Not to minimize the importance of a school superintendent suing the school board, there are developments with the water crisis.

September 10, 2021
By Ron Fonger

Flint - Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s claims of misconduct (click here) in the pending criminal case against him amount to nothing more than “an effort to distract from the atrocities that happened” during the Flint water crisis, prosecutors say.

Attorneys for Snyder filed a motion in Genesee District Court on Wednesday, Sept. 8, seeking a temporary halt in the production of documents seized by prosecutors, claiming there has been “a breathtaking and flagrant disregard” for his due process rights.

Snyder has pleaded not guilty to two counts of willful neglect of duty for his role in the water crisis -- misdemeanors that are punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who are leading the prosecution, said in a statement to MLive-The Flint Journal that they look forward to addressing claims made by Snyder’s legal team in court....

See, the State of Michigan is paying for Snyder's lawyers so there is a ridiculous stall tactic going on because Snyder has no defense. All Snyder has is excuses.

Every possible motion will be made and every possible legal stunt will be pulled by lawyers representing Snyder that still have a license to practice they obtained from a Cracker Jack's box.

So, this is the "state of justice" in Michigan. One man Grand Juries and excuses by lawyers to extend the conviction deadline. My, my, my. It is truly a state for and by the lawyer. Michigan has a profound corruption problem that extends to their local judges as well. My, my, my.

This is an article about the lawsuit between the Flint Superintendent and the school board. That is really bad when that happens.

September 9, 2021
By Dylan Goetz

Flint Community Schools Superintendent Anita Steward (click here) filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, Sept. 8, against the district’s Board of Education in Genesee County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit cites Steward’s contract, a warning the board imposed in June and the superintendent’s January evaluation. It alleges that board members violated the district’s bylaws and procedures by interfering with day-to-day operations and that board members “didn’t care” about bylaws or policies.

Steward reported these actions to now-fired district attorney Kendall Williams, claiming that the board created a hostile work environment and reported that she was being impeded and prevented from doing her job, according to the lawsuit.

Board President Carol McIntosh and board members Joyce Ellis-McNeal, Danielle Green and Laura MacIntyre are all named in the lawsuit. Adrian Walker, the only remaining active board member, is not named.

Attorney Tom Pabst, who is representing Steward, told MLive-The Flint Journal that the superintendent went on personal leave last week due to the pressure she felt from the board. Pabst said the board even attempted to fire her during leave.

“I am in my 70s right now and the reason I am still practicing law is to represent people like Anita -- who do the right thing and get pounded like a tent pick,” Pabst said. “I’m proud to represent her.”...

The COVID-19 Orphans.

How many children are orphaned because of COVID-19? How many people that were married with or without children find themselves widows or widowers because of COVID-19?

This virus did more damage than any other in the way it destroyed families.

September 10, 2021
By Jennifer Chambers

The family of a Detroit couple with seven children (click here) are grieving after both parents were infected with COVID-19 and died less than a day apart.

Troy and Charletta Green, married for 22 years, had plans to go to Florida with their seven children in August, Troy's sister Tiki Green said.

Charletta's mother died from COVID-19 in May and the Detroit couple had planned an August vacation with their kids, ages 10 to 23, to spend time together and grieve the loss of their loved one, Tiki Green said.

"Everyone took it so hard," she told The Detroit News on Friday.

But days before leaving for Orlando on Aug. 13, Troy felt ill and decided to stay back in Detroit until he felt better.

Charletta went ahead with the children and her sister, but when she arrived in Florida, she too fell ill, Tiki Green said. Within two days, Charletta was bedridden and taken to a hospital in the Orlando area....

An estimated 40,000 children lost parents from COVID-19. There was one other time in modern history a high number of children were orphaned because of a virus. That was HIV/AIDS in Africa. The longevity of the countries involved dropped because of parents dying and leaving their children behind. Now, the USA is having children with one parent or none. That doesn't even account for the children that lost their grandparents. Grandparents sometimes help with childcare and now what is a family going to do when those vital people die?

