

"Yesterday, the State of Minnesota Campaign Finance Board determined that there is prima facie evidence that Jim Schultz’s campaign violated campaign finance laws by illegally coordinating with the independent expenditure group Minnesota for Freedom… This determination resulted from a complaint filed by the DFL Party alleging that Schultz’s campaign and Minnesota for Freedom both bought ads using Steve Syckes as an agent, which is expressly prohibited by Minnesota campaign finance law."

"Ahead of Election Day in the high-stakes 2022 midterm elections, right-wing groups have spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-transgender ads in battleground states… America First Legal, an organization launched by former Donald Trump aide Stephen Miller, is behind many of the political ads targeting transgender kids that have run in at least 25 states."

"What Burden said that day in May 2021 was a violation of a long-standing federal law barring churches and nonprofits from directly or indirectly participating in political campaigns, tax law experts told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Although the provision was mostly uncontroversial for decades after it passed in 1954, it has become a target for both evangelical churches and former President Donald Trump, who vowed to eliminate it."