April 5, 2021

By Melissa Jenco

Researchers estimate 40,000 children in the U.S. (click here) have lost a parent to COVID-19, a tragedy disproportionately impacting Black children.

The team called for national efforts to support these children, especially as they face increased hardship and isolation during the pandemic.

“Children who lose a parent are at elevated risk of traumatic grief, depression, poor educational outcomes, and unintentional death or suicide, and these consequences can persist into adulthood,” authors wrote in a research letter published today in JAMA Pediatrics.

To calculate the parental losses, the team created a statistical model taking into account the number of deaths from COVID-19 since February 2020 and demographics of those who have died. They determined about one in every 13 deaths resulted in a child under 18 losing a parent.

As of February 2021, there were 479,000 recorded deaths. When deaths indirectly linked to the pandemic are included, that figure grows to 552,000. Using their statistical model, researchers determined roughly 37,000 to 43,000 youths have lost a parent. About three-quarters of those experiencing parental loss are adolescents....

Perhaps Americans need to realize over and over that the spread fo this virus was completely preventable. Now, through government neglect of it's citizens there are children without parents. It is not their fault and having a single-parent family may be a new challenge for a mother or father, not to mention some families lost their primary breadwinner. 

OH, YES, this spread of SARS-CoV-2 was completely preventable. The article below was written soon after it was apparent the USA was in for a very rough ride with a virus out of CHINA AGAIN!

Every American that suffered from the virus and those who died are all human rights violations by Trump and his minions that seek to overthrow the USA democracy to save them from facing the facts.

March 22, 2020
By Marisa Taylor

Washington - Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, (click here) the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned.

The American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency, left her post in July, according to four sources with knowledge of the issue. The first cases of the new coronavirus may have emerged as early as November, and as cases exploded, the Trump administration in February chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and keeping U.S. experts from entering the country to help.

“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Bao-Ping Zhu, a Chinese American who served in that role, which was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2007 and 2011. “If someone had been there, public health officials and governments across the world could have moved much faster.”

Zhu and the other sources said the American expert, Dr. Linda Quick, was a trainer of Chinese field epidemiologists who were deployed to the epicenter of outbreaks to help track, investigate and contain diseases....

COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE. IT ONLY TAKES ONE TRAINED PERSON TO DETECT A DISEASE OUTBREAK. 

JUST ONE.

This is called national security. This form of national security does not roll into town with tanks, guns, and soldiers, it is deployed with KNOWLEDGE and USA directives to seek out and find dangerous and deadly diseases to prevent human tragedy in the homeland.

COVID-19 spread, AKA SARS-CoV-2 WAS COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE.

Today, Trump is running as hard as he can to declare his next hapless years in the presidency. Let me correct that, it wasn't at all hapless, but, it definitely is feckless.

He is spreading all the lies he can about the vote for 2020 to win sympathy and excuses for extremist groups to have hope this too will be the end of the democracy that encourages diversity and inclusiveness in all walks of life. 

These people are human rights violators right here in the USA. Trump knows who the Americans are with a grudge for whatever reason they do and actively seeks them out to vote him into office in 2024. I don't think he is really interested in the office of the presidency, just free room and board while he plays General and Little Tin God.

SARS-CoV-2 started under Trump's watch because he decided he could do away with taxes for the US Treasury, so he cut everything HE THOUGHT was unnecessary government spending. That included American scientists that SAVED THE WORLD from previous outbreaks, some we don't even know about. There was no grand conspiracy by China to destroy the populations of the world. It happened for the reasons it always happens in China, overpopulation, poverty and some of it is profound poverty and lack of education about basics like sanitation. 

Donald John Trump is a human rights violator and directly responsible for all the illnesses in the USA and the deaths. He is also responsible for orphans and new single-parent families. Do you know most single-parent families didn't start out that way? There were two parents under one roof that loved and cared about each other until divorce or death struck.

GET VACCINATED. YOUR CHILDREN NEED YOU.

Joe Manchin is "Republican Light."

Joe Manchin is dead wrong! He thinks he has something to do to right the inherent wrong of Progressives and Liberals, but, he could not be more wrong.

September 9, 2021
By Paul Waldman

To be honest, (click here) I liked Joe Manchin III better when he didn’t believe in much of anything.

That’s an exaggeration, of course — the West Virginia Democrat has always believed in some things even if he’s the classic kind of “centrist” who knows where he stands only once he has a right and left to position himself between. But as Democrats try to negotiate a budget reconciliation bill, Manchin has gone from general expressions of concern and demands for appeasement to a more specific brand of threats and demands. And it isn’t pretty.

As long as Manchin was shrouding his objections in vagueness, everything was negotiable. Yes, he would insist that the dollar figure on the bill be smaller, and he would want benefits and supports other Democrats sought to be made stingier and less effective. But Manchin’s typical political play offered plenty of room to limit the damage....

Manchin forgets who pays the taxes in the USA. It isn't his cronies, he sees to that. It is the Middle Class that pays bills with monies in the USA Treasury. I am a little tired of the Middle Class paying for wars and Wall Street excesses with blood and treasury they work very hard for and that their children need to grow up.

Oh, so you think Joe Manchin is a pure as the driven snow when it comes to being corrupt. "W"RONG! All those high-minded ideals are nothing but political fluff for his electorate.

"Open Secrets" (click here)

All those high-minded ideals back up his cronies PAID FOR BY THE MIDDLE CLASS, including those that work the mines of West Virginia.

There is no moral that Manchin brings to the US Senate. He is playing with fate to try to continue to occupy the power of the USA government from a boat along the Potomac.

The problem always is how to move the greedy's grip of power to facilitate the taxes necessary to get the money in the hands of the Middle Class so the USA Treasury FINALLY has a real income rather than a ZERO contribution by the wealthy and big oil and big pharma and big distributors like Amazon. 

President Biden looked across this country and saw the Middle-Class struggling and their children in need of new shoes. There was so little talk about the American Dream that something had to be done. The $3.4 Trillion is supposed to be paid by folks like Manchin's cronies above. See, the taxes from the wealthy, the privileged, and big business doesn't exist. They don't pay taxes. Our favorite billionaire, Warren Buffet, will tell you that his secretary pays more in taxes than his entire financial company.

This ideology by the political right-wing, including Manchin, is so perverse they rather pay their bills in Bitcoin than USA Greenbacks.

The facts are clear, most of the wealth in the USA is sequestered to a small percentage in the upper crust of the country. It is impossible to get the money to circulate to the Middle Class and Poor even if they work 60 hours a week while paying for childcare. The people that do the work that provides the profits to the few billion-millionaires need help. They need their dreams returned to them and those dreams have to be attainable and not sincerely a dream that will never come true.

The USA has the greatest economy in the world. Why? Answer that! Why? Because the wealth is sequestered in the top of all the wealthy? Why? Why is the USA the greatest economy in the world? 

BECAUSE OF THE USA MIDDLE CLASS THAT PURCHASES ITEMS SOLD HERE!

THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE ALL THE WIDGETS ARE THE BACKBONE OF THE GREATEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD!

The $3.4 trillion that is before a 51 vote margin in the US Senate is VITAL to the future of the economy, the SAFE AND SANE future of the children of this country, and the American Dream that includes high moral content to sustain the peoples that need excellent educations for their children to fill our brain trust and rescue those disabled by the COVID-19 VIRUS and it's variants.

Joe Manchin should not be in the USA Senate and he needs to get off his high horse and become the people of this country need a real human being rather than just another politician bought and paid for by his cronies.

For 50 years the flood controls held until Ida the Climate Crisis storm.

Strange name for a town, isn't it? Manville. It was originally named after the owners of "Johns-Manville" the asbestos kings. The town should consider changing its name. Johns-Manville is not a proud heritage. Johns-Manville filled this country with lung-destroying asbestos and made plenty of money doing it. I don't think the plant is operating anymore. But, as a girl growing up in Manville I remember how every year there was a father of a senior high school student that died of lung cancer. Just one. Every year. I think Princeton University grad students did a study of it. I remember them sitting in the living room speaking with my parents. My father worked for Union Carbide. He was lucky. He lived to be 80 before lung cancer took him.

But, as to Ida.

I think the year was 1971. I worked as a dental assistant for a local dentist. Back then dentists trained their own assistants. I didn't do what dental assistants do today, but, it was a good job for a high school student. It was a normal Saturday when I got up and readied myself for work. I hopped in my 1960 Chevy Impala with a straight six-cylinder and set out to drive to work like every other Saturday. I came done Kennedy Blvd., but, when I got to Main Street there was a river running there rather than a street to drive on. I didn't have work that day.

Hurricane Doria came through the day before and when I arrived home, my mother said, I don't think you are going to have work today and pointed to the television. To make a long story short, the government went to work immediately with an ongoing clean-up. The homes in a section of town called "Lost Valley" where the Selody Sod Farm grew just a foot or so above the Raritan River Canal were all flooded. Some people waded through the water to safety and contracted dysentery. They were treated at the local hospital because they had no homes that were safe.

The Army Corp. came in within a week or so and dredged the Raritan River and its canal to make them deeper. Then the county and state kicked in some money and a new railroad bridge was built with an underpass for cars, but, this time it had a pump house to remove water that might accumulate there. All those changes to the landscape held beautifully until Ida.

Fifty years.

There was something like nearly 11 inches that fell on Manville in just a couple of hours. There was no place to run. The Raritan River once again assaulted the small Middle-Class town where people work hard for a living and had at one time risked their lives to bring home a paycheck to their family by working in an asbestos plant.

The Climate Crisis is upon us in a very big way. This little town is suffering for the sins of society in not heeding the warning of scientists for nearly as long as this return to flooding for Manville. The 1960s was the year everyone thought the climate crisis would be respected and change would take place. But, the petroleum industry had designs on profits at any cost. Today, the country is paying for those excesses.

It warmed my heart to see President Biden on the streets of Manville talking to the citizens. They are good people. Hardworking people that love their children and embrace the family as the center of their daily lives. I am confident that the presidential visit meant a great deal to them. 

Seeing my old hometown once again assaulted by a once tamed river, only drove home the point to me that this is a national emergency and the change MUST COME.

September 7, 2021

Manville - The clean-up from Ida (click here) in the hard-hit town of Manville is far from over.

On Wednesday, a day after President Joe Biden toured the destruction, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was assisting residents who lost everything.

CBS2’s Meg Baker was on Alice Street, which dead ends to the Raritan River. She saw a mini van that was completely submerged and spoke to the owner about his horrifying experience trying to save his relatives and pets.

“We lost everything. Our cars are under water. What we are wearing right now is what we have. We lost our animals, which drowned, and you just can’t imagine the loss,” Kurt Jelenek said.

Jelenek said the flood water went from his ankles to his shoulders in a matter of minutes.

“Have you ever been hit by a wave in the ocean? It’s your worst nightmare when you see a wall of grey at night and you realize you’re going to get hit and you grab on to what you can,” Jelenek said.

Baker met Jelenek at the Manville Library, where FEMA representatives are assisting locals. He said the website wasn’t working and he didn’t get a clear answer on what assistance will be given.

“There going to try to help with the after-expenses, what insurance doesn’t pay, and that’s where the real problem is. Insurance won’t pay anything,” Jelenek said. “Here in Manville, most people are listed not in a flood zone, but somebody forgot to tell the water.”...

Every other country in the world is working to move Afghanistan forward EXCEPT THE POLITICAL RIGHT WING OF THE USA.

On the eve of 20 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the USA, we have an accomplishment that heightens the good works of President Biden. Treat human beings like human beings rather than criminals and they might actually treat others as human beings.

The Taliban do not want to be thought of in the same character as Daesh. 

My understanding is that the Taliban are asking those that left for the foreign destinations, even if they helped the USA as translators and the like, can come back to their homeland. Interesting. I think those talking to Taliban leadership are having some effect on the governance of the country.

I know, I know, Haqquanis are involved in the new government. That is because the Taliban was backed financially by the Haqqani network. The Taliban don't see the Haqqani as dangerous. The Taliban need to hunker down with Qatar's Prince and learn the disease that drugs are upon the human mind.

I think this is a major accomplishment in the world. The Taliban are not lining up every Western person in a firing squad. They are not hanging women in the town square. Those that said we should not leave Afghanistan and criticized President Biden for his decisions are now eating their words whether they like it or not. There may be some hope for Afghanistan. Time will tell.

I thank all those involved, including Taliban leadership, that have worked diligently to secure these flights and saw people moved to safety either by air or by foot when they walked out of Afghanistan to awaiting friends. We are making progress. Where there is progress there is hope.

September 9, 2021

The first passenger flight to leave Afghanistan (click here) since the frenzied U.S. military evacuation ended late last month arrived in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Thursday with more than 100 foreigners, including Americans, aboard, and Biden administration officials said they expected more such flights in coming days.

“We can confirm that flight has safely landed in Qatar,” Emily Horne, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that expressed gratitude to the Qatari government for sending the plane and facilitating the flight.

The statement also offered a measured assessment of coordination with the Taliban, who have resumed control of the country after a 20-year war with the United States and its allies.

“The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from HKIA,” the statement said, referring to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. “They have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort. This is a positive first step.”

At a news conference earlier in the day at the airport, Dr. Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani, a Qatari special envoy, said the passengers would head to their final destinations after reaching Qatar. He called the resumption of flights from Kabul “a historic day in the history of Afghanistan,” and said another passenger flight was expected to depart on Friday.....

Turn about is fair play

I saw a billboard with a picture of President Biden stating, “Coward” 

I would like to see billboards with Trump's picture and sprawled across it said

"TREASONIST." 

Are Governors of dangerously infected states racist in their opening of their economy and forcing labor rather than unemployment?

This map (click here) is very inflammatory. It is from a website that discusses racism. These states are pointed to as some of the most racist states in the country. I think it is chilling to realize the states running out of Adult ICU Beds are considered to be highly racist.

A different kind of lynching.

September 6, 2021
By Madeline Holcombe

Some hospitals in the United States (click here) are growing close to reaching full capacity as Covid-19 continues to spread, and soon officials could be making choices about who gets an ICU bed, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN.

"We are perilously close," the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases said. "You're going to be in a situation where you're going to have to make some very tough choices."...

...Across the US, 79.83% of ICU beds are in use -- almost a third of which are occupied by Covid-19 patients, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services. Eight states had more than 90% of their adult ICU beds occupied Sunday: Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada and Kentucky.

A federal medical team arrived in Kentucky this weekend to help increase medical assistance and the ability to open more hospital beds in light of record-breaking coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, according to a statement from Gov. Andy Beshear's office....

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

The Capitol Police were exposed to many types of chemicals on January 6, 2021. The USA EPA needs to recapture the content of those chemicals. Perhaps some of the uniforms they were wearing can be tested regardless of being cleaned. We know the cleaning agents used. 

The CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION of January 6, 2021, must be looked at as a SOUP of chemicals that acted on the body of any Capitol Police.

The Capitol Police are going to need excellent health insurance and NIH investigation to any illness they manifest going forward. Congress needs to pass legislation to protect their well-being and that of their families for the rest of their lives. The families were exposed to the chemicals when their Capitol Policeperson came home.

If the United States Congress can't protect the Americans that protect them, they aren't worthy of the seat they occupy.

We need to remember on this Labor Day the importance of protecting the Americans that do all the hard work in their jobs.

"Good Night, Moon"

The new 

28.6 days old

0.9 lit

The infrastructure of this community is destroyed. There is no sense to rebuild it.

Put people in new developments at higher elevations where there are functioning hospitals, schools, and groceries. The Greenland Ice Sheet is causing sea-level rise that will result in chronic flooding and the return of storms that will devastate these areas of the Gulf Coast.

These people are now climate refugees and must be relocated to where they are safe. It is unacceptable to allow people back into their homes if the public infrastructure around them is gone.

September 3, 2021

City utility workers Fredrick Patrick, left, and Ron Fletcher look for a water meter to help stop a water leak around a destroyed building as residents try to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in Houma, La.

Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana - The Terrebonne Parish President (click here) provided an update on damage across the parish from Hurricane Ida.

Communications are still strained due to widespread damage from the category four storm.

The parish said although utility providers and communication companies are working to restore water, sewer service, electricity, phone and internet service, damage assessment and recovery efforts in Terrebonne in the wake of Hurricane Ida are proceeding much slower than hoped as a result.

Damage assessment reports that have been filed in the Emergency Operations Center Friday indicate substantial and widespread structural damage throughout the parish, particularly in Terrebonne’s bayou communities.

In these areas, damage to residences rendered about 60% of them unsafe for human habitation. In these areas, road clearing efforts are underway, according to the parish.

"The lack of water pressure, electricity, and blown-out windows and roof damage have also forced the closure of hospitals in Terrebonne Parish. Patients in these facilities, some in intensive care units or on ventilators had to be evacuated to hospitals in Shreveport and Lafayette, Louisiana, as well as facilities in Mississippi and Texas. With the forced closure of these hospitals and others in the region, there is no way to treat trauma victims or even the elderly with medical issues that require hospitalization. The lack of medical facilities in the parish and region greatly complicates the return of evacuees to Terrebonne. There is no way to accurately predict the restoration and availability of utility service in the parish and when reentry may begin. Consequently, recovery, repair and restoration efforts in Terrebonne will take a great deal of time," Parish President Gordon Dove said in an issued statement....

Children have to be tested no diffferently than adults.

Br J Anaesth. 2020 Sep; 125(3): e330–e332.

Rita Assaker, Anne-Emmanuelle Colas, Florence, Julien-Marsollier, Beatrice Bruneau, Lucile Marsac, Bruno Greff, Nathalie Tri, Charlotte Fait, Christopher Brasher and Souhayl Dahmani

...Fever and cough (click here) were the most common signs of COVID-19 after SARS-CoV-2 infection in children. Our study conclusively confirmed the clinical impression that COVID-19 in children typically presents as a mild (37%) or moderate (45%) upper respiratory tract infection and is rarely severe or critical. This result is of great significance with respect to the planning of healthcare resource use over the coming months worldwide. Given that the pandemic will continue across seasons and overlap with peak influenza periods, it will be difficult to distinguish symptomatic paediatric COVID-19 patients from patients with influenza....

Teachers need to walk out and send the children home. Now, is not the time for DENIAL

September 2, 2021

This is social distancing in the Chicago Public Schools. I doubt it is different anywhere else in the country. 

Chicago teachers (click here) are threatening to "step up resistance" if safety measures aren't heightened at city schools after the new year began in-person this week.

Classes started Monday with no agreement in place between the union and Chicago Public Schools district.

"Reports of safety failures at public schools have been pouring in from across the city since students started returning on Monday," the union said in a release Thursday morning.

According to data from CPS, at least 39 schools have reported at least one COVID case in the last week....

Heck, there are 73 million children in the USA, this virus hasn't even gotten started yet.

There are 5,115 Pediatric Intensive Care Beds in the ENTIRE USA.(click here)

5,115 PICU beds in the entire USA.

Before Trump had four years in the White House I never realized how completely stupid Americans can be about preventing disease. And, how much they do not value their own children.

September 2, 2021
By Travis Caldwell

The dramatic rise in Covid-19 cases (click here) and hospitalizations due to the more transmissible Delta variant is significantly impacting all age groups, particularly Americans ages 11 or younger who are not yet eligible to receive vaccinations.

More than 500,000 children tested positive for Covid-19 in the US from August 5 to August 26, according to state data collected by the American Academy of Pediatrics. At least 203,962 of those cases were reported in the week of August 19 to August 26; In late June, one weekly reported number was just shy of 8,500.

With concerns building over safely allowing children to return to in-person learning at schools, health experts agree that mask mandates are an effective tool in stemming infections.

“The virus is raging in all these children who are unvaccinated, which is why in schools mask mandates are so important,” CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told Jake Tapper last week, pointing out that inoculation rates are also low among adolescents who are eligible. “They have no other protection. They’re literally sitting ducks.”...

Cadillac goes electric.

April 20, 2021
By Sam Abuelsamid

As Cadillac creeps ever closer (click here) to finally launching its first battery electric vehicle, GM’s premium brand continues to trickle out more details about the 2023 Lyriq. This week, Cadillac is showing off the production version of the Lyriq with minimal changes from the show car that was revealed in August 2020 along with basic specifications and pricing.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic over the past 12 months with thousands of engineers and designers working remotely, GM actually managed to pull ahead the U.S. launch of the Lyriq by nine months. The electric crossover was originally scheduled to start production in China in mid-2022 with U.S. production beginning late in the year. Instead, GM’s Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly plant will start turning out Lyriqs in the first quarter of 2022 with deliveries to begin sometime in the spring....

Where is it headed? Here we go again. We need to end the petroleum disasterous industry.

I don't believe for one minute there is a significant clean-up. With multiple plumes, it is questionable that it can be contained at all without shutting the pipe down.

The pipeline has to be shut down because there are other storms on the way.

September 5, 2021

...The spill, (click here) one of multiple plumes spotted off the Louisiana coast in the wake of Hurricane Ida, was identified in satellite imagery captured Thursday by the space technology companies Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies....

New Orleans - Divers at the site of an ongoing oil spill (click here) that appeared in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida have identified the apparent source as one-foot diameter pipeline displaced from a trench on the ocean floor and broken open.

Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the cleanup, said in a statement issued Sunday evening that the busted pipeline does not belong to them.

The company said it is working with the U.S. Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to coordinate the response and identify the owner of the ruptured pipeline.

Two additional 4-inch pipelines were also identified in the area that are open and apparently abandoned. The company’s statement did not make clear if oil was leaking from the two smaller pipelines, but satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press on Saturday appeared to show at least three different slicks in the same area, the largest drifting more than a dozen miles eastward along the Gulf coast....

There has been a report of one other death in New Zealand today. Six months between deaths.

September 4, 2021

Sept 5 (Reuters) - New Zealand (click here) reported 20 local COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the same as in previous day, giving authorities more confidence that they are gaining a winning hand over the current outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Officials said all the new cases were in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city and the epicentre of the outbreak. Daily case numbers have been declining over the past week, with the community outbreak now standing at 801 infections.

"The ongoing fall in numbers is proving that alert level 4 in Auckland and our public health measures are rapidly slowing the spread of the virus, however it is not through yet and we need to remain extra vigilant," Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a televised briefing....

New Zealand Cases

New Zealand Cases (click here)

New Zealand Vaccinations

When is this virus going to be taken seriously?

I was vaccinated to end this virus from mutating and causing problems. When is the shutdown that ends this and it's mutations?

September 2, 2021

...Variants are categorized as "variants of interest," (click here) "variants of concern" and "variants of high consequence."

The CDC states that a variant is classified as a variant of interest if it shows "specific genetic markers that have been associated with changes to receptor binding, reduced neutralization by antibodies generated against previous infection or vaccination, reduced efficacy of treatments, potential diagnostic impact, or predicted increase in transmissibility or disease severity."

"We will probably have a variant of what we call a variant of interest identified every few weeks," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday. "Like that's how this virus works. Variants of interest just mean we've seen a number of the same genetic mutations emerge and scientists around the world are on the lookout for it every single time. A virus anywhere in the world gets this genetic sequence, it gets updated into a database that's shared internationally, so we can really see what's emerging. When a variant of interest emerges, it says, 'Oh, this is something we should watch a little bit.'"

A variant of concern is one in which "there is evidence of an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease (e.g., increased hospitalizations or deaths), significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures," according to the CDC.

"Once we see a variant of interest clearly have an impact, meaning it is more contagious, it might be evading a treatment, it's clearly making people sicker - that makes it into a variant of concern," Arwady said.

Finally, a variant of high consequence "has clear evidence that prevention measures or medical countermeasures have significantly reduced effectiveness relative to previously circulating variants." Or, as Chicago's top doctor put it, a variant in which "the vaccine was not working very well."

Currently there are no variants of high consequence.

"I would say if something became a variant of high consequence that would be a big deal," Arwady said, adding that such variants are ones in which "the vaccine was not working very well."

So which variants are being tracked so far? Here's what we know:

In the U.S. and around the globe, there are currently four variants labeled "variants of concern" by the CDC and the World Health Organization.
Alpha Variant

Also known as B.1.1.7, the alpha variant was first identified in the United Kingdom and quickly spread to the most prevalent variant in the US, before the delta variant took hold....

Mu

September 3, 2021
By Tom Tapp

Dr. Anthony Fauci (click here) on Thursday said U.S. public health officials are “keeping a very close eye” on a new variant of Covid-19 that was first detected in Colombia.

Known as B.1.621 or the “Mu variant” according to the World Health Organization nomenclature, it has “a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” according to a WHO report released on Monday. “Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccine era similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies.”

Today, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced the Mu variant, for the first time, has been identified in the region. The numbers are still small; Only 167 Mu variants have been identified in L.A. County thus far. “These specimens were sequenced between June 19 and Augusts 21, with the majority of Mu specimens sequenced in July,” according to a statement from county public health officials....

Someone needs to explain the deaths in Lake Travis, Texas.

Well, that explains everything, it is just a bad year for swimmers in Texas. Just one of those things. There are now TEN dead in 2021 in Lake Travis. TEN DEAD IN LAKE TRAVIS.

Just a bad year. Not much anyone can do about bad years, except, to wait for the bodies to roll up on the beach.

"Golly, this is a bad year AGAIN."

September 3, 2021
By Jaclyn Ramkissoon

The body of a swimmer who went missing in Lake Travis (click here) last weekend was recovered, according to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office.

TCSO said the man’s body was found at about 2 p.m. using sonar, at a depth of 144 feet. The man was one of two who were last seen in the Hurst Creek area on August 28. Deputies are still looking for the second man’s body.

Of nine people who TCSO has searched for on the lake this year, seven of them have been recovered. Deputies are continuing to look for the bodies of the other two:

Swimmer reported missing on August 7 between Starnes Island and North Shore
Second swimmer reported missing on August 28 near Hurst Creek

The sheriff’s office said while nine is a high number, it has seen similar numbers of disappearances on the lake before. In 2011, eight bodies were recovered from the lake, and seven were recovered in 2018.

Over the last 10 years, four people last seen swimming in Lake Travis are still missing, TCSO said:
2014: 1
2018: 1
2021: 2

As Labor Day weekend is upon us, TCSO reminds swimmers to wear a life jacket. Deputies said “without exception, missing persons recovered from Lake Travis by TCSO were not wearing a life jacket.”

People are losing their homes. Ida has left people of Lourisiana growing number homeless.

Ida brought long term displacement of people. Americans are now climate refugees.

September 5, 2021
By Shay O'Connor

Houma - As clean-up efforts (click here) continue in Houma, residents of a few apartment complexes in the city just received a notice from management that they will no longer have a place to stay given the amount of damage inside the buildings.

The Belmere Luxury Apartments near South Hollywood Road and Corporate Drive was one of the complexes where residents were told to clear out. Residents there said they feel let down.

The people who live at Belmere apartments said they have nowhere to go at this point. Many have sustained damage to their units, but finding out they now have to leave because their apartments are "uninhabitable" is causing a huge inconvenience.

Now, they're scrambling to find shelter just days after Hurricane Ida hit the region.

According to emails sent by Fairfield Property Management to residents, officials said they are no longer able to ensure the safety of their residents given the amount of damage sustained to the complex